The Wrestling Thread: WWE WrestleMania XL - 6/7 April 2024

[KK]

WWE has sent out a fan survey to gauge interest for doing Mania in various cities, including London:

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/gene ... 89331.html

I'd be stunned if they did. There's no reason for them to do it. SummerSlam and the Royal Rumble (link is surely in the name there) makes more economical sense to me, garnering a similar gate at Wembley (or the 'Olympic Stadium' and White Hart Lane, I suppose) for WrestleMania. The Millenium Stadium also makes more sense to me as it has a roof.

I think it's about time they gave us something though. I say us, when it'd no doubt be a huge draw for people across Europe in general. It'd be a guaranteed sell-out.

[Return_of_the_STAR]

WWE has sent out a fan survey to gauge interest for doing Mania in various cities, including London:

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/gene ... 89331.html

I'd be stunned if they did. There's no reason for them to do it. SummerSlam and the Royal Rumble (link is surely in the name there) makes more economical sense to me, garnering a similar gate at Wembley (or the 'Olympic Stadium' and White Hart Lane, I suppose) for WrestleMania. The Millenium Stadium also makes more sense to me as it has a roof.

I think it's about time they gave us something though. I say us, when it'd no doubt be a huge draw for people across Europe in general. It'd be a guaranteed sell-out.

I agree there's no reason to bring mania here, as they could do say summerslam here and it would give them two big weekends in the year. A summerslam here would sell out a large stadium, they can have a fan access, nxt, raw and SD with it. The demand is clearly there. Why move mania when they can effectively have two manias in one year.

The time difference is no longer an issue due to the lack of ppv sales now.

I don't think it's such a shame that we don't have a stadium with a retractable roof in London. I wished that the new Tottenham one had one but it doesn't. With its retractable pitch it would have been perfect.

[Slimgrady]

Stone Cold is rumoured for Raw tonight. It'd be good if it wasn't just a once off.
What?

[Return_of_the_STAR]

Stone Cold is rumoured for Raw tonight. It'd be good if it wasn't just a once off.
What?

Hopefully he's on the show, there's been a few times in the past few years where he's been backstage and not actually appeared on the show.

[Slimgrady]

Stone Cold is rumoured for Raw tonight. It'd be good if it wasn't just a once off.
What?

Hopefully he's on the show, there's been a few times in the past few years where he's been backstage and not actually appeared on the show.

Apparently they're selling "Los Angeles 3:16" shirts at the arena so hopefully that means he'll be on TV.

[Return_of_the_STAR]

Stone Cold is rumoured for Raw tonight. It'd be good if it wasn't just a once off.
What?

Hopefully he's on the show, there's been a few times in the past few years where he's been backstage and not actually appeared on the show.

Apparently they're selling "Los Angeles 3:16" shirts at the arena so hopefully that means he'll be on TV.

Yeah I've just read that elsewhere. That would imply to me he will be on. Interaction with kurt angle for the win.

[Mafro]

Great that they're making Joe look really strong and like a genuine threat in this Lesnar feud.

What the strawberry float was that Miz tv segment? Amazing

[KK]

WWE has apologised for the n-bomb being dropped twice on RAW: http://www.latimes.com/sports/lakers/la ... story.html

It's okay on the WWE Network though, obviously.

[Floex]

Watched the Joe highlights, THIS is how you build Joe. I don't know how they've got this right so far but they have. Doesn't matter if Joe loses as long as he comes out strong.

All we need now is "Joe's gonna kill you" chants and all will be well

[KK]

WWE programming, including flagship shows RAW and SmackDown Live, will be moving to a new home in the United Kingdom. Sky is scrapping its numbered sports channels later this year and replacing them with themed offerings focused on specific sports. WWE will move to Sky Sports Arena, which will also feature NFL, Darts, Tennis and Rugby and will cost £18 a month. The channel will also be available on a day, week and monthly rolling contract through the NowTV platform.

Not a bad price as someone who is also a fan of 4 of those 5 sports. For clashes they'll probably also use Mix. This can only be a positive for WWE, their ratings are just beyond a joke now.

[KK]

We don't know the pricing of the other channels yet (Sky Sports Football x2, Cricket, F1, Golf) or the deal that will/may be offered if you take the whole lot. Currently if you're only interested in 1 or 2 sports, you've got to pay £34 a month (NowTV) or £49.50 (Sky). If you're a fan of multiple sports, it could indeed work out worse value, but if you're just interested in WWE or an adjacent sport like darts (and there is substantial cross-over appeal) this could save you quite a lot a year. I guess it just depends what you're interested in.

I only see it as a positive for WWE because their ratings are as close to rock bottom as you can possibly get currently. Any lower now and you'd be cancelling it entirely...which in 2019 Sky may very well do. Sky Sports 5 is also not as readily available to BT and TalkTalk customers, which has probably been another detriment to WWE ratings. It has gradually fallen down the listings over the years and is now on the worst station.

[Slimgrady]

I don't see why WWE has to be on a sports channel over here yet in America it's on an easily accessible cable channel, just put Raw and Smackdown on Sky one and let that be that, the ratings would probably Triple(H)! I'm sure very few people couldn't care less about shows like Main Event and Superstars but if they put those on a free channel like Pick I'm sure they'd do OK too!
I wonder if WWE insisted on being on Sky Sports during contract negotiations to help with PPV buys, because only sports fans buy PPVs of course! Sky must hate the network

[KK]

This WWE contract has to have been an unmitigated disaster for Sky. It's cost them $150million over 5 years, contains less programming, a mix up over exclusivity of Main Event has meant they've now ended up with a lame duck show, their hourly highlight shows (which pads out a substantional part of SS5) are now all free on YouTube, and to top it off WWE RAW and SmackDown has lost 70-80% of its audience.

To put this into perspective, Sky are paying more for WWE than they are for some football rights.

[Mafro]

I actually thought Great Balls of Fire was this Sunday since this week's Raw totally felt like a go-home show, but there's still another week for them to mess the Joe/Lesnar feud up.

[BAKA]

They've really done a great job building it up. It's such a shame it's being used as a throwaway match between Lesnar's SummerSlam feud. But at least Heyman made it sound like it'll be a proper match and not a squash with his comments during this weeks Raw. Hopefully it'll perform well for them and they'll invest more into Joe and perhaps look at continuing the feud in the future.

[KK]

New Sky Sports logos:



WWE programming could go in any of those, though I think Main Event is PPV, and Action could be the new name for Mix or a bundle job for £18. The football will have 2 channels so it's possible.

Maybe Sky will surprise us and suddenly put WWE on Mix...I don't know if the contract stipulates WWE has to be behind a paywall, though I doubt it. Main Event, Experience and WWE specials (condensed versions of Network shows and DVDs) for example moved to Mix though also air on 5. RAW highlights are on Sky 1.

[Return_of_the_STAR]

New Sky Sports logos:



WWE programming could go in any of those, though I think Main Event is PPV, and Action could be the new name for Mix or a bundle job for £18. The football will have 2 channels so it's possible.

Maybe Sky will surprise us and suddenly put WWE on Mix...I don't know if the contract stipulates WWE has to be behind a paywall, though I doubt it. Main Event, Experience and WWE specials (condensed versions of Network shows and DVDs) for example moved to Mix though also air on 5. RAW highlights are on Sky 1.

Would love it if WWE went onto Mix but do we know if the Mix channel is definitely going to continue?

[KK]

Sky have said it will, yes. No comment on if the name is changing though. I believe Sky are issuing the specifics on Friday. All of this will be implemented by August. TV guides are saying 18th July.

[gaminglegend]

It will be interesting when they re-negotiate the TV deals in the next few years, especially in the US.

From my understanding the ratings are down, and the advertising revenue is massively down, which doesn't add up in terms of more kids/family orientated audiences should generate much bigger advertisers, which is why they do the PG route. But ultimately it seems advertisers don't believe the audience of wrestling shows actually have a high spend, so the revenue they pay is much lower if I have listened to the Observer correctly. And when you can hop onto youtube and literally see what you need without skipping to highlights, do you even need to watch Raw for 3 hours?

[Floex]

The TNA brand is officially dead.

Impact Wrestling, formerly TNA Wrestling (and, before that, NWA: Total Nonstop Action Wrestling), is set for yet another re-brand following a merger with Jeff Jarrett's Global Force Wrestling.

The re-booted company will take the GFW name as it searches for a clean break from the company that emerged from the ashes of WCW - founded by Jarrett and his father - back in 2002.

TNA, a name originally dreamed up by Vince Russo (according, at least, to Vince Russo), has been dragged through the mud in recent years following a protracted legal dispute between Billy Corgan and the brand's oft-maligned management, alongside some very public financial struggles.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/whatcult ... ded-as-gwf