Tonnes of MASSIVE news

[Jonathan]

Bold text is which I consider to be must-read

Aside from WWE announcing that January’s Royal Rumble match will be returning to the traditional 30-man format, John Cena vs. Kane is also confirmed for the event.

- Regarding Chris Hero and WWE, the company is said to still be interested in bringing him in, despite reports that he did not pass a WWE physical due to elevated testosterone levels.

Hero will be undergoing more medical tests in January and if things go as expected, he will be signed. Hero’s most recent round of physicals took place in September.

- WWE appears to have abandoned plans to re-introduce Brodus Clay. Last we heard from Brodus Clay, he tweeted that he was going to destroy John Morrison on his final night with the company. Clay would not have tweeted that if he wasn’t told he’d be on RAW that night, but Morrison wound up getting laid out by his former tag team partner The Miz – with no mention of Clay on WWE television since then.

- Skip Sheffield has been told that he’s returning with a push in early 2012.

Monday’s WWE RAW Supershow drew a low 2.92 cable rating and averaged 4.29 million viewers for the two-hour broadcast.

A closer look at the ratings on a segment-by-segment basis does not bode well for the drawing power of CM Punk, Daniel Bryan and Zack Ryder.

RAW’s opening segment did a strong 3.36 rating, a sign that fans were interested in the fallout from the previous night’s TLC pay-per-view.

The Randy Orton vs. Wade Barrett match lost 721,000 viewers, a significant drop. Beth Phoenix vs. Alicia Fox rebounded, for a gain of 277,000 viewers. Jinder Mahal vs. Sheamus lost 247,000 viewers and the John Cena promo that featured Kane and Mark Henry gained 428,000 viewers – doing a 3.18 quarter rating.

Epico & Primo vs. The Usos and Cody Rhodes vs. Santino Marella lost 719,000 viewers. Backstage segments with John Laurinaitis and The Bella Twins, Hornswoggle and a Big Show interview lost another 56,000 viewers.

The RAW six-man main event with CM Punk, Daniel Bryan & Zack Ryder vs. Alberto Del Rio, The Miz & Dolph Ziggler drew a very low 2.67 rating – making it one of the lowest-rated RAW main events of the year.

The overrun only gained 59,000 viewers. RAW’s overrun usually gains significantly more viewers than that.

- Vince McMahon has been pushing Alberto Del Rio to show more “ruthless aggression” in the ring and work a more physical style. This is the reason Del Rio has been working stiffer in recent weeks.
RAW is lacking strong heels, with The Miz not being seen as a legitimate tough guy at this point. Vince thinks Del Rio has the size, toughness and gimmick to be a permanent main event heel, but he needs to come across as more dangerous in the ring.

Del Rio recently injured his groin on a recent episode of RAW. He was able to finish his match, but had to be helped out of the ring and was checked out backstage. Despite his pain, the injury is not believed to be serious.
- WWE is in talks with Shed Media, the company behind Tough Enough, to help produce new reality programming for the WWE Network.

With WWE looking to run new reality-based programming, the company is to film television episodes the week that they are set to air on television. This is unlike what most reality shows do (ie. UFC’s Ultimate Fighter), which is to film the entire season before the first episode airs. Filming the whole season at once allows producers to see where storylines are going and produce the show accordingly.

Booking the show on a week-to-week basis will hurt their ability to tell long-term shorelines, which some have joked is similar to how WWE television is written.

- In response to WWE selling “Cena Sucks” t-shirts, John Cena noted on Twitter that WWE has wanted to make the shirts since 2008 and he is not bothered by them. Sources close to Cena say that he legitimately does not mind that the shirts are being sold and gets royalties from every single one sold.

- With Linda McMahon second run for United States Senate underway, the former WWE CEO is making an effort to distance herself not only from the WWE product this time around, but the McMahon name as well. Her campaign material pushes the name LINDA with no mention of her business experience running WWE or her last name. Instead of using all her own money this time, Linda is raising funds from her supporters.

Last weekend’s 12/16 live event from Fort Myers, FL drew 5,500 paying fans for a live gate of $155,000. The next night’s Nassau Coliseum show drew 7,000 and a $285,000 live give, which isn’t good for the New York market. The New York market, however, did get three shows in a month, so that could be one of the reasons.

- Haku’s son Donny Marlow debuted on Superstars last week as the mystery man alongside Hunico. He is seen to have potential, but at 33 years old, he’s not that young any more and WWE felt its time to take the training wheels off already.

- Seth Rollins is going on the road with WWE next week. He’s seen as the FCW star with the most potential, despite not being as polished as they’d like. The hope is that he learns to connect with the crowds better after getting experience working live events.

- While Seth Rollins is viewed as the developmental wrestler with the most upside right now, Dean Ambrose is right behind him and is a more well-rounded talent. Ambrose can talk and is a better worker than many of WWE’s main eveners.

- With CM Punk and and Daniel Bryan’s recent success as well as the potential of Rollins and Ambrose, the stigma behind being an “indy” worker is not as bad as it was even six months ago.

 

[Crayo]

Gutted on the "indy" main event not drawing hardly any. Orton v Barret losing nearly 1 million viewers too :O.

 

[Jonathan]

Surely WWE may cut this storyline now?
I mean, we saw it on Tribute to the Troops just FIVE fuckin' days before they had a match on PPV at TLC. How stupid is that!

And yeah, the main event is a shame, but it's not that bad.

 

[Crayo]

It's very bad. The main event normally draws 700-1m viewers. Miz as champion drew over 1m regularly. Be interesting to see what Punk draws on his own.

 

[seabs]

I must admit the news regarding Hero is the most interesting to me. He's got the look which is rare from most Indie wrestlers. The Seth Rollins comment I don't really understand I thought he always got decent crowd reactions in FCW for such a small arena although it could be work with the larger arenas. I saw the Brodus thing stupid thing to do really. Wouldn't surprise me if he never debuts tbh which would be a big shame. Never really cared for the ratings really as long as the product entertains me, however they must know that if they book the wrestlers better more people would care and such tune in. See Mark Henry as a prime example.