Yes I read they've been pushing Davey as an inductee for years. I'm assuming Harry will induct him or maybe Bret will.
The second episode of RA was Spoiler
Good, I thought. Not sure if I believe they were going to cut John but that could have very well been the case. This episode puts into context how big a star John Cena became and I'd be interested to see how PPV buys, merch, attendances etc stack up against the Rock & Wrestling era, Attitude era etc. I also think the change back to PG was due to John's success too since he brought more families to the shows. I don't think it's an overestimation to say that the current TV deals and sponsors WWE have now are very much due to the success of John Cena.
Harry and maybe Diana will accept the award so Bret will probably induct him.
And yes it's 100% true Cena was about to be cut until Paul Heyman talked Vince into giving him a little longer and Stephanie loved the skit where he was Vanilla Ice for Halloween on Smackdown. It sounds crazy but if you watch early Cena when he was on Velocity he wasn't standing out. And at that time they were heavily cutting the budget so everyone who wasn't vital was in danger. So in an alternate universe without Cena they'd have been in an even worse business state, because Batista and Orton weren't going to get as many kids buying merch. So Heyman may have saved the WWE there.
Thanks that's surprising that he was on the cusp of being cut. I thought maybe that added it to the story to make it more dramatic. You'd think with his look he was on Vince's list to be a future star. If you think about, Stone Cold didn't really get over at first as the Ring Master, same with Rock when he was Rocky Maivia so in a way they need to have to change up their gimmicks to be truer to their real personality to get over and connect with the crowds.
Interesting what if scenario if they did let John go. Like you say I don't think they'd be anywhere near the position they are now. I don't know who would be the top guy that had his same level of appeal. Maybe they'd have looked to Ring of Honor and the independent circuit earlier for a future star. Maybe they'd have relied more on established names they had but long term that strategy would mean there was no new star coming through. So yes John Cena & Paul E for spotting that he had something are very instrumental to the current success of WWE financially.
They thought Randy Orton was going to turn babyface and be the big star. But he's only good as a heel.
I'd say maybe Cena would have gone to TNA and made them a serious #2 promotion. But it's TNA and they would have screwed up with John Cena because Dixie and Russo are hopeless dolts. They'd turn Cena back into The Prototype and he'd have done jobs for Jarrett and his stupid guitar.
Bandit wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2020 5:02 am
They thought Randy Orton was going to turn babyface and be the big star. But he's only good as a heel.
I'd say maybe Cena would have gone to TNA and made them a serious #2 promotion. But it's TNA and they would have screwed up with John Cena because Dixie and Russo are hopeless dolts. They'd turn Cena back into The Prototype and he'd have done jobs for Jarrett and his stupid guitar.
Hey why you gotta knock the MAN FROM THE FUTURE THE PROTOTYPE and his glistening orange nipples?
Was wondering if there was issues with NXT on the USA Network broadcast. Here it went to a green screen at the end of the main event. I also think Dream would be much better in a heel role where he can really play up to the Prince type character. He could have a Vanity/Apollonia type valet, a Revolution type faction etc. But against UE I guess he has to be the babyface.
Bandit wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2020 5:02 am
They thought Randy Orton was going to turn babyface and be the big star. But he's only good as a heel.
I'd say maybe Cena would have gone to TNA and made them a serious #2 promotion. But it's TNA and they would have screwed up with John Cena because Dixie and Russo are hopeless dolts. They'd turn Cena back into The Prototype and he'd have done jobs for Jarrett and his stupid guitar.
That would be an interesting what-if. I imagine if John did go to TNA Russo might have seen his upside and gave him a push. But if he wasn't doing the Rapper gimmick where he showed his personality they might have just had him be muscle for Double J or part of Russo's faction.
He'd be muscle for Jarrett like when Monty Brown got over big and they turned him heel to side with Jarrett. I liked Jeff when he came back with Karen, but before then he was worse than HHH at holding people down. At least HHH made Batista, Jarrett made nobody.
Dr. Zoidberg wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2020 11:28 pm
AFL pre-season has started so I got Kayo, and ended up watching my first WWE show for a few months: Smackdown.
The quality of the stream was good. 1080p, smooth, no buffering.
The show itself was decent. Some goofy shit but nothing that bad.
I watched the last half on replay on FS1 after I got off work. I finally got a 4k TV and this was the first thing I watched on it. First WWE I've seen in ages besides clips. I love Otis, he's such a star. Give Otis all of the titles. And I wish Sami and Cesaro were in AEW because they are great but their gimmick isn't much.
I started watching when Hogan was on. He looked so old in 4k. I look forward to Wednesday so I can see all of the blade scars on Cody's forehead as he's on his way to having a forehead like Dusty within 5 years.
I love Otis, he's such a star. Give Otis all of the titles.
Otis is really good, I listened to the Observer clip with Bryan & Tom and I think it was Bryan who said he should be the new Hogan. He's super over, so I think if WWE pushed him the right way he could be a legit breakout star because he has a genuine likability about him.
He's by far the most charismatic guy they've had since Cena, maybe even since The Rock. He should be their top babyface but won't since Vince hasn't put a belt on a fat guy since Yokozuna.
I watched some WWE clips. Took two things away from what I watched.
1:Goldberg/Fiend at The Arabian House Show of Bullshit had better be like a minute or less or otherwise holy god is it gonna suck ass otherwise.
2:Rhea Ripley has *it* more than Becky Lynch or any other female right now in spades, possibly more than anyone else on the roster, and WWE are sitting on a pile of money with her if they market her correctly.
While there has been no deal that we’ve been able to confirm, in a story that is logical, there have been talks between ESPN and WWE. These talks would be regarding WWE content on ESPN+. It is likely the deal WWE is trying to broker, which is a similar deal to UFC where they would sell the rights to their PPVs to a new streaming service that would pay more than WWE could make on its own from selling the content direct to consumers through the WWE Network.
The ESPN+ model with UFC is what opened their eyes. The difference is that with ESPN+ and UFC, the big shows are still PPV’s, with a price tag of a $4.99 per month ESPN+ subscription and $64.99 per show. Whether ESPN+, or somebody else, feels it makes sense to pay, let’s say $140 million to $160 million (numbers obviously can change) per year for rights to something that would be part of the regular $4.99 tier (or perhaps $9.99 from another service) or they’d think it makes more sense to have you have to buy a sub and then also do PPV prices would be interesting.
In hindsight, going into these negotiations, Dana White and my thoughts back years ago that WWE was devaluing its key programming is correct, because the WWE PPV deal would be worth so much more if the consumer base still felt $50 or $60 was the price you watch these shows for, and thus they could be marketed like ESPN+ does with UFC, then just part of the standard fare.
The one thing an ESPN+ deal brings is that at least for the biggest shows of the year, like WrestleMania in particular, but probably a few others, when ESPN owns a product, they use their shows to market the product heavily. WWE’s big events and biggest stars would get far more mainstream sports exposure out of such a deal and become bigger stars to the sports fans.
Really, AEW should be looking into this, although with it being tight with TNT, I don’t know how pursuing ESPN would be, but then again, WWE is tight with FOX and NBCU, and ESPN is Disney/ABC, so it would be the same thing. Ultimately in the current marketplace, the best thing for AEW would be to find a buyer of its PPVs and increase to 12 a year. The problem is timing. WWE has the name value and track record and this appears to be the time new streaming services are starting and willing to spend, and AEW doesn’t have the name or track record, even if Shad Khan, because of who he is, carries a lot of weight
Another good episode. Hunter talks about having to rebuild Naitch's self confidence and in this instance it's true because you can tell how deflated Ric looked when he first came in. Tells the story of how they shot vignettes including Mark Jindrak to replace Dave. Trips didn't like him acting up with Randy so Mark got dropped before being a member.
Only briefly cover The Legend Killer gimmick so O imagine it will be more featured in a future episode. Same with Big Dave only briefly show his rise away from the group. Cool to see the backstage/unseen footage.
Not as interesting as the Monday Night War episodes but still worth checking out. I imagine they'll do a Divas episode and maybe one about the transition to PG too.
It's funny that they briefly did think Mark Jindrak was going to be a bigger star than John Cena. He didn't do much in WWE but became a big star in CMLL.
