Wrestling

[Brandon]

19 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Yeah man.  But let’s pull it back onto the rails! Lol. 

What did you think of the show? What the hell is up with Roman losing again? 

Didn't watch it.

I did however watch the youtube clip of Sami Callihan smacking that guy in the face with a baseball bat in probably one of the worst conceived and executed spots.    I also listened to Kevin Sullivan and checked out the gruesome photo of him after he was hurt by this same Sami guy.     Sooner or later someone is either really going to get hurt or it will be another New Jack type incident where someone just stabs or beats the crap out of Sami...

[Goalie]

11 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

A professional wrestling card will help to change thousands of years of Saudi society? Come on, man. that is just plain stupid. (Not you but your entire argument). You just dig deeper with every post you make on this subject.

Its part of the process whether you accept it or not. 

[Brandon]

[The Unknown Poster]

12 hours ago, Brandon said:

Didn't watch it.

I did however watch the youtube clip of Sami Callihan smacking that guy in the face with a baseball bat in probably one of the worst conceived and executed spots.    I also listened to Kevin Sullivan and checked out the gruesome photo of him after he was hurt by this same Sami guy.     Sooner or later someone is either really going to get hurt or it will be another New Jack type incident where someone just stabs or beats the crap out of Sami...

Yup. Very careless. 

[The Unknown Poster]

2 hours ago, Goalie said:

Its part of the process whether you accept it or not. 

I would agree wirh that if it was either just a show or a show with some progress. 

But it was a paid commercial for how great Saudi Arabia is. 

They get the tv shows.  So if women had been on the show even in full gear, that’s progress. If Balor has a rainbow on his tights and isn’t beheaded, that’s progress.  If Steph is there in her corporate role, that’s progress. 

A show subject to all the negatives of Saudi but pretending and hard shilling how great it is, that just isn’t progress. 

Now if next year they have women because of this year, that’s progress. But if it takes ten years I don’t buy it. 

It was a political advertisement. Period. Saudi knows they are behind the majority of the world. So this isn’t like they couldn’t just let women appear. Or even have women backstage. 

Or even allowing Zayn to be there. Or not hassling Heyman. Etc 

there was no progress yesterday. At all. And worse, they paid a big American company to tell the world that there was progress. 

[Goalie]

Hmm. I take it all back. No progress at all as they issued a statement about women appearing in a promo video. 

[Goalie]

http://www.sescoops.com/wwe-returning-to-saudi-arabia-in-november-plus-sasha-banks-reacts-to-greatest-royal-rumble/

 

 

[The Unknown Poster]

I can’t believe they’d do that. Wow. I was under the impression raw airs in Saudi so they see the women anyway. 

I hope wwe does the right thing and pulls out of the deal. 

[The Unknown Poster]

7 hours ago, Goalie said:

Hmm. I take it all back. No progress at all as they issued a statement about women appearing in a promo video. 

An absolute disgrace: 

 

 

 

The Saudi General Sports Authority has apologized for an advertisement that aired during the Greatest Royal Rumble, saying that it showed women's wrestlers in an "indecent" way.

The apology was issued through the Saudi General Sport's Authority's Twitter account, and Reddit user "comproimse" posted a rough translation of it:

"The General Sport Authority would like to apologize to the viewers and attendees of last night’s WWE event that took place in Jeddah, over the indecent scene involving women that appeared as an ad before a segment. It would like to confirm it's total disapproval of this, in the shadow of its commitment to eliminate anything that goes against the communities values.

"The authority has made sure to ban showing of any segment that involves women wrestling or any scenes related to it, and stipulated that to the company (WWE). The authority also disapproved any promotional stuff with pictures or videos showing women in an indecent way, and emphasized on commitment of this rule. And it’s a commitment that the authority would still commit to forever in all of it’s events and programs"

It appears that the advertisement in question was WWE's commercial about the company's switch to all dual-brand pay-per-views. It features men and women from Raw and SmackDown lip-syncing about the PPV change while in their wrestling gear.

The Associated Press has also picked up on the apology being issued.

 

[Goalie]

7 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

I can’t believe they’d do that. Wow. I was under the impression raw airs in Saudi so they see the women anyway. 

I hope wwe does the right thing and pulls out of the deal. 

They won't but ya kind of crazy. Sasha bayley Carmella all got pops. 

[Brandon]

14 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

I can’t believe they’d do that. Wow. I was under the impression raw airs in Saudi so they see the women anyway. 

I hope wwe does the right thing and pulls out of the deal. 

Everybody has a price....  

 

[The Unknown Poster]

 

[The Unknown Poster]

WWE quarterly finances:

courtesy Mr Meltzer

 

WWE's first quarter business report released today listed $187.7 million in total revenue and $14.8 million in profits, as compared to $188.4 million in revenue and $900,000 in profits for the same quarter last year.

The revenue was slightly below Wall Street's expectations of $191 million, but profits were ahead of expectations of $10 million to $11 million.

Some of the profit interest is due to a lower tax rate from movement from the Trump Administration, although that is a small part of it.

Wall Street was happy with profits beating projections as the stock has climbed to $40.92 per share at the time of this report.

Essentially, the company is being carried by media rights deals. As they continue to escalate, revenues and profits escalate with them. The Mixed Match Challenge deal with Facebook also helped in that category. 

Live ticket sales were slightly down, due to slightly lower attendance factoring out last year's San Antonio Royal Rumble from a comparison point. There was also a decline in merchandise sales even with running four more events. Venue merchandise, even with running more events, was down 18 percent, but some of that is also because the Royal Rumble sold so many fewer tickets this year being in a smaller arena. Consumer product revenue was cut in half but that is partially a nature of timing of when the revenue is recognized and that should even out by the end of the year.

There was also talk about tiered Network pricing but they didn't go into detail, and pushed that they had a 10-year relationship with Saudi Arabia and are hoping to be part of social changes in the years to come.

[The Unknown Poster]

A generally awful PPV last night.  Seth vs Miz was the opener and was great.  All downhill from there.  They booked Roman vs Joe to get Joe boo'ed so another successful attempt to take guys who are more over than Roman and drag them down to Roman's level to make him look better.  Terrible.  "Beat The Traffic" chants were funny but the people streaming out of the building before the show was over should tell the WWE everything they need to know.

Edited May 7, 2018 by The Unknown Poster

[The Unknown Poster]

Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir have reported to WWE performance centre for training.  They had been training awhile back when the original plan for Ronda's debut was a Four Horsewomen vs Four Horsewomen match (the UFC version being Ronda, Duke, Shafir & current NXT champion Shayna Baszler vs WWE's version of Charlotte, Bayley, Becky & Banks).

Shafir is also engaged to Roderick Strong

[The Unknown Poster]

63 years old.  Brain tumor

 

[The Unknown Poster]

Tickets to “All In”, the show promoted and financed by Cody Rhodes & the Bucks sold out in 30 minutes today. Will top 10,000

First non-WWE event to do so in 19 years and first Indy event to do it ever in the US. 

Also features Omega, Okada and Rey Misterio. 

Great for them and great for wrestling. 

[The Unknown Poster]

WWE produced a segment that was a perfect microcosm for everything they do wrong nowadays.  Nia/Ronda/Charlotte at the Up Fronts.  Dreadful.

[Taynted_Fayth]

I watched a bit of Raw last night, I think the british crowd annoys the sweet piss out of me. I get why they do their world tours but man you'd think we were watching billiards or something.  

I know I had an issue with Cole and his "Vintage" _____so and so____ when they'd pull off one of their moves, as usual, like every match, every time... but last night watching the Owens/Lashley/Elias MITB qualifier match, not sure who pulled off a slingblade move put both Cole, and I wanna say Graves? both at the same time were like SLINGBLADE! - it def wasn't Mumbles T, anyways... it sounded really weird for the 2 announcers to jump in on each other like that. Seems like it is typically a Cole thing to do as he always tries to over sell the moves with excitement like his Vintage thing, but I got to wondering if Cole would ream him out after the show for something like that.  Not sure what kind of wrestling biz etiquette there is for the non-in ring stuff but I'm sure if back a ways if cole had said baaagawdd it's a slobberknocker while sitting with JR ol JR woulda cuffed him with his 10 gallon hat

[The Unknown Poster]

Police decline to recommend charges in the Enzo case.  I can't see WWE hiring him back, but you never know.  He'd be a big star on the indy scene but his reputation has taken a hit.  A couple other guys with unproven accusations have had trouble getting bookings.  So who knows.  He'd be right up my ally as a guy to bring in, but I dont think I would (at this stage anyway) and Im a big Enzo fan.

[The Unknown Poster]

19 hours ago, Taynted_Fayth said:

I watched a bit of Raw last night, I think the british crowd annoys the sweet piss out of me. I get why they do their world tours but man you'd think we were watching billiards or something.  

I know I had an issue with Cole and his "Vintage" _____so and so____ when they'd pull off one of their moves, as usual, like every match, every time... but last night watching the Owens/Lashley/Elias MITB qualifier match, not sure who pulled off a slingblade move put both Cole, and I wanna say Graves? both at the same time were like SLINGBLADE! - it def wasn't Mumbles T, anyways... it sounded really weird for the 2 announcers to jump in on each other like that. Seems like it is typically a Cole thing to do as he always tries to over sell the moves with excitement like his Vintage thing, but I got to wondering if Cole would ream him out after the show for something like that.  Not sure what kind of wrestling biz etiquette there is for the non-in ring stuff but I'm sure if back a ways if cole had said baaagawdd it's a slobberknocker while sitting with JR ol JR woulda cuffed him with his 10 gallon hat

Graves is pretty untouchable.  Cole is their lead guy so well respected though there has been audio of him talking to Vince when off-air and he was kissing his ass a lot lol  I like Graves but I find he relishes in showing his quick wit at others' expense.  The goal should always be to help everyone get over, not cut guys' off to get yourself over.

[The Unknown Poster]

 

[The Unknown Poster]

Geeez...WWE stock jumps from $43 (which is really high) to $51 after the news I posted yesterday.  You know, there was a time WWE stock was at like $7 and I really considered buying $10,000 worth because we knew it would rise but this much? 

[The Unknown Poster]

Reports out that Fox will be the new home of SD on the main network. Massive deal for WWE.  Reportedly $200 million per year. With tons of promotion. 

Will be on Friday’s on FOX. 

Going into tv negotiations it was expected wwe would get $240-300 total now they look to get $240 for RAW and $200 for SD. And being on Fox is massive.

They could literally book Roman to crap for two hours and it won’t matter. This means huge profits. 

No word on if SD will be live on Fridays. You’d have to expect fox wants it live but that would be really tough for wwe. But money talks.  

[Taynted_Fayth]

Couple of things;

1. wasn't it proven that Fridays were not a good night for wrestling? Friday Smackdown became Thursday Night Smack down then eventually tues. I know for me personally there was a time,  and at the time,  there's not a chance in hell I'd catch an episode of SD cuz Friday night after a week of work was go kick it with a few beers and the boys... which kind of sucked because back when storylines were actually a thing (seems like not so much anymore) SD was a continuation from Raw not seen as an separate entity as it is now so I'd only catch the aftermath on those like video segments on Raw the next monday.

2, Will there be any issue having wrestlers jump shows (like Cena as the self proclaimed FA)? I'd imagine the networks wont tell Vince and Co how to run their shows, but I wonder if they feel they'd be losing potential viewership if bigger name draws are suddenly on a different networks version of WWE