Is it a foregone conclusion that Rock is carrying the belt from the Rumble until WM?

[Dolph'sZiggler]

Re

That'd be cool (the triple threat), Punk going over both on WM is pure fantasy booking though lol.

Punk drops title to Rock, Cena wins Rumble, Rock vs Cena gets set up and Punk freaks out and places himself in the middle of Rock/Cenas feud until he's added to the match, which Cena of course would win.

 

[Lockard 23]

RE: Re

You are thinkin like too much of a smark. Marks, who buy way more PPVs than smarks see it as Rock being champ which adds to it and they will eat up the rematch Cena revenge BS.

Plus Brock vs Taker is a match that even without Rock or Cena on the card would draw 1 million buys

I was actually thinking like a casual fan when I thought of that. The show will do huge and probably reach at least over a million buys just because Wrestlemania can sell itself on the hype of the event itself, regardless of what the card looks like. I'm sure those two matches will draw on their own, but I don't see them breaking the biggest buyrate ever record. WM26 sort of proved that putting a lot of hype on Taker's streak doesn't automatically draw, as the show didn't do nearly as well as they had hoped, and honestly, Brock isn't nearly as big of a pro wrestling draw as he is/was in UFC. His match with Cena at ER did well, but not as well as people thought it would.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

RE: Re

I was actually thinking like a casual fan when I thought of that. The show will do huge and probably reach at least over a million buys just because Wrestlemania can sell itself on the hype of the event itself, regardless of what the card looks like. I'm sure those two matches will draw on their own, but I don't see them breaking the biggest buyrate ever record. WM26 sort of proved that putting a lot of hype on Taker's streak doesn't automatically draw, as the show didn't do nearly as well as they had hoped, and honestly, Brock isn't nearly as big of a pro wrestling draw as he is/was in UFC. His match with Cena at ER did well, but not as well as people thought it would.

Brock wasn't a big draw back when he was first with the WWE but nowadays he is probably their biggest star on the roster because he has not only wrestling fans that like him but UFC fans as well. Lesnar is a much bigger draw in wrestling today than he was 10 years ago.

 

[Lockard 23]

.

Really, I'm not sure he is. Logic would dictate that being a huge star in UFC would guarantee him being a much bigger star in the WWE, but I don't think it automatically translates that way. Many UFC fans (and vice versa) could care less about the WWE, and might have only cared a little to see Brock's first match back just to see what it was like. And I think the average buyrate for a PPV that Brock headlined back then would be around 300,000-350,000 or a little higher, whereas Extreme Rules did only around 250,000, and that includes all the hype of Brock coming over from the UFC (which is hugely popular at the moment) and having a match with the WWE's biggest star. Even if we count the rise of illegal streaming (which I think is sometimes a cop out for an argument but slightly a valid point), he still doesn't seem to be much bigger of a draw than he really was back then.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

RE: .

Really, I'm not sure he is. Logic would dictate that being a huge star in UFC would guarantee him being a much bigger star in the WWE, but I don't think it automatically translates that way. Many UFC fans (and vice versa) could care less about the WWE, and might have only cared a little to see Brock's first match back just to see what it was like. And I think the average buyrate for a PPV that Brock headlined back then would be around 300,000-350,000 or a little higher, whereas Extreme Rules did only around 250,000, and that includes all the hype of Brock coming over from the UFC (which is hugely popular at the moment) and having a match with the WWE's biggest star. Even if we count the rise of illegal streaming (which I think is sometimes a cop out for an argument but slightly a valid point), he still doesn't seem to be much bigger of a draw than he really was back then.

It was Extreme Rules for God's sake. How many buys does it normally do, 200k? I don't think you can just look at 250k and say he's not a bigger draw now. Wrestling buyrates as a whole were surely much greater in 2002 when Brock was around as opposed to todays buyrates?

if Summerslam buyrates are up as big a % from last year as the ER buyrates were then I think it's pretty obvious Brock is drawing. Comparing raw numbers with his first run is pointless because of all the variables and changes over the last decade, but I have just always heard that he wasn't a very good draw back then, so it's not like it's saying much to say he is a better draw now.

 

[Crayo]

Extreme Rules is the PPV after WM, 1.3m bought that, meaning I doubt many of them wanted to pay yet again for ER.

 

[Lockard 23]

1.2 million. And you're saying no one would ever want to buy two (or more) PPVs in a row then?

It was Extreme Rules for God's sake. How many buys does it normally do, 200k? I don't think you can just look at 250k and say he's not a bigger draw now. Wrestling buyrates as a whole were surely much greater in 2002 when Brock was around as opposed to todays buyrates?

if Summerslam buyrates are up as big a % from last year as the ER buyrates were then I think it's pretty obvious Brock is drawing. Comparing raw numbers with his first run is pointless because of all the variables and changes over the last decade, but I have just always heard that he wasn't a very good draw back then, so it's not like it's saying much to say he is a better draw now.

I'm not saying Brock isn't technically a 'draw' in his own way, just that a Brock/Undertaker match probably wouldn't be as huge as some people may think it would be. I wouldn't bet on a Brock/Taker match really contributing much to helping WM29 being a huge success.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

I think you are nuts bro. Do you not remember all the hoopla when Taker showed up at a UFC event and Lesnar rumors were floating around back then? It generated a lot of buzz

 

[Lockard 23]

I remember that but I also thought I remember WWE being disappointed that it didn't create as much buzz as they hoped it would. Still, since Brock is retired from the UFC and a lot of UFC fans could care less about Brock being in WWE, I'm not sure how big it would be outside of just us wrestling fans. (Wrestlemania always aims to attract non-wrestling fans as well.) If it was Rock/Brock, maybe, because Rock himself has a lot of publicity for being a movie actor and stuff.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

I can assure you that a lot of MMA fans who were wrestling fans in the past started watching wrestling again when Brock came back (that's why it's so baffling to me how WWE has been using him). Taker/Brock at Mania would get a good deal of buy rates from MMA fans tuning in. I'm basing this on what I've seen and read on Sherdog, an MMA forum I post on

 

[Matt]

How regular would the rock be on raw if he were to hold the belt?

 

[Leo C]

How regular would the rock be on raw if he were to hold the belt?

Another nice point, if he was the champ and he didn't show up it'd suck. Plus, people wouldn't get WWE title matches on house shows, I'm pretty sure.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

Re

Another nice point, if he was the champ and he didn't show up it'd suck. Plus, people wouldn't get WWE title matches on house shows, I'm pretty sure.

Who gives a fuck about house shows, much less if the title is defended? You know the title won't change hands, and even if it did it doesn't really count.

About Raw, I'm sure he would be there most weeks and live via satellite when he wasn't.

 

[Leo C]

RE: Re

Who gives a F*** about house shows, much less if the title is defended? You know the title won't change hands, and even if it did it doesn't really count.

About Raw, I'm sure he would be there most weeks and live via satellite when he wasn't.

I don't care about house shows, but maybe WWE wouldn't like not to have the WWE title in house shows for three months, I suppose. I'm just throwing ideas around, I couldn't care less unless I went to the house show or anything but I'm not sure WWE would be comfortable with that.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

WWE cares about money. If people stopped going to house shows because they were no longer having sham title matches then WWE might care. Short of that I really doubt they gaf