Wrestling Thread 4/30-5/6 | 5/3 Extreme Rules PPV Prediction Contest Results Posted! p84

Regardless of the Bryan match, I'm worried about Punk. He seems to be deflated or something.


Can't really put it into words, but I'm feeling the same way.

To be honest...

I got so spoiled on "cater to smarks"/Semi-shoot Punk that seeing him play a "character" kinda threw me off.

I would love for Tensai to get over but it's clear his gimmick blows.


Sigh.

Im know that feel. I've dug Albert from the jump and would love to have him succeed in his current run. T&A and X-Factor are lowkey some of my favorites from the era. (I know
ohwell.gif
)  At least he's somewhat in the main event picture by being Johnny's henchman. Even though he has his own henchman..... *cue Xzibit pic*
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Venom, I think it was you that posted earlier about why do I care about the television ratings.  The overall rating isn't that important in the grand scheme of things.  Ratings are down but WM still set a record buy rate (though all other PPVs are way down).  I do like to get a general feel of how many people are tuning in each week.  The part I find much more interesting are the quarterly breakdowns which let you see specifically what wrestlers/segments people are tuning in to see.  Here's the breakdown from last week's 3 hour show.
Raw on 4/23 did a 3.06 rating and 4.42 million viewers, which is the usual range, but it was a three-hour show, so I’d consider that a good rating. In the usual two hours the show did a 3.33 rating and 4.76 million viewers (hours of 3.22 and 3.41–so the second hour going down as a pattern has changed of late).

It’s hard to judge this as compared to a usual episode. The general rule of a three hour Raw is the first hour is much lower, bringing down the average. But because it starts earlier and is longer, hours two and three are usually above what the show is usually getting. So in other words, this fit the usual pattern, but overall, you expect the three-hour number to be slightly down and this was right at normal levels, so it was a mild success. Raw was fourth for the night on cable. The show did a 2.4 in Males 12-17 (down 14%), 2.9 in Males 18-49 (up 4%), 0.8 in Women 12-17 (down 27%) and 1.1 in Women 18-49 (down 8%). When we talk about creatures of habit, on the three hour show, the group that tuned in late the most was teenage boys, who did a 1.3 first quarter and a 3.4 final quarter of the show. The show has 70.1% male viewers. Since Lesnar came back, there has been a shift. More guys and less women.

In the segment-by-segment:

  • Chris Jericho vs. Kofi Kingston lost 73,000 viewers. 
  • Jericho promo, John Laurinaitis and Eve Torres backstage and taped promos of Brock Lesnar and a C.M. Punk promo gained 52,000 viewers. 
  • R-Truth vs. Lord Tensai lost 3,000 viewers. 
  • Kane interview with Randy Orton throwing Paul Bearer into the freezer gained 865,000 viewers, which were all the people who didn’t know Raw started an hour earlier. 
  • Cody Rhodes & Alberto Del Rio vs. Big Show & Great Khali gained 195,000 viewers. 
  • Jericho, Laurinaitis, Torres and Teddy Long discussing Punk’s drinking lost 112,000 viewers. 
  • Beth Phoenix vs. Nikki Bella gained 437,000 viewers, which was a big surprise. 
  • The Field Sobriety test segment gained 270,000 viewers to a 3.63 quarter which is one of the best quarters in a while. 
  • Sheamus vs. Mark Henry with Daniel Bryan as ref and Primo & Epico vs. Zack Ryder & Santino Marella lost 439,000 viewers. 
  • Kane putting Paul Bearer back in the freezer and AW recruiting Primo & Epico lost 370,000 viewers. 
  • Brodus Clay & Hornswoggle vs. Dolph Ziggler & Jack Swagger gained 225,000 viewers. 
  • The final segment with Lesnar and Laurinaitis and Cena in at the end gained 873,000 viewers to a 3.83 quarter, built up because they went 15 minutes past time and people didn’t tune out as they sometimes do for long overruns.
 
[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]had no idea 4w started making gifs...[/color]














dealwithitkittahpants.gif
 
Lance Storm on Booking Brock Lesnar

Spoiler [+]
[size=-1]I teased this commentary on twitter earlier today, saying something to the effect that this commentary was to show that most of the people *****ing that WWE killed Brock Lesnar by having John Cena beat him at the Extreme Rules PPV last night are narrow minded. Upon posting that I of course was inundated with people saying how they agree with me completely that they thought beating Brock Lesnar made total sense and was absolutely the right move.

These two extreme views (pun intended) are really what inspired this commentary. I've been in the wrestling business for more than 20 years now and if there is one thing I've learned is that there are almost no absolutes. Almost no decision is absolutely 100% clear cut and even bad decisions are almost never uncorrectable. It is with that thinking that I take exception to all of those who freaked out saying that "WWE killed Brock Lesnar with the loss last night, and effectively flushed the whole angle down the toilet." There is more than one ways to skin a cat and I'm going to present what I would do Booking Brock Lesnar from this point forward and present a case on why Cena winning last night was not the worst decision ever made.

With all that said let me be clear, if it were up to me I would not have beat Brock Lesnar last night; I am just presenting an argument on why WWE may have decided to do so and offering what my booking strategy would be moving forward.

For those that argue that a loss in his first match is a burial and kills Brock as a PPV draw I would like to point out Brock Lesnar's UFC run and what happened there. Brock was one of, if not the biggest PPV draws in UFC history. UFC brought Brock Lesnar into the real world of MMA from the (I hate to use this word but it illustrates my point) fake world of Pro Wrestling. If there was ever a case where a guy needing credibility right out of the gate this was it and what happened in Brock's first UFC fight? Not only did he get beat, he tapped out in 90 seconds. Did this kill Brock Lesnar? Was Brock Lesnar dead as a PPV draw? Of course he wasn't, he came back, dominated, won the UFC Heavyweight Title, and drew a ton of money for UFC, and he could still do that for WWE if booked correctly moving forward.

Now certainly the argument can be made that Brock would have been an even bigger draw in UFC had he not lost that first fight, but I'm not 100% sure of that, because the Mir rematch was a gargantuan money maker, and more to the point I'm not arguing that beating Brock was the best choice just not necessarily the worst won either.

Now let's look at some of the up sides to beating Brock at Extreme Rules. Brock Lesnar is a guy that does not love pro wrestling and in his last run in WWE he beat almost every big Star in the company and then quit. While he did do a job on the way out the program he was in on his way out was with Bill Goldberg who unfortunately was also leaving the company. So Brock essentially beat the entire WWE roster and the only guy who managed to beat him wasn't sticking around either. That has to be at least a small concern when moving forward with Lesnar now. Is it safe to book him undefeated for a long stretch? In a perfect word yes, because it will mean more when he eventually loses, but Pro-Wrestling is seldom if ever a perfect world. I've even heard arguments that he should go undefeated all the way to WrestleMania for the ultimate show down with either Rock or Undertaker. While again that sounds great on paper there are two concerns. 1: Will he make it to WrestleMania without, getting hurt, becoming ill again, or quitting? And 2: Do you want him beating your entire roster for a year to eventually get beat by a guy who much like at Mania XX with Goldberg, isn't sticking around after that match?

With all that in mind, I can understand why WWE might want to hedge their bets a little and get a win on the books over Brock for one of their tops stars, and once you've made that decision doing it first is not only the safest way but also gives you the most amount of time before WrestleMania to build him back up. He can now go on an 11 month winning streak to build to WrestleMania if they want and if anything goes wrong along the way and Lesnar leaves they have the footage of John Cena pinning Brock that they can air time and time again. With that out of the way let's look at the booking possibilities going forward because there are some amazing parallels that can be drawn.

Exactly like his UFC career Brock lost his first match in to a former Heavyweight Champion in a match he looked very strong and dominant in. After that match many critics said he was done and the Mir loss exposed him. Tonight on RAW you could have Johnny Ace cut a promo on Lesnar saying that he didn't pay him all this money and give in to all of his contract demands to have him lose to John Cena. In response Lesnar could point out that it was a lucky punch with a steel chain wrapped around it and he could fight Cena 1000 times and he'd beat him 999 of them; last night was that one fluke. Johnny could then challenge Lesnar to prove he's everything he claims to be and book him against a strong top level guy, on the June PPV in a "Must Win" type match for Lesnar.

Again this mirrors his UFC career in that his second fight was against the fairly strong MMA veteran Heath Herring in a match many people viewed as a "Must Win" fight for Lesnar speculating that UFC would cut their losses and release him should he lose the Herring fight. Brock went on to dominate Herring in a completely one sided affair. This is how I would book Lesnar in WWE. Book him in a match on the June PPV with a long standing veteran of WWE, perhaps The Big Show and have Brock completely dominate and destroy him in his next fight.

From here I would book Lesnar in a WWE Title match at the July PPV. This again would mimic Brock's UFC run because his third UFC fight was against Randy Couture for the UFC Heavyweight Title. If you wanted to protect CM Punk you could always hold a draft before then and switch the WWE and World Titles from RAW and SmackDown and have Brock beat Sheamus for the World Heavyweight Title instead. In his post match victory celebration Brock freaks out and goes all nutty screaming at the crowd and anyone who will listen, "Can You See Me Now...Can You See Me Now"? This is of course the same line he used in UFC and also sets up the Summer Slam rematch with Mr. "You Can't See Me" John Cena.

This moves us into August and the big Summer Slam rematch with John Cena, the former champion who beat him in his WWE return debut. Once again mimicking his UFC run, where he faced Frank Mir at UFC 100 in the much anticipated rematch. While I would not expect Summer Slam to set an all time record like Lesnar vs. Mir II did, I contend it could be a very strong Main Event draw. In the rematch Brock Lesnar gets his win back in dominant fashion and retains the WWE or World Title and can cut the promo: "John Cena had a horseshoe up his !!*, I told you people that 4 months ago, well I pulled that son of a ###%% out and beat him over the head with it...WOOOOO"

From here WWE can do what they want. Brock is over very strong, and you have 7 months to build him to WrestleMania, to face either The Undertaker or The Rock or even the rubber match with Cena if you like.

Again in closing I am not saying this is a better approach than keeping him undefeated, or the best way to do things moving forward, just illustrating that there are options and anyone who thinks beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is only one way to do something, really doesn't know what they are talking about.

Lance Storm

[/size]
 
I agree about the Punk being "deflated" in a way comment.

He doesn't seem to be a big deal anymore, since Brock and Cena took over. He's been put on the back burner. His match with Jericho at the PPV was amazing, yet it feels like he isn't a big star like he should be. I don't really know what changed, but something is. Maybe it's because the return of Brock has over shadowed everything.

Hopefully they play this Punk vs D Bry angle right.
 
NXT: Redemption will continue tonight with week 61 being taped. Per an announcement from Matt Striker last week, it’s likely that we will see several new talents debut on this week’s episode.
 
Finally watched Extreme Rules and it was a solid PPV.
pimp.gif


The Bryan/Sheamus and Jericho/Punk matches were outstanding. The Kane/Orton match was surprisingly good as well.

That Lesnar/Cena match was interesting.

eyes.gif
@ Lil Naitch stopping the match twice because Cena was bleeding despite it being an Extreme Rules match.

Lesnar was working stiff with Cena.
eek.gif


As for Cena winning I don't have a problem with it. The way some of y'all were talking about it I thought Cena went in Super Cena mode and obliterated Brock.

Brock dominated Cena. It took a steel chain wrapped fist to the head and and AA onto the steel steps to beat him.

While the match made Brock look like a legit badass, Cena giving that post match speech definitely detracted from this though, especially since he was on Raw the following night.

Watching that speech had you thinking that Cena was taking some time off and if that was the case I would have no problem with it. Brock could always say that even though he lost the match he "legitimized" the WWE by sending Cena on an unplanned vacation; but no Cena showed up on Raw wearing a sling but otherwise looked none the worse for wear. So I see why Brock was pissed about it.
 
- As we’ve been reporting here on the site, Brock Lesnar did throw a tantrum backstage after Extreme Rules, f4wonline.com is reporting that it was partially a ‘work’ on the locker room as a way to convince people that Cena going over was the right decision. Lesnar was upset about the finish, but “some, if not most
 
AAA matchmaker Konnan has launched his new weekly podcast, MLW’s Konnan Show presented by Masked Republic’s LuchaShop.com. A variety of topics were discussed this week and Konnan even had some surprise callers, including AAA star Teddy Hart. Konnan had previously appeared on MLW Radio and told a story about how Kurt Angle had claimed to him that Vince McMahon mails flowers to Angle every week with a note asking Angle to return to WWE. Kurt Angle recently responded on Twitter and accused Konnan of lying. Konnan had this to say about Angle’s response:

“All I can say is that it did happen. Obviously, when people are embarrassed or don’t remember, they’re going to refute it. If we can get him on the show one day, I’ll say it to him over the phone. There’s no problem. He did tell me that. He said, ‘Yeah man, Vince McMahon sends me flowers every week hoping for me to come back.’ I was just thinking to myself, yeah right.
 
- Chris Jericho was supposed to defeat Big Show by count out in the Beat the Clock Challenge match on RAW last night but the referee messed his count up. While Jericho was going to win by 1 second, the plan all along was for Daniel Bryan to win the series and challenge CM Punk for the WWE Title.




- There is a ton of heat on Rey Mysterio right now with the feeling that he was getting paid well to sit home and heal but he couldn’t stay clean. The feeling was that Some in the company believe that Kevin Nash’s comments last week about a friend being released by WWE were talking about Mysterio but we haven’t heard anything about Rey being released. He is currently serving a 60-day suspension.





- As seen last night, WWE announced that The Bella Twins had been fired. In reality, their contracts expired yesterday and they chose not to re-sign with the company The original plan had Kharma destroying them on their way out but the feeling backstage was that the plans changed after news leaked on the internet. As late as Sunday, they were still discussing doing the Kharma angle at Extreme Rules.





- During Monday’s episode of WWE’s RAW Supershow, the WWE Spanish announce team revealed that Sin Cara is scheduled to make his in-ring return for the SmackDown brand’s Mexico tour May 24th through May 26th.

Sin Cara has been off WWE television since November of last year while rehabbing a knee injury.

Its possible that Sin Cara’s return to television could come before the Mexico tour, but those are his first official advertised dates.
 
Prediction contest results will be posted midday Wednesday. Crazy day of work today (still working).
 
happy birthday to TennHouse, who has most likely been drunk during his entire upper midcard run thus far.

Imagine a NEW AGE NTWT Nation of Domination: Tennhouse, Toine, and i dunno...BrasilianMami I guess? kind of?

Featuring 4W as the Nugget himself!

Spoiler [+]
I smell $$$
 
Originally Posted by VeintiSiete

happy birthday to TennHouse, who has most likely been drunk during his entire upper midcard run thus far.

Imagine a NEW AGE NTWT Nation of Domination: Tennhouse, Toine, and i dunno...BrasilianMami I guess? kind of?

Featuring 4W as the Nugget himself!

Spoiler [+]
I smell $$$
Click to expand...

I'm in on this. I'm 24 and black. I demand it.
Matter of fact, a while back, me, teen and peep were in negotiations for an all black stable anyways 
laugh.gif


Happy bday TennHouse!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

B
Black woman calls cops only to be killed by cops.
Replies
11
Views
3K
1995
1995

Latest News

View All News

The ultimate sneaker enthusiast community.

Site contents may not be incorporated into AI training data or any other derivative works without prior express written consent.

Links to participating merchants may generate referral or affiliate commissions that help support our community. See our policies for details. NikeTalk is NOT affiliated with Nike Inc. in any way, shape, or form. All opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of Nike, Inc.

© 1999-2024 NikeTalk.com

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom