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[BoboBrazil]

It's still hilarious that they've killed Rock as a ratings draw trying to lower him to Cena's level. Wrestlemania will still probably do big numbers because it's Wrestlemania and it built itself into a brand where casuals order it even when they don't watch, kind of like the Superbowl. WWE was expecting 1.3 million buys though and I'm gonna guess it will end up around 800,000-900,000.

 

[Penguin]

Day 2 is Top 7 WrestleMania stories

http://nerdsontherocks.com/top-7-road-wrestlemania-storylines

I wanted to include Chris Benoit's WrestleMania 20 story.. but part of me just couldn't bring myself to do it.

 

[somedevil]

I remember mentioning number 2 the first time the two of them interacted. And all it would have taken was a single line from Sheamus about how he feels Bryan is an undeserving champion or a coward or something.

But nothing. Its been Sheamus is a contender, Bryan is the champion. Not much else to their feud. Which is sad.

Sheamus has called Bryan coward multiple times and says he hids behind AJ on Smackdown a couple of times. Also, Chris Jericho is staying. He signed a 6 month contract and just signed an unknown extension of that. So he not done after Wrestlemania.

 

[Kaladin]

I still think this will be a good Wrestlemania despite the low viewership and bad builds. Remember Wrestlemania is the one show of the year that should be able to stand on it's own despite anything that went on around it.

 

[CrunchinJelly]

I still think this will be a good Wrestlemania despite the low viewership and bad builds. Remember Wrestlemania is the one show of the year that should be able to stand on it's own despite anything that went on around it.

Wresltemania 27.

 

[BillRiccio]

You would think WWE would offer him 6 figures to come back for the network, tv in a legends deal. Lol, if Dixie is still paying him $500,000 a year, although Flair is one of the guys that negotiates directly with Spike so to them they probably don't think it's very much or have any clue.

Didn't Vince offer Flair half a million a year to do appearances and basically be a ambassador for WWE when he retired?

 

[Kaladin]

Wresltemania 27.

There is always an exception.

 

[CrunchinJelly]

There is always an exception.

Is it an exception or the beginning of a trend?

 

[Liquidsnake]

WWE needs to turn Smackdown into an emergency WM hype show.

 

[RBH]

http://www.gerweck.net/tv-ratings/2011-ratings/
http://www.gerweck.net/tv-ratings/2012-tv-ratings/

 

[Perspicacity]

Wresltemania 27.

That was a bad show on paper before it even started. Not as bad as Hogan vs "Iraq sympathizer" Sgt. Slaughter, but still quite bad.

This one has boatloads of potential that the WWE seems unwilling to realize.

 

[Kaladin]

Is it an exception or the beginning of a trend?

This Wrestlemania isn't 27. This has more than one good match that can stand the test of time. It's also not (obviously) building to next year's Mania. We all knew going in that 27 was a build to Rock wrestling next year.....while we may suspect a Rock/Cena trilogy, this match should be able to stand on it's own.

 

[krae_man]

LOL WWE turned the interactive seat map off for Wrestlemania. Can't have everyone notice thousands of tickets are still available.

Also Club tickets are 1/2 off now.

 

[Liquidsnake]

This Wrestlemania isn't 27. This has more than one good match that can stand the test of time. It's also not (obviously) building to next year's Mania. We all knew going in that 27 was a build to Rock wrestling next year.....while we may suspect a Rock/Cena trilogy, this match should be able to stand on it's own.

The first match will be the best. Its hard to duplicate the magic.

 

[darkside31337]

So how cheap of a ticket could one get at WM now?

Live in Orlando, I might do another WM if it's reasonable.

 

[Kaladin]

So how cheap of a ticket could one get at WM now?

Live in Orlando, I might do another WM if it's reasonable.

Don't just do WM, come down for the weekend and enjoy some Dragon Gate or ROH.

 

[somedevil]

Is it an exception or the beginning of a trend?

I think and from some review there hasn't been a good wrestlemania since 2008. This card has the potential to be great if matches are given enough time.

LOL WWE turned the interactive seat map off for Wrestlemania. Can't have everyone notice thousands of tickets are still available.

Also Club tickets are 1/2 off now.

The amount of ticket left doesn't really matter. It will mostly sold out anyway. I don't see why its so important.

 

[Ithil]

I remember mentioning number 2 the first time the two of them interacted. And all it would have taken was a single line from Sheamus about how he feels Bryan is an undeserving champion or a coward or something.

But nothing. Its been Sheamus is a contender, Bryan is the champion. Not much else to their feud. Which is sad.

He has called him a coward a couple of times. They've gotten about 4 minutes in 8 shows for promos though.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

WM buyrates

WrestleMania 1 - 398,000 (Closed Circuit Television)
WrestleMania 2 - 319,000 (Closed Circuit Television)
WrestleMania III - 450,000 (Closed Circuit Television) and another 400,000 on PPV
WrestleMania IV - 175,000 (Closed Circuit Television)
WrestleMania V - 767,000
WrestleMania VI - 550,000
WrestleMania VII - 400,000
WrestleMania VIII - 360,000
WrestleMania IX - 430,000
WrestleMania X - 420,000
WrestleMania XI - 340,000
WrestleMania XII - 290,000
WrestleMania 13 - 237,000 (Lowest Buyrate Record)
WrestleMania XIV - 730,000
WrestleMania XV - 800,000
WrestleMania 2000 - 824,000
WrestleMania X-Seven - 1,040,000
WrestleMania X8 - 880,000
WrestleMania XIX - 560,000
WrestleMania XX - 1,007,000
WrestleMania 21 - 1,085,000
WrestleMania 22 - 975,000
WrestleMania 23 - 1,250,000 (Highest Buyrate Record)
WrestleMania XXIV - 1,041,000
WrestleMania XXV - 960,000
WrestleMania XXVI - 885,000
WrestleMania XXVII - 1,042,000

XXVII being so high is LOL, but XIX being so low is always weird to me. XIX had the return of HBK to WM with a great match against Chris Jericho, Hogan and Vince have a bloody brawl on the biggest stage of them all, Austin/Rock for the final time, and you know there was gonna be a great Angle/Lesnar match at the end. I think that's a lot of appeal, but the buyrate was terrible! WTF!?

 

[dream]

It's still hilarious that they've killed Rock as a ratings draw trying to lower him to Cena's level. Wrestlemania will still probably do big numbers because it's Wrestlemania and it built itself into a brand where casuals order it even when they don't watch, kind of like the Superbowl. WWE was expecting 1.3 million buys though and I'm gonna guess it will end up around 800,000-900,000.

Hopefully, being turned into Just Another Guy will hurt Dwayne's Q rating which, in turn, will hurt his box office appeal which, in turn, will make him decide to not work with WWE again which, in turn, will finally kill this miserable company which, in turn, will release hundreds of broken down drug addicted conmen with no employable skills into the world.

 

[Kaladin]

You know what would have really popped a rating bigger than The Rock? If Undertaker or Triple H put their career on the line for this match and they left HBK out.

 

[jobber]

Rock vs. Austin Wrestlemania 17

Triple H vs. Batista Wrestlemania 21. There's a reason this had the biggest buyrate at the time. On a side note, Teddy Long has been the smackdown general manager FOREVER

no he hasn't

He got booted by Vickie in a takeover (during the Edge title runs)
Then he got fired and sent down to ECW
then moved to back to Smackdown after Vickie left the first time (she came back a few months later...tbh I think she's just working to keep Eddie's salary since he bought a house right before he died)

edit: I can't forget the heart attack and the attempted murder by Dolph!

 

[ViewtifulJC]

Undertaker has a career?

 

[Biggest-Geek-Ever]

XXVII being so high is LOL, but XIX being so low is always weird to me. XIX had the return of HBK to WM with a great match against Chris Jericho, Hogan and Vince have a bloody brawl on the biggest stage of them all, Austin/Rock for the final time, and you know there was gonna be a great Angle/Lesnar match at the end. I think that's a lot of appeal, but the buyrate was terrible! WTF!?

The biggest problem in regards to XIX is that Austin/Rock was not hyped as Austin's final match. I understand that was what Austin wanted, but it definitely lowered the buyrate.

 

[Kaladin]

no he hasn't

He got booted by Vickie in a takeover (during the Edge title runs)
Then he got fired and sent down to ECW
then moved to back to Smackdown after Vickie left the first time (she came back a few months later...tbh I think she's just working to keep Eddie's salary since he bought a house right before he died)

edit: I can't forget the heart attack and the attempted murder by Dolph!

Yep, they really have run the course with Teddy Long on Smackdown. Also, you forget this gem....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfuYPwdfFr4

 

[CrunchinJelly]

WM buyrates

XXVII being so high is LOL, but XIX being so low is always weird to me. XIX had the return of HBK to WM with a great match against Chris Jericho, Hogan and Vince have a bloody brawl on the biggest stage of them all, Austin/Rock for the final time, and you know there was gonna be a great Angle/Lesnar match at the end. I think that's a lot of appeal, but the buyrate was terrible! WTF!?

Most of these numbers are fudged, by the way. WWE have fudged their buy rates for years... some of these numbers are only US, some are US + Worldwide PPV, some are US + Worldwide PPV + Worldwide TV.... they're a mess.

They keep moving the goalposts as to what they use in these numbers so it's very hard to keep track of how well they're doing based on historical figures.

 

[Striker]

This is sort of the line of thinking that got them in trouble in the first place, they should be building new stars not digging these corpses (aside from Jericho) up whenever they think they need a hot ratings injection.

It's Vince relying on his old dogs rather than being creative and finding ways to make his current wrestlers bigger. He's been digging himself in this hole for so, so long, and it will eventually be his downfall, or we'll have some new stars. I too am happy the numbers dropped. I hadn't watched a full/most of RAW for several months, and when I do, it's still shit. I could have swore watching that Big Show last night was no different than the one I skimmed three weeks ago. Awful writing, period.

 

[BillRiccio]

Former WWE creative team member Seth Mates had to this to say about Rock vs Cena in a recent interview.


"Rock has one massive piece of ammo to use on Cena. Rock could argue that unlike other superstars, he left the business still on top and didn't feel the need to hang around and take other guy's spots. Rock could argue that by his leaving when he did it gave the opportunity for someone like Cena to be showcased. If Rock were really selfish and didn't respect the business, he would have hung around for more paydays and taken up a lot more main event spots, much like others who we all know. It was almost exactly around the time that Rock left that Cena started to take off. The point right here, that point right there would silence Cena and his backers. Food for thought. Rock could go, you know had I stuck around, John, you would not have emerged when you did because you would have never taken my spot."

Wish Rock would have said this while Cena was smirking last month, would have made for a good gif.

 

[Razorskin]

Any new pictures of the wrestlemania set? It's the only thing giving me any hype.

 

[SoulPlaya]

XXVII being so high is LOL, but XIX being so low is always weird to me. XIX had the return of HBK to WM with a great match against Chris Jericho, Hogan and Vince have a bloody brawl on the biggest stage of them all, Austin/Rock for the final time, and you know there was gonna be a great Angle/Lesnar match at the end. I think that's a lot of appeal, but the buyrate was terrible! WTF!?

Wrestling was in a really bad slump at the time, and WM 19 was horribly promoted and hyped. They did an incredible job hyping up XX, however.

 

[jobber]

Yep, they really have run the course with Teddy Long on Smackdown. Also, you forget this gem....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfuYPwdfFr4

I didn't forget..he never got fired..just blackmailed. Vince was trolling Teddy and Drew took advantage of it.

Also don't forget Teddy turned heel during Punk's title run and in turn, Punk is the only man in WWE history to have a submission victory over the Undertaker ^_^

Wrestling was in a really bad slump at the time, and WM 19 was horribly promoted and hyped. They did an incredible job hyping up XX, however.

Didn't the Wrestlemania sign debut during the build for 20? Maybe that's why they keep that god damn sign up from December-April

 

[Kaladin]

Former WWE creative team member Seth Mates had to this to say about Rock vs Cena in a recent interview.


"Rock has one massive piece of ammo to use on Cena. Rock could argue that unlike other superstars, he left the business still on top and didn't feel the need to hang around and take other guy's spots. Rock could argue that by his leaving when he did it gave the opportunity for someone like Cena to be showcased. If Rock were really selfish and didn't respect the business, he would have hung around for more paydays and taken up a lot more main event spots, much like others who we all know. It was almost exactly around the time that Rock left that Cena started to take off. The point right here, that point right there would silence Cena and his backers. Food for thought. Rock could go, you know had I stuck around, John, you would not have emerged when you did because you would have never taken my spot."

Wish Rock would have said this while Cena was smirking last month, would have made for a good gif.

He's probably former creative because he shot this idea at Vince and Vince fired him on the spot.

 

[SoulPlaya]

I didn't forget..he never got fired..just blackmailed. Vince was trolling Teddy and Drew took advantage of it.

Also don't forget Teddy turned heel during Punk's title run and in turn, Punk is the only man in WWE history to have a submission victory over the Undertaker ^_^




Didn't the Wrestlemania sign debut during the build for 20? Maybe that's why they keep that god damn sign up from December-April

Not entirely true, I believe Angle once made heel Biker Taker tap on a random episode of RAW that ended in a double pin/submission, where Taker tapped, and Angle's shoulders were down. The victory was given to Angle, but then disputed. Ah fuck it, let's just say you're right. lol

 

[Fintan]

I'm going to do a bet on Mania for a laugh, but I'm not sure of my picks. Here's what I got:
The Rock
Taker
Jericho
Bryan
Show
Orton

What say WrassleGAF, have I got it right?

Here's a link to the odds if anyone is interested.
http://www.paddypower.com/bet/novelty-betting/sports-novelties/wwe?ev_oc_grp_ids=633824

 

[Kaladin]

I'm going to do a bet on Mania for a laugh, but I'm not sure of my picks. Here's what I got:
The Rock
Taker
Jericho
Bryan
Show
Orton

What say WrassleGAF, have I got it right?

Here's a link to the odds if anyone is interested.
http://www.paddypower.com/bet/novelty-betting/sports-novelties/wwe?ev_oc_grp_ids=633824

Bryan and Show are the only toss ups IMO.

 

[Plywood]

Shortlived, but I gotta burn through them:

,

Shame no one noticed the similarity.

Now I gotta watch yesterdays Big Show.

 

[CrunchinJelly]

Former WWE creative team member Seth Mates had to this to say about Rock vs Cena in a recent interview.

Wish Rock would have said this while Cena was smirking last month, would have made for a good gif.

He probably got fired for being too creative.

 

[jobber]

Not entirely true, I believe Angle once made heel Biker Taker tap on a random episode of RAW that ended in a double pin/submission, where Taker tapped, and Angle's shoulders were down. The victory was given to Angle, but then disputed. Ah fuck it, let's just say you're right. lol

RVD also pinned Biketaker for the WWE title

 

[Biggest-Geek-Ever]

Not entirely true, I believe Angle once made heel Biker Taker tap on a random episode of RAW that ended in a double pin/submission, where Taker tapped, and Angle's shoulders were down. The victory was given to Angle, but then disputed. Ah fuck it, let's just say you're right. lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NptjOV9md7w

I would assume you have to slap the mat more than once for it actually be a tap out, so Undertaker definitely pinned him. :lol

 

[Kaladin]

RVD also pinned Biketaker for the WWE title

Has RVD ever beaten Stone Cold or Hogan?

 

[SoulPlaya]

Didn't the Wrestlemania sign debut during the build for 20? Maybe that's why they keep that god damn sign up from December-April

Yeah, they really improved their WM hype around that time, but doing year long promotions and hype. It made the event feel like such a huge deal.

WM 19 was horribly built. No one really cared about Hogan/Vince, and Jericho/HBK was the only thing that got a good long build besides Hogan/Vince. Rock/Austin felt like it was thrown together a month before, and Booker T just wasn't a credible opponent for HHH, especially since HHH had spent months squashing people. Damn that was such an absolutely terrible time for wrestling.

 

[SoulPlaya]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NptjOV9md7w

I would assume you have to slap the mat more than once for it actually be a tap out, so Undertaker definitely pinned him. :lol

He did slap it more than once. Angle made him tap. First guy to make Taker tap, first guy to make Kane tap. Congrats Angle.

 

[Kyoufu]

He did slap it more than once. Angle made him tap. First guy to make Taker tap, first guy to make Kane tap.

He made me tap too.

 

[FallingEdge]

Best WM Match

 

[ViewtifulJC]

Now I gotta watch yesterdays Big Show.

No Plywood, you really don't. I rather be hit in the face with a Big Show then watch that RAW again

 

[Guzim]

Booker T is in a match? Doing what?

]http://www.wwe.com/f/styles/photo_large/public/photo/image/2012/01/23_EVE_11212011MB_0392_ng_E.jpg

I was being serious with the Booker T question, fuck is he doing?

http://www.wwe.com/f/styles/photo_large/public/photo/image/2012/01/06_Eve_181_157.jpg

Aww shucky ducky quack QUACK!

 

[Kaladin]

2 more hours of work, then I gotta pack, then I gotta sleep and then......

Finally djsandman has come back to

MIAMI.

 

[DonasaurusRex]

im kinda confused at why the raw go home show was so tame...usually its a huge eventful show , a lot of video packages ...its like i was watching youtube clips.

 

[Biggest-Geek-Ever]

He did slap it more than once. Angle made him tap. First guy to make Taker tap, first guy to make Kane tap. Congrats Angle.

Not before Undertaker got the pin... SHUT UP

Best WM Match

I remember reading an article saying how this was your typical "big man" match and not really that bad.

Yeah, no.

 

[RBH]

334 days later, I just received Chris Sabin's medical clearance to return to the ring. Very excited. MMG fans stay tuned!

http://twitter.com/#!/TNADixie/status/184753304021123072