Post by andrew8798 on Dec 26, 2013 17:28:57 GMT -5
MOST MAIN EVENTS DRAWING MORE THAN 10,000 FANS
27 - John Cena
13 - The Rock
10 - C.M. Punk, The Shield
9 - Dolph Ziggler, Ryback
8 - Sheamus, Daniel Bryan
5 - Big Show
4 - Randy Orton, La Sombra, Atlantis, Ultimo Guerrero, Volador Jr.
3 - Cain Velasquez, Brock Lesnar, Kane, Alberto Del Rio
This makes the sixth year, and the fifth straight, that John Cena has been the leader in this category, with previous years as wrestling’s top draw being 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.
With six years as No. 1 in wrestling, he trails only Jim Londos (13), Bruno Sammartino (8), Hulk Hogan (8), Bill Longson (7) and Lou Thesz (7). He’s now surpassed Strangler Lewis, The Sheik, Joe Stecher and Argentina Rocca, who were the top draws in five different years.
Cena beat his 2012 total of 19 shows, but trailed his 2011 total of 33 and 2010 total of 38.
Cena has also had eight years as a top ten draw, something matched by only 25 wrestlers in history, every one of whom is an undisputable all-time great: Londos, Thesz, Sammartino, Lewis, Ric Flair, Hogan, Stecher, Dick the Bruiser, Andre the Giant, Rocca, Killer Kowalski, Longson, Buddy Rogers, Whipper Billy Watson, Yvon Robert, Crusher, Gene Kiniski, The Sheik, Ray Stevens, HHH, Johnny Valentine, Harley Race, Perro Aguayo Sr., and Antonio Inoki.
27 - John Cena
13 - The Rock
10 - C.M. Punk, The Shield
9 - Dolph Ziggler, Ryback
8 - Sheamus, Daniel Bryan
5 - Big Show
4 - Randy Orton, La Sombra, Atlantis, Ultimo Guerrero, Volador Jr.
3 - Cain Velasquez, Brock Lesnar, Kane, Alberto Del Rio
This makes the sixth year, and the fifth straight, that John Cena has been the leader in this category, with previous years as wrestling’s top draw being 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.
With six years as No. 1 in wrestling, he trails only Jim Londos (13), Bruno Sammartino (8), Hulk Hogan (8), Bill Longson (7) and Lou Thesz (7). He’s now surpassed Strangler Lewis, The Sheik, Joe Stecher and Argentina Rocca, who were the top draws in five different years.
Cena beat his 2012 total of 19 shows, but trailed his 2011 total of 33 and 2010 total of 38.
Cena has also had eight years as a top ten draw, something matched by only 25 wrestlers in history, every one of whom is an undisputable all-time great: Londos, Thesz, Sammartino, Lewis, Ric Flair, Hogan, Stecher, Dick the Bruiser, Andre the Giant, Rocca, Killer Kowalski, Longson, Buddy Rogers, Whipper Billy Watson, Yvon Robert, Crusher, Gene Kiniski, The Sheik, Ray Stevens, HHH, Johnny Valentine, Harley Race, Perro Aguayo Sr., and Antonio Inoki.
He had always stated he was up for a last run and had nixed any approaches by TNA, telling people if he was going to come back, it would be only in WWE.
While this could change, right now they have a Batista vs. Orton match scheduled for WrestleMania. He’s actually been on the books to be at Mania this year for a few months, probably dating back to around the period the first rumors came out that he denied, about coming back.
Batista is expected to be in the Royal Rumble. If Orton ends up as the champion at Mania, then the original plan was likely for Batista to win the Rumble. If Orton loses the title, then the plan was likely for whoever gets the shot at the new champion to be the guy who takes the Rumble.
While this could change, right now they have a Batista vs. Orton match scheduled for WrestleMania. He’s actually been on the books to be at Mania this year for a few months, probably dating back to around the period the first rumors came out that he denied, about coming back.
Batista is expected to be in the Royal Rumble. If Orton ends up as the champion at Mania, then the original plan was likely for Batista to win the Rumble. If Orton loses the title, then the plan was likely for whoever gets the shot at the new champion to be the guy who takes the Rumble.
HHH vs. C.M. Punk is now on the books for Mania as the climax of The Authority angle. Roman Reigns is a back-up plan for HHH’s opponent, but there was a Langston vs. Reigns singles match tease on TV this week, and I don’t see that taking place at the Rumble because that would seem way too soon, and the Elimination Chamber is a multiple-person main event. Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar is also still on the books for WrestleMania.
With all the top guys seemingly taken, that would still seem that Cena is in for something to do with Hogan in some form, since Cena should be involved if they do a Hogan final deal type of show. As of last week, Cena vs. Bray Wyatt, believe it or not, was the main event planned for the show. Vince McMahon stated to the writers and producers that “Cena is the main event until his time is clearly up. That man feeds us!”
That one I could see changing because it would require them to have confidence Wyatt has gotten over to that level, and right now that’s going to be tough. It’s great positioning for Wyatt when it comes to establishing him as a long-term top guy, although Miz was in a similar position in one of the biggest Manias of all-time, and look at how that ended up.
The booking is based on the idea Hogan won’t be able to do a match or pass the medicals. That still leaves a Bryan vs. Michaels spot open (as noted, everyone internally is being told Michaels will not work another match, as are friends of Michaels, but even so I wouldn’t reject that possibility 100%) as well as a lot of other guys not accounted for. Sheamus doing a heel turn could be a backup plan for Cena if they don’t think Wyatt is ready for that spot, but that would be tough to put as the main event. It’s a match that was done for months straight and as a main event program, and while it’s foolish to think that Mania has to be all new matches, Cena vs. Sheamus doesn’t feel like a Mania main event. Sheamus’ shoulder hasn’t recovered yet, which may cut into the time to get him over enough to be in that position, if that can even be done at this point, unless there was a great idea to heat him up.
Ryback vs. Goldberg would take place if they can make a Goldberg deal, and, as noted last week, Goldberg is driving a hard bargain. To me, if Michaels, Hogan and Batista are involved, there’s zero point this year for Goldberg being involved given the cost and not being positioned strongly enough to where it’ll make a business difference. If Michaels and Hogan aren’t involved, the dynamic changes, but a Goldberg return should be high enough on the featured this to make it worth the expense. All the chants may sound like people want it, but it becomes overkill on outsiders. Plus, it’s one thing if Ryback has been booked super strong and it would be a big match.
At this point, the only logical result of Goldberg vs. Ryback is Goldberg winning in two minutes with a spear and jackhammer, which is booking for a pop as it means nothing soap opera-wise or going forward and will be nothing more than a moment in the middle of the big show.
Ryback has lost far too often to mid-level WWE guys, so Goldberg putting him over would both be difficult to get Goldberg to agree to (in the sense it would take a lot of money), and would accomplish nothing since Ryback’s been positioned the way he has. Goldberg winning in two minutes may get a quick nostalgia pop, but you can do that next year. Perhaps if there’s no Hogan nor Michaels involved, the dynamic would be different, but the way things look, why spend that kind of money for something that’s six matches deep in a 10 or so match card?
One match that was earmarked for the show, Cody Rhodes vs. Goldust, to me would be a big mistake. The two wanted to do the match last year, and even had an angle put in place to start it, but Vince McMahon vetoed it. This year, the tag team was originally set to lead to a split and a match at Mania. The problem is, the two have ended up forming a good team and not only is it way too early to split them, I think splitting them and feuding wouldn’t work now, and may never work. Real brothers feuding only works when there is a story with real meat and believability to it (Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart). When it’s done when there’s no real good reason that people can buy (Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy, and no, nobody believed Matt set fire to Jeff’s house and killed his dog) you can spend months building up a cartoon feud and the people will crap all over it. Plus, both have far more upsides together than either would separate for the time being, and for Goldust, it’s a career saver because once they split, no matter how good a worker he is, they aren’t going to push him as a single at his age.
With all the top guys seemingly taken, that would still seem that Cena is in for something to do with Hogan in some form, since Cena should be involved if they do a Hogan final deal type of show. As of last week, Cena vs. Bray Wyatt, believe it or not, was the main event planned for the show. Vince McMahon stated to the writers and producers that “Cena is the main event until his time is clearly up. That man feeds us!”
That one I could see changing because it would require them to have confidence Wyatt has gotten over to that level, and right now that’s going to be tough. It’s great positioning for Wyatt when it comes to establishing him as a long-term top guy, although Miz was in a similar position in one of the biggest Manias of all-time, and look at how that ended up.
The booking is based on the idea Hogan won’t be able to do a match or pass the medicals. That still leaves a Bryan vs. Michaels spot open (as noted, everyone internally is being told Michaels will not work another match, as are friends of Michaels, but even so I wouldn’t reject that possibility 100%) as well as a lot of other guys not accounted for. Sheamus doing a heel turn could be a backup plan for Cena if they don’t think Wyatt is ready for that spot, but that would be tough to put as the main event. It’s a match that was done for months straight and as a main event program, and while it’s foolish to think that Mania has to be all new matches, Cena vs. Sheamus doesn’t feel like a Mania main event. Sheamus’ shoulder hasn’t recovered yet, which may cut into the time to get him over enough to be in that position, if that can even be done at this point, unless there was a great idea to heat him up.
Ryback vs. Goldberg would take place if they can make a Goldberg deal, and, as noted last week, Goldberg is driving a hard bargain. To me, if Michaels, Hogan and Batista are involved, there’s zero point this year for Goldberg being involved given the cost and not being positioned strongly enough to where it’ll make a business difference. If Michaels and Hogan aren’t involved, the dynamic changes, but a Goldberg return should be high enough on the featured this to make it worth the expense. All the chants may sound like people want it, but it becomes overkill on outsiders. Plus, it’s one thing if Ryback has been booked super strong and it would be a big match.
At this point, the only logical result of Goldberg vs. Ryback is Goldberg winning in two minutes with a spear and jackhammer, which is booking for a pop as it means nothing soap opera-wise or going forward and will be nothing more than a moment in the middle of the big show.
Ryback has lost far too often to mid-level WWE guys, so Goldberg putting him over would both be difficult to get Goldberg to agree to (in the sense it would take a lot of money), and would accomplish nothing since Ryback’s been positioned the way he has. Goldberg winning in two minutes may get a quick nostalgia pop, but you can do that next year. Perhaps if there’s no Hogan nor Michaels involved, the dynamic would be different, but the way things look, why spend that kind of money for something that’s six matches deep in a 10 or so match card?
One match that was earmarked for the show, Cody Rhodes vs. Goldust, to me would be a big mistake. The two wanted to do the match last year, and even had an angle put in place to start it, but Vince McMahon vetoed it. This year, the tag team was originally set to lead to a split and a match at Mania. The problem is, the two have ended up forming a good team and not only is it way too early to split them, I think splitting them and feuding wouldn’t work now, and may never work. Real brothers feuding only works when there is a story with real meat and believability to it (Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart). When it’s done when there’s no real good reason that people can buy (Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy, and no, nobody believed Matt set fire to Jeff’s house and killed his dog) you can spend months building up a cartoon feud and the people will crap all over it. Plus, both have far more upsides together than either would separate for the time being, and for Goldust, it’s a career saver because once they split, no matter how good a worker he is, they aren’t going to push him as a single at his age.
WWE shipped 275,000 DVD or Blu Ray orders in September, 2012. In 2013, that number was 303,000. As we’ve noted in the past, it’s a stat used, but it’s relatively meaningless.
As of the end of November, the five most shipped DVDs this year have been WrestleMania (174,000), Best of Nitro Volume 2 (121,000), Bill Goldberg (86,000), War Games (80,000), 25 Greatest Rivalries (64,000) and For All Mankind (59,000). Actual sales of late have hovered around the 60% mark of total shipments. For a comparison, the top five at the same date last year were Mania (236,000), The Rock (150,000), C.M. Punk (114,000), Undertaker (102,000),Greatest Superstars of WrestleMania (96,000), NWO Revolution (94,000) and Royal Rumble (89,000). So there was more interest in the WWE’s DVDs a year ago, and granted it’s bigger name releases, but Mania is still the same Mania and it’s down 26% year-over-year. The DVD market is declining, but not at that level. Rumble would be down even more since that list shows it didn’t even crack 59,000 this year for shipments which probably means less than 35,000 for actual sales, and that’s a DVD of a show headlined by Rock vs. Punk that did better on PPV than any non-Mania show in five years.
As of the end of November, the five most shipped DVDs this year have been WrestleMania (174,000), Best of Nitro Volume 2 (121,000), Bill Goldberg (86,000), War Games (80,000), 25 Greatest Rivalries (64,000) and For All Mankind (59,000). Actual sales of late have hovered around the 60% mark of total shipments. For a comparison, the top five at the same date last year were Mania (236,000), The Rock (150,000), C.M. Punk (114,000), Undertaker (102,000),Greatest Superstars of WrestleMania (96,000), NWO Revolution (94,000) and Royal Rumble (89,000). So there was more interest in the WWE’s DVDs a year ago, and granted it’s bigger name releases, but Mania is still the same Mania and it’s down 26% year-over-year. The DVD market is declining, but not at that level. Rumble would be down even more since that list shows it didn’t even crack 59,000 this year for shipments which probably means less than 35,000 for actual sales, and that’s a DVD of a show headlined by Rock vs. Punk that did better on PPV than any non-Mania show in five years.
While Michaels was telling everyone his appearance on the 12/16 Raw was a last minute thing, it was on the script that people saw the day before. It’s possible they called him at the last minute, but it was not a spur of the moment decision.
Slater is currently on a leave of absence which is why he hasn’t been on TV in recent weeks and 3MB is really 2MB. He’s expected back shortly into the new year. The technical term is he is taking care of personal matters.
For what it’s worth, at a recent meeting, Vince McMahon said there are no more babyfaces and heels. Vince has for years pushed no strong delineation because of the belief that in real life, nobody is completely good or completely bad. Nevertheless, they still book characters as heels or faces and do turns and such, and the characters who go back-and-forth like Miz end up being deader by the week.
The company has upgraded its television in Japan and will be going live there for the first time starting with he new year. Japan had gotten the shows on a several week delay, since PPVs would air three to four weeks later so they would coincide with television. Starting with the 1/6 Raw show, it will air live in J Sports in Japan. Live in Japan in Tuesday mornings at 10 a.m. Smackdown starts on 1/4 in a Friday night from midnight to 2 a.m. time slot, meaning the show will air the same time in the U.K., Australia and Japan, which is ten hours earlier than on the East Coast of the U.S. and 13 hours earlier than on the West Coast. The PPVs will be airing on Tuesdays. There is an issue there because the Raw show airing live the day after Raw, which will show PPV highlights, will air before the PPV itself, which kind of makes buying a PPV kind of ridiculous. J Sports said they were trying to reduce the workload on their staff with all the editing they used to do for a Japanese show. Instead of airing with Japanese announcing, it will air in English the Japanese subtitles. According to those in Japan, they felt the country was behind the times in airing all WWE programming on such a long delay. It was one thing years ago to do so, but not in this day and age.
The reason Layla El, 36, hasn’t been appearing on the anti-Total Divas team is because she is not medically cleared to perform. There are no details as to whether this is an injury or another reason, nor is there an estimated date listed for a return.
The company has upgraded its television in Japan and will be going live there for the first time starting with he new year. Japan had gotten the shows on a several week delay, since PPVs would air three to four weeks later so they would coincide with television. Starting with the 1/6 Raw show, it will air live in J Sports in Japan. Live in Japan in Tuesday mornings at 10 a.m. Smackdown starts on 1/4 in a Friday night from midnight to 2 a.m. time slot, meaning the show will air the same time in the U.K., Australia and Japan, which is ten hours earlier than on the East Coast of the U.S. and 13 hours earlier than on the West Coast. The PPVs will be airing on Tuesdays. There is an issue there because the Raw show airing live the day after Raw, which will show PPV highlights, will air before the PPV itself, which kind of makes buying a PPV kind of ridiculous. J Sports said they were trying to reduce the workload on their staff with all the editing they used to do for a Japanese show. Instead of airing with Japanese announcing, it will air in English the Japanese subtitles. According to those in Japan, they felt the country was behind the times in airing all WWE programming on such a long delay. It was one thing years ago to do so, but not in this day and age.
The reason Layla El, 36, hasn’t been appearing on the anti-Total Divas team is because she is not medically cleared to perform. There are no details as to whether this is an injury or another reason, nor is there an estimated date listed for a return.
They are going to be producing an Ultimate Warrior DVD this year. The whole Hall of Fame deal was based around Warrior wanted an apology for the DVD they did of him years back where they buried him. A public apology would be tough. Not impossible, but I can’t recall Vince ever publicly apologizing to talent. So maybe a new DVD where they put him over like crazy could be the compromise. I know there was talk of him as the main eventer for this year’s Hall of Fame.
Steve Austin has no contractual ties to the promotion right now. That also means he can’t use the Stone Cold name, which WWE owns, although he has the rights to the Steve Austin name, which is now his legal name, as part of an agreement with WWE.
Steve Austin has no contractual ties to the promotion right now. That also means he can’t use the Stone Cold name, which WWE owns, although he has the rights to the Steve Austin name, which is now his legal name, as part of an agreement with WWE.
Another name at the last tryout camp was Rick Rude’s son. He was one of the people brought in who had no experience in wrestling.
-WON