Wrestling Thread Apr 15-21 | 4/16 Forget that Awful Raw... WRESTLEMANIA PPV PRED CONTEST RESULTS!

@DC, you got any podcasts/interviews I should listen to? I'm going to be studying all day/all week and need some background noise.
Yea 4W posted some stuff to keep you busy.

But as always, I suggest the

MLW Radio Podcast
Stone Cold Podcast
 
Yea 4W posted some stuff to keep you busy.

But as always, I suggest the

MLW Radio Podcast
Stone Cold Podcast
Thanks brother, I'm going to check out MLW asap.

Too much gold in this video:



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I don't like what they did with Fandango, seemed out of character a bit, perhaps it's the crowd, but they need to have him go over on opponents not just pander to crowds. I did chuckle a few times

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Not a bad match by Dolph and Swagger but had son beat him and beat with with a roll up? Another doomed title run for the non WWE Elite.
 
God damn last night's Raw was bad thinking back on it.  I hate everything they're doing right now.

Thank God next week's show is from London.  The booking will still be **** but at least the crowd will be fun.  Though we'll have to hear Lawler tell us the entire show how weird and stupid they are.
 
Outside of Brock's segment (because I love every Brock segment, except his matches against HHH), the only good thing on Raw last night was the REPLAY of Ziggler's win from last week.

So looking back on it, I don't know why I'm so mad.  Ziggler got one televised win on Raw last night.
 
Showing the replay of Dolph's cash-in was by far the best part of Raw....I literally have no idea what WWE is doing. I don't understand how you can constantly have your belt holders lose matches regularly. Especially having them lose clean...On top of that, Punk is now hurt and going to be on a hiatus. Not good whatsoever. TYBG that Raw is going to be in London next week. This crowd was putting me to sleep.
 
Saw King while exiting the arena after WM. His face was mad shiny :lol

 
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why are you all crying over Ziggler losing via ROLLUP of all things?

its just so Swagger can establish credibility again by "beating the champ" to set up the triple threat at ER.

The Cesaro title drop was bad. I dont get it, did this guy have an orgy with the writer's wives or something?
 
why are you all crying over Ziggler losing via ROLLUP of all things?

its just so Swagger can establish credibility again by "beating the champ" to set up the triple threat at ER.

The Cesaro title drop was bad. I dont get it, did this guy have an orgy with the writer's wives or something?
In the champion's FIRST match on Raw? YES.  It's a MAJOR issue.  Especially for a guy who has been treated as a complete jobber for the past four months.
 
why are you all crying over Ziggler losing via ROLLUP of all things?

its just so Swagger can establish credibility again by "beating the champ" to set up the triple threat at ER.

The Cesaro title drop was bad. I dont get it, did this guy have an orgy with the writer's wives or something?
In the champion's FIRST match on Raw? YES.  It's a MAJOR issue.  Especially for a guy who has been treated as a complete jobber for the past four months.
To add to that, there were 5(!) different people in this scenario (Zeb, ADR & RR, AJ and Big E) who could have interfered in the match causing Swagger to win.  But somehow they went with the one option where the champion loses clean.

Not to mention, Swagger won via rollup.  He's 7 inches and 50lbs bigger than Ziggler and he wins via rollup.  Not even a heel rollup with tights being grabbed.  No one looks strong here.
 
In the champion's FIRST match on Raw? YES.  It's a MAJOR issue.  Especially for a guy who has been treated as a complete jobber for the past four months.
thats why its not a major issue.

Ziggler is booked as the chicken**** heel who can only win a meaningful match by waiting for his opponent to be beaten down (BY Swagger no less) and cashing in a briefcase

its not like this guy was going on a Goldberg-like streak and suddenly got beat by a taser, it was a rollup. 

vulnerable contender becomes fluke champion. now his next title match will have people thinking hes going to lose it because he jobs so much, which is where the meaningful wins finally come in and you establish ziggler as someone who can finally "win the big moments"

rollups wins dont hurt credibility. thats why its a rollup, because its one of those moves that can get anyone at any time.

if he tapped to the patriot lock and the title was on the the line, then fine. otherwise no, not a major issue.

Cesaro has more to worry about
 
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IF YOU HAD AN OBSTRUCTED VIEW AT WRESTLEMANIA 29

Email [email protected] a picture of your ticket and they give you free tickets to ANY live event except Wrestlemania 30. 
 
Concern Beginning to Mount that WrestleMania 29 Did a Very Disappointing Buyrate

Credit: Bryan Alvarez of Figure Four Weekly

The biggest story to follow going forward is the WrestleMania buyrate. We don't have an official number and it will be months before we do. However, three different sources this week stated that very early estimates do not, in fact, look good, and one number I was given was downright shocking. Keep in mind that a number this far out can fluctuate wildly, sometimes by hundreds of thousands of buys worldwide. One source noted that WWE's own internal projections were lowered substantially in the final week before the show based on the Elimination Chamber PPV number coming in lower than expected.

If the number comes in low, there are several factors to consider. First, what impact did PPV outages have on the final number? The WWE iPPV feed was a complete disaster, with some not being able to access the show for hours and others never being able to access it. However, one would think based on historical iPPV numbers in the US that this wouldn't make the difference between, say, 800,000 US buys and 500,000 US buys (just throwing numbers out there, so please don't report elsewhere that I said WrestleMania did 500,000 buys in the US). Most likely, less than 50,000 people, perhaps substantially less, tried to order the show online. I did, however, hear during the show that there were traditional PPV providers unable to process orders, both in specific cities and also, according to several reports, nationwide for periods of time through major providers (Comcast Xfinity was mentioned along with Verizon and others). I do remember thinking at the time that if the reports were correct, that could gravely affect the US PPV numbers. But at the moment, it's impossible to determine how many people were actually unable to order as compared to how many had problems but were finally able to pay. Plus, whenever something like this happens, you largely hear from those who had problems, not those who were able to order successfully.

If the number is low due to a tech issue, that's obviously terrible for the company since they're out perhaps millions of dollars through no fault of their own, but at least it's not a situation where the company felt they were hot but were in fact selling their audience something they didn't want to buy on the biggest show of the year. I did hear from people after Royal Rumble that they weren't buying WrestleMania because they had no interest in Rock vs. Cena II, but part of me thought that, at the end of the day, it was WrestleMania in the New York and the vast majority of regular WrestleMania buyers would buy again when the day came. If it turns out that the number is low and the cable issues weren't nearly as widespread as first reported, well, this has far-reaching ramifications.

First, if interest in this show was down significantly, the first thing that you have to point to is obviously the main event. Rock won't be around much at all, but John Cena is now champion and face of the company yet again (not that he ever wasn't even when CM Punk held the title for more than 400 days). Granted, if the public is starting to tire of him more than believed, they could always take the title off of him and push someone else into that position (easier said than done, obviously, but it's not like they are trapped with him as champion). The bigger issue, moreso than the possibility that they're pushing a guy that after a full decade has finally worn out his welcome as a big-time draw, is the idea that if the US number is low – say, 500,000 to 600,000 buys – that makes the idea of starting up the WWE Network look even worse than it was before last Sunday.

Several articles about the Network have come out in recent weeks. Not a lot of new information in them, but they do all note the company's belief that they'll need 1,000,000 subscribers to break even. Let's say WrestleMania did 600,000 US buys. This is not your average PPV, this is the single biggest show of the year, the show that even for people who don't watch wrestling, if they have any interest and are going to buy any show all year long, it's this one. Granted, the Network will be $14.95 monthly and this year's WrestleMania was a sky-high $69.95. That's still, for many viewers, a one-time annual cost, and it's still less than it would cost to buy the Network every month for a year. I do think some people skipped out on Mania due to the increased cost, and maybe those people will still cough up $14.95 for the Network, but the question remains, if they can't draw anywhere close to 1 million buys in the US for WrestleMania (and again, while I don't know the estimated number at this point, I can tell you it was a hell of a lot less than 1 million), how are they possibly going to hit 1 million monthly subscribers, much less 2 million or 3 million, particularly since they often don't get 3 million homes to watch Raw for free every week?
 
My cousin wanted to buy 29 but the $70 tag shook him off and he used a stream instead. Would lowering the prices of PPV affect the product somehow?
 
Raw last night did 4.15 million viewers, down 10 percent from the post-WrestleMania show, although that would be expected.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 4.19 million

9 p.m. 4.24 million

10 p.m. 4.03 million

The show will do between a 2.9 and 3.1 rating.
 
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