Re: The Official WWE Thread - Part 27

[RealGunner]

Cena with dat 2nd hour rating increase

John Cena wasn't quite the miracle worker, but his return was enough to keep the Memorial Day Raw viewership numbers above the all-time seasonal low -- even with the show going against the single most-watched NBA game in the history of cable television.

Raw did 3.22 million viewers, the second lowest non-football total other than a major holiday (which Memorial Day is not considered) where people don't watch television since 1997, beating only the 4/25 show that did 3.16 million viewers.

The surprise is that the third hour stayed above 3 million viewers.

Without the advertising of Cena, it was very unlikely the show would have beaten the 4/25 record low. His return was promoted for weeks and he did media like NBC's Today show that morning.

The seventh game of the Golden State Warriors vs. Oklahoma City Thunder Western Conference semifinal did 15,996,000 viewers. The opening game of the Stanley Cup playoffs with the San Jose Sharks losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins did 4,081,000 viewers.

Raw was third for the night on cable.

[Kaladin]

Major rumors:

Smackdown roster:

The following names are currently being advertised for the first live Smackdown on July 19th:

AJ Styles
Dean Ambrose
Chris Jericho
Kevin Owens
Luke Gallows
Karl Anderson

In addition to that, the following names are being advertised for the August 23rd Smackdown brand live event:

AJ Styles
New Day
Cesaro

AJ Styles is advertised for both shows and the belief is that he will be the top heel for the Smackdown and John Cena will be the top babyface.

Rumored MITB card:

The following matches are expected to be added to the Money in the Bank event:

* Rusev vs. Titus O’Neil for the U.S. title

* New Day vs. Anderson & Gallows (or perhaps a three-way or four-way involving the Usos and Vaudevillains since both were involved in angles this week)

* Charlotte & Brooke vs. Natalya & Becky Lynch

* Goldust & R-Truth vs. Breeze & Fandango

* Sheamus vs. Apollo Crews

* Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin

Bray's return:

Bray Wyatt is scheduled to be return on the road with WWE next week. There is currently no word yet on if he will be appearing live on RAW or at SmackDown next week but he is scheduled to return soon.

Wyatt has been out of action since suffering a right calf injury back in April during a WWE Live Event from Milan. His return has been teased on Twitter over the past several days:

http://nodq.com/wwe/

Finally, rumors circulating on twitter that this year's MITB will have only 6 participants, 7th has been binned

--------------------------

That MITB card

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

People are just assuming based off storylines, same was done before Payback.

No way in hell are Goldust, Fandango and the likes are on the PPV lol.

We basically know we are getting Cena-Styles, Reigns-Rollins, MITB match itself and probably The Club vs The New Day.

Considering MITB is a 2-3 hour PPV like all the other non WM PPV it honestly doesn't leave much room for much else.

Basically not every storyline they do ends up on PPV.

[zizzle]

Why ziggler and corbina are still wrestling ?

[Kaladin]

Also, i'm surprised that the Smackdown roster looks good, thought it'd be filled with jobbers since RAW is Vince's preferred show. Here's hoping it can get to the level of the Rey Mysterio, Edge, Angle, Eddie Guerrerio, etc days

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

With AJs turn it will need more faces though, assuming Cena ends up on Smackdown he'd be the only singles face along with Ambrose and Cesaro from that list lol.

[zizzle]

Cena, AJ, New day, no reigns...that's more than enough tbh

[Onyx]

Meltzer: There are signs that USA are concerned with WWE and with the brand split

It is still largely secretive, if things have even been figured out past the top guys, regarding what will happen with WWE talent when they do the brand split in July.

The most likely reason that the move was made, was because the USA Network was not happy with the ratings of Smackdown. The hope was that Smackdown on USA would do close to the numbers of Raw, particularly when it opened strong at around 2.7 million viewers. The reality is that WWE was not using as much primary talent on Smackdown, nor were they doing the obvious, shooting angles for matches on Mondays that would lead to Thursday. For wrestling fans, Smackdown remained no more important, nor must.see, on USA as it had been in recent years on Syfy. What shocked everyone is that ratings had fallen below what they were a year ago, even with the move to a much stronger station. While ratings weren’t down from last year as much as Raw, the expectation was that a Thursday night prime time show on USA would do better.

Key to this is that, even though WWE will be adding expenses by going live, USA is not paying more for the increase in costs. It’s the first sign, while hidden from the public, that USA is concerned that the approximately $127 million they pay WWE this year for Raw and Smackdown is not delivering at the level they would like. Given that the key economic driver of the company is not the network but the television rights fees, in the long run, until economic conditions change greatly, ratings are still the most important barometer for the company, and they are consistently falling.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

Pretty decent promo between The Club and The New Day on Smackdown, showed why i like The New Day tbh. When they actually seem threatened and they making jokes to piss off the heels they are good, no need for this dancing crap it's completely unnecessary.

[zizzle]

But they're black so they must like to dance - vince logic

[M99]

Heel AJ

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

First time the Styles Clash looked good in WWE lol, never seen a finisher which is so dependant on who is taking it to look good.

Thing is in TNA the biggest guy to take it was probably Samoa Joe, the rest of them are probably not much bigger than Kofi.

Which obviously isn't the case in WWE seeing as it's the land of the giants. So it's probably a good thing he has another finisher now.

[Kaladin]

During a Q&A at the Wizard World Philly yesterday, Seth Rollins mentioned that he would rather feud with AJ Styles than tag with him. Rollins would go on to say that he thinks we’ll see those matches very soon. Rollins added that Styles would be his ideal WrestleMania opponent because he looked up videos of him non-stop as a child.

A fan also asked about Finn Balor, and Rollins said that it would happen eventually.

http://nodq.com/wwe/466991630.shtml

[zizzle]

AJ vs Rollins

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

There was a fun bit between them during the Rollins doc how one of his first matches was against AJ was when he was 19 and he adolised him etc.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

Anyway speaking of AJ, wwe have confirmed him and Cena is happening at MITB.

[Kaladin]

MITB card looking better than Mania

Rollins v THE guy

Cena v AJ

6 man

cant wait tbh

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

I honestly don't care what the rest of the card is, those 3 right there is enough for me to know I'm gonna like it.

[M99]

Probably Gallows and Anderson vs New Day too which is gonna be good.

[M99]

https://twitter.com/VinceGoogling

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

https://twitter.com/xxscbgamingxx/status/738962556312772608

Dead

[Casciavit]

So who gets the win?

A returning John Cena or a newly turned AJ Styles?

Will Vince allow the face of TNA to get one over the face of WWE?

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

As i said before i think this is going to at least Summerslam and AJ will get one win, i'm just not sure when it's happening.

Reckon Cena wins the feud though, probably makes the most sense if AJ cheats to win at MITB, Cena gets him back at Battleground with Cena winning the rubber match at Summerslam probably.

WWE doesn't do sense though

[RealGunner]

They will exchange wins but Cena will probably get the 3rd win to make it 2-1.

[Onyx]

How on earth does taking stars off of RAW improve ratings exactly? If they want to improve ratings, they need to improve the show as a whole. There's a billion different things they can do to improve the show.

Having a 3 hour filler RAW, followed up by another 2 hours of filler is just asking for trouble.

Source: The Wrestling Observer

"The Wrestling Observer is reporting that some details regarding the impending WWE Brand Extension have apparently been revealed.

The details involve who the top babyfaces and heels will likely be for both Raw and SmackDown. According to these details, WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns will reportedly lead Raw as the show's top babyface, while Seth Rollins will serve as the show's top heel. In regards to SmackDown, John Cena will serve as that show's top babyface, while AJ Styles will take the position as the show's top heel.

Furthermore, these same details have also apparently revealed that a second world title is expected to be created for whichever show that the current champion does not end up on.

According to the report, the idea of sending Cena over to SmackDown has to do with helping to boost the show's overall image as more than just a secondary brand within WWE. According to multiple reports, the USA Network is said to have not been happy with the overall performance of both Raw and SmackDown so far this year due to low ratings, which is leading the network to have trouble selling advertising space.

It's important to note that these details have in no way whatsoever been finalized as of yet and that, as always, plans can always change by the time the WWE Draft and Brand Extension take place in July."

[Onyx]

Cass is Enzo's sidekick, how do they not see that? This is all Enzo's gimmick ffs. Once they split, Enzo will keep the gimmick, while Cass will just be a generic big guy.

Then again being 'generic' and 'regular' seems to be the norm nowadays, so I won't be surprised if Cass is pushed to the top despite not being ready, while Enzo jobs on superstars on a weekly basis.

Big Cass has been turning a lot of heads within WWE because of his look and in-ring work.

While Enzo Amore was out of action with a concussion last month, many people were looking at Cass as not just a tag team player but a future singles star. Cass has been booked the way he has as a way to protect him in case they want to pull the trigger on a singles run. It will be interesting to see what happens with Enzo and Cass in the WWE Draft.

On a related note, Enzo returned from his concussion a few weeks earlier than some expected.

Source: PWInsider

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