Post by andrew8798 on Jul 9, 2014 19:51:26 GMT -5
A new book was released called “Bluegrass Brawlers: the Story of Professional Wrestling in Louisville,” which starts with William Muldoon coming to town in the 1800s and continues through Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Dave Bautista and Randy Orton all being trained there.
Jim Ross’ podcast with Ronda Rousey that aired the week before UFC 175 apparently drew amazing numbers. I don’t know the exact numbers, but of all the wrestlers doing podcasts, it’s actually Austin who consistently pulls the biggest numbers, in the 500,000 range for his shows, and Jericho and Ross are consistently among the most listened to sports podcasts. Jericho will be continuing doing his shows while working for WWE.
For Battleground on 7/20 in Tampa, it’s now Cena vs. Reigns vs. Orton vs. Kane for the WWE title, Rollins vs. Ambrose, Jericho vs. Wyatt, the Battle Royal for the vacant IC title, Usos vs. Harper & Rowan for the tag titles in a 2/3 fall match, Rusev vs. Swagger and A.J. Lee vs. Paige for the dias title.
The mixed tag program with Fandango & Layla vs. Ziggler & Summer Rae wasn’t pushed since Fandango and Ziggler are in the Battle Royal. There won’t be a U.S. title match since Sheamus was added to the Battle Royal. They were pushing on Main Event the idea that Sheamus wants to win the Battle Royal and unify the U.S. and IC titles. That’s an idea that gets brought up every so often and ends up not happening, but after unifying the two world titles, and not doing two shows with separate angles, there’s really not a major need for two secondary singles belts, particularly since those belts haven’t gotten people over in years. But that’s also because of how they’re booked. It’s not inherent at all that holding a secondary singles title gets you less over, because through most of history the opposite was the case.
The update on Bryan is that he may now also require shoulder surgery, as a full exam has revealed a lot of different shoulder and neck issues. At this point, because of uncertainty as to whether he’ll need surgery and what surgery it could be, he’s out of plans and there is no estimate on when he’ll return. The plan seemed to be the Roman Reigns ascension to being the top guy at WrestleMania 31 whether Bryan was hurt or not, but now the TV is built around Reigns as the major badass. Without the injury, and if Bryan was still champion and Cena was top guy, it would likely have been a slower burn. The idea was Reigns working with Orton and maybe a big PPV match with HHH all along coming out of the Evolution vs. Shield program and Shield split.
A lot of talent unhappiness over money. That’s always a concern, but there’s a realization that nothing is going to be done or changed as the complaints are that guys in the same positions are making less money on the same houses, for reasons explained here weeks ago. The company announced a fining system in recent weeks which didn’t help. They are back on the dress code kick, in the sense that if you were in public anywhere you are seen by fans, you have to dress in a professional manner. A failure to do so will result in a fine. It was also said that as far as arrival times at all arenas, if you are even one minute late arriving, a fine will be implemented. Then, this past week, the quarterly royalty checks were sent out. If you recall from the last quarter, the usual video game royalty check in the first quarter, the big one, has historically been around $70,000 if you are a star and in the game. Obviously if it’s a bigger star, it’s bigger, but that figure would be for people who would be considered major stars. Well, people at that level for the most part got around $11,700 for the first quarter of this year. Mick Foley went on a public rant about it. Lots of talents were privately very unhappy. One person who alerted us said that it was the nature of the sending of revenues from 2K Sports and the timing is different but some of it would be made up for during the next quarter. Well, the second quarter royalty checks came in and the number that most of the top level guys got was $1,555. I will say this much, there were guys in WWE who talked with UFC guys in Las Vegas and the subject came up. It was a pretty big deal this weekend. The WWE guys didn’t feel so bad because almost none of the UFC guys get anything from the video game. I believe if you are on the cover or are used in the video game ad itself you make something, but just being in the game you don’t. Don Frye refused to allow his likeness in the game the first year and I guess they felt it important enough that he got paid, but nowhere near what WWE people got. But that’s probably the reason he’s not in the new game.
The big thing is that WrestleMania payoffs should be mailed out this week. Nobody has been told anything, but if the talent is getting paid only on the PPV revenue, that will be down significantly from last year and bonuses will be declining monthly from the other shows. But if they pay a percentage of the network revenue to talent, the gap may close for Mania and be the same or more for the rest of the shows.
The big thing is that WrestleMania payoffs should be mailed out this week. Nobody has been told anything, but if the talent is getting paid only on the PPV revenue, that will be down significantly from last year and bonuses will be declining monthly from the other shows. But if they pay a percentage of the network revenue to talent, the gap may close for Mania and be the same or more for the rest of the shows.
The feeling is no talent is going to do anything, because they all recognize there is nowhere else any of them can go and make even close to what they are making. But money concerns are not only the biggest issue from a management standpoint, now it’s also the most concerning issue among the wrestlers.
Fans in Japan have noted that WWE and Antonio Inoki are able to get far more mainstream publicity than New Japan gets and far more press coverage for their announcements.
Masahiro Chono has apparently completed a deal with WWE to where he’ll be able to sell NWO T-shirts in Japan. When WWE bought WCW, they bought the rights to the NWO. During the NWO era in the late 90s, with Chono and Keiji Muto as the leaders of NWO Japan, they sold 400,000 T-shirts. Chono has been negotiating with WWE, thinking that it’s the right time to bring the shirts back as a nostalgia thing. The shirts would be the NWO designs from that era, but also include a WWE logo.
Swagger was off TV because with his DUI, he’s currently not allowed into Canada.
During the Miz interview on Raw, where he read a “fan letter” from “Little Johnny Russo,” while that probably was a knock to a degree at Vince Russo, there is a writer on staff named Johnny Russo as well.
Add Rashad Evans to the list of UFC fighters who have recently inquired regarding going to WWE. Evans, who is almost 35, is recovering from major knee surgery and had talked about considering retirement even before that.
-WON
