Post by andrew8798 on Jul 30, 2014 17:43:48 GMT -5
The most notable thing is that the show fell strongly in the third hour, meaning that putting John Cena and Roman Reigns in matches early didn’t keep the audience, and in particular the hook of Stephanie McMahon and Brie Bella’s confrontation didn’t carry the main event segment. Raw was second for the night on cable.
This week’s Scott Hall story revolved around an incident this past week, when many of the biggest names in the business, including Ric Flair, Bill Goldberg, Kevin Nash, Bret Hart and Edge, were in Phoenix for an autograph convention. They were asked to sign a giant birthday card for six-year-old Danny Nickerson of Boston, who is battling terminal was battling cancer and may not have much time left to live. Everyone there, and there were far more names than just the ones mentioned, including but not limited to Christy Hemme, Candice Michelle, Angelina Love, Lita, Sean Waltman, Maria Kanellis, Lisa Marie Varon, Taryn Terrell and Brooke Tessmacher, not only signed, but went on camera to give personalized wishes. Goldberg, in particular, who was clearly choked up, spoke at length to him and told him to call him at any time if he wanted to talk. Hall refused to sign the card. The reaction from a number of people in the last few days was not just how incomprehensible it was, but that in Hall’s case, it’s even worse because he made top dollar in wrestling during a boom period, blew his money on drugs, then got fans to pay for a number of surgeries including a hip replacement in a fund raiser, and then he pulled this. Goldberg had real problems with Hall to begin with, but if you know Goldberg when it comes to children battling health issues or having problems, I don’t even want to think about how he’d feel about Hall now.
A funny question was when someone asked how the PPV bonuses work with the network, and Bryan said that nobody really knows. From what we understand, the WrestleMania checks were sent out this past week and pretty much everyone should have gotten them over the past few days. The only thing I heard is that people who expected to get screwed, given the unhappiness over the video game royalties, said that wasn’t the case and the payoff was better than they feared and about what they expected. As far as a comparison of guys from equal spots on the card last year or this year and how it overall compares, right now I don’t know anything about that. But it did do 689,000 buys or so on PPV at the highest price of the year, plus did a $10 million live gate, so payoffs, even if limited to the PPV, would be big even if nothing from the network is kicked in. Because we haven’t gotten anything from anyone in the same spot both years for a comparison, it’ll probably be a week or so before we know more unless it’s spelled out on the SEC filings over the next week. Cole quickly changed the subject and did it so obviously and painfully that it was actually comedy that everyone there recognized. Bryan heavily put over KENTA, and said KENTA kicks hard and is a great wrestler and that a lot of WWE guys have that to look forward to. Cole then joked about how KENTA will soon be on NXT, exclusively on the WWE Network.
Robbins Arroyo LLP, a shareholders rights law firm, filed suit on 7/25 in U.S. District Court on Connecticut against the WWE on behalf of all people who purchased stock between 10/31 and 5/18. The lawsuit accuses WWE of making false and misleading statements concerning the company’s ability to double its U.S. television rights. They certainly strongly hinted at it, forever citing the NASCAR television deal and comparisons of WWE ratings to NASCAR ratings, which were similar. Vince McMahon also told an investor at a conference when he suggested that the U.S. television rights could double, Vince said to Brad Safalow on a conference call that “If we don’t double, I’ll let you put me in a hammerlock.” There were no guarantees stated, but based on how he said it, he was talking about far more than doubling, as if doubling would be well under expectations. The complaint alleges that during that period, WWE officers issued materially false and misleading statements in filings, press releases and conference calls regarding their ability to double their U.S. television licensing agreements. In 2013, WWE took in $106 million in U.S. television revenue, a number that also included Main Event (since canceled by Ion and put on the network) and several months of Saturday Morning Slam (canceled by CW), as well as Total Divas. The new deal is estimated at being at $132 million for the 2014-15 season for Raw & Smackdown. That doesn’t include Total Divas, which, if two seasons air this year, would up the total by around $10 million. But there is no guarantee Total Divas will have two seasons in 2014-15, as shows like that usually don’t have a long shelf life, even though Total Divas has done well in the ratings so far and appears to have some legs left. The lawsuit stated that WWE, when presenting ratings comparisons with NASCAR and the NBA, never mentioned advertisers pay far less for WWE television spots and thus, even with similar ratings, the value of the programming to stations isn’t there. They also claimed WWE never told its stockholders that the launch of the WWE Network would hurt them in television negotiations. That is true, nobody ever said that beforehand that the launch could impact talks. I was surprised Vince McMahon outright said after the new deal came in and the stock price dropped so hard, that the launch of the network did hurt them in negotiations. People who purchased stock during that period have 60 days from 7/25 to join into the lawsuit. They also provided an 800-350-6003 number for such stockholders.
Sheamus missed last week’s television with a serious case of the flu. They were scheduled to start a Sheamus vs. Rusev U.S. title program at the tapings. He was at the building, at least for sure in Orlando, but was unable to wrestle. This week he was not at TV, as he was in Ireland, and there have been no U.S. title programs set up for SummerSlam. There was talk of Sheamus losing the U.S. title to Rusev as a way to increase Rusev & Lana’s Anti-American heat. That still could happen down the line.
Regarding the new heel group, people who have worked with him say that Woods was very good at doing heel promos when he was practicing for the role.
-WON
