Official WWE/TNA/ROH Thread

[Witlon]

13 episodes of Saturday Night's Main Event added today to the Network, for those of you who have it.

[HollywoodLeo]

I hate the way Michael Cole has to recap every conversation that takes place on the show word for word, as if I'm too dumb to have already heard it myself.

[Slyder]

I hate the way Michael Cole has to recap every conversation that takes place on the show word for word, as if I'm too dumb to have already heard it myself.

Sounds like theres not much worth going back and seeing on raw.

[HollywoodLeo]

Sounds like theres not much worth going back and seeing on raw.

There isn't, but not really because of what I said. Cole does that annoying shit whether the current angles are interesting or not.

[Slyder]

Can anyone confirm what I've heard on another site?

WWE is giving a free week preview of the WWE network on WWE.com. They are not asking for credit card info. Just sign in as normal.

[HollywoodLeo]

You just have to provide an email address.

If you had been watching Raw you'd know this from the 10,249,523 times they've mentioned it.

[Epic Dean]

The Monday Night War show on the Network could be awesome but probably wont because it will have a lot of pro Vince spin. History written by the victors and all that

[Slyder]

You just have to provide an email address.

If you had been watching Raw you'd know this from the 10,249,523 times they've mentioned it.

I'm quite at peace with not watching so I don't have to see John Cena, Kane, Orton crammed down my throat. While who should be the future has every thing thrown in their way (Wyatt, Sandow, etc).

[HollywoodLeo]

Wyatt's feuding with Jericho so he'll go over.

[Slyder]

Wyatt's feuding with Jericho so he'll go over.

As he should have in the Cena feud... F John Cena!

[Epic Dean]

As much as we don't like it Cena coming out on top made business sense. In the Pro Wrestling world evil never wins over good in the long run. I don't like it but I understand the booking. Wyatt looked strong and his character is still moving along nicely without having the win

[Slyder]

As much as we don't like it Cena coming out on top made business sense. In the Pro Wrestling world evil never wins over good in the long run. I don't like it but I understand the booking. Wyatt looked strong and his character is still moving along nicely without having the win

A few reasons I disagree:
1 Did Cena really get anything out of this besides proving yet again he is part of the problem.
2 Cena is 37 years old and who knows how long he really has with as many neck problems as he's had.
3 Wyatt was as hot as ANYONE. As Jim Cornette says "Frankenstien had to crush a couple villagers to get over". You got to have the hot heels to make the truly great faces. Where would Stone Cold, Rock, Mankind, etc be without the greatest heel in the history of the business to play off of? How do you expect to make any new true stars without occassionally having one of them legitimately beat Cena? At least Orton (to his credit) put over guys like Barrett and DB along the way.
4 You have struggled making anyone a star for 5 years, Cena is a prime example why you have had it.
5 When was the last legit time Cena "lost" a feud?
6 Cena's graveyard is almost bigger than HHH's at this point... and that's saying something about HHH.

[HollywoodLeo]

Again, is Cena really "the problem" when he sells merchandise?

You and I may not like it because we want to see the new guys, but so long as they don't have real competition you and I aren't the people they need to convince to buy into their product.

[HollywoodLeo]

I also don't like the big to-do about #6

In this industry you don't necessarily have to win a match to get over. All the hub-bub made about somebody being "buried" because they didn't get the W is vastly overblown.

Bray Wyatt was not buried by John Cena. He's still over and still getting good feuds.

Buried is what they're doing with Damien Sandow.

[Slyder]

Again, is Cena really "the problem" when he sells merchandise?

You and I may not like it because we want to see the new guys, but so long as they don't have real competition you and I aren't the people they need to convince to buy into their product.

Is he really making them the most money?

WWE attendance is dwindling, their tv ratings are shrinking (and thus their advertising revenues), their tv contract was a joke when you consider what MLS of all things got (a sport that only has 1 real opportunity for tv ads), they are on pace to lose something like 40 mil this year because they jumped the shark on the network, they returned to neutral when they had a number of guys that they could have tried.

On another site I frequent they said that in 1999 they hot shotted the belt and had 6 different superstars hold it (Undertaker, Mankind, Rock, Austin, HHH, and Big Show) and it led to one of the biggest boom periods in WWE history. Why? It legitimized each of them as being big time stars and kept the title picture interesting which is 180 degrees away from what its been the last 8 years or so. Why go back with the same guy who you have tried to force feed down the throats of fans for the last decade? It's a losing battle, for every little Jimmy that gets his merch you are costing yourself viewers like me who have bought stuff from WWE as Christmas and Birthday gifts and many now parents because they don't want their kids to watch it because of the BS.

Why couldn't you hot shot here and "rush" Cesaro? The booking writes itself (if you want to get to Lesnar with the belt after Summer Slam). The fans want to cheer the King of Swing so keeping Heyman with him HURTS the writing. You have him win it at MITB, legitimizing him and hyping up Heyman as being a fortune teller yet again. You bridge that to Brock vs him at Summerslam using this to break Cesaro away from Heyman and turning him face. Which the fans would absolutely eat up. Its new, its involving a guy everyone hates but respects Lesnar and it features a young guy you are trying to build. You book the match almost exactly the same as you did Punk/Lesnar. You have started building another face that the WWE can lean on so that if something happens you aren't up shits creek without a paddle next time.

I know the eventual goal is to get Roman Reigns the belt. That wouldn't be until WM for me. There's still money to be made in the build up, you have him fight Randy until Summer Slam, then HHH at Summer Slam, you could then continue to let him work on what he needs to. You start him the same way you did Warrior, Austin, and Cena by winning the belt as THE main event of Summer Slam 31 after winning the Rumble. That's 2 guys who you have made now.

Wyatt pre-Cena feud was almost there, you could have really honestly stuck him right there with the belt if this happened before that stupid ass Cena feud. Now you've lost a little with the character because Cena has to outright win every freaking feud.

Ambrose/Rollins= I absolutely LOVE Dean Ambrose right now, him and Rollins is one of the few gems amongst the crap right now. They are getting as much attention as anyone in WWE right now from the fans. Rollins with the case was the right call, and I personally would have gone with Tyler Black as the new WWE champ out of MITB. I would have put the feud that is getting the most reaction right front and center at Battleground and tried to find some new stars.

In all of these situations, you give the fans new guys to watch rather than the same thing they were watching back in 2008. Cena still has a spot on the card (semi/co main event) because you are right he does sell a crap ton of merch.

But:
1) 90% of his fan base is in bed by 10 pm and it shows in the ratings, which is a huge part of your advertising revenues.
2) He has almost DOUBLE the merch (70) of anyone not named Daniel Bryan (who has 53 items for sell). So there's no reason for him NOT to, and I'd be embarrassed if I were him if I had that much more and wasn't the biggest merch seller in the company.

I also know he is likely to be the one to drop the belt to Reigns at Mania and I would be quite ok with that, but because that is where they maybe going doesn't make it "best for business" for him to hold it now.