You Know What, Wrestling Thread? You're On The List! - Part 232

[Darkness Falls]

emma is back <3

 

[Keyser Soze]

I remember they implied that it was Owens, but he has long since moved on from NXT.

I think it should be revealed that James Ellsworth is the one who pied Owens.

I figured Owens was the one person absolutely discounted, since Itami publicly accused him and Owens said something like, "If I did it, I'd be out here bragging about it, but I didn't."

 

[Lobo]

Emma is the hottest referee ever

 

[Donnie Darko]

Emma is the hottest referee ever

Nah. Charles Robinson.

 

[Bartman]

He does have nice hair tbf.

 

[RetroNaz]

So apparently, the WWE markets their product in China as like "kung fu movies" and that seems to go over pretty well in China.

The WWE needs to sign Ho Ho Lun from the Cruiserweight Classic, if not for their division, then for NXT, especially when the WWE needs a fluent Chinese speaker (which he is) to communicate between the trainers and the 8 Chinese talents that they just signed. Matt Bloom is a fluent Japanese speaker, but also we see Hideo Itami, Asuka and Shinsuke Nakamura at least trying to speak English.

Or they could just hire an interpreter.

I wasn't really blown away by Ho Ho Lun - he seemed like one of the least polished out of all performers in the entire bracket.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

Raw had a rating of 1.8. Lol.

We are officially on 2010 Impact territory.

 

[Slushy]

It was great to meet these talents again at Mr. Olympia yesterday.

Bobby Lashley said his favorite matches were against Umaga at Wrestlemania 23 and Robert Roode for the TNA Title. Kaitlyn's was Payback 2013 against AJ Lee.

 

[RetroNaz]

Raw had a rating of 1.8. Lol.

We are officially on 2010 Impact territory.

Are these figures warped in this day and age where streaming and WWE network weren't as big of a factor back then? It seems that the rating system isn't as reliable as it used to be for real numbers.

 

[Docker2.0]

It was great to meet these talents again at Mr. Olympia yesterday.

Bobby Lashley said his favorite matches were against Umaga at Wrestlemania 23 and Robert Roode for the TNA Title. Kaitlyn's was Payback 2013 against AJ Lee.

Is that Angelina Valentina?

 

[Slushy]

Is that Angelina Valentina?

It's Kaitlyn posing with Kaitlyn. #Kaitlynception

 

[the_ultimate_evil]

So anyone else heard the rumour that McMahon has a bid in for tna

 

[famicommander]

Are these figures warped in this day and age where streaming and WWE network weren't as big of a factor back then? It seems that the rating system isn't as reliable as it used to be for real numbers.

It's both.

Ratings are down across the board for all shows due to DVR/streaming/digital sales, but WWE is taking bigger hits than almost anyone else.

 

[TheCommissioner]

So anyone else heard the rumour that McMahon has a bid in for tna

Billy Corgan is bidding for majority ownership

rumors have Sinclair Broadcasting (who own ROH) and the WWE putting in bids as well

 

[the_ultimate_evil]

Billy Corgan is bidding for majority ownership

rumors have Sinclair Broadcasting (who own ROH) and the WWE putting in bids as well

Call me morbid but as great as it would to get decent competition for wwe


Part of me wants to see what happens of they get it.

 

[TheCommissioner]

lets say the rumors are not rumors

- if Sinclair gets it, I see them folding Impact into ROH and ROH ascending to be a proper #2 promotion, they deserve it more than TNA does

- if WWE gets it, they'll just take the library, cherry pick some of the better talents and shut it down

 

[TX85]

If ROH buys them and merges then that would be awesome as it would make ROH the new #2 company in the US

As a wwe network fan and subscriber, the TNA video library would be new juicy content for me and new content like that for merchandise such as the wwe video games would be great too since I play them as well. Some talent could be signed to NXT or the main roster and so that could be awesome.

A win win for me either way as a fan.

 

[Loki882]

Not really. I feel like WWE having a stranglehold on the American market hasn't really helped matters much. The challenges from WCW and even to a lesser degree ECW back in the day essentially forced Vince to evolve and try new stuff, and the big boom that followed speaks for itself. After he won, Vince got rather complacent and things stagnated.

So I'd much prefer that there be a solid #2 that could do something similar in the future.

 

[TX85]

Well TNA won't be doing it. If there will still be a solid #2 again then I much rather it be ROH

 

[famicommander]

If ROH buys them and merges then that would be awesome as it would make ROH the new #2 company in the US

As a wwe network fan and subscriber, the TNA video library would be new juicy content for me and new content like that for merchandise such as the wwe video games would be great too since I play them as well. Some talent could be signed to NXT or the main roster and so that could be awesome.

A win win for me either way as a fan.

ROH is already the #2 company in the US by a wide margin.

TNA is arguably still bigger in Europe but in the US it's not even close.

ROH's weekly TV show was getting over 400,000 viewers per week on Sinclair stations alone in May 2014. That doesn't include ROHwrestling.com viewers or viewers from any of the new platforms the show has debuted on since then (over half a dozen new Sinclair affiliates, Comet TV which is in over 72% of homes in the country, Fight Network, the Fite TV app, NESN, etc). TNA is averaging about 350,000 viewers on Pop since moving to Thursday.

So the bare minimum measurement from ROH two years ago when it was much less popular than it is today is still higher than TNA's viewership.

Now consider:
-ROH runs more than 50 shows a year now, getting about 1,000 paid fans per show. TNA almost exclusively runs at the Impact Zone where they do not charge for tickets.
-Aside from sparse PPVs (some of which are pre-taped ONO events) TNA pretty much only runs TV tapings now. Every single ROH show is either a TV taping, a live PPV/iPPV, or a show they're going to sell on DVD/video on demand. Everything ROH does in monetized.
-ROH sells way more merchandise than TNA
-ROH has working agreements with NJPW, the #2 promotion in the world, and CMLL, the #1 promotion in Mexico and oldest living promotion in the world. TNA has working agreements with the struggling Pro Wrestling Noah, which is basically kept on life support by NJPW and is the #3 promotion in Japan, and a minor agreement with AAA, which is in almost as bad a situation as TNA itself right row.
-ROH is actually growing. Their attendance is literally more than double what it was three years ago, and their show is added to new platforms pretty much on a monthly basis. TNA is getting less than 1/7th of what their peak was on Spike TV.

ROH passed up TNA when TNA got booted off of Spike and they never looked back.

ROH still isn't as big as TNA was in its prime, but TNA is a hollow shell of that right now.

EDIT:
regarding Sinclair possibly buying TNA

I wouldn't expect a full on merger. ROH isn't likely to take on a lot of risk. They'd likely take the video library, assume whichever TV deals they could internationally, and cherry pick some wrestlers. They're not going to take on big name, long term, guaranteed money contracts for guys like Lashley or Jeff Hardy.

 

[Lobo]

I'd love to see RoH become a true #2 company and challenge WWE. I mean they are 2 but I think TNA merged would be a great thing.

 

[famicommander]

I'd love to see RoH become a true #2 company and challenge WWE. I mean they are 2 but I think TNA merged would be a great thing.

They could certainly put out some awesome DVD compilations with combined video libraries

AJ Styles
Christopher Daniels
Samoa Joe
CM Punk
Frankie Kazarian
Eddie Edwards
Davey Richards
Matt Hardy
Austin Aries
Raven
Rhino
Kenny King
Alex Shelley
Chris Sabin
Mick Foley
Jerry Lynn
Jay Lethal
The Young Bucks
etc

All those guys had notable runs in both companies. And if they could license some of the NJPW stuff too, that'd just be gravy. I'd buy the hell out of a compilation of all of AJ's stuff from TNA/ROH/NJPW.

 

[Slushy]

Not really. I feel like WWE having a stranglehold on the American market hasn't really helped matters much. The challenges from WCW and even to a lesser degree ECW back in the day essentially forced Vince to evolve and try new stuff, and the big boom that followed speaks for itself. After he won, Vince got rather complacent and things stagnated.

So I'd much prefer that there be a solid #2 that could do something similar in the future.

TNA is better off on the WWE Network. I think it's too late for Corgan to save the company thanks to Dixie slowly poisoning her company.

 

[famicommander]

TNA is better off on the WWE Network. I think it's too late for Corgan to save the company thanks to Dixie slowly poisoning her company.

Dixie may be a terrible owner but the cold reality is, she's the only reason TNA is still alive. Anyone with more sense than her would've pulled the plug a long time ago.

 

[S. Grundy]

Yeah, she made some questionable decisions, listened to the wrong people. But, she was also in charge during what people would call the peak years. The idea that the brand is "poisoned" is a ridiculous notion. If some of the choices poisoned TNA, than by that logic WWE is a nuclear wasteland, because they've burned fans way more often and with frequency in the past with their ****** storylines and booking.