Week in Wrestling #43
Wrestling News From the week of
June 11th - June 17th, 2016
June 11th - June 17th, 2016
2 PPV's a Month
Jerry Lawler was at an appearance this past weekend at a Superman convention in Metropolis, IL, and he reportedly said that WWE would be increasing to 20 PPVs per year.
According to reports from Prowrestling.net, Lawler said that starting in September there would be two PPVs each month, one Raw show and one Smackdown show, except in four months which WWE would present one major joint show. Three of those months would almost certainly be the months of Royal Rumble, WrestleMania and SummerSlam. It’s not certain which would be the fourth month as Survivor Series used to be big four because of its tenure, but really Elimination Chamber and Money in the Bank both surpassed it years ago.
At this point, no WWE sources have confirmed (or for that matter denied) the story but Lawler, as a Smackdown announcer would likely be among the first to be told because he books himself regularly on weekends.
The last thing they need when they are losing audience because of too much product on TV, with TV as their main revenue source, is to add key product that they aren’t getting paid extra for.
It also waters down the concept of “big show” as instead of a monthly big show, you have four a year. It is of more value to the network, but adding more weaker shows as opposed to stronger shows probably isn’t the answer at this point. The flip side of the argument is from a network standpoint, the network pretty much lives and dies based on live content and this adds one live show per month. It will likely continue the erosion of the audience.
Jerry Lawler was at an appearance this past weekend at a Superman convention in Metropolis, IL, and he reportedly said that WWE would be increasing to 20 PPVs per year.
According to reports from Prowrestling.net, Lawler said that starting in September there would be two PPVs each month, one Raw show and one Smackdown show, except in four months which WWE would present one major joint show. Three of those months would almost certainly be the months of Royal Rumble, WrestleMania and SummerSlam. It’s not certain which would be the fourth month as Survivor Series used to be big four because of its tenure, but really Elimination Chamber and Money in the Bank both surpassed it years ago.
At this point, no WWE sources have confirmed (or for that matter denied) the story but Lawler, as a Smackdown announcer would likely be among the first to be told because he books himself regularly on weekends.
The last thing they need when they are losing audience because of too much product on TV, with TV as their main revenue source, is to add key product that they aren’t getting paid extra for.
It also waters down the concept of “big show” as instead of a monthly big show, you have four a year. It is of more value to the network, but adding more weaker shows as opposed to stronger shows probably isn’t the answer at this point. The flip side of the argument is from a network standpoint, the network pretty much lives and dies based on live content and this adds one live show per month. It will likely continue the erosion of the audience.
Possible Network Price Increase
It will be interesting if this is used for a network price increase, because that is the one way this does make sense.
The network price is almost surely lower than they can charge for maximum revenue, but when they started they wanted to be near the Netflix price point because Netflix pretty much established the price point.
If you figure $2 million as the cost of a PPV (and you can definitely cut costs and do them more cheaply, especially if you cut back on the talent payoffs) and you are adding eight new ones, that’s $16 million per year. Since WWE makes about $8.50 per month out of the $9.99 in gross revenue, and there are other costs involved so $8 may be a better number to use, you need 2 million month orders, or 167,000 new orders that stay there every month to justify the increase in price.
However, if you raise the price $3 per month, and have 1.5 million subscribers, that’s an additional $54 million annually in network revenue which more than makes up for the added cost. Even raising the price $1 per month across the board would largely cover the added costs. You may lose some subscribers with a price increase, but if it’s pushed you’re getting twice as many big shows, and the big shows are the major network driver, I don’t know that the loss will be significant if any.
It will be interesting if this is used for a network price increase, because that is the one way this does make sense.
The network price is almost surely lower than they can charge for maximum revenue, but when they started they wanted to be near the Netflix price point because Netflix pretty much established the price point.
If you figure $2 million as the cost of a PPV (and you can definitely cut costs and do them more cheaply, especially if you cut back on the talent payoffs) and you are adding eight new ones, that’s $16 million per year. Since WWE makes about $8.50 per month out of the $9.99 in gross revenue, and there are other costs involved so $8 may be a better number to use, you need 2 million month orders, or 167,000 new orders that stay there every month to justify the increase in price.
However, if you raise the price $3 per month, and have 1.5 million subscribers, that’s an additional $54 million annually in network revenue which more than makes up for the added cost. Even raising the price $1 per month across the board would largely cover the added costs. You may lose some subscribers with a price increase, but if it’s pushed you’re getting twice as many big shows, and the big shows are the major network driver, I don’t know that the loss will be significant if any.
NXT Takeover: The End
There was nothing close to a bad match, but as a show, the lineup looked like a show of the year and it was nowhere close to the caliber of most of the good promotions in the business today’s normal peak shows.
Nobody knows where NXT is going because everything is dependent upon WWE plans that are likely not finalized. If they are, they are being kept so secretive that nobody knows. NXT has usually been easy to read regarding direction, and the show did set up some programs, such as American Alpha vs. The Authors of Pain, a Road Warrior copy tag team right down to bringing in Paul Ellering as their manager (and WWE just taking out a trademark for the term Legion of Doom, although whatever idea they had for it was dropped as they abandoned the request a few days later); a Shinsuke Nakamura quest for the NXT title and a future Asuka vs. Bayley match. But several of the key players are likely on their way up, and deservedly so.
The Authors of Pain are Gzim Selmani & Sunny Dhinsa. Selmani is a 6-foot-3, 265 pound former heavyweight MMA fighter who had a 4-2 record including a loss in his Bellator debut in 2014. Dhinsa was expected to represent Canada as a super heavyweight in freestyle wrestling at the next Olympics, when he decided in 2014 to instead sign with WWE.
The show drew the usual advanced sellout of 450 fans at the Full Sail University Gym. It was a hot crowd. There were positives and negatives to them. The much promoted debut of the former La Sombra, now Andrade Cien Almas, wasn’t a flop, but Tye Dillinger completely overshadows him. While physically talented, and with a good look, he really didn’t come across like a star past doing a cool double moonsault spot and a few acrobatic moves. Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder, The Revival, regained the tag team titles from American Alpha, Jason Jordan & Chad Gable, in the best match. The move makes sense since Jordan & Gable should be moving up, although it appears they’ll work with the Authors first, while the Revival are being groomed for Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano, who weren’t on the show.
Samoa Joe beat Finn Balor in a good main event, but for a lot of reasons cage matches are more a hindrance than a help. This match was good, but it never reached the level of their previous two big show matches, and the last one had its momentum killed by the constant stoppages and still was far more intense than this one.
There was nothing close to a bad match, but as a show, the lineup looked like a show of the year and it was nowhere close to the caliber of most of the good promotions in the business today’s normal peak shows.
Nobody knows where NXT is going because everything is dependent upon WWE plans that are likely not finalized. If they are, they are being kept so secretive that nobody knows. NXT has usually been easy to read regarding direction, and the show did set up some programs, such as American Alpha vs. The Authors of Pain, a Road Warrior copy tag team right down to bringing in Paul Ellering as their manager (and WWE just taking out a trademark for the term Legion of Doom, although whatever idea they had for it was dropped as they abandoned the request a few days later); a Shinsuke Nakamura quest for the NXT title and a future Asuka vs. Bayley match. But several of the key players are likely on their way up, and deservedly so.
The Authors of Pain are Gzim Selmani & Sunny Dhinsa. Selmani is a 6-foot-3, 265 pound former heavyweight MMA fighter who had a 4-2 record including a loss in his Bellator debut in 2014. Dhinsa was expected to represent Canada as a super heavyweight in freestyle wrestling at the next Olympics, when he decided in 2014 to instead sign with WWE.
The show drew the usual advanced sellout of 450 fans at the Full Sail University Gym. It was a hot crowd. There were positives and negatives to them. The much promoted debut of the former La Sombra, now Andrade Cien Almas, wasn’t a flop, but Tye Dillinger completely overshadows him. While physically talented, and with a good look, he really didn’t come across like a star past doing a cool double moonsault spot and a few acrobatic moves. Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder, The Revival, regained the tag team titles from American Alpha, Jason Jordan & Chad Gable, in the best match. The move makes sense since Jordan & Gable should be moving up, although it appears they’ll work with the Authors first, while the Revival are being groomed for Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano, who weren’t on the show.
Samoa Joe beat Finn Balor in a good main event, but for a lot of reasons cage matches are more a hindrance than a help. This match was good, but it never reached the level of their previous two big show matches, and the last one had its momentum killed by the constant stoppages and still was far more intense than this one.
Money in the Bank Preview
There could be a lot of newsworthy events either on this show or in the next few weeks since The Wyatt Family, Neville and Randy Orton are all scheduled to return over the next several weeks. Finn Balor has been talked about as well, but that could also be delayed for the draft, when it’s expected that a lot of the NXT stars will start appearing.
The ticket sales have picked up in the last week and they are expecting a sellout with a 13,000-seat configuration at the new T Mobile Arena, the same site as UFC 200 and 202.
It appears they are going to give the big three matches, which on paper should be tremendous, a lot of time, since they’ve moved two matches to the pre-show. In addition, WWE officials have contacted PPV providers regarding not necessarily ending at 11 p.m. on shows going forward.
Right now the pre-show will have yet another Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin match, plus Sheamus vs. Apollo Crews.
The PPV is headlined by Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins for the WWE title with the story that Rollins never lost the title in the ring. They are pushing the A.J. Styles vs. John Cena match as a dream match 15 years in the making.
Other matches announced are the Money in the Bank ladder match with Dean Ambrose, Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho, Cesaro, Sami Zayn and Alberto Del Rio, which also should be great. Also on the show is a tag team title four-way with The New Day vs. Vaudevillains vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. Enzo Amore & Big Cass for the tag team titles; Rusev vs. Titus O’Neil for the U.S. title and Charlotte & Dana Brooke vs. Natalya & Becky Lynch.
If there is extra time when the show is timed out, the most likely addition would be Goldust & R-Truth vs. Tyler Breeze & Fandango, but this past week they haven’t done anything with those four.
There could be a lot of newsworthy events either on this show or in the next few weeks since The Wyatt Family, Neville and Randy Orton are all scheduled to return over the next several weeks. Finn Balor has been talked about as well, but that could also be delayed for the draft, when it’s expected that a lot of the NXT stars will start appearing.
The ticket sales have picked up in the last week and they are expecting a sellout with a 13,000-seat configuration at the new T Mobile Arena, the same site as UFC 200 and 202.
It appears they are going to give the big three matches, which on paper should be tremendous, a lot of time, since they’ve moved two matches to the pre-show. In addition, WWE officials have contacted PPV providers regarding not necessarily ending at 11 p.m. on shows going forward.
Right now the pre-show will have yet another Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin match, plus Sheamus vs. Apollo Crews.
The PPV is headlined by Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins for the WWE title with the story that Rollins never lost the title in the ring. They are pushing the A.J. Styles vs. John Cena match as a dream match 15 years in the making.
Other matches announced are the Money in the Bank ladder match with Dean Ambrose, Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho, Cesaro, Sami Zayn and Alberto Del Rio, which also should be great. Also on the show is a tag team title four-way with The New Day vs. Vaudevillains vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. Enzo Amore & Big Cass for the tag team titles; Rusev vs. Titus O’Neil for the U.S. title and Charlotte & Dana Brooke vs. Natalya & Becky Lynch.
If there is extra time when the show is timed out, the most likely addition would be Goldust & R-Truth vs. Tyler Breeze & Fandango, but this past week they haven’t done anything with those four.
32 participants in its Cruiserweight Classic
As expected, Kota Ibushi is the top star and the ringer in the tournament. This has been expected ever since Ibushi quit both DDT and New Japan and appeared in the front row at the Takeover special in Dallas. Ibushi was probably one of the top five wrestlers in the business inside the ring when he went down last year due to neck problems, including having the 2015 match of the year with Shinsuke Nakamura at that year’s Tokyo Dome show. Ibushi had, even before showing up at the WWE show, talked about being interested. The expectation is Ibushi would be booked strong in the tournament and then get an offer since WWE has been aggressive at signing new talent with the split rosters and needing to replenish NXT.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is a wrestler named Gran Metalik, who is Mascara Dorada, one of CMLL’s top stars. The fact that he’s not using the Mascara Dorada name says he’s coming in without CMLL’s blessing. CMLL talent works indie dates on their own all the time but it’s hard to say what the company’s position would be. One would think Dorada would be someone WWE would want, although his style is very Lucha oriented and WWE doesn’t do that. Another surprise is Akira Tozawa, one of Dragon Gate’s top stars. What’s notable is that Dragon Gate would be cooperating with both this tournament and its rival tournament, the Super J Cup, which New Japan is producing and debuting on 7/20 at Korakuen Hall.
The tournament will start with a TV taping on 6/23 at Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL. It will continue with shows on 7/14 and 8/26, and the finals will air live on the WWE Network on 9/14. The matches will air on the WWE Network as part of ten weekly television shows airing at 9 p.m. on Wednesday nights, immediately after NXT.
The participants come from all over the world, many almost unknowns. Of those, the fingerprints of Super Crazy are on a lot of those from Mexico and South America as they are people he’s come across. Others, including Clement Petout and Fabian Aichner, from France and Italy, likely got in due to having very good physiques.
There were some surprise veterans on the list, most notably former WWE wrestlers Tajiri and Brian Kendrick, to go along with top names on the indie scene. Another clear connection is the Evolve group which has used Zack Sabre Jr., one of the current hottest indie stars, Cedric Alexander, who just left ROH, Tony Nese, T.J. Perkins and Drew Gulak.
Other U.K. reps include Noam Dar (with the idea of pushing him as a potential Israeli star), while the rest of Europe is represented by Da Mack (Germany) and Jack Gallagher (U.K.). Other international wrestlers include Zumbi (a Brazilian wrestler who Super Crazy had a hand in bringing to Mexico and had been working for Elite Lucha Libre who has a good physique), Ho Ho Lin (a small wrestler from Hong Kong where the standard of the local wrestling is very primitive), Raul Mendoza (a Mexican wrestler who uses the name Jinzo with the DTU group, who started at the age of 13 or 14, he was the wrestler hinted at in last week’s issue), Alejandro Saez (known as XL in Chile, he’s worked for NOAH and has a connection with Super Crazy), Damien Slater (a 29-year-old fairly muscular wrestler from Adelaide, Australia who had a WWE tryout in 2014 and has worked in the U.S. and Japan) and Jason Lee (a 23-year-old from Hong Kong who is Lin’s rival).
The original idea of the tournament was for it to be a showcase for La Sombra when he was signed, but they decided to debut him prior to the tournament and keep him out of it. Those under NXT deals who are in the tournament include Rich Swann (who hasn’t wrestled since March due to a shoulder injury), Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. Swann has been on NXT, but not for a while and is based at the Performance Center. Gargano & Ciampa are regulars on NXT television, but are not training at the Performance Center and still regularly work independent shows. It’s a weird deal because everyone at the Performance Center is taught to work a certain way, and then they see Gargano & Ciampa, who are on the NXT shows, with the idea that they aren’t taught to work and thus don’t have the same limitations and are allowed to stand out, even though they aren’t even doing all the drills. At the same time, the others are on full salary while Gargano & Ciampa were on a show-by-show basis.
Filling out the field are North American independent wrestlers include Harv & Gurv Sihra, who are from British Columbia and have worked Western Canadian indies for years. They are called The Bollywood Boyz and are the GFW (Jeff Jarrett’s group) tag team champions. Others are Anthony Bennett, a New Jersey independent wrestler; Tyson Dux, a veteran Ontario wrestler who has worked for TNA in the past; Lince Dorado, a masked Florida based Lucha style wrestler who is from Puerto Rico, but trained in Mexico and made a U.S. name in CHIKARA; Sean Maluta, the nephew of Afa of the Wild Samoans which means he’s cousins with Roman Reigns and the Usos; Kenneth Johnson, a Detroit-based independent wrestler; and Arya Daivari from Minnesota, who is the younger brother of the more famous Shawn Daivari, who has worked for WWE, TNA and Lucha Underground.
As expected, Kota Ibushi is the top star and the ringer in the tournament. This has been expected ever since Ibushi quit both DDT and New Japan and appeared in the front row at the Takeover special in Dallas. Ibushi was probably one of the top five wrestlers in the business inside the ring when he went down last year due to neck problems, including having the 2015 match of the year with Shinsuke Nakamura at that year’s Tokyo Dome show. Ibushi had, even before showing up at the WWE show, talked about being interested. The expectation is Ibushi would be booked strong in the tournament and then get an offer since WWE has been aggressive at signing new talent with the split rosters and needing to replenish NXT.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is a wrestler named Gran Metalik, who is Mascara Dorada, one of CMLL’s top stars. The fact that he’s not using the Mascara Dorada name says he’s coming in without CMLL’s blessing. CMLL talent works indie dates on their own all the time but it’s hard to say what the company’s position would be. One would think Dorada would be someone WWE would want, although his style is very Lucha oriented and WWE doesn’t do that. Another surprise is Akira Tozawa, one of Dragon Gate’s top stars. What’s notable is that Dragon Gate would be cooperating with both this tournament and its rival tournament, the Super J Cup, which New Japan is producing and debuting on 7/20 at Korakuen Hall.
The tournament will start with a TV taping on 6/23 at Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL. It will continue with shows on 7/14 and 8/26, and the finals will air live on the WWE Network on 9/14. The matches will air on the WWE Network as part of ten weekly television shows airing at 9 p.m. on Wednesday nights, immediately after NXT.
The participants come from all over the world, many almost unknowns. Of those, the fingerprints of Super Crazy are on a lot of those from Mexico and South America as they are people he’s come across. Others, including Clement Petout and Fabian Aichner, from France and Italy, likely got in due to having very good physiques.
There were some surprise veterans on the list, most notably former WWE wrestlers Tajiri and Brian Kendrick, to go along with top names on the indie scene. Another clear connection is the Evolve group which has used Zack Sabre Jr., one of the current hottest indie stars, Cedric Alexander, who just left ROH, Tony Nese, T.J. Perkins and Drew Gulak.
Other U.K. reps include Noam Dar (with the idea of pushing him as a potential Israeli star), while the rest of Europe is represented by Da Mack (Germany) and Jack Gallagher (U.K.). Other international wrestlers include Zumbi (a Brazilian wrestler who Super Crazy had a hand in bringing to Mexico and had been working for Elite Lucha Libre who has a good physique), Ho Ho Lin (a small wrestler from Hong Kong where the standard of the local wrestling is very primitive), Raul Mendoza (a Mexican wrestler who uses the name Jinzo with the DTU group, who started at the age of 13 or 14, he was the wrestler hinted at in last week’s issue), Alejandro Saez (known as XL in Chile, he’s worked for NOAH and has a connection with Super Crazy), Damien Slater (a 29-year-old fairly muscular wrestler from Adelaide, Australia who had a WWE tryout in 2014 and has worked in the U.S. and Japan) and Jason Lee (a 23-year-old from Hong Kong who is Lin’s rival).
The original idea of the tournament was for it to be a showcase for La Sombra when he was signed, but they decided to debut him prior to the tournament and keep him out of it. Those under NXT deals who are in the tournament include Rich Swann (who hasn’t wrestled since March due to a shoulder injury), Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. Swann has been on NXT, but not for a while and is based at the Performance Center. Gargano & Ciampa are regulars on NXT television, but are not training at the Performance Center and still regularly work independent shows. It’s a weird deal because everyone at the Performance Center is taught to work a certain way, and then they see Gargano & Ciampa, who are on the NXT shows, with the idea that they aren’t taught to work and thus don’t have the same limitations and are allowed to stand out, even though they aren’t even doing all the drills. At the same time, the others are on full salary while Gargano & Ciampa were on a show-by-show basis.
Filling out the field are North American independent wrestlers include Harv & Gurv Sihra, who are from British Columbia and have worked Western Canadian indies for years. They are called The Bollywood Boyz and are the GFW (Jeff Jarrett’s group) tag team champions. Others are Anthony Bennett, a New Jersey independent wrestler; Tyson Dux, a veteran Ontario wrestler who has worked for TNA in the past; Lince Dorado, a masked Florida based Lucha style wrestler who is from Puerto Rico, but trained in Mexico and made a U.S. name in CHIKARA; Sean Maluta, the nephew of Afa of the Wild Samoans which means he’s cousins with Roman Reigns and the Usos; Kenneth Johnson, a Detroit-based independent wrestler; and Arya Daivari from Minnesota, who is the younger brother of the more famous Shawn Daivari, who has worked for WWE, TNA and Lucha Underground.
Raw Ratings
Raw broke record lows on 6/13, but you can really throw it out given it was going against what could have been the final game of the NBA Championship playoffs.
Raw did a 2.03 rating and 2,962,000 viewers (1.55 viewers per home). The bad news is fewer homes than ever by percentage were watching wrestling on Monday night dating back decades, including during football season. The good news is that in the homes where maybe one person was a fan, they were more likely watching basketball so the wrestling per home average was at a very high level.
The Warriors -Cavs game five, with the Warriors having a shot at clinching (although they didn’t), did a 14.2 rating and 20,528,000 viewers. It was the most watched game of the season, but the exact same number as game five last year (which didn’t go against Raw). The 36.9 rating in the San Francisco Bay Area made it the second highest rated game in history in that market.
For Raw, the numbers broke the non-football season low set on 4/25 of a 2.19 rating and 3,116,000 viewers. The only non-holiday show since 1997 to do fewer viewers was the show on November 23, 2015, which did 2,950,000 viewers, but that rating was a 2.15. There was never a lower rated non-holiday show in the history of the show that didn’t go up against wrestling competition splitting the audience. In fact, even against Nitro, only three shows did worse, a September 25, 1995 show that did a 1.9, an October 14, 1996 show that did a 1.78 (against Nitro, baseball playoffs and an NFL game which did an 18.9 rating) and a March 3, 1997, which did a 1.91 rating.
Raw broke record lows on 6/13, but you can really throw it out given it was going against what could have been the final game of the NBA Championship playoffs.
Raw did a 2.03 rating and 2,962,000 viewers (1.55 viewers per home). The bad news is fewer homes than ever by percentage were watching wrestling on Monday night dating back decades, including during football season. The good news is that in the homes where maybe one person was a fan, they were more likely watching basketball so the wrestling per home average was at a very high level.
The Warriors -Cavs game five, with the Warriors having a shot at clinching (although they didn’t), did a 14.2 rating and 20,528,000 viewers. It was the most watched game of the season, but the exact same number as game five last year (which didn’t go against Raw). The 36.9 rating in the San Francisco Bay Area made it the second highest rated game in history in that market.
For Raw, the numbers broke the non-football season low set on 4/25 of a 2.19 rating and 3,116,000 viewers. The only non-holiday show since 1997 to do fewer viewers was the show on November 23, 2015, which did 2,950,000 viewers, but that rating was a 2.15. There was never a lower rated non-holiday show in the history of the show that didn’t go up against wrestling competition splitting the audience. In fact, even against Nitro, only three shows did worse, a September 25, 1995 show that did a 1.9, an October 14, 1996 show that did a 1.78 (against Nitro, baseball playoffs and an NFL game which did an 18.9 rating) and a March 3, 1997, which did a 1.91 rating.
Bobby Roode Debuts in NXT
Bobby Roode debuted on 6/11 for NXT on the second day of the Download Music Festival in Derby, England, beating Angelo Dawkins. I believe he used the spinebuster to win. That’s what he was using as his finisher on the other shows. Roode was announced for the tour weeks ago for like two hours. It was one of those miscommunications where they announced him because the left hand didn’t know the right hand wanted it to be a surprise. So then they pulled him from advertising very quickly. At the festival, HHH was given the Golden Gods Spirit of Lemmy Award since eh was friends with Lemmy, who did his entrance music.
Bobby Roode debuted on 6/11 for NXT on the second day of the Download Music Festival in Derby, England, beating Angelo Dawkins. I believe he used the spinebuster to win. That’s what he was using as his finisher on the other shows. Roode was announced for the tour weeks ago for like two hours. It was one of those miscommunications where they announced him because the left hand didn’t know the right hand wanted it to be a surprise. So then they pulled him from advertising very quickly. At the festival, HHH was given the Golden Gods Spirit of Lemmy Award since eh was friends with Lemmy, who did his entrance music.
Finn Balor set to Debut
Although it’s been teased forever, the Balor debut is set to be imminent. The Wyatts debut was held off until they were done promoting the PPV show since they weren’t booked on the show. An interesting note on Balor is that he left New Japan for WWE in 2014 and Styles was his replacement as head of the Bullet Club. Styles did his whole New Japan stint, left, and came to WWE, while Balor was still not on the main roster spending two years in NXT.
Although it’s been teased forever, the Balor debut is set to be imminent. The Wyatts debut was held off until they were done promoting the PPV show since they weren’t booked on the show. An interesting note on Balor is that he left New Japan for WWE in 2014 and Styles was his replacement as head of the Bullet Club. Styles did his whole New Japan stint, left, and came to WWE, while Balor was still not on the main roster spending two years in NXT.
TNA Struggles get Publicized More
With four days of television scheduled in Orlando and the company owing money in different places, Dean Broadhead, the Chief Financial and Chief Operating Officer at TNA spent all day on 6/9 and 6/10 essentially saving the company.
Exactly what happened isn’t clear, but they needed money and to close deals immediately or the tapings wouldn’t have happened. Aroluxe, which controlled the equipment being used, demanded at least some of the money owed or they wouldn’t do the production and there would be no time to get new equipment and a new company.
Billy Corgan, who was starting his role as a heel authority figure on television, put money into the promotion. While we can’t outright say Corgan’s money saved the promotion, these things seem to have happened at the same time. Corgan is apparently a legitimate minority owner of the company, to somewhat mirror a television role. Whether he is putting enough in that it’s smooth sailing is unclear, or whether this was simply a stopgap infusion of cash needed to get past this taping.
Corgan is apparently turning into a heel authority figure, William Corgan, and it appears Dixie Carter will feud with both he and Maria Kanellis as a major program going forward.
With the shows this week, which ended on 6/15, TNA will have television taped through 6/29, meaning they will have to start taping again on 7/5. As has been the case in the past, talent has been told of a July taping, but no dates are on the schedule.
On Facebook, Broadhead wrote: “On Thursday and Friday, I logged over 80 business calls on my cell. Attorneys, accountants, vendors, bankers and employees. Maybe time to retire. But maybe not until everything is in its right place. To answer your why question, I had (a) 12 hour time frame to secure interim financing so that production trucks could roll. Lawyers, bankers, accounts and owners. Some of them were out of the country, some of the West and East coast, so that is the reason for all the calls.”
It was strange that he would put that up on his social media account, essentially making it public how close TNA came to having to cancel its PPV and television tapings. If talent and employees weren’t concerned before, this was the confirmation of just how close the company was to being done.
There is also the thought that TNA wanted out that Corgan had invested as a way to attract other money. However, that doesn’t look to be the case since Broadhead a few days later deleted his post. But that was after his comments led to stories everywhere of how close TNA came to not being able to tape.
At the same time, Rick Schoenen of the Alliance Media Group, which promoted TNA’s January television tapings, noted that he has yet to be paid by TNA and that local media and vendors were after him for money.
“I don’t know who else to contact or reach out to. Dean (Broadhead) will not communicate with me and I am being held responsible for this mess.”
After he went public, TNA did contact him.
TNA has had a history of paying some people and not others, often months late and in time people felt they were having their intelligence insulted by the obviously faulty excuses being used for checks not arriving.
At the same time, TNA is in negotiations for big money deals. One wrestler whose contract is coming due was offered a six-figure deal by TNA to come in and be a top star. The person is expected to take a lower WWE offer. New TNA champion Bobby Lashley was signed to a new deal this week, and it was expected that the other key deals, Drew Galloway, Matt & Jeff Hardy, were going to be negotiated at TV this week. The deals TNA is looking for would be where TNA would have exclusivity and book the talent to independent promoters. Galloway works a heavy independent schedule, while the Hardys make huge money on independent shows not just for wrestling but for merchandise, autographs and photos, so giving up those rights would be very significant money. Lashley is still under contract to Bellator so his deal couldn’t be exclusive, and he’s been working on a regular basis with Elite Lucha Libre in Mexico.
With four days of television scheduled in Orlando and the company owing money in different places, Dean Broadhead, the Chief Financial and Chief Operating Officer at TNA spent all day on 6/9 and 6/10 essentially saving the company.
Exactly what happened isn’t clear, but they needed money and to close deals immediately or the tapings wouldn’t have happened. Aroluxe, which controlled the equipment being used, demanded at least some of the money owed or they wouldn’t do the production and there would be no time to get new equipment and a new company.
Billy Corgan, who was starting his role as a heel authority figure on television, put money into the promotion. While we can’t outright say Corgan’s money saved the promotion, these things seem to have happened at the same time. Corgan is apparently a legitimate minority owner of the company, to somewhat mirror a television role. Whether he is putting enough in that it’s smooth sailing is unclear, or whether this was simply a stopgap infusion of cash needed to get past this taping.
Corgan is apparently turning into a heel authority figure, William Corgan, and it appears Dixie Carter will feud with both he and Maria Kanellis as a major program going forward.
With the shows this week, which ended on 6/15, TNA will have television taped through 6/29, meaning they will have to start taping again on 7/5. As has been the case in the past, talent has been told of a July taping, but no dates are on the schedule.
On Facebook, Broadhead wrote: “On Thursday and Friday, I logged over 80 business calls on my cell. Attorneys, accountants, vendors, bankers and employees. Maybe time to retire. But maybe not until everything is in its right place. To answer your why question, I had (a) 12 hour time frame to secure interim financing so that production trucks could roll. Lawyers, bankers, accounts and owners. Some of them were out of the country, some of the West and East coast, so that is the reason for all the calls.”
It was strange that he would put that up on his social media account, essentially making it public how close TNA came to having to cancel its PPV and television tapings. If talent and employees weren’t concerned before, this was the confirmation of just how close the company was to being done.
There is also the thought that TNA wanted out that Corgan had invested as a way to attract other money. However, that doesn’t look to be the case since Broadhead a few days later deleted his post. But that was after his comments led to stories everywhere of how close TNA came to not being able to tape.
At the same time, Rick Schoenen of the Alliance Media Group, which promoted TNA’s January television tapings, noted that he has yet to be paid by TNA and that local media and vendors were after him for money.
“I don’t know who else to contact or reach out to. Dean (Broadhead) will not communicate with me and I am being held responsible for this mess.”
After he went public, TNA did contact him.
TNA has had a history of paying some people and not others, often months late and in time people felt they were having their intelligence insulted by the obviously faulty excuses being used for checks not arriving.
At the same time, TNA is in negotiations for big money deals. One wrestler whose contract is coming due was offered a six-figure deal by TNA to come in and be a top star. The person is expected to take a lower WWE offer. New TNA champion Bobby Lashley was signed to a new deal this week, and it was expected that the other key deals, Drew Galloway, Matt & Jeff Hardy, were going to be negotiated at TV this week. The deals TNA is looking for would be where TNA would have exclusivity and book the talent to independent promoters. Galloway works a heavy independent schedule, while the Hardys make huge money on independent shows not just for wrestling but for merchandise, autographs and photos, so giving up those rights would be very significant money. Lashley is still under contract to Bellator so his deal couldn’t be exclusive, and he’s been working on a regular basis with Elite Lucha Libre in Mexico.
Thunderstorm stops POP TV from airing Impact
TNA was scheduled for what was billed as a live Impact show, called “Gold Rush,” coming off the Slammiversary PPV. The show was actually taped, but it was sent as is with very little time for editing, to Pop TV. Because of a thunderstorm in Atlanta, where the Pop transmitters are, there was an issue that didn’t allow the show to air. The show did air in its normal time slot in Canada. The issues in the U.S. weren’t fixed until about 10:50 p.m., or nearly two hours after the show was to start. Pop kept showing an endless loop of commercials and some brief wrestling clips over-and-over. When the show finally aired, it aired almost commercial free. Pop did a make good and gave TNA a second airing on 6/15 at 9 p.m.
TNA was scheduled for what was billed as a live Impact show, called “Gold Rush,” coming off the Slammiversary PPV. The show was actually taped, but it was sent as is with very little time for editing, to Pop TV. Because of a thunderstorm in Atlanta, where the Pop transmitters are, there was an issue that didn’t allow the show to air. The show did air in its normal time slot in Canada. The issues in the U.S. weren’t fixed until about 10:50 p.m., or nearly two hours after the show was to start. Pop kept showing an endless loop of commercials and some brief wrestling clips over-and-over. When the show finally aired, it aired almost commercial free. Pop did a make good and gave TNA a second airing on 6/15 at 9 p.m.
Angle vs Sabre Jr.
Kurt Angle worked the 6/12 Revolution Pro in London before 1,200 fans against Zack Sabre Jr. Angle got a big reaction. The match went 9:03 and was super-heated while it lasted and the crowd loved everything. Angle physically looks in great shape for his age, but his right knee was clearly bothering him and it was one of those matches where the crowd was just so hot for the idea of the match. Everything looked good and was well timed. It was mostly Sabre doing his British style spots and Angle doing his trademark spots, built around the Olympic slam, German suplex series and the ankle lock, which he won with. They played the WWE music for Angle and everyone chanted “You suck” at him but in a good way. Sabre had gotten out of a few ankle lock attempts earlier. It was a good match, but if you were looking at match of the year and had those kind of expectations, it wasn’t there due to Angle’s knee injury. Angle then said he was amazed at the level of the talent in Revolution Pro and put over Sabre, saying if he’s not a big star in five years that something is wrong with this world. He apologized for his performance saying he had a knee injury and couldn’t show his best, but vowed to come back when he was healthy.
Kurt Angle worked the 6/12 Revolution Pro in London before 1,200 fans against Zack Sabre Jr. Angle got a big reaction. The match went 9:03 and was super-heated while it lasted and the crowd loved everything. Angle physically looks in great shape for his age, but his right knee was clearly bothering him and it was one of those matches where the crowd was just so hot for the idea of the match. Everything looked good and was well timed. It was mostly Sabre doing his British style spots and Angle doing his trademark spots, built around the Olympic slam, German suplex series and the ankle lock, which he won with. They played the WWE music for Angle and everyone chanted “You suck” at him but in a good way. Sabre had gotten out of a few ankle lock attempts earlier. It was a good match, but if you were looking at match of the year and had those kind of expectations, it wasn’t there due to Angle’s knee injury. Angle then said he was amazed at the level of the talent in Revolution Pro and put over Sabre, saying if he’s not a big star in five years that something is wrong with this world. He apologized for his performance saying he had a knee injury and couldn’t show his best, but vowed to come back when he was healthy.
ROH Contract Updates
While it’s pretty much now expected that Moose is gone, although his contract doesn’t expire until Sunday and in theory he shouldn’t even be talked to by other promotions until that time (the belief is he’s scheduled for WWE medicals), there is no update on Roderick Strong. Strong did get an offer from Evolve, which I’d presume would be part of the anti-WWE leaning brigade with EC 3, Drew Galloway, Cody Rhodes and Chris Hero.
While it’s pretty much now expected that Moose is gone, although his contract doesn’t expire until Sunday and in theory he shouldn’t even be talked to by other promotions until that time (the belief is he’s scheduled for WWE medicals), there is no update on Roderick Strong. Strong did get an offer from Evolve, which I’d presume would be part of the anti-WWE leaning brigade with EC 3, Drew Galloway, Cody Rhodes and Chris Hero.