Well, I know that it’s the date of WWE’s Extreme Rules pay-per view this year. It’s also Mrs. ThinkSoJoE’s birthday. And it’s also the day that Cleveland Browns TE Gary Barnidge re-joins us for another round of Pay Per View predictions! Gary joins Joe, Jorge, G, and JT to give his picks for tonight’s Extreme Rules event. We then try desperately to remember what happened on the lackluster 3-hour WWE App infomercial that aired on the USA Network Monday Night. In the news, we get the latest on “crotch-gate,” the incident involving Austin Aries and Christie Hemme. We hear which NXT talents were released from their contracts this week. The WWE2K14 release date is announced. We lament the temporary loss of WWE Saturday Morning Slam. We send our well wishes out to former BWF Radio interviewee Zema Ion. We make an announcement on where you can listen to BoredWrestlingFan Radio in the future (and please, stay tuned to BoredWrestlingFan.com for more details in the coming days). All this, and much much more! Tune in!
What’s up everyone and a Happy Fathers Day to all the fathers out there including mine out there in the great beyond. This is my first of many Fathers Day’s that I’ll have to experience without him. I just want to let him know that I miss and love him very much and things just aren’t the same without him. Now having said all that, let’s talk about some other stuff that’s been going on: (more…)
Welcome to part two of our Monday Night Wars coverage for this week. Earlier tonight, Drow brought you our very first ROH Report, and here I am to bring you your RAW results, and later on, we’ll have iMPACT coverage as well. Tonight, the Mindfreak, Criss Angel hosts RAW (great. Lame magic tricks all night), Vince McMahon takes on John Cena, and Randy Orton will take on Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase in a handicap match. We’ll also see what happens next between John Cena and Batista, Triple H and Sheamus, and Vince McMahon and Bret Hart. Ready to go? Then don’t cross the line, because on USA Network we’re uncut, uncensored, and uncooked, it’s Monday Night RAW!
Welcome everybody to what has been a long week here in JTland. Well no matter how rough of a week it has been, I’m still here for you all to give you my thoughts on things. (more…)
Let’s get one thing out of the way, just so we can focus on the big picture: I’m not involved in tonight’s Monday Night Wrestling head-to-head programming as SpikeTV’s “TNA Impact” steps up against USA Network’s “WWE Monday Night Raw.”
Ironically, the fact I took my first vacation since 1993 lead to the rumors of my involvement, and those rumors ended up taking on a life of their own.
Since I’ve never actually enjoyed a “road trip” with my children, I figured it was time to experience a little bit of Americana with The Heyman Kids, and we set out on our little insane adventure. While I checked in regarding the Hustle (and other projects) frequently … ok, at first, obsessively, but I learned to relax a little … key words being “a little” … I didn’t respond to many calls or emails.
And that’s when the rumors got out of hand. “Heyman’s bringing in RVD and Ken Anderson…” “Heyman’s opening up the show on January 4th…” “Heyman is a 75% lock to start on Impact.”
I wish someone would have taken some action on that percentage. My money would have been on the 25% that I wasn’t showing up.
I’ve been the subject of rumors before, but when close friends in both WWE and TNA (sorry Dixie, WWE still gets top billing for now) are calling and emailing, convinced I’m hiding the secret that I’m appearing in Orlando on January 4th, it’s a bit stunning.
I always try to torment Jim Ross (one of my favorite pastimes) when he lets Internet reports bother him to such an extent that he’ll address them on his website (and, just to be fair to my pushing-60-but-still-better-than-any-other-kid-out-there former colleague, I’ll post a link to his site: http://www.jrsbarbq.com), but for the first time, I understand the need to do so. I hate addressing rumors (even when they’re true), because you’ve set the precedent for giving comment. Therefore, the next time there’s a ridiculous rumor, and you decide not to comment, people take your silence as confirmation there’s something to the story, because otherwise you’d address it.
I left the wrestling business on December 4, 2006 when I shook Vince McMahon’s hand after a rather volatile meeting with him and Stephanie, and I’ve never looked back. Some projects, like THE HEYMAN HUSTLE, are out in front of the public already, and there’s a ton of others in the works. I’m in no rush. I’m taking my time. I’m enjoying my family. And (here comes the segue), I’m looking forward to what happens out of this Monday Night head-to-head programming on SpikeTV and USA Network.
If you’re wondering why I’m not referring to tonight’s “1st Monday Night War In Almost A Decade” as a collision between WWE and TNA, it’s because this evening’s head-to-head competition has very little to do with the professional wrestling / sports entertainment industry.
Here’s the poop, at least from my perspective: SpikeTV’s Doug Herzog and Kevin Kay smell blood. And that blood they smell is the bleeding caused by the erosion of Raw’s fan base. Slowly but surely, Raw’s core audience is getting older and older, and the indescribably-important “youth audience” is not being replenished. Despite World Wrestling Entertainment’s Push-to-PG, the Goliath of Monday Night Cable Programming’s product is stale, and the terms “hip,” “happening,” “socially relevant,” or “pop culture phenomenon” don’t apply to Vince McMahon’s flagship cablecast anymore.
Raw, however, remains a powerhouse. Even the much-maligned “low 3′ ratings” are still way better than anything SpikeTV is pushing, and keep in mind Spike is the television home of the Ultimate Fight juggernaut. A decade past its heyday, Monday Night Raw is the driving force behind USA Network’s 4th consecutive sweep of the annual Cable Ratings Wars.
That, in and of itself, makes Vince McMahon a very influential person when it comes to NBC-Universal Executive Bonnie Hammer, who runs both USA (home of Raw) and SyFy (home of the WWE-owed ECW). For those of you keeping score, NBC is in a real state of flux. While Comcast Chairman Brian Roberts and NBC-Universal President Jeff Zucker prepare to defend Comcast’s takeover of NBC before a Senate Committee later this month, Bonnie Hammer continues to be the rising star in the NBC-U family. Long regarded, along with Oprah Winfrey and Valerie Schaer as one of the sharpest women in all of television, Hammer’s power lies in the fact USA is the crown jewel of the NBC-U television empire. Forget the network. Their business model collapsed, along with Zucker’s Midas touch, when the Jay Leno Experiment exposed the network as not budget-conscious, but simply desperate-for-programming.
USA, meanwhile, forged ahead. Under Hammer’s masterful guidance in 2009, USA drew a record 3.27 million viewers in primetime, a 14% improvement over its 2008 delivery. For the period spanning Dec. 29, 2008, through Dec. 27, 2009, USA swept ad-supported cable’s three top TV demos, averaging 1.49 million adults 25-54, an increase of 11% versus 2008, while also delivering 1.32 million viewers 18-49 (up 5%). The network also held off former WCW-home TBS to take the 18-34 demo, drawing 616,000 viewers.
Not only is USA surviving, it’s thriving. And heavy hangs the head that wears the crown.
Doug Herzog and Kevin Kay’s target for Twenty Ten: Stop Bonnie Hammer.
In the cutthroat world of television, the next step was a “gimme.” Go after Raw. Put a dent in the already-dented armor of the Still-Standing-Giant.
So Herzog and Kevin Kay, along with “In Your Face” SpikeTV execs Sharon Levy and Brian Diamond decided to dip their toe into the shark-infested Monday Night waters. Looking at Spike’s positioning, you have to admit, it’s a pretty smart move. There’s no way for Spike to lose. Tonight, TNA will deliver three hours of primetime programming for the network, and next week, the network will air a live “UFC Fight Night” featuring Gray Maynard vs Nate Diaz.
Wait a minute. No Kimbo? No GSP? No update on Brock Lesnar? Doesn’t sound like a major head-to-head UFC vs WWE confrontation, does it?
That’s because UFC is simply putting on an event when their host network, SpikeTV, wants to pay them for the programming content Zuffa can deliver. As a matter of fact, UFC is not getting into the hype. Dana White is too focused on his own business (and StrikeForce, and anyone else wanting to get into MMA) to think this is a fight with WWE. The controversial Ultimate Fight President even laughed at the insinuation there would be a Monday Night War when he noted “I’m not trying to beat (WWE) on Monday night. I don’t think we would beat (Raw). Those guys pull killer ratings. It’s been like the highest rated show on television forever. We’re just putting a fight on Monday night because Spike wants us to.”
EXACTLY!
SpikeTV wanted UFC to deliver programming for Monday Night, January 11th, because the execs at Spike want to see where Raw is vulnerable. Even if TNA bombs tonight, it truly doesn’t matter. The network is going to pick apart not only the Demo-trending, but also the minute-by-minute ratings for Raw and TNA. Where did Raw lose viewers? Did TNA pick any of those viewers up? What caused the television viewership to change channels? What caused them to stick with what they were watching? Where can the counter-programming work to Spike’s advantage?
The real story of tonight’s head-to-head battle is not Vince McMahon vs Hulk Hogan, or the re-emergence of Eric Bischoff, or Stephanie McMahon’s vision for the future vs Dixie Carter’s vision for her company. It’s about SpikeTV executives’ decision to curb the enthusiasm (oy vey) of Bonnie Hammer and NBC-U’s 4th consecutive Cable Grand Slam.
So bring back Bret. Let Hulkamania run wild. Hand Eric Bischoff a mic, and let him declare it’s1995 all over again. Bid on Ric Flair’s “Whooooooo!” Make short term and long term offers for Rob Van Dam, Ken Anderson, and the remaining members of the Ring of Honor roster.
The key for TNA to take advantage of this programming decision is to use the increased attention to finally BRAND their company. Pick a direction, and stick with it. So far, the only hype has been Hulk Hogan declaring himself “The Vince McMahon of TNA” (sounds like the opening line for a Wrestlemania return),
and everyone else saying “The Monday Night Wars Are Back! The Monday Night Wars Are Back!”
I need a reason to care about AJ Styles. Seriously, how anyone in TNA can look at themselves in the mirror and accept the fact AJ, the promotion’s World Champion and one of the most consistent performers in the industry for over half a decade, is not nearly as well known as Sheamus is simply a crime. I like Sheamus’ push, and think WWE made a fantastic decision to elevate a new character into the main event, and present him not as a fluke, but as a real deal.
But for Sheamus to be so much better known to the general public at this point in his career than AJ Styles is not only a sign of WWE’s marketing success, but TNA’s most glaring failure.
I know why as a fan, Sheamus is to be hated. I don’t know why, as a fan, I am supposed to care about AJ Styles. I need a reason to believe in the Motor City Machine Guns. Besides being every school boy’s masturbatory fantasy, why should I spend my time thinking about Lacey Von Erich? Is Awesome Kong the Cris Cyborg of pro wrestling? If so, demonstrate that to me.
TNA has a chance to capitalize on its home network’s desire to derail USA Network’s momentum. Character development and TNA-brand-building are key. Tonight, TNA has the opportunity to declare to the public something far more substantive than “check out a bunch of former WWE big name stars in a six sided ring with some of our own guys who aren’t quite so recognizable.”
Tonight, TNA has a chance to deliver. Deliver to their own audience. Deliver to the 8pm Eastern Time curiosity viewers Hulk Hogan’s involvement may bring in. And most importantly, deliver a market study for SpikeTV execs to learn a little more about the true Ultimate Champion of the Monday Night Cable Wars:
Bonnie Hammer.
WOW he had alot to say and you know what its ALL TRUE but i bet VINNY MAC is kinda pissed
Mark tonight on your calendars. Write it down somewhere and put it somewhere where you won’t lose it. Today is January 4, 2010, and as a wrestling fan, you’re in for what promises to be the biggest night in Sports Entertainment in nearly nine years. TNA Wrestling has finally decided to fire the proverbial first shot at World Wrestling Entertainment, a shot that one Vincent Kennedy McMahon will certainly do everything in his power to fight off.
Back in October, the wrestling world was in shock when Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan announced a partnership with TNA President Dixie Carter during a press conference at New York’s Madison Square Garden, a building where the McMahon family and World Wrestling Entertainment has long held a monopoly on the wrestling business. World Championship Wrestling, in it’s entire history, never held an event in the Garden. Neither had the National Wrestling Alliance. MSG was strictly McMahon territory. While TNA hasn’t held an event in the Garden, and likely won’t, just having the press conference in the house that Vince built was huge. It wasn’t as huge as the announcement that followed on TNAWrestling.com – Hulk Hogan was coming to TNA.
Speculation ran wild – no pun intended – as to when Hogan would make his TNA Debut, but during an Ultimate Fighting Championship broadcast on Spike TV, Hogan announced that on January 4th, 2010, TNA would be airing a three hour live edition of iMPACT head to head with WWE’s flagship show, RAW. TNA obviously had huge plans for tonight, but that’s not to say that the WWE hasn’t countered. Rumors originally indicated The Rock would guest host RAW, as he’d arguably been the biggest star in WWE since Hogan’s heyday, but just a few weeks ago the gossip shifted from The Rock to one Bret “Hitman” Hart when RAW Guest Host Dennis Miller indicated that he’d like to see Hart as a future guest host. Last week, McMahon confirmed Hart’s presence for this evening – his first time on a live WWE program in over a dozen years.
Hogan vs. Hart is a long time dream match for wrestling fans, and though the two have never, and given health concerns, likely will never face each other in the ring, tonight they’ll go head to head in a ratings war.
Hulk Hogan is most certainly a bigger name in the world of Sports Entertainment than Bret Hart, but will fans tune in to see him? Do enough people even know that TNA iMPACT – let alone Hulk Hogan – will be on tonight to make any sort of ratings difference?
Whether Hogan’s influence on TNA makes any kind of difference on the product remains to be seen. What changes will be made to the TNA product? What kind of effect will it have on WWE’s stranglehold on the Sports Entertainment audience? Can TNA prove themselves tonight to be a legitimate contender to the WWE throne? I guess we’ll start to find out those answers tonight, as a special 3-hour TNA iMPACT! airs tonight at 8PM EST on Spike TV against WWE RAW at 9PM EST on the USA Network.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… Wrestling was actually very highly rated and the WWE, then known as the WWF, had real competition. But that was 1997. Whatever, lets get started.
You may have noticed I’m running a little late this week – and have yet to post a SmackDown review as well. Well, I spent my Friday at an amusement park, followed by catching No Doubt on their reunion tour (which was a lot of fun), and of course forgot to set my DVR for my usual Friday fodder, SmackDown on MyTV, and Don’t Forget The Lyrics on FOX. Unlike DFTL, however, SmackDown doesn’t have a replay shown the next day on the Fox Reality Channel. I’ll get around to watching SmackDown one way or another and I’ll make sure to get a review up, but I at least wanted to get this week’s ThinkSoJoE’s Thoughts in, since I didn’t feel like it at all yesterday.
Japanese wrestling legend Mitsuharu Misawa passed away just after last week’s column went up, and the word was that he’d had a heart attack right there in the ring. Word is, that’s not the case, and that the botched backdrop he took just before his death caused a spinal injury which led to his death. Whatever the case, it was nice to see CM Punk pay tribute to him the next night on RAW.
Speaking of Punk, he’s really coming across great on the mic every time I hear him speak lately. I think he may also have more clean wins in title defenses in the past week than he had through his entire first run as World Heavyweight Champion. Hell, I think Rey Mysterio had more clean wins as World Heavyweight Champion than Punk did his first time around.
Oh, and Rey? Just because most of your fan base wasn’t around when you lost your mask in WCW doesn’t mean the rest of us haven’t forgotten. Forget about the damned mask and maybe you’ll actually be able to beat Jericho, who outsmarted you at Extreme Rules and on RAW this past Monday.
Ah, RAW this past Monday. WWE and GE (the parent company of the USA Network) are apparently in trouble over it. I guess the Securities and Exchange Commission doesn’t like it when you put out press releases touting that you’ve sold off a major brand of a publicly traded company when it’s really just a television storyline. Who knew?
Also, who knows where Finlay stands at the moment? Finlay is a tweener, kids. That means that he’s not a good guy, but he’s not quite a bad guy. Let him bash everybody’s skulls in with the shileighleigh for all I care, as long as he’s not dancing around the ring with Hornswoggle.
I’d hate to say it, but Tommy Dreamer needs to drop the ECW title, and quickly. The match he had with Christian on RAW revealed to me that Dreamer has lost a few steps since his original ECW days.
So Zack Ryder’s finisher is now called the Zack Attack? I’m with tharvey1 on this, his theme needs to be “Friends Forever.” I hear Zack Morris is still playing gigs.
“This is Your Life, Rock” it was not. TNA iMPACT’s opening segment had neither The Rock nor Yurple The Clown. It did have Samoa Joe punching Kurt Angle in the face though, that was nice.
So was James Storm’s promo. An interview segment with Raven and Storm both involved would the be the greatest thing in the history of things.
Candice Michelle and Sim Snuka were both released from their WWE contracts earlier this week. I’d actually forgotten that Snuka was still on the roster. Congrats to Drowgoddess who was in attendance for his final on-camera WWE appearance as the guy who may or may not have screwed up a spot involving The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 25. The Divas can all rejoice that there’s one less accident prone Diva on the roster to accidentally injure them.
Interesting note, I played 1 vs. 100 on Xbox LIVE earlier tonight, and one of the questions was “Who beat Randy Orton in a steel cage match in June 2009 to win the WWE Championship?” Surprisingly, neither “the one,” nor any of the 5 people remaining in “the mob” got the question wrong. In fact, host Chris Cashman pointed out after “the one” got the next question wrong that she knew her WWE Trivia.
Well folks, that’s it for me, unless I wanted to step on JT’s toes and turn this into a Random Randomness knockoff, which I don’t. I’ve got no predictions for Slammiversary, other than Daniels beating Douglas, simply because I’ve really stopped watching the show for anything other than Raven, Daffney, and Dr. Stevie. Goodnight folks!
Note: I was planning on writing about all of the Pay Per View events on the WWE Calendar outside of the “Big Four,” but it would have been way too long. As such, I’m splitting it up in parts, which will be published every Sunday at noon (except for part three, which will be up next Wednesday) here on BoredWrestlingFan.com!
I’ve been a wrestling fan for as long as I can remember. The first promo I ever remember seeing was “Mean Gene” Okerlund interviewing Hulk Hogan about his upcoming steel cage match with King Kong Bundy a few weeks before WrestleMania 2. The period where I started watching the shows religiously was sometime after WrestleMania IV. I know this, because I remember all the hype about SummerSlam ’88 on Pay Per View. Back in 1988, the WWF, as it was known at the time, only held three Pay Per View events – WrestleMania IV, SummerSlam ’88, and the second annual Survivor Series. The following year, they added the Royal Rumble as a Pay Per View event (the first Royal Rumble event, featuring 20 competitors instead of 30, aired on the USA Network in January of 1998.), and we had “The Big Four” WWF Pay Per Views. Save for the “Tuesday in Texas” event in 1991, these remained the only PPV events the WWF held until the addition of “King of the Ring” in 1993.
In 1995, when the competition from WCW started to heat up following the advent of WCW Monday Nitro, both companies started to air several more Pay Per View events. Unlike WCW, who had full blown – and individually named – Pay Per Views every month, the WWF put on two hour events at a discounted price in the months outside of the five main PPVs, called “In Your House.” The “In Your House” PPVs eventually grew into three hour, full priced shows before finally evolving into the monthly events we know today.
With WWE’s purchase of WCW and ECW in 2001, they’ve experimented with holding up to two Pay Per View events per month, which didn’t work out too well, as we’re down now to 14 such events each year, the only two-PPV months being June with the newly re-branded Extreme Rules (Formerly One Night Stand) and Night of Champions, and November with Cyber Sunday and Survivor Series. Still, I feel as though I’m already paying too much for cable without adding an extra $40 every month for Pay Per View events.
In this series, I intend to convey my reasons why WWE – and by proxy, TNA – needs to cut back on the number of Pay Per Views a year, and do so on a per-event basis. Safe from cuts will be the “Big Four” events – Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series.
I present my arguments against No Way Out, after the jump! (more…)
Event: WWE Monday Night RAW
Airdate: Monday, November 10th, 2008 (USA Network)
Location: The Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK
Results by 411Mania.com
-Live via tape delay from Manchester, England.
(results after the jump!) (more…)
