The Unknown Poster

Those are Meltzer’s numbers which are just about as good as it gets for this kind of thing although he was reporting the Showtime numbers so who knows Lol

4.3 million buys in the US. So it certainly does make Dana's claims of 6.7 million world wide hard to come by. Over 5 million for sure, but not nearly 7. Mayweather in UFC against the right opponent maybe gets you a record buy for UFC but not going to beat what M vs M got. GSP maybe is the best option. As soon as Mayweather loses though, his drawing power in UFC is way down, certainly far less than what they'd be paying him. A multi fight deal for Mayweather in UFC would likely have to be heavily tied to percentages and he's not going to do that.

Yup. Like what the heck was Rey's Force Vision about in TFA? Its meaningless now, at least as we stand. Because the key things were the lightsaber calling to her, her flashback to the temple burning, and the hints of Vader vs Luke from Empire. All of that hinted at something that was not remotely addressed or added to in Jedi. I can buy Luke snuck into Ben's hut to read his mind. But the idea Luke had a momentary lapse where he considered killing him? Not a chance. Not ever. The entire point of the OT was that the biggest, baddest, most evil dude in the Universe was vader and the good guys had only ONE chance to kill him, Luke, but Luke refused. Their point is Snoke was in Kylo's head already and Kylo thinking Luke was there to kill him is what put Kylo over the edge. But its rather lame story telling. Didnt Snoke say TFA that Luke cannot be allowed to return or something like that? It makes far more sense that Snoke would set up Kylo to kill Luke in a surprise, not the other way around. You can read between the lines with every interview Mark Hamil gives that he didnt like it, didnt buy it and its ****.

Impact fired David Sahadi who had been there for 13 years. he previously worked for WWE and had been credited for making some of the great WWE video packages. He went to TNA on a 3 month contract that turned permanent and had been Director of Impact for several years. He also took 5 pay cuts over the years to help out the company.

Sounds like Mayweather and UFC are talking a deal. $1 billion for 4 fights. Yowza. Showtime Sports announced revenue for Mayweather vs Mcgregor at over $600 million. So in one night made more than UFC does in 11 months

Back from vacation and catching up on things. Here is some info about Zenk from Metlzer's newsletter this week: He was yes, won Mr Minnesota in 1981 (earning Most Muscular) And I didnt realise he also went to Robbinsdale High in Minnesota which is notable because it produced several really good wrestlers, among them, Vern Gagne, Larry Hennig, Rick Rude, Mr Perfect., John Nord, Smash, Nikita Koloff. Rude, Perfect, Zenk and Brady Boone all graduated together. Zenk played soccer in High School and was small, 135 lbs. Perfect used to protect him from bullies. Zenk had amazing genetics and with average training, some steroids, he got big and ripped. Road Warrior Animal met him and told him to get into wrestling. Zenk did it for the money and thought it would be easy. He thought Rick Martel made more than he did when they were a tag team. Martel claims that is not true and Vince always paid tag team partners the same. But if it WAS true, Martel deserved more. He was a former World Champion, a great worker and a big star. Zenk got heat for not abiding by the dress code. Martel got heat over it to and confronted Zenk who quit the next day. Interestingly, WWE help Zenk buy his first house. Zenk claims they did this because they wanted the guys to all have mortgages so they couldnt quit. Don Callis claims Martel is accurate about the pay thing and that when he and Martel were about to go to WWE together (as The Models), they were going to be paid the same. Zenk made $10,000 for WM III and felt it was too low but they were about to win the tag belts from the Hart Foundation when he quit. He refused to do an injury angle and WWE threatened to sue him if he jumped to All Japan where he had a good offer waiting. Another interesting story is, he signed a $156,000 per year deal with WCW and credits Dave Meltzer with helping him get it. He was openly friendly with Dave which was a big no-no back then and Dave gave him advice on negotiating his deal. He was promised a push as a top four guy in WCW with Sting, Luger & Pillman. Was US tag champs with Pillman and TV champ but never got the big push, blaming nepotism (Dustin Rhodes and Eric Watts getting bigger pushes when their dad's were in power positions). He rubbed guys the wrong way, talked about getting a good money deal, talked about how everyone should subscribe to Meltzer's newsletter to know about the business, bragged about women, and kept his physique with limited dieting, training and steroids. Complained that he deserved a main even push but didnt push himself as hard as other guys like Pillman. When he stopped getting any sort of push, he stopped taking steroids and training, almost out of spite, saying that if they were going to treat him like a jobber, he wasnt going to look like a main eventer. He was forced to testify against Vince in the steroid trial.

WWE might have scrapped the Four Horsewomen vs Four Horsewomen idea for Ronda Rousey's debut. Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir are no longer training to wrestle. Ronda is training regularly at the WWE Performance centre. Speculation is she's a lock to work WrestleMania and I'd have to think she debuts at the Rumble or the next night on RAW. But since there is a women's Royal Rumble match now, she should debut there and win. Likely be Ronda vs Charlotte for the title at WM. Asuka would be good too. For the mainstream, Charlotte makes more sense though.

A few items of note courtesy of Mr Meltzer:

You can probably blame AOL for the demise of WCW. Once Turner lost power, WCW had no safety net and no chance to turn things around. Turner would have protected WCW forever. There was some potential shadiness too. Someone in WWE knew an exec in WCW. The sale originally fell apart because WWE didn't want the big contracts, only the ones that had quarterly out clauses. They also didnt want to pay the valuation that was based on the TV contracts WCW had with Turner networks. Suddenly, WCW is "cancelled", the company is effectively worthless and WWE gets it for a song. Bischoff had investors ready to buy it for some ridiculous sum based on a ten year TV commitment. Once that was pulled, Bisch was out because WCW was worthless without TV and he didnt have time to make a new TV deal (he tried though). Anyway, I see this going one of two ways, Vince on his own and Vince with partners. It stands to reason he'd want partners. But XFL being cancelled was a bitter pill. Vince wanted to finance a second season. WWE & NBC were 50/50 partners and lost $35 million - $50 million each. Vince was willing to risk another $50 million on a second season. NBC was not. So Vince might want a scenario where he doesnt answer to a partner. On the other hand, $100 million in losses is a lot less if multiple partners share it. Also keep in mind that while the XFL ratings dropped off a lot, those ratings would be decent today, especially for a non Network. 14 million people watched the premiere. Sure, it fell off a cliff to under 2 million but it also had a ton of negative momentum even as the on field product got better. But 2-3 million on a cable station? You'll have bidders for that. Especially for "live sports" which is more valuable than scripted programs. Some speculation that Sinclair Broadcasting could be interested. They are a HUGE company, several billion dollars, and is the largest TV station owner in the US. They are also family owned and very right wing leaning, as is Vince, as is Linda who holds a cabinet level position in the Trump admin. When Ring of Honor warned WWE off about contract tampering, WWE uncharacteristically backed waaaaay off. Either out of respect for Sinclair or not wanting to poke the bear. Sinclair owns ROH. If Vince makes a deal with someone like Sinclair or USA or WGN (which is actually now owned by Sinclair in the Tribune deal). That deal was worth $3.9 billion, so you think they could spent a $100 million on a football company? Sure. But if Vince gets a commitment and sports right fees are such, it would likely be significant and could fund much of the football operations, its a gamble that has legs.

This gained steam so fast, its almost unbelievable. Which tells us a few things (maybe): QT has a ton of stroke that even JJ Abrams takes notice. QT's idea might closely align with JJ's idea of bringing back George Kirk and doing a time warp story. QT's proposed story requires a lesser budget. Talk of summer 2020 being a potential release date.

I didnt mind that at all because it creates a deeper connection between those two. As I recall, Snoke said he was the one creating that link. Which again shows us how powerful he is. In TFA, Kylo clearly knew who she was both by his reaction to being told of a "girl" on the planet and demanding to know "what girl". And it was cut but originally when he's reading her mind he says "it IS you". Han also reacts oddly to her saying her name (and her name was changed before filming from Kira which could be just a routine change or because they would reveal her real name was Kira). So I strongly believe JJ has different ideas for these characters than Rian showed us in Jedi. The idea that the Jedi were wrong is fine with me. Luke as much as says so. And the OT supports this. because Yoda and Ben are both against Luke leaving his training to help his friends. Yoda is even against training Luke altogether (though that begs the question as to why he waited so long then but this might be accepted as Yoda doubting himself in the wake of his perceived failure in the PT). Yoda & Ben both want Luke to fully train and kill Vader, not turn him. So OT shows us they are still committed to THEIR Jedi ways. But Luke isnt. Its this way that the PT supports the OT because Luke is very much like his father. He is emotional, always looking ahead, somewhat easy to anger and frustrate. He believes in love and forming relationships and wants to be heroic. So the idea that Luke would bring about a new Jedi order based on his beliefs is easy to buy. And Yoda destroying the force tree and, presumably the books, is a way for Yoda to finally admit he was wrong. In Luke's own perceived failure, he turns away from HIS beliefs and now feels the Jedi have to end because neither the original teachings or his own can work. Yoda is reinforcing to Luke that its not a failure of his teachings and he shouldn't go back to the past. At least thats how it works in my head. Kylo being Dark pulled to the light and Rey being light pulled to the dark works for me. But her being a Skywalker works for me. I think they didnt do that because they over-reacted to people saying TFA was rehash. But a rehash that works is better than a "new" direction that doesnt. Rey and Kylo both being SKywalkers works for me because its a continuation of Anakin, the Chosen One. His son who redeems him and his grandchildren who represent a new age of Force user and a new age for the "Jedi". Rey rejecting Luke and teaming with Kylo while Kylo rejects Snoke and teams with Rey works if Snoke remains this unbelievably powerful entity. And let the next film include Luke realizing this and helping them, completing their training so they can defeat Snoke.

Yes. I was for her being a Solo. There were hints to that in TFA. But being related to palpatine would be fine too. And the dark side that calls her could actually be Palps. And in doing that, the films connect more to the others. Jedi doesn’t feel like a sequel to TFA.

And I was okay with it wirh Hux and Kylo being equal but different in the Hierarchy under Snoke. But once you lose Snoke you have nothing. You have a goofy fool and a petulant brat as your big bad guys. On the flip side you have a young girl with almost no training bordering on the brink of “Mary sue”, a leader we know won’t be in the next film and the saga hero who was wasted and killed off. I’d say Poe is actually the most heroic but this film took him three steps back too. Fin might be the least damaged character from this film. To be fair I like Rey and feel she wasn’t damaged so much as not really moved forward that much and her abilities are simply too much at this point.

The flip side is everything he’s tried that isn’t wrestling related failed. Boxing. Body building. Stunt promoting. Football.

And regarding law suits, he does have. Concussion related suit against him (well against wwe). But it’s run by a shady lawyer. And it will be very hard to win for the complainants. It’s mostly older guys. And they can never prove they suffered from working for wwe since they all worked a variety of places. The wrestlers who could have an impact on a lawsuit like that are more recent guys who have great relationships with wwe and won’t sue them. And wwe also has done impact testing for years and is generally very conservative on injuries (part of why Bryan is iced out). They also sit on the board of Concussion Legacy Foundation and provide financing for research (all good PR moves). They just won a lawsuit over network royalties. He beat the feds years ago and came back from a sex scandal. Vince is a fighter. I don’t think they sweat any current lawsuits.

Depends on your definition of self made. He bought his dads company. But he also went bankrupt beforehand. He grew up with his mom and was not wealthy. Worked for his dad as an adult and his dad made him learn the business from the ring crew up (same way Shane and Steph basically did too). He spent fairly significant money buying wwe from his dad, he didn’t inherit it But it was structured in such a way that he’d make payments over time but take control immediately. If he missed a payment the whole thing would revert back to his dad. So he basically made the payments from profit the company generated. But a deal like that is smart and credit to him so self made in a way. He came very close to losing it all with the wrestlemania gamble. From that point on it was a runaway train. He used his PPV success to leverage companies to squeeze Crockett (wcw) and effectively bankrupt them into selling to ted turner. Very close to financial issues in the mid 90’s when raw was almost cancelled. Business turned around suddenly and massively in 97. And he smartly went public and became a billionaire. I think it’s fair to call him self made. Even if he was a millionaire when he bought wwe which he wasn’t, he became a billionaire eventually (more or less). He lost tons of money on XFL or more accurately WWE did since it owned XFL. But Vince spent a ton of his own money on Linda’s failed senate run (tens of millions). But in the end it made her a successful candidate for Trump’s cabinet Vince has always wanted to be “legit”. He’s 70+. He’s filthy rich. He’s at no risk of his massive income disappearing anytime soon. He has a huge bank account. Why not play with some of that money?

That’s a true story. When the Argos were in big trouble (and the whole league) the cfl tried to get him on board. And he countered with wanting the whole league.

He has a ton. Maybe he plans to use some of his own money but he has a ton of personal wealth and this was wwe stock of which is still owns millions and millions of shares and controls over 80% of the voting stock. I don’t think they will have any lawsuit issues to be honest.

Vince sold $100 million of WWE stock to fund Alpha so something is definitely happening.

It’s not that Rey needs to be someone. Although I prefer the idea that the Skywalker family is special. For some reason they seemed to want to undermine the precious trilogies by making the Skywalkers not important. But TFA clearly hinted she was special and her parentage was important. This film ignores that.

JJ has his work cut out for him to repair the damage in one film he has to - resolve Leia - explain Snoke - correct Rey’s parentage - make Kylo formidable - correct Luke and resurrect him to be the optimist badass we want - complete this disjointed muddled trilogy

Or saved the cfl with expansion money. For a time anyway. I’m all for expansion of it serves the greater good of the league. No special rules. No special field size. Isn’t the ratio a major issue in the US though? Can that be overcome?

I posted a link on random news because it really deals with the wider idea of sports investment though Vince loves football. There is speculation that the idea is gaining more steam because of Trump and that some right leaning networks/business might sign up and try to spin the whole anthem thing into a “patriotic” football league. Vince isn’t dumb with money usually though. He has a lot but won’t self finance. He was willing to do a second season of XFL but not without NBC. I also wonder if Shane might be involved as he previously pushed Vince to buy UFC and bellator. But Vince hates MMA. It could be part of a transition scheme too. Vince moving away from day to day WWE to focus on personal projects but still around as chairman so the stock doesn’t dive under Hunter. It’s a real concern if Vince died tomorrow what would happen to the core business. Keep in mind also that Vince is the largest shareholder and collects huge dividend Chequers. He is very cash rich.