Week in Wrestling - Friday, March 17, 2017
United Kingdom Wrestling Competition Grows
After seemingly decades since having a regular weekly locally produced wrestling product on television, the U.K. scene has a number of different promotions and stations looking at having content.
The three groups involved at this point are the WWE, which confirmed taping of a weekly U.K.-based show, ITV/Anthem, which has plans to do the same that haven’t been announced but were likely to impetus for WWE speeding up its own plans, and the Five Star Group which is still in the game with the idea of doing weekly Saturday night prime time television for a 128 man tournament on TV-5, although nothing has been heard from that group since their first live special from Scotland.
After seemingly decades since having a regular weekly locally produced wrestling product on television, the U.K. scene has a number of different promotions and stations looking at having content.
The three groups involved at this point are the WWE, which confirmed taping of a weekly U.K.-based show, ITV/Anthem, which has plans to do the same that haven’t been announced but were likely to impetus for WWE speeding up its own plans, and the Five Star Group which is still in the game with the idea of doing weekly Saturday night prime time television for a 128 man tournament on TV-5, although nothing has been heard from that group since their first live special from Scotland.
WWE announced a show called “United Kingdom Championship Live,” which will actually be taped, with the tapings taking place on 5/6 and 5/7 at Epic Studios in Norwich, England, a 900-seat building. The timing of the shows work well for WWE, since they are touring the U.K. at the time, meaning the entire crew is there and will be doing television on 5/8 and 5/9 from the O2 Arena in London. So taping at that time saves a lot of money, particularly since the plans for the tapings are to use both the U.K. talent under contract like champion Tyler Bate, Trent Seven, Pete Dunne, Mark Andrews, Wolfgang, Tyson T-Bone, Sam Gradwell, James Drake, Joseph Conners, Dan Moloney and Saxon Huxley, as well as WWE cruiserweight talent like Rich Swann, Akira Tozawa, T.J. Perkins, Brian Kendrick and Tony Nese.
WWE was looking at local television for a weekly U.K. series as opposed to it being on the WWE Network, since the idea is to create stars off television.
WWE was looking at local television for a weekly U.K. series as opposed to it being on the WWE Network, since the idea is to create stars off television.
The World Association of Wresting is Pissed
The studio they are using in Norwich is the same location that World Association of Wrestling, the promotion headed by the Bevis family (the parents of Paige) run, and they were furious, feeling choosing an out of the way small city like Norwich for the tapings was a direct shot at them, particularly since they had the same studios booked a week later for their biggest show ever, featuring Alberto El Patron and Rey Mysterio.
The studio they are using in Norwich is the same location that World Association of Wrestling, the promotion headed by the Bevis family (the parents of Paige) run, and they were furious, feeling choosing an out of the way small city like Norwich for the tapings was a direct shot at them, particularly since they had the same studios booked a week later for their biggest show ever, featuring Alberto El Patron and Rey Mysterio.
TNA and ITV
Anthem the parent company of Impact, and ITV, have reached a deal. We don’t know of all the details at this point, the working plan is to start a weekly television show on ITV that will air at 5 p.m. Saturdays, starting in July.
The plan is to tape shows from 5/25 to 5/27 in the U.K., taping ten or 11 one hour shows. ITV has committed to a short run in that time slot, and would then make a decision on continuing based on ratings.
While the original idea was for an ITV-run promotion, the decision was made, similar to how wrestling worked on the network during its run years ago, that they would use an existing promotion as a content provider.
Anthem the parent company of Impact, and ITV, have reached a deal. We don’t know of all the details at this point, the working plan is to start a weekly television show on ITV that will air at 5 p.m. Saturdays, starting in July.
The plan is to tape shows from 5/25 to 5/27 in the U.K., taping ten or 11 one hour shows. ITV has committed to a short run in that time slot, and would then make a decision on continuing based on ratings.
While the original idea was for an ITV-run promotion, the decision was made, similar to how wrestling worked on the network during its run years ago, that they would use an existing promotion as a content provider.
The plans would be to use Impact talent along with outsiders, such as the talent that appeared on the first taping like Grado (who would likely start the next set of tapings as world champion, since he captured that belt at the first set of tapings) , Davey Boy Smith Jr., Dave Mastiff, El Ligero, Zack Gibson and Rampage Brown, as well as trying to work with the likes of Drew Galloway, Will Ospreay and Marty Scurll types. Some of those names have committed to the tapings while others have yet to do so.
The plan would be to start running house shows later in the year after the television gets the talent exposure, probably in the third quarter of the year. It is believed Anthem would be able to bill its arena shows at World of Sport Wrestling, which would also be the name of the television show.
The plan would be to start running house shows later in the year after the television gets the talent exposure, probably in the third quarter of the year. It is believed Anthem would be able to bill its arena shows at World of Sport Wrestling, which would also be the name of the television show.
Essentially Anthem would be getting network TV in a good time slot to publicize talent. Anthem will also have to fund this, which is a major financial risk. They would likely be using their same creative team, with possibly a few tweaks, for this product. The U.K. scene is hot, but Impact fell greatly in popularity there over the past few years.
Both ITV and Anthem are looking at Jim Ross as the lead announcer for the ITV show, as he did the pilot. Right now does not have a deal for the full-time show but they are in talks. The positive, is that a weekly show could easily do 30 times the audience that Raw and Smackdown does because of the difference between ITV and Sky. The ITV special in December did 1,250,000 viewers.
Both ITV and Anthem are looking at Jim Ross as the lead announcer for the ITV show, as he did the pilot. Right now does not have a deal for the full-time show but they are in talks. The positive, is that a weekly show could easily do 30 times the audience that Raw and Smackdown does because of the difference between ITV and Sky. The ITV special in December did 1,250,000 viewers.
Updated WrestleMania Card
There is not a lot new but from TV this week, it would appear that the only new match would be Jason Jordan & Chad Gable vs. The Usos, a likely pre-show Smackdown tag title match. The other thing confirmed is that Big Show vs. Shaquille O’Neal is off. It was very clearly a financial situation since negotiations had been continuing and they hadn’t agreed on a price. Other matches not officially announced were confirmed this week such as A.J. Styles vs. Shane McMahon, Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns, John Cena & Nikki Bella vs. The Miz & Maryse and Neville vs. Austin Aries for the cruiserweight title.
There is not a lot new but from TV this week, it would appear that the only new match would be Jason Jordan & Chad Gable vs. The Usos, a likely pre-show Smackdown tag title match. The other thing confirmed is that Big Show vs. Shaquille O’Neal is off. It was very clearly a financial situation since negotiations had been continuing and they hadn’t agreed on a price. Other matches not officially announced were confirmed this week such as A.J. Styles vs. Shane McMahon, Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns, John Cena & Nikki Bella vs. The Miz & Maryse and Neville vs. Austin Aries for the cruiserweight title.
The Raw tag team title match will be a three-way with Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson defending against both Enzo Amore & Big Cass and Cesaro & Sheamus. The Raw women’s title match at this point is Bayley vs. Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks. It’s changed many times. Angles were shot on Raw that could have added Nia Jax. The Smackdown women’s title match still doesn’t have all the participants named as it’s every available woman on the roster. It’s been made clear that will be Alexa Bliss defending, with Natalya, Becky Lynch, Mickie James and Carmella confirmed.
If Jason & Gable vs. Usos is added, that would make 14 matches for a show that is slated to start at about 5 p.m. local time in Orlando and end after 11 p.m. As of 3/14, there were 317 tickets left out of about 55,000 seats for sale at the Citrus Bowl on the primary market but thousands of tickets left on the secondary market.
If Jason & Gable vs. Usos is added, that would make 14 matches for a show that is slated to start at about 5 p.m. local time in Orlando and end after 11 p.m. As of 3/14, there were 317 tickets left out of about 55,000 seats for sale at the Citrus Bowl on the primary market but thousands of tickets left on the secondary market.
Wrestlemania 34 Plans
With Wrestlemania 33 pretty much set, the company is already planning for Mania 34 next year in New Orleans. The main event for April 8, 2018, which obviously could change, is set for Lesnar vs. Reigns for the Universal title.
That doesn’t necessarily mean Reigns is beating Undertaker or that Lesnar will have a full one year run as champion, although both could happen. I have no idea of what the finish will be of Undertaker vs. Reigns. The goal is very much to make Reigns the next Cena, which was the plan for Santa Clara two years ago, until they decided to delay it based on fan reaction. The plan is to once again build for a year and have the big coronation at WrestleMania. The idea between now and then is for Reigns to be the face, not just when he wins the title, but to fully replace John Cena as the lead babyface of the company.
With Wrestlemania 33 pretty much set, the company is already planning for Mania 34 next year in New Orleans. The main event for April 8, 2018, which obviously could change, is set for Lesnar vs. Reigns for the Universal title.
That doesn’t necessarily mean Reigns is beating Undertaker or that Lesnar will have a full one year run as champion, although both could happen. I have no idea of what the finish will be of Undertaker vs. Reigns. The goal is very much to make Reigns the next Cena, which was the plan for Santa Clara two years ago, until they decided to delay it based on fan reaction. The plan is to once again build for a year and have the big coronation at WrestleMania. The idea between now and then is for Reigns to be the face, not just when he wins the title, but to fully replace John Cena as the lead babyface of the company.
How they’ll make that work is uncertain. They may just go with the idea that the fans that attend TVs and PPVs that boo Reigns are a minority of their worldwide audience and ignore the obvious crowd reaction. Whether they’ll just say what they’ve been saying and screw it, that the masses like Reigns (he does move merchandise well) or they go with the idea of turning him into a cool heel to make him cheered, I don’t know.
The plan in place is that Lesnar will do more shows from this point forward, in what will be the final year of his current three-year WWE contract, especially since UFC is now clearly part of his past. He’s been on TV almost every week and done some house shows of late. The impression we’ve been given is he will never work a full schedule, but he will work more dates over the next year, as has been shown by his doing more house shows than ever before and working all but one Monday in the last two months before WrestleMania.
The plan in place is that Lesnar will do more shows from this point forward, in what will be the final year of his current three-year WWE contract, especially since UFC is now clearly part of his past. He’s been on TV almost every week and done some house shows of late. The impression we’ve been given is he will never work a full schedule, but he will work more dates over the next year, as has been shown by his doing more house shows than ever before and working all but one Monday in the last two months before WrestleMania.
Reigns vs. Undertaker
There are a dozen different ways you can tell that story that could involve either man winning depending on how you want to tell it. You could come out of the match with just the standard Reigns winning to start the build for the next Mania. He could stay face or go short-term heel. He could get screwed by a third party (Braun Strowman). He could lose clean and do a story of him starting from the bottom and climbing his way up with a new motive and purpose, etc.
The difficulty is keeping the two away from each other and keeping Reigns out of the title picture, and getting enough fresh opponents to keep Lesnar headlining much of the year. Lesnar doesn’t have to hold the title for the full year, but does have to be in the title picture most of the way. He can trade with someone if need be to keep things fresh. But this plan could change on a moment’s notice at any time over the next 13 months.
There are a dozen different ways you can tell that story that could involve either man winning depending on how you want to tell it. You could come out of the match with just the standard Reigns winning to start the build for the next Mania. He could stay face or go short-term heel. He could get screwed by a third party (Braun Strowman). He could lose clean and do a story of him starting from the bottom and climbing his way up with a new motive and purpose, etc.
The difficulty is keeping the two away from each other and keeping Reigns out of the title picture, and getting enough fresh opponents to keep Lesnar headlining much of the year. Lesnar doesn’t have to hold the title for the full year, but does have to be in the title picture most of the way. He can trade with someone if need be to keep things fresh. But this plan could change on a moment’s notice at any time over the next 13 months.
Nakamura Coming Up
Right now the plan is for Nakamura to debut on the main roster very shortly. I’m not sure what date it will be, but the likely scenario is he loses to Bobby Roode at Takeover and starts immediately after, with Raw after WrestleMania being a good bet. Clearly Nakamura would be better served on Smackdown, who desperately needs some added depth. Especially since RAW is loaded with underutilized talent.
There are others who may be brought up as well. Asuka is likely not one of them because the posters for the U.K. tour are built around Roode, Asuka, Kassius Ohno, Dillinger, Aleister Black and Sanity
Right now the plan is for Nakamura to debut on the main roster very shortly. I’m not sure what date it will be, but the likely scenario is he loses to Bobby Roode at Takeover and starts immediately after, with Raw after WrestleMania being a good bet. Clearly Nakamura would be better served on Smackdown, who desperately needs some added depth. Especially since RAW is loaded with underutilized talent.
There are others who may be brought up as well. Asuka is likely not one of them because the posters for the U.K. tour are built around Roode, Asuka, Kassius Ohno, Dillinger, Aleister Black and Sanity
Rusev will miss Wrestlemania
Rusev will be out of action for about two months due to surgery on his left shoulder which I believe was on 3/9, although it was confirmed it was this past week. That continues the shoulder epidemic in the company. He’s been needing the surgery for some time and I guess it couldn’t go any longer since the timing of it, where he’d be off the biggest payoff show of the year, couldn’t be worse. That’s why Show squashed him so badly at Fast Lane and why they broke he and Mahal up for no reason without doing a feud. That’s also why Lana did a match in Florida a week ago.
Its a real shame how poorly an excellent talent like him has been squandered and undervalued. He and Lana have main event written all over them.
Rusev will be out of action for about two months due to surgery on his left shoulder which I believe was on 3/9, although it was confirmed it was this past week. That continues the shoulder epidemic in the company. He’s been needing the surgery for some time and I guess it couldn’t go any longer since the timing of it, where he’d be off the biggest payoff show of the year, couldn’t be worse. That’s why Show squashed him so badly at Fast Lane and why they broke he and Mahal up for no reason without doing a feud. That’s also why Lana did a match in Florida a week ago.
Its a real shame how poorly an excellent talent like him has been squandered and undervalued. He and Lana have main event written all over them.
The Legacy Wing of the WWE Hall of Fame
The WWE is going to add more people to the legacy wing, which is the Josh Gibson wing of the Hall of Fame. Essentially it’s where they put people like Lou Thesz and Strangler Lewis in because it’s not marketable to induct them into the public version. If nothing else, it’s the answer for the idea that how can you have a pro wrestling Hall of Fame without Frank Gotch and Thesz. I’d suspect Jim Londos, since that’s the most glaring commission.
They started it last year and did the same quota they have for the real Hall, which will be tough with women in particular although for a few years they can do June Byers and Penny Banner and Clara Mortensen (the world champion before Mildred Burke) before it’s just names.
The WWE is going to add more people to the legacy wing, which is the Josh Gibson wing of the Hall of Fame. Essentially it’s where they put people like Lou Thesz and Strangler Lewis in because it’s not marketable to induct them into the public version. If nothing else, it’s the answer for the idea that how can you have a pro wrestling Hall of Fame without Frank Gotch and Thesz. I’d suspect Jim Londos, since that’s the most glaring commission.
They started it last year and did the same quota they have for the real Hall, which will be tough with women in particular although for a few years they can do June Byers and Penny Banner and Clara Mortensen (the world champion before Mildred Burke) before it’s just names.
New Japan Pro Wrestling News -
- AXS and New Japan have meetings this week on how to work together, which includes speeding up the turnaround time so the shows are more up-to-date, basically a lot of the stuff I wrote in the article a few months back. If the TV’s are more updated, you can sell the PPV’s on New Japan World as the destination in the soap opera similar to how WWE does it and how a territory in the past would do it.
- At this time there are no plans for any of this.
- Tickets for the 6/30 and 7/1 shows in Long Beach are expected to be put on sale relatively soon but no date is finalized for that right now.
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Ring of Honor News -
- Anthem, the parent company of Impact and The Fight Network, sent a cease and desist letter regarding the ownership of the Broken Hardy gimmick, to not only the Hardys and Ring of Honor, but also to the cable providers, DirecTV and Dish Network, threatening legal action if the gimmick was used on the 3/10 ROH 15th Anniversary PPV.
- This led to The Dish Network pulling the plug on airing the show.
- The Dish Network got cold feet and canceled airing the show. Evidently they felt the 2,000 or less orders they’d have gotten maximum for the show wasn’t worth risking legal action.
- The problem is the letters were sent the day of the show.
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TNA News -
- As far as the legal situation and who owns the Broken Hardy gimmick, that boils down to the Hardys contract. In a standard TNA contract it’s made very clear that any intellectual property introduced first on TNA television is completely owned by the company. Nevertheless, the legal letters sent to ROH, The Hardys, Dish, DirecTV and the cable companies quoted from the contract and it was enough for ROH to have them drop the gimmick for the most part.
- Anthem is asking for a negotiated percentage of the revenues generated from the gimmick going forward as a settlement to the case. It is hard to believe WWE would allow the Hardys to do the gimmick if they made that settlement.
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By: Larry Causion Jr. CausionCreations.com
Posted: Friday, March 17, 2017
Credit: Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Posted: Friday, March 17, 2017
Credit: Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter