Summerslam at Wembley next year would be a great way to celebrate the 25th Anniversary since Summerslam 92

Yeah I agree. Hope it happens. Shit just realised I would probably be on holiday though

Now does that not sound a lot more entertaining than watching wrestling matches with wrestlers that can't sell or work and have no reason to exist? You got everything there. Characters. A little bit of sexyness from Debra. You got some stunts and drama at the end. What more do you want in a wrestling show?

I dont mean now, I mean they should have done it in London a decade ago.

What they should have done was gotten Hogan, Piper, Andre, Hillbilly and the rest to voice their own parts.

Nothing wrong with Suburban Commando, loved it as a kid. Mr Nanny I didnt like, I hated the way the kids always tricked him.

Thunder in Paradise I saw clips but never the full thing. I did see a VHS vid of it .

Can't see us getting a main event as good as Bulldog/Bret was.

Just read more about this press conference in London next week, looks like an nxt announcement.

Far too long to post here but a great insight into WWE and comments from all the main players involved in the business side of WWE. Here are some small highlights of this massive article.

"Differing points of view oftentimes help drive the best results," Levesque told me, referencing Vince. "While there are times people across the organization have different opinions on a topic, what we do well is collectively execute once a decision is made." He added, "Vince has been, and continues to be, very supportive of NXT. The fact the he continues to promote performers from NXT to Raw and SmackDown is a clear sign of his support."

But Levesque's vision of what a performer should be doesn't always correlate with what the corporation needs to keep ratings up and money coming in. "He's an old-school guy—a true wrestler," the same senior-level executive told me. "But look at the ratings. Where are the stars? Smart marks love these characters, but that's not the audience that drives a giant business."


Because the profit margin of the network is only in the 10 percent range, WWE needs to boost their subscriber numbers just to survive, let alone sustain growth and keep shareholders happy. "If you get more TV viewers, WWE gets the same amount of money. If you get more network subscribers, WWE gets more money," Harrington told me. "That's a great thing, but the challenge is, where do all these added subscribers come from, especially if TV ratings keep falling?"

Another way to gauge WWE Network's progress is the "churn" numbers, or how many people terminate the service after signing up. For the second quarter of 2016, WWE gained 625,000 total subscribers, but lost 471,000, giving them a net addition of only 153,000.

I was curious to know the total churn numbers since the network's inception. "We don't give those numbers out publicly," George Barrios told me, but according to documents submitted to the SEC, WWE Network has amassed 4,587,000 total accounts since launching in 2014, while 3,076,000 accounts have left the service (leaving us with the current number of active accounts: 1,511,000). That means that 67 percent of accounts that were created were eventually canceled (I refer to them as "accounts" rather than "subscribers" because theoretically one person could sign up and bail more than once, thus skewing the metrics).


WWE boasts having one of the largest fan bases of any sports-entertainment company on social media, with 672 million total followers across all platforms and more than 10 billion total views on YouTube. (If one person follows two different wrestlers on Twitter, however, it counts as two people, so these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt.)

But the financial return of social media (which is lumped into all digital media, minus the network) is incredibly low compared to that of television. Dividing total digital revenue by total number of followers, WWE only makes three cents per online user outside of WWE Network (with a slim operating income of $100,000 for the first half this year) compared to roughly $21 per person for domestic television, with an operating income of roughly $55.5 million during the same period. Moreover, their global views for ad-supported video-on-demand services like YouTube dropped by 300 million from the first to second quarters of 2016, the first decrease in the history of the division.


Despite all their innovation in the digital space, WWE is still beholden to television, which accounted for $231.1 million in revenue in 2015—35 percent of the company's total revenue—and $116.8 million for the first half of 2016, according to SEC filings. Without it, the company would surely drown.

Vince McMahon wanted to remove himself from the grips of television—from having someone else own the vessel through which his product is presented—but his obsession with creating a global media empire might ultimately be his company's undoing. The continued existence of WWE Studios, which produces feature films and other projects, has been bleeding the company of revenue for years. In 2015, the division posted an operating loss of $1.5 million, and only contributed roughly 1 percent to the company's overall annual revenue, according to SEC filings. Now, with WWE Network, the company has nearly all of its eggs in one basket.

"The product, without question, is struggling," a former senior-level executive said. "But he can't fix the problem because it's him—he's the problem."

It's possible, but why would HHH take two eight hour flights to announce an nxt tour? He didn't for the last two nxt tours.

I don't see why you can't have women on a reality show as well as a genuinely hot top babyface who sells loads of tickets, sells loads of merchandise and brings new fans to the show but whatever.

And why put "drawing" in quotation marks as if Austin wasn't the biggest draw the company ever had?

This is really good:

https://sports.vice.com/en_us/articl...usiness-empire

I doubt most will pick up on it till Monday when the audio is on PodcastOne but yesterday Vince Russo revealed that when he spoke to Billy Corgan last week, one of the things revealed in the court case was that Dixie Carter and John Gaburick admitted in the court that they had spoken to WWE about the sale of the company despite telling him personally they hadn't and one of the things Kevin Dunn had revealed was the WWE's goal for the WWE Network worldwide was 4 million subscribers and he thought that was kinda low since they used to have 4 million watching Raw every Monday yet for the entire world their target was 4 million people. He thought they would have been aiming for much higher than that but I guess the numbers for them must add up. And then you read that article and you see what the numbers actually mean, how much it costs to run the Network, how many people they need subscribing to make a profit and then how many people have CANCELLED their accounts.


And it's good they mentioned social media and how little money it brings in. Cents per head unlike the $21 per head TV brings in.


And that's one thing repeated throughout, just how important those TV deals are to WWE and that's why ratings always will matter because they pay money based on ratings. No doubt WWE will be on TV for quite some time but will they be getting the money they are getting now? No chance. They'll never win back those people and with the TV revenue making up a third of their overall revenue, it makes even more confusing, it's 2017 in a few weeks, 2 years before the next contract renewals. Why they are not panicking right now and trying to get more viewers baffles me. They should be trying to create stars and bring back fans.

Is Hazy just Vince Russo in disguise?

Most people wont pick up what Russo says because its just some random person chatting. They wont pick up on John Smith saying something so why Vince Smith?

Why are Hazy's post so incredibly long?

If they were a quarter length id probably read them.

Because he likes the copy and paste buttons

Don't read my posts then Dave.


The dirtsheets wont report on anything Russo says but Russo has 250,000 listeners on Podcast One and is podcasting 5 days a week. That's a quarter of a million people. That's a lot of listeners.



Vince McMahon is 70 years old and let's face it, could drop dead any day. Once you're that age you can go anytime. Vince Russo is 55 years old and says he didn't give a shit about wrestling in 1992 when he wrote for the magazine and didn't give a shit about it in 2011 when he left TNA so there's no chance of him writing again. Basically for me and fans like me, wrestling wont ever be that good again because the people involved in that time are too old now. And I accept that. I understand that. I'm not sitting wishing and hoping for things to be the way they were because the people that I enjoyed watching are either dead, too old to wrestle or in both VInce's case, they're too old to redo what they did 20 years ago.


I remember in 2010 I said to many many people, when Bischoff and Hogan went to TNA and Flair went, I said this is the last chance saloon for wrestling because all of them could still wrestle to some extent, they could still get physical, Russo was in his 40s, McMahon in his early 60s. They were all still young enough they could do it for a few more years but now in 2016 it's just too late. That's why I never badmouth the legends. I was never a big Dusty Rhodes fan but I remember watching him as a child and enjoying his matches, I was a big Roddy Piper fan and when he died I felt sadness just because it'll never be that good again. Wrestlers like that just wont come along again and that's why when I read online people ragging on Ric Flair and they did it with Hogan and some are on at Angle now and on a lot of forums you can see the register date and you know it's young kids. It's young kids in their early 20s and they've no clue what they're talking about. Never lived through those eras but they think they know it all.


It's the millennials for you. Russo's daughter is the same way. She thinks he's the enemy and a racist because he supports Trump and wont talk to him lol. He asked her why she was protesting at her University and she couldn't tell him why and he basically laughed at her lol. And that's how it is. Young men and women that are just clueless, you need to laugh at them. No life experience at all but they sure know more than everyone else. And you get them here too. I told the story in GD about a friend of mine crying the morning Trump was elected. A grown woman crying about the President of another country. I just told her grow up, go to your work and get on with your life instead of all this bubbling like a baby. Grow up. I was right to say that. Believe me with Brexit in 3 months and Article 50 and Trump officially becoming President on January 17th, these millennials are gonna be forced to grow up and get a life and they wont be worried about moaning at me and telling me my OPINION on wrestling is wrong. A lot of people are gonna be doing some growing up big time in January and it can't come soon enough. Of course......




in my OPINION.

I dont. Im sure other members dont read it either as people either dont quote it or they ve blocked you.

Never had a problem with you but maybe if you shortened your posts it might get read more.

Maybe she don't listen to him because she knows he talks nonsense and lives in the past?


Sounds like a very smart woman to me

With these large numbers who sponsors the show? Which companies pay for advertising to reach out to the customers? Which companies have a link with this very popular podcast? Or is he just limiting himself to a very small revenue stream? Is he just measuring success by just one method instead many more that is available to him?

Is he just stuck in a rapidly aging and slowly dying way of measuring success?

By revealed he means stuff Corgan was already talking about to Meltzer last week, most of which was known already.

She's 21 years old. No doubt many will agree with her. But the day will come where she will have to leave home and live life.


No Russo talked to him on the phone. Billy has spoken to many people but the only thing Russo talked about was the WWE's worldwide numbers for the Network that Kevin Dunn said was 3-4 million and Corgan and Russo thought that was an awfully low number considering in the last 5 years WWE had that number watching Raw in America alone but that's their big number for WORLDWIDE? It's not a lot at all. Billy should be on Russo's show next week.


And Russo has many sponsors that pay although I usually fast forward those bits. Steve Austin is the reason Russo is on PodcastOne so Steve Austin's show is all put over voluntarily and an interview with Steve was released last week. I know Draft Kings is one of them and Vince has been playing fantasy sports online for years so he loves them. True Car is another. There's another one that you can bet online with sports but it's real sports and I don't know the name of it. There's another one about mattresses, the only bit I caught about that was you can send it back within 90 days and he's asking them for one for his wife. He mentioned one about food last week, some thing about healthy eating and this company prepares your meals for you and sends them to your house, you don't need to cook anything they do it for you. I think the rest are wrestling. Kayfabe Commentaries pay him to advertise their DVDs and for the past month I don't know if it's Wrestling Tees or another company, I think they own Wrestling Tees but they do a loot crate type thing in America where you buy the box and get t shirts and autographs and collectables. The big ones are Draft Kings are True Car. They have been sponsoring since day one.


And he also makes money through his website where you can pay to get all the shows a day early and on video.

The one thing I did learn about Podcast One though, and he says Steve Austin is the same way and everyone else on Podcast One. You don't get paid every month at the start, it works out every 6 months. So Steve Austin put the word in earlier this year when Russo was on Austin's show. Russo started on Podcast One in April but no money came till October and what happens is the sponsors will not pay Podcast One for 6 months and on month 6 they pay for all those 6 months and Podcast One pay the podcaster their share of the money. So April's money will be paid in October, May's money would have been November, June's money will be paid this month. It's always 6 months arrears but it takes that first 6 months before Podcast One even gets any money so even though he has been doing it since April, the money is only starting to come in now.

So really quite minor companies who appeal to quite low demographics, With these amazing numbers you keep quoting you would think some major companies would be falling over themselves to advertise on it and why are they not?

Because the people who are download the podcast are not really valuable to any major advertiser or someone they really bothered about. Once/if the start up companies start to pick up serious traction they will soon stop buying time on his show This is what you fail to understand, It don't matter if 90 people download it or 90000 if they are not part of a certain demographic they are no longer relevant. Its no longer about numbers its about WHO are listening or watching and people who like Russo and his type of entertainment are no longer valuable. A company would rather have a lower number of a certain type then a larger number of another and this is something Russo will never understand he thinks bigger is better and when he was relevant he was right but not so much now.

How and when the money comes in is not important its who the money comes from.

It also why he charges for website access and certain podcasts its because the money is not coming in at at a high enough rate or level because his target audience no matter how large is no longer valuable.

It don't matter if these people vote for Trump or Mickey Mouse or BREXIT or for everyone to wear a xmas jumper all year round, They are not a valuable market any more, In the past they had a value, Today the market might be the same size but their value has fallen and continues to fall

I skip past them.

People now seem to think the press conference is announcing a UK tournament for the network.

I can see that as it will give them a excuse to sign a few guys to stop them appearing on WOS or WCPW.