WWE General Discussion Thread

[Powder]

The difference would be in Alexander’s pay. I do not know what he is making, but he is making a full time contract salary. If he takes a contract similar to what Coach suggested, his on screen status does not change, but his salary changes. That itself is a huge difference.

And to my understanding, the wrestlers still have to pay for their own travel and hotels, so with reduced pay it takes more out of your personal bottom line. Yes, less travel, but you still have to pay for your own stuff, and with less income, it affects you more.

[PEN15v2]

Maybe I wasn't clear. What I'm suggesting is that the wrestlers have that as an option. Ciampa could choose to work only 3 days a week, knowing it would reduce his push and salary. But someone like Theory would likely take the 5 days a week options. All the wrestlers know the pay and push would be higher with the full tour, but those that feel they can't handle the travel can choose a reduced schedule with reduced pay as well.

[Oliver]

Do WWE still make much money from house shows? I had a read through the report of the financials call that they had recently and didn't even see the house show revenues mentioned.

I wonder if, with the UK stadium show coming up and also the regular returns to Saudi Arabia for Premium Live Events, they might actually end up doing better by picking one, maybe two locations within a (non-North American) region and putting on a singular big show rather than touring. House shows exist as singular income streams, they are a kind of closed box of people in a place spending money, but there's no benefit to them outside of that. Putting on one big show probably allows them to slightly increase ticket prices, possibly offset by the fees for a large venue, but also gets more people into one place buying merch and stuff, and it can be on Peacock/WWE Network to increase their offering there.

At a guess, I'd say the Principality Stadium will hold something in the region of 80k for a wrestling show (it's 74k for rugby/football, I think had 78k for a boxing bout previously) - compared with arenas in the UK, they hold somewhere between 10k and 20k generally. Maybe it's more financially viable/beneficial for WWE to do these one off major shows that they can also produce for the folks that have signed up for the streaming platforms.

[PEN15v2]

I don't have an exact report to quote, but I seem to recall that house show business was in decline over the few years before the pandemic. I feel like I have often figured the idea Oliver is proposing would be best. But I also think they should bring back the In Your House model of smaller venues/shorter PPVs/PLEs.

While WWE is the promotion I choose to watch, it's undoubtedly flawed in multiple ways. And one of them is over saturation. TV schedule of 3/2/2 hours a week is a lot. PLEs once a month of 3 hours is a lot. 3 extra nights of house shows a week is a lot. A house show by the other brand while Raw or SD is on TV is a lot.

All that being said, I'm sure there are some workers who don't want to only do TV and PPVs. In other promotions, the wrestlers take independent shows outside of their TV obligations. I'm sure a big reason is for financial factors, but it also keeps you in shape. The TV schedule can often mean not actually wrestling regularly. If Roman didn't do house shows, he'd literally wrestle once a month since he's so rarely competing on Smackdown. In the case of Ciampa, working Main Event is possibly unfulfilling overall, especially after working NXT where the in ring stuff is a different level than most main roster TV matches (I don't mean quality, but I don't think more than 5 wrestlers a show put out their longest or most arduous match of the week since so many turn into segments, squashes, roll ups after 5 minutes, tag...etc)

On that last note, I still think WWE misses the boat on innovative tag combinations and multimen matches on TV. The Orton anniversary episode ended with an 8 man tag that was a lot of fun and got 8 guys on TV for a good amount of time. The women closed off the most recent Raw with a 6 woman tag that was also good (though sloppy because of obvious reasons). Obviously they can't do it every week, but if Alpha Academy are feuding with Street Profits, a 6 man tag with Alpha having Ciampa on their side vs Profits with Ali would make for a good 15-20 minutes of TV wrestling. More Fatal Four Ways in the midcards for US title shots. I feel like I've said this all before, but I feel it would be better for someone like Ciampa and Ali to use these sorts of matches to get on TV more often. Obviously they won't book them for a serious 20 minute TV match, but have them get a rub from established guys who do often get extra TV time, so that they don't get forgotten.

[Team Farrell]

I don't know what'll happen down the line, but even when WWF was at its worst in the 90s and running shows in high school gyms in some places, Vince McMahon was still adamant that they needed to run house shows for just the reason Pen mentioned.

Guys need reps and need to wrestle regularly to stay good. I suppose someone who lives in Orlando could pop in to the PC on a regular basis for ring time, but it's really not the same.

They obviously don't run the schedule that they were running even seven or eight years ago, and maybe never again will, but even one or two house shows per week is better than nothing.

Plus, you have to remember that a lot of the boys want to wrestle. That's the fun part of being in the wrestling business. Working one day per week would probably suck, and gives guys prone to it a lot more time to get into trouble.

The desire to be in the ring is why you see a lot of people like Tyler Breeze starting schools when they were still under contract. It gives them ring access 24/7/

[Oliver]

I guess as well - although I'm obviously not that smart on it - that there's an element of being 'ring ready' if you work 2-3 times a week that helps with injury prevention? Just in terms of the different kind of body movements and stuff that wrestling has which I suppose now amount of relatively 'light' in ring training work or stretching can actually replicate.

Wrestlemania Backlash was an excellent show, by the way - possibly the most consistent/solid show I've seen WWE do for some time. I think WWE - and, if I'm being honest, wrestling in general - really thrives when it doesn't overly complicate things. Rhodes/Rollins - a simple story where Rollins wasn't ready at Mania for Cody, but come Backlash had everything scouted so only a flash pin and a little bit of cheating from him saw Cody come out with the win because Rollins wasn't expecting it.

Lashley/Omos was really simple - it was never going to set the world on fire, but it set Omos up, showed that with MVP there he can battle the best of them, and didn't leave Lashley looking bad. Edge vs AJ was, again, exactly what it needed to be, added Ripley to the group which is really interesting, and didn't outstay it's welcome.

Charlotte/Ronda, aside from being one of my least favourite match types after an LMS, was pretty much exactly what it needed to be - a big brawl, weapon stuff kept to a minimum, and Charlotte quitting. Felt a lot more like a submission match than a (modern) I Quit match for that, and I liked it.

Corbin/Moss wasn't necessarily a barn burner but didn't have to be. I thought it gave Moss enough highlight spots, like catching Corbin in midair, to show off a bit, and really liked the flash nature of the ending.

Main event was just a fun kind of house show trios match. It potentially could have had a different ending that set up either a tag match or Drew as the next challenger, but ultimately I kind of prefer that the Bloodline got the win and Reigns with the pin.

I didn't realise they had MitB in a stadium this year. Is that a first? Interestingly puts it on the same level as the Rumble, SummerSlam, and of course Mania.

[Powder]

Changing gears a bit. I am not. Fa of how the WWE is portraying Raquel. She went from being a NXT Superstar, that is hispanic, to someone on the main roster that now has an accent and plays up the Latin stereotype. WHY? Rey and Dominick do not have accents. Los Letharios do because they actually have accents.

Why can’t the WWE just allow Raquel be a Superstar that is Hispanic?

It’s akin to what happened on Young Rock last night. Rocky Johnson was asked to portray a “Black Wrestler” with watermelon and fried chicken and he refused. How is having someone speak with an accent, who does not have an accent any different? I know, that in TV sows and movies they do his all the time, but my answer to this is: The WWE tries to portray their Superstars as actual people and not actors playing a role, unlike TV and Movies, where everyone knows that everything is fake.

[T.O.]

^ Also don't care about that.

[Oliver]

Changing gears a bit. I am not. Fa of how the WWE is portraying Raquel. She went from being a NXT Superstar, that is hispanic, to someone on the main roster that now has an accent and plays up the Latin stereotype. WHY? Rey and Dominick do not have accents. Los Letharios do because they actually have accents.

Why can’t the WWE just allow Raquel be a Superstar that is Hispanic?

It’s akin to what happened on Young Rock last night. Rocky Johnson was asked to portray a “Black Wrestler” with watermelon and fried chicken and he refused. How is having someone speak with an accent, who does not have an accent any different? I know, that in TV sows and movies they do his all the time, but my answer to this is: The WWE tries to portray their Superstars as actual people and not actors playing a role, unlike TV and Movies, where everyone knows that everything is fake.

I've not caught anything in great detail of Rodriguez on the main roster in terms of promos - to be honest, I'm not entirely sure she's even had a decent length one? - but she always rolled her 'r's in NXT as well and has done that on the main roster too.

[PEN15v2]

I think the problem is that her switch into Spanish isn't authentic. It's sounds very scripted and planned. Eddie had that too, but made it feel natural. Rey, and Damian Priest when teaming with Bad Bunny also do it, and it's slightly better, but still had a feel of it being crowbarred into their promo.

Raquel is new still, so she's not as smooth with it. But it's not really different than the others.

[Team Farrell]

With Eddie I always assumed that English was his second language (maybe that's racist?) and when he'd slip in to Spanish it would usually be when he was too fired up to translate it before it came out, when he wanted to drive his point home, or when it felt like he was talking on the fly and, again, making a translation just wasn't happening in real time.

Even with Bad Bunny it makes sense because he has so many Spanish speaking fans that to jump back and forth brings them in a little more naturally.

Everything in WWE these days feels manufactured. They're trying to use the Spanish speaking to have Raquel connect and get over with Hispanic people as opposed to it being natural to her.

[PEN15v2]

Well said. And good point about Eddie and the second language.

I think Damian Priest is the best comparison overall. It was a year ago, and he definitely was speaking English as a first language. But he'd throw in a spanish word or phrase here or there, and it just wasn't 100% natural. Better than RR on SD these days, but still WWE manufactured.

[Powder]

Everything in WWE these days feels manufactured. They're trying to use the Spanish speaking to have Raquel connect and get over with Hispanic people as opposed to it being natural to her.

This is exactly what I meant. With Raquel it just feels like another ADR where the WWE is trying to capture the Hispanic audience, so lets cater to them.

I am a Jewish man, and I feel that when MJF constantly professes that he is Jewish feels contrived. During the Punk feud when he used that he was bullied for being Jewish, it felt natural. But every other time it feels to me that he/AEW are trying to placate to the Jewish audience.

The Jewish and subsequently Hispanic fans know that MJF and Raquel are Jewish and Hispanic respectively, so just let them be who they are without shoving it down our throats and turning off a part of the population.

I personally do not care who and what someone is, and I really liked Raquel in NXT, but in the 3 weeks on SD, and her 2-3 times using the microphone I am turned off, because I can see through the façade, and I can just hear Vince saying to her "Play up being Hispanic. Talk more Spanish." in order to cater to that demographic.

[Powder]

So the Sasha Naomi situation...

Roman has a shit ton of pull right now in the WWE. Does he step in and "fix the problem" since it's is Cousin-in-law?

[Oliver]

No, I don't think so. I suspect, to some extent, that Naomi is not the main protagonist of the walkout (I haven't been reading reports since it initially broke, though) and there may be scope to build bridges between her and WWE, but I don't think that can/will happen until long after the initial event.