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

[Mafro]

[KK]

WWE RAW April 22nd 2019, International Edit



I went to watch MLW Fusion last night on Freesports and it was a repeat of Monday. Not sure what happened there.

[Slimgrady]

If Wyatt stays heel in the new direction he’s going, I think it might be an ideal way to finally turn the very stale Bailey heel and shoehorn her into it somehow....or am I already strawberry floating it up!?

[Floex]

Just watched the clip of Bray, got to hand it the man, he really goes into his characters. Initially I was like ‘typical WWE’, but looks like it could be building to something. Don’t drop the ball again with him again.

[KK]

They’re not doing anything else with Bayley, especially with Sasha Banks MIA, so they may as well try something radical. She’s started getting booed again as well.

[captain red dog]

Not sure what to make of Bray, it could go anywhere to be honest. However this is WWE and it feels like another stupid gimmick like Brodus Clay or Fandango which will be hopelessly mismanaged and ditched in a couple of months with Bray getting released. I think Bray is another talent that could really do with getting out of WWE and having more freedom in somewhere like AEW.

[KK]

I’ve noticed Sky now keeping changing the channel for SmackDown Live most weeks, and announcing the scheduling changes extremely late on social media. This past month it’s been on Sky Sports Mix, Arena and Action. Basically all the signs they no longer care for it, and it can’t be helping the viewership. RAW did break the 100,000 barrier though for the post-Mania episode, which it rarely does any more.

That WWE still hasn’t announced TV rights for the UK either (despite promising them last year to shareholders) probably means they’re not going very well, though I’m expecting WWE to stay on Sky. Nothing else is going to bring in 50,000-100,000 in the early hours, and without WWE Sky Sports Arena/Action would be completely empty.

I still think WWE should be on Sky1 like it was in the late 80s and 90s. Currently it’s Simpson’s marathons like it’s, well, the 90s.

[Slimgrady]

BT might go for it, those lads love throwing around money! I assume one of the reasons Sky kept renewing was because of the PPV business on Box Office, but surely that’s dead on its arse since the network came along?

[KK]

From today’s WWE Conference Call...

-The next caller asked about the possibility of a third hour of Smackdown. Barrios spoke generally about monetizing the content and said there was nothing to update now.

Please God, no.

[KK]

New WWE PPV schedule for rest of 2019:

WWE Money in the Bank – May 19, 2019 in Hartford, CT
WWE Saudi Arabia (name TBA) – June 7, 2019 in Saudi Arabia
WWE Stomping Grounds – June 23, 2019 in Tacoma, WA
WWE Extreme Rules – July 14, 2019 in Philadelphia, PA
WWE SummerSlam – August 11, 2019 in Toronto, ON
WWE Hell in a Cell – September 15, 2019 in Atlanta, GA
WWE Clash of Champions – October 6, 2019 in Sacramento, CA
WWE Saudi Arabia (name TBA) - November 1, 2019 in Saudi Arabia
WWE Survivor Series – November 24, 2019 in Chicago, IL
WWE TLC – December 15, 2019 in Minneapolis, MN

[Prototype]

https://twitter.com/JonMoxley/status/11 ... 05184?s=19[

strawberry float.

[Mafro]

When was the last time WWE was this bad?

[KK]

From a programming quality and TV ratings perspective, definitely 1995. Which of course is where WCW sweeped on in. Maybe AEW is about to do the same thing all over again, on the exact same network.

God knows what FOX must be thinking seeing the current SmackDown Live ratings, which I do believe are now the worst ever since it moved to Tuesday’s, and in line with the TNA iMPACT! years.

The brand split has made everything worse, and they’re not even near NFL season yet. I don’t think WWE is particularly bad in particular but it’s boring and repetitive. It feels like the same show every single week, with the same meaningless matches, multiple times a week. And there’s now so much programming it’s impossible to invest in the storylines, which are also thin and stretched out to breaking point, just like the shows themselves. They’re really out of their minds if they increase SmackDown to 3 hours.

Still, all that Saudi money.

[Prototype]

When was the last time WWE was this bad?

imo, 2008.

The link? Bobby Lashley. Possibly the dullest character/wrestler of all time.

[KK]

The number of wrestlers they call up from NXT and then proceed to do absolutely nothing with or simply forget about boggles my mind.

Ember Moon, Akam and Rezar, Nikki Cross, EC3, Eric Young, Killian Dain, Mojo Rawley (where did those mirror vignettes lead?), No Way Jose, Ruby Riot, Liv Morgan, Sarah Logan, Sonya Diville, Bobby Roode (who wasn't featured at all this week after transforming into Rick Rude), The Ascension, Apollo Crews, Chad Gable (especially since they turned his tag partner into Kurt Angle's son), Heavy Machinery...

Then you've got those like Nakamura, Rusev, Lana, Sheamus, Cesaro, Ali, Jinder Mahal, Mickie James, Shelton Benjamin, the Colon's, even Randy Orton...who have nothing going on and feature no character or storyline development whatsoever.

Tune in to RAW and SmackDown to watch some names you might know from NXT having matches. ForGodsSakesDontMissIt!

[Mafro]

When was the last time WWE was this bad?

imo, 2008.

The link? Bobby Lashley. Possibly the dullest character/wrestler of all time.

TNA actually used him well.

[Mafro]

twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/status/1124021460610244609

twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/status/1124290347872296961

Dave going in hard.

[KK]

It's funny how this upcoming Saudi show looks like being even more loaded than WrestleMania 35. Goldberg, Lesnar, Undertaker...MMA powerhouse Shane McMahon vs. Roman Reigns appears to be on the agenda as well.

And all these years they told us in the UK they couldn't do a major PPV because of the time difference, and here they are in Saudi Arabia which for an American audience literally have the worst start times you could think of (about 11am on a Friday morning, Eastern).

That WWE have to do them twice a year only keeps it at the forefront of people's minds, only made more embarrassing as they dance around actually mentioning "Saudi Arabia" on TV. Even on the PPV itself they never mentioned where they were. "Here at the Crown Jewel, brother"

[Mafro]

Okada vs Jericho at Dominion

[Return_of_the_STAR]

It's funny how this upcoming Saudi show looks like being even more loaded than WrestleMania 35. Goldberg, Lesnar, Undertaker...MMA powerhouse Shane McMahon vs. Roman Reigns appears to be on the agenda as well.

And all these years they told us in the UK they couldn't do a major PPV because of the time difference, and here they are in Saudi Arabia which for an American audience literally have the worst start times you could think of (about 11am on a Friday morning, Eastern).

That WWE have to do them twice a year only keeps it at the forefront of people's minds, only made more embarrassing as they dance around actually mentioning "Saudi Arabia" on TV. Even on the PPV itself they never mentioned where they were. "Here at the Crown Jewel, brother"

When a massive part of WWEs income was based on ppv I understood why they would take that view about ppvs in the uk but now their ppv income is negligible there is now argument against a stadium event in the uk. Make it a big deal, throw in an axxess event and I’m pretty confident it would be a massive success.