The atmosphere with a full looking big arena is so different from the Impact Zone. It really does send a message to fans that this company is going places and the wrestlers in the ring are stars. It's not about "this week's TV ratings going up," because how would they or why would they? What it's about is taking the usual audience and convincing them to watch every week not just every two or three or four weeks because these TNA wrestlers are big stars playing in front of big crowds...... [CONTINUE READING]
Interesting decision by TNA to go with a pretty long women's three-way to start the show (after the backstage brawl, that is). It'll be interesting to see if Q2 ratings rise because of it. It takes away a big draw later in the show. TNA could employ a strategy of, during the Knockouts matches, really pushing one other thing coming up later on the show so those who tune in just for the women and tend to flee afterward might be tempted to stick around. It would take a compelling hard sell by the commentators during the match that really make the main event or big interview later seem "can't miss." Heck, just plug strongly including on-screen graphics that Winter & Angelina Love were wrestling ODB & EY later...[CONTINUE READING]
C.M. Punk saying it's hard to referee with two broken arms reminds me of what a few angry wrestlers have said to me over the last 25 years regarding typing with broken fingers, but anyway… Good promo from Punk. There is a trend that WWE might want to pull back on, though, which is babyfaces downplaying heels as non-threats who just get ahead through cheating and favoritism. While that's part of being a heel, there should be an ounce of respect paid toward how tough they are. Punk comes from the school of tearing down everyone around him, and he's especially skilled at it, but in the long run he'll draw more money showing a little tinge of concern or fear that the heel he's against isn't a complete inept loser getting by exclusively by cheating. It fits Dolph Ziggler's character to take the approach Punk did, but it wouldn't hurt anything to make him seem a level above total incompetence...[CONTINUE READING]
The key lines from today's story at the Sports Business Daily is this:
"The planned channel’s marquee programming would come from most of, if not all of, WWE’s current pay-per-view events. The company generally produces 13 PPV events per year. Most will migrate to the channel. It’s not known how many would remain PPV."
This is further indication that WWE sees the PPV model as dying. The hefty 45-55 dollar price tag has driven away customers by the hundreds of thousands, accelerated by the ability to see pirate feeds on the Internet. The frequency of PPVs, once two per months during the brand-exclusive experiment a few years ago, also made it a budget-buster for many people, watered down the line-ups, and broke viewers' habits. Also, the drive to maximize TV ratings on USA and SyFy has led to more and more big matches on their...[CONTINUE READING]
Tonight is huge for WWE. What happens tonight at Survivor Series sets the tone for WrestleMania hype. There are a lot of things to look for tonight, not the least of which is how do fans react to The Rock at Madison Square Garden. Has endorsing John Cena like he did after WrestleMania last year affect how the anti-Cena fans embrace him. He came in as the anti-Cena, which many adult male fans loved. Then he got all palsy with him and lost his edge. C.M. Punk has since taken over the anti-Cena hero in WWE... [CONTINUE READING]
TNA Impact ratings most often follow a pattern of a strong Q1 (Quarter 1, i.e. the first 15 minutes), then a drop off as the hour progresses, then a rebound at the start of hour two, then they turn off more viewers as the show progresses, and depending on the quality of hype for the main event and how many commercial breaks there are in Q8, the rating may peak at the end. All too often - and almost unheard of in TV - Impact turns away more viewers than it attracts as the show progresses, a consistent damning statistic when it comes to the booking philosophy and execution of the show.
Last Thursday's Impact, though, was more alarming than usual.
The show opened with a 1.26 in Q1 and held strong with a 1.27 in Q2. The strong Q2 is due to the Knockouts match in that quarter and there only being one commercial break in Q2 instead of there often being two...[CONTINUE READING]
I've been against WWE combining the rosters anytime it's been brought up in recent years. I'm softening that stance tonight.
What jumped out as me as a benefit of the Raw Supershow format is that the choices of opponents for the top Raw stars expand with the Smackdown wrestlers becoming available. The downside is it takes away from building up future novel "Dream Matches." That was one of the original reasons to do the brand split. Only problem is WWE wasn't very good about keeping top stars apart and building up those matches. So they're not really losing much since they weren't disciplined enough to take advantage of that benefit of the brand split.
The other benefit is they can tie Raw and Smackdown together on Monday and Tuesday night. This feels like a trial run for what might be permanent come fall - Raw and Smackdown live both nights, with the top storyline carrying over as a cliffhanger...[CONTINUE READING]
Should WWE and SyFy move Smackdown to Tuesdays and go live every week? PWTorch readers, by a huge margin, support the move. In fact, 76 percent of poll respondents said they'd watch Smackdown more often if it were live on Tuesdays. All but 8 percent said being live was a plus, and the majority said the day of week was a plus for them (Tuesday instead of Friday).
I like this idea. Yes, it would mean back-to-back nights of WWE wrestling instead of spreading them out during the week. But that doesn't seem to hurt the NFL, which has Sunday afternoon football, Sunday night football, and Monday night football. Then fans reflect and recharge for the next weekend games (with the new NFL Network Thursday games and late-season Saturday games being added to the mix)... [CONTINUE READING]
Booker T is taking digs at The Young Guns on Twitter the last few days. It's quite a coincidence that Booker T is friends with RVD, and RVD is the first one to claim they never showed him respect. The Young Guns fired back that they had, in fact, shook his hand and spoken to him, but in general he kept to himself so they, as junior members of the locker room, kept their distance.
I'm not saying that the Young Guns have proper locker room etiquette (or don't). I'm just saying it's quite a coincidence that one of RVD's best pals in wrestling is now speaking out against them after their tryout... [CONTINUE READING]
For a detailed report, check out James Caldwell's main PPV report here at PWTorch. I'll be updating this throughout the show with some brief bullet point thoughts on the happenings. My full report will be published in this week's PWTorch Newsletter (print & digital editions) exclusively for VIP members...
-Regarding the three-way X Division Title match, lots of entertaining, innovative athleticism, but with enough of a story being told and believable near-falls that it all fell into place as a nice, but not epic, opener. Aries really stands out in a good way with his innovative combo moves and snap-quick execution. The botched stacked Sliced Bread didn't take away from my rating as that is bound to happen now and then, and they recovered nicely. Winner: Kendrick in 13:00. (**3/4)
-MIke Tenay, as usual, looked like he was holding back a burp just as they went to him on camera at ringside.
-We got our first "freakin'" of the night from Tara in their backstage interview with Jeremy Borash. Over/Under on instances of "freakin'" being said tonight: 4...[CONTINUE READING]
They worked hard at the start to get across this being a big deal, pushing harder than I can remember in a while that this Raw was sold out. In fact, Michael Cole went so far as to say "no matter what else is happening in America," nothing is more important than this, an apparent reaction to President Obama addressing the nation live regarding the impasse with Congress over the raising of the debt ceiling. They also showed an assembly of most or all active WWE wrestlers backstage, watching the match on a monitor, which was a nice tough to get across this being a big deal...[CONTINUE READING]
-Sting, doing his crazy "Joker" routine, said, "There's something exhilarating about being insane!" He said this is the spot in the promo where he's supposed to say "we can do things the easy way or the hard way," but he added that they're simply going to do things his way. He called Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan to the ring. Instead, an evil clown walked onto the stage, then unmasked to reveal Kurt Angle... [CONTINUE READING]
-The show opened with Vince McMahon walking to the ring with John Laurenaitis. Laurenaitis looks like someone who's job is to soullessly say goodbye to wrestlers whom McMahon has decided to fire. Michael Cole said everyone with WWE has been waiting since last night for word on what's next. The crowd chanted "C.M. Punk! C.M. Punk!" McMahon said they'd never hear him say that man's name again. He called him the biggest ingrate ever and said he walked out on everyone in the crowd and everyone in the locker room or ever been inside the ring. "He's nothing more than an egotistical, selfish turd." He said nobody is bigger than WWE, not The Rock, Steve Austin, Bret Hart, not Hulk Hogan. "This is a promotional marketing global juggernaut that cannot be stopped," he said. He then announced that they'd crown a new WWE Champion tonight... [CONTINUE READING]
KELLER'S MONEY IN THE BANK PPV BLOG
JULY 17, 2011
CHICAGO, ILL.
LIVE ON PAY-PER-VIEW
-They open with a video package of C.M. Punk's controversial statements that he wasn't supposed to say on TV, but WWE keeps replying over and over to sell a PPV.
1 -- SMACKDOWN MONEY IN THE BANK
-Participants: Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, Kane, Daniel Bryan, Sin Cara, Cody Rhodes, Sheamus.
-Kane uses power moves early, but there's a lot of athleticism otherwise with the smaller wrestlers in this match flying everywhere in and out of the ring. For instance at 5:00, Cara, wearing all white, dives off the top rope onto Sheamus at ringside for a respectable pop. Gabriel also flip dove onto Kane at ringside and Slater slingshot corkscrew dove onto Cody Rhodes on the floor.
-Booker talks a lot about his Fave Five. Cole said it changes every few minutes. His pick to win is Sheamus.[CONTINUE READING]
Here are some potential "out there" surprises that could occur in the main event tonight, which John Cena has forecast (much to the annoyance of Chavo Guerrero, apparently) will be talked about for years. What could live up to that build up? I'm not necessarily endorsing any of these scenarios, but rather just brainstorming some possible twists and turns that are options if WWE goes for a buzz-generating big finish...
-Triple H gets involved at the end. Perhaps, since C.M. Punk has targeted in him in his calculated pseudo-shoots, when Punk seems to be on the verge of beating Cena, Triple H stops him and helps Cena in.
-Or Triple H helps Punk win, and he leads up an anti-Vince McMahon campaign which is led by John Cena.
-Of course there could be a double-turn of sorts where the pro-Punk crowd appears to be on the verge of seeing their home town hero beat Cena, but McMahon himself interferes and Cena embraces his help...[CONTINUE READING]
-I'll wait and see how this all plays out, but the first segment managed to instill doubt that this is actually C.M. Punk's final match in WWE since they're not talking about him still negotiating an extension, and they cast doubt over whether John Cena will really be fired even if Punk walks out as champion. Those seemed like two big selling points for Sunday's show, so it's a "novel" strategy to remove those from the equation.
-That said, Punk and Cena's performances were very strong in terms of delivery. Cena turning the discussion from the pseudo-insider references to his vow to kick Punk's ass was the biggest positive of this. In the end it has to come down to hyping that these two are going to fight.
-Punk had a lot of "crowd-pleasing" references, strengthening his character and his rep for being a loose-cannon on the mic. [CONTINUE READING]
-The six-sided ring looks small compared to the usual ring, even though its surface area is larger.
-It's a tough situation for this to feel "PPV-worthy" when nobody's heard of Haskins, thus there's no real backstory other than what the announcers can fill in, plus it's not as if Williams has been a significant part of Impact TV in recent months.
-With Taz off tonight due to a family engagement, Jeremy Borash replaced him. I'm interested to hear how they delegate their roles since both serve the same purpose as play-by-play men. It's a curious choice to have Borash fill in rather than a wrestler to provide color commentary. I'm not sure if I could take three hours of Bully Ray, for instance, even though in the long run I think he could be a good heel commentator when his in-ring days are over, but what about Don West? Especially considering it'd be a throwback to the instances early in TNA when the X Division really was featured since he called those matches, it'd have been my choice... [CONTINUE READING]
Here's the first part of a Torch Talk with Jerry Lawler published in the PWTorch Newsletter ten years ago covering his reasons for leaving the WWF over his wife being fired.
TORCH TALK with Jerry Lawler, part one
Jerry Lawler is one of the best known personalities in pro wrestling. He was one half of one of the most popular announcing duos in this industry's history. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, his wife was fired and he subsequently resigned. Since then there have been a lot of questions and a lot of speculation, but few answers regarding what really led to Lawler's departure - and what stands in the way of him returning. In part one of this new "Torch Talk" with Jerry Lawler, the longest and most in-depth interview he's done since leaving the WWF, he addresses several areas of controversy regarding his status with the WWF.
In future installments Lawler will give his thoughts on working with Jim Ross, how he thinks Paul Heyman has done in his place, his opinion of Michael Cole, his anlysis of the direction of the wrestling industry, his thoughts on the fall of WCW, his future on the Memphis wrestling scene, and much more. This interview was conducted June 22, 2001.
Wade Keller: When you first resigned from the WWF over the firing of your wife, you said you didn't really know what motivated them to fire her. What have you learned since then? Have you since learned of circumstances that might have led to the events playing out as they did?... [CONTINUE READING]
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