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July 17, 2013
Rumor Mill - What Vince McMahon Thinks Is The Reason Behind Monday Night Raw Losing Viewership
There have been a lot of complaints lately about how much and how often Vince McMahon is changing the script for WWE Monday Night Raw each week, typically on very short notice. One of the biggest issues is Vince’s own indecisiveness in terms of how he wants the show structured. When the show first went to three hours last July, the focus was on having the show’s four biggest segments spaced out at the top of every hour (8 PM, 9 PM, 10 PM and 11 PM).
When ratings declined, Vince was convinced it was because viewers “figured out the formula” and were tuning out at the top of each hour. He then tried to mix the most important segments at random times during each hour to try and “force” the viewer to watch the entire show.
There have been many weeks where Vince wants “the best of both worlds” and tries a little of both. The problem is, Vince changes his mind so frequent the writers show up with one structure and Vince wants the other. No matter how much the show is analyzed and broken down, it’s still a three hour show. The fact of the matter is there are many that feel Vince is driving them crazy in finding a way to make something work that just might not work. The decline in ratings could have to do with viewer fatigue and the fact that three hours is too long for one show. However, none of the writers want to challenge Vince about dropping the extra hour as Vince remains pleased with the extra money the company gets for it. The majority of the time writers “bite their tongues” and try their best to give Vince McMahon what he wants each week.
source: wrestlingnewsworld.com
July 16, 2013
Top TNA Executive Expected To Leave The Company, Agent Out, As Major Office Shakeup Continues
The restructuring within TNA has led to a number of wrestlers being released from their contracts or the company allowing talent contracts to expire. It is also affecting the office side of the company. Multiple sources report that Bruce Prichard, Sr. Vice President of Programming and Talent Relations, was among the office personnel asked to restructure his deal. Prichard is said to have rejected that request. It is believed that his days with TNA are coming to an end barring an unexpected twist.
Meanwhile, the TNA agents were also asked to restructure their deals to a per night agreement. The word in TNA circles is that D-Lo Brown agreed to the per night agreement recently only to be fired by the company shortly thereafter. An attempt to reach Brown for comment on his status was not successful.
source: prowrestling.net
WWE Meeting at Cowboys Stadium
Raj Giri of WrestlingINC.com reports that WWE officials were at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas last week to discuss WrestleMania being held there in 2015. The meeting was said to have lasted a few hours with WWE’s Senior VP of Special Events John Saboor plus Dallas and Arlington mayors. A graphic was displayed on the big screen with photos of The Rock and John Cena that read, “Cowboys Stadium Welcomes John Saboor.”
Triple H Talks Physical Hall of Fame
A long-envisioned World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame/attraction business still may come to fruition, a company executive said at last week's opening of the WWE Performance Center in Orlando.
But if one is built, it wouldn’t be like any other hall of fame. “I don’t want a hall of fame or some other attraction to just be something where people see some guy’s shorts,” said Paul Levesque, WWE (NYSE: WWE) executive vice president of talent and live events, as well as the WWE personality Triple H. “We are the WWE and we are big, so whatever we do needs to be the same.”
Levesque was in Orlando on July 11 for the opening of the 26,000-square-foot WWE Performance Center where the firm’s future athletes will be trained. He also was there to address questions about the company’s growing presence in Central Florida, which already consists of regular broadcasts of the WWE NXT program at Full Sail University.
“If I were to go out on a limb, I would say Orlando is the first place we’d look” for an attraction or WWE Hall of Fame, said Levesque to media at the July 11 event.
Later, he told me if the WWE green-lit an Orlando attraction, he’d expect it to consist of major interactive experiences. “If I were to say what it could be, think of it as something that has shows or live interactive things for fans. For example, something like a 4-D experience where the fan would come face-to-face with a 3-D Andre the Giant — something along that scale.”
The company has yet to announce any plans for an attraction, which experts said could be a $100 million investment.
An attraction of that scale would succeed if the WWE makes it interactive, said Dennis Speigel, president of Cincinnati-based International Theme Park Services Inc.
Hall of fames tend to have a tough time because they typically don’t garner enough attendance or provide lasting experiences, he said. That’s why if “WWE has the gun power to develop an attraction that’s state of the art where you come see some of the WWE stars participating in matches or just around the area, it could work.”
But the WWE also must make sure it stays up with the latest technology in the tourism industry to keep up with what the major theme parks are using to market themselves, Speigel said.
source: orlando business journal
Mark Briscoe Announced For ROH Championship Tournament
The 16th and final entrant into the ROH Championship Tournament is Mark Briscoe. His first round bout is scheduled for July 27th in Providence.
The announcement, made on Tuesday by Nigel McGuinness, comes as a surprise as the entire tournament was created due to the contracts of both Mark and Jay Briscoe coming up and not being renewed.
Jay vacated the title as a result but ROH is still playing up a “severe shoulder injury” to the former ROH Champion, stating “he is not cleared to compete.”
TNA Wrestling Releases Tara
TNA Wrestling just announced on their official Twitter account that they released for Knockout Champion Tara, real name Lisa Marie Varon, from her contract. Tara has been with the company since 2009 after leaving the WWE in the same year.
WWE Acknowledges Possible Creative Leak
Concerning the story about leaks in WWE creative, which we talked about yesterday, WWE has released the following statement to Deadspin.com:
"We may have a modern day Nostradamus on our hands. We might have to monitor these posts in advance of our next pay-per-view to see how good he or she really is."
July 15, 2013
