Week in Wrestling - Friday, March 10, 2017
Final Road to Wrestlemania
There are only about 250 tickets left for WrestleMania on the primary market before it would be an actual sellout, so it’s a lock to be sold out, probably within a week. That would be 55,000 people with the current set up. There are ways to get it up to 60,000 if they want to add seats and start selling new seats. Hall of Fame tickets sold out this past week. As far as secondary market demand, the price of entry for WrestleMania is $120 (which indicates a softer than expected secondary market since face value on the cheapest tickets is $160), Raw is $101, NXT is $75, Hall of Fame is $31 and Smackdown is $18.
There are only about 250 tickets left for WrestleMania on the primary market before it would be an actual sellout, so it’s a lock to be sold out, probably within a week. That would be 55,000 people with the current set up. There are ways to get it up to 60,000 if they want to add seats and start selling new seats. Hall of Fame tickets sold out this past week. As far as secondary market demand, the price of entry for WrestleMania is $120 (which indicates a softer than expected secondary market since face value on the cheapest tickets is $160), Raw is $101, NXT is $75, Hall of Fame is $31 and Smackdown is $18.
In the last few weeks, there have been only minor changes to the original plans for WrestleMania. It is now, officially:
- Bill Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar for the Universal title
- Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton for the WWE title
- Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns
- Seth Rollins vs. HHH
- Chris Jericho vs. Kevin Owens for the U.S. title
- John Cena & Nikki Bella vs. The Miz & Maryse
- A.J. Styles vs. Shane McMahon
- Dean Ambrose vs. Baron Corbin for the IC title
- Bayley vs. Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks for the women’s title on Raw
- Alexa Bliss vs. Natalya vs. Becky Lynch vs. Mickie James vs. Carmella vs. ? for the Smackdown women’s title
- Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson defending the Raw tag team titles
- Neville vs. Austin Aries for the cruiserweight title
- Andre the Giant Battle Royal
Goldberg vs. Brock
Whether this is positioned last or not, this was told to us from the start as the main event on the show. Unless plans change, Lesnar will win the title. Goldberg’s contract expires with this show but they can always sign a new deal. But the reason Lesnar put Goldberg over so quickly at Survivor Series and the Rumble is that this would be the end result. Goldberg having two quick matches would indicate this also won’t be a long match.
The FastLane crowd didn’t boo Goldberg winning the Universal title from Kevin Owens or the short main event. But the reaction was flat for the win as people were not nearly ready for it to end. It was nothing like the reaction when Goldberg beat Lesnar at Survivor Series. Here, a lot of people expected Goldberg to win and I think a lot of people expected a quick match.
Whether this is positioned last or not, this was told to us from the start as the main event on the show. Unless plans change, Lesnar will win the title. Goldberg’s contract expires with this show but they can always sign a new deal. But the reason Lesnar put Goldberg over so quickly at Survivor Series and the Rumble is that this would be the end result. Goldberg having two quick matches would indicate this also won’t be a long match.
The FastLane crowd didn’t boo Goldberg winning the Universal title from Kevin Owens or the short main event. But the reaction was flat for the win as people were not nearly ready for it to end. It was nothing like the reaction when Goldberg beat Lesnar at Survivor Series. Here, a lot of people expected Goldberg to win and I think a lot of people expected a quick match.
Shaq vs Show Off
The Big Show vs. Shaquille O’Neal match is officially off according to an interview with Show with ESPN. O’Neal, on his podcast, claimed different, saying he was back in discussions for doing the match. “I’ve talked to somebody high up in the organization and they, we’re back talking again. I just want the people to know it had nothing to do with me, despite what you hear.”
O’Neal blamed it originally falling apart on WWE officials, saying he was down for it. Show blamed it on O’Neal for being out of shape, claiming O’Neal weighs 440 to 450 pounds while he’s trained down to 379 pounds. The word internally was that the match would be off started going around about two or three weeks ago. If that bout is on, that would make it 14 or 15 matches, which would feel like too many.
The Big Show vs. Shaquille O’Neal match is officially off according to an interview with Show with ESPN. O’Neal, on his podcast, claimed different, saying he was back in discussions for doing the match. “I’ve talked to somebody high up in the organization and they, we’re back talking again. I just want the people to know it had nothing to do with me, despite what you hear.”
O’Neal blamed it originally falling apart on WWE officials, saying he was down for it. Show blamed it on O’Neal for being out of shape, claiming O’Neal weighs 440 to 450 pounds while he’s trained down to 379 pounds. The word internally was that the match would be off started going around about two or three weeks ago. If that bout is on, that would make it 14 or 15 matches, which would feel like too many.
WWE Fastlane Review
The final PPV stop was Fast Lane on 3/5 at the BMO Harris Center in Milwaukee, before 11,000 fans, about 2,000 shy of capacity. The show got strongly negative reviews. It wasn’t as if the wrestling was terrible, but only two matches were good. Most were just okay, there were matches added to the show at the last minute. There were matches shorter than expected. There were a lot of matches that could have been better. The main event went 21 seconds, which tells you just how worried they were about Goldberg wrestling since Owens is one of the best workers in the company.
Strowman also suffered his first major loss to Reigns. This got a lot of people mad, but it shouldn’t have. Reigns was being prepared for Undertaker at Mania while Strowman is in the Battle Royal.
The final PPV stop was Fast Lane on 3/5 at the BMO Harris Center in Milwaukee, before 11,000 fans, about 2,000 shy of capacity. The show got strongly negative reviews. It wasn’t as if the wrestling was terrible, but only two matches were good. Most were just okay, there were matches added to the show at the last minute. There were matches shorter than expected. There were a lot of matches that could have been better. The main event went 21 seconds, which tells you just how worried they were about Goldberg wrestling since Owens is one of the best workers in the company.
Strowman also suffered his first major loss to Reigns. This got a lot of people mad, but it shouldn’t have. Reigns was being prepared for Undertaker at Mania while Strowman is in the Battle Royal.
The Build to AJ vs Shane
After the Orton vs. Styles match on Smackdown, they taped an angle where Styles was all despondent over losing and started yelling at people at Gorilla. They showed Cole there as a producer along with Brian James, Michael Hayes, Adam Pearce, Ryan Ward and Shane McMahon. Styles started yelling about things and ended up in an argument with Shane to start to build their match. Brian James got in between them and called for security and Styles finally left but it was almost a pull-apart and meant to be the start of the story to build their match at WrestleMania.
It was interesting that when they started the show, the idea was that Shane thought that Styles should get the shot at Wyatt for the title, but it was Bryan who thought Orton deserved the shot and that’s what set up the match.
After the Orton vs. Styles match on Smackdown, they taped an angle where Styles was all despondent over losing and started yelling at people at Gorilla. They showed Cole there as a producer along with Brian James, Michael Hayes, Adam Pearce, Ryan Ward and Shane McMahon. Styles started yelling about things and ended up in an argument with Shane to start to build their match. Brian James got in between them and called for security and Styles finally left but it was almost a pull-apart and meant to be the start of the story to build their match at WrestleMania.
It was interesting that when they started the show, the idea was that Shane thought that Styles should get the shot at Wyatt for the title, but it was Bryan who thought Orton deserved the shot and that’s what set up the match.
Rick Rude WWE Hall of Fame
Rick Rude, one of pro wrestling’s best heels of the late 80s and early 90s, was announced as an inductee in the 2017 WWE Hall of Fame. Rude’s name had been reported going back a couple of months. Rude, who passed away on April 20, 1999. Rude was, with the possible exception of Jake Roberts, the biggest heel star to never get a major championship run with Hulk Hogan. His biggest claim to fame was his ring entrance, where he’d call the fans overweight sweathogs. The Roberts feud went on for months and was one of the greatest non-championship programs of its era.
Rude was one of the best heels in the business, a fantastic bump taker with great timing who almost always got over with the crowd.
Rick Rude, one of pro wrestling’s best heels of the late 80s and early 90s, was announced as an inductee in the 2017 WWE Hall of Fame. Rude’s name had been reported going back a couple of months. Rude, who passed away on April 20, 1999. Rude was, with the possible exception of Jake Roberts, the biggest heel star to never get a major championship run with Hulk Hogan. His biggest claim to fame was his ring entrance, where he’d call the fans overweight sweathogs. The Roberts feud went on for months and was one of the greatest non-championship programs of its era.
Rude was one of the best heels in the business, a fantastic bump taker with great timing who almost always got over with the crowd.
Rest in Peace "Outlaw" Ron Bass
Ronald Heard, best known as Outlaw Ron Bass, passed away on 3/7 at the age of 68. Reports were that Heard had suffered a burst appendix, but didn’t realize it at the time. By the time he went to get it checked out, a week later, so much poison had spread in his body that he wasn’t able to recover, and passed away from complications from surgery at Tampa General Hospital.
Bass was a thick and powerful man, probably 6-foot-2 and 280 pounds or more, physically resembling Bill Watts. He played mostly a heel cowboy with a black hat for most of his full-time career, which was from 1972 to 1989. His career as a full-time wrestler ended in March at the age of 40. He lived most of the rest of his life in Tampa. He worked from time-to-time after that, most recently on a 2013 show at a legends convention.
Ronald Heard, best known as Outlaw Ron Bass, passed away on 3/7 at the age of 68. Reports were that Heard had suffered a burst appendix, but didn’t realize it at the time. By the time he went to get it checked out, a week later, so much poison had spread in his body that he wasn’t able to recover, and passed away from complications from surgery at Tampa General Hospital.
Bass was a thick and powerful man, probably 6-foot-2 and 280 pounds or more, physically resembling Bill Watts. He played mostly a heel cowboy with a black hat for most of his full-time career, which was from 1972 to 1989. His career as a full-time wrestler ended in March at the age of 40. He lived most of the rest of his life in Tampa. He worked from time-to-time after that, most recently on a 2013 show at a legends convention.
WWE officially announced Beth Phoenix (Elizabeth Kocianski Copeland, 36), into the WWE Hall of Fame, which, since Edge was inducted, would make them the first husband-wife duo put in. The Hall of Fame has different quotas, including one woman each year. Her WWE run was from 2006 to 2012. She was the psycho stalker of Mickie James at first, but that run ended quickly when she suffered a broken jaw in a match with Victoria (Lisa Varon) and when she returned, she was sent back to developmental.
She returned full-time in the summer of 2007, with the Glamazon gimmick. She may have been best remembered for her powerhouse women/sort of wimpy guy comedy relationship with Santino Marella, called Glamarella. During her career she held the WWE women’s title three times and Divas title once, and was named Diva of the Year in WWE in 2008.
She returned full-time in the summer of 2007, with the Glamazon gimmick. She may have been best remembered for her powerhouse women/sort of wimpy guy comedy relationship with Santino Marella, called Glamarella. During her career she held the WWE women’s title three times and Divas title once, and was named Diva of the Year in WWE in 2008.
NXT News -
- Kairi Hojo of Stardom has agreed to a three-year contract. She’s a great wrestler who was one of the women on the Lucha Underground show. Nakamura has been pushing for her to come to NXT for several months, since before we originally reported her getting an offer. This would replenish NXT’s women’s division that has really been just Asuka.
- After the 4/5 NXT tapings in Orlando, they are coming back with another taping on 4/19. It was noted to me that 4/19 tickets are on sale and for the first time in a long time, they didn’t sell out even though they’ve been out for a week and it’s only 400 seats.
- Asuka will be taking some of Naomi’s bookings on the Smackdown side.
New Japan Pro Wrestling News -
- Tomoaki Honma suffered a career threatening injury on 3/3 on a show in Okinawa. Honma took a routine move, a draping DDT from Jado. Medical personnel came out and Honma was able to talk and move his head, but unable to move the rest of his body.
- He was carried out on a stretcher and rushed to Intensive Care in a local hospital. Honma was unable to move for some time. He was moved out of ICU on the afternoon of 3/6. Because of his situation, that any movement could affect his spinal column and make things worse, he’ll be staying at the hospital in Okinawa for a while as opposed to being moved to a hospital in Tokyo.
- Honma was suffering from swelling on his spinal cord, which limited his movement, as well as damage to the C-3 and C-4 vertebrae. He started to regain some mobility in his arms and legs. His hands were very weak but he was able to hold small objects and bend his elbow by 3/6, and move his legs a fair amount. But he was unable to sit up on his own in bed.
- Honma was saying that he would return to wrestle at some point, but it’s far too early to tell if that’s possible, although one New Japan official described it to us as that he “dodged a bullet.”
TNA News -
- TNA has lost both the Hardys and Drew Galloway days before the first set of TV tapings with the new creative team in charge.
- In addition, Mike Bennett and wife Maria Kanellis-Bennett have also left the company right before the current set of television tapings.
- The contract of Stephanie Bell (Jade) expired on 2/28 and TNA sources indicate she is also gone from the company.
- The key issues with the Hardys and Galloway appear to be TNA’s insistence on exclusive deals where they would be in charge of booking the talents outside dates and get a ten percent commission on those bookings.
- The Hardys had agreed to terms in December verbally. TNA sources have claimed that as well. Our sources close to the situation said that they were in talks and the Hardys were definitely leaning toward staying, but there was always the issue of exclusivity that was a hold-up in finalizing the deal.
- The big change is that Matt Hardy was pushing to be more hands on when it came to creative, not just for himself, but for the company as a whole. When Jeff Jarrett was brought in to run the wrestling end with the title Chief Creative Officer, he brought in his team of Scott D’Amore and Dutch Mantel (whose official title is head of creative) and added Jeremy Borash, who is close to the Hardys, as the new main creative staff
- The company is trying to take wrestlers who were under annual contracts and change them to per-show deals, as well as put in the contracts that TNA controls independent bookings and gets 10 percent of all independent money.
- The Hardys had been the highlight of most of the recent shows. We do know that when the new regime with Jarrett came in, they felt the company needed a change and wanted to do a more serious wrestling product.
- The feeling was that while everyone talked about the Hardys act and at WWE shows and independent shows they weren’t at, people chanted “delete” and “obsolete,” and other phrases from their vignettes, but that ratings for the most part had fallen over the recent few months. While there was no direct blaming of them that I heard for the drop, the idea was, and there is something to it, that if it was that hot in a business sense, the ratings would have at least stayed even.
- The first major segment that the company heavily promoted did more than 400,000 viewers, its best numbers in a long time, but since that point the segments have been on shows where the ratings are more down than up.
The New Regeme
- The company has inked a television deal with the U.K. version of Spike. The deal will start on 4/21. Terms of the deal, which weren’t announced, are key, since the company’s only substantial revenue stream is television rights fees.
- Scott Fishman, the Senior Vice President and Executive Producer at Spike TV in the U.S. was at the 3/5 tapings in Orlando. Those at Spike TV said that he was there on a purely social visit. The timing of this along with the U.K. Spike announcement is interesting, and they were pushing key talent to meet with him. A U.S. Spike deal at anywhere near the old terms is a potential game changer.
- Officially the company has dropped the TNA name for Impact Wrestling starting with the 3/9 show.
- Alberto El Patron debuted and beat Bobby Lashley in his first match on 3/2 (air date 3/9) with the promotion using a belt shot after a referee bump to win the TNA title. Alberto got a big star reaction, but he always gets a big star reaction outside of WWE.
- Jeff Jarrett’s big marketing idea is something along the lines of “Let’s Make TNA Great Again,” which did work in the Presidential election. The idea is to present the idea of the good old days of TNA when Jarrett was in charge and with the idea that things went off the rails, perhaps not using that term, since he was gone. But on television they are going to bury Dixie Carter’s regime (whether by name or not) and essentially say the product went to hell.
- Bruce Prichard is being brought back for a role where he is to appear at the upcoming tapings as one of those people, and this may be as early as the 3/9 show, being taped on 3/2. Prichard is booked for that show. Right now Prichard is only coming in as a television character, and will continue his podcasts. He essentially got the gig because of how strong his podcast numbers were and Jeff Jarrett hoping that his podcast listeners would start watching TNA.
- Matt Morgan is being brought in to be a top star once again. They are also bringing Konnan back, also to bury former TNA (the funny part of all this is originally the lawsuit filed for racism against TNA had to do with Jarrett, but after the settlement, Konnan and Jarrett have long since made up and done business together). The belief is they will bring back LAX, but not sure who will be in it, as Homicide is still around, but Hernandez got TNA in trouble when he came back and Hernandez and Konnan had heat when they were in Lucha Underground.
- While Jeff Jarrett is not at this point going to have a television role, Karen Jarrett is also expected to be back. I would suspect Don West may be on television as well, although he’s not committed long-term and has been working to sell merchandise they have in stock.
- Jeff Jarrett’s idea is to do four days of taping and shoot six episodes of Impact at each taping, so they aren’t as far out of date by the end of the tapings.
Ring of Honor News -
- Matt & Jeff Hardy showed up on the 3/4 ROH show at the Hammerstein Ballroom and announced that they had signed the most lucrative contract in company history, and Matt indicated the two were not going to the WWE.
- The Hardys immediately defeated The Young Bucks in an impromptu match to win the ROH tag team titles, setting up matches for both the 3/10 15th Anniversary PPV show with the Hardys defending in a three-way street fight against The Young Bucks and Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta, and a tag title match on 4/1 in Lakeland, FL with the Hardys vs. Young Bucks.
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By: Larry Causion Jr. CausionCreations.com
Posted: Friday, March 10, 2017
Credit: Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Posted: Friday, March 10, 2017
Credit: Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter