Another incredible week for WWE. Can 2019 be an all time calendar year?

Dunno. But to say your optimism is admirable can be an all-time understatement, brutha.

1 hour ago, KawadaSmile said:

Another incredible week for WWE. Can 2019 be an all time calendar year?

Love your enthusiasm but first quarter is a historically hot period for WWE with the Mania build. Things go off the rails in the last half of the year.

They seem to be telegraphing the women's tag title match pretty hard by having Sasha/Bayley, Nia/Tamina, and a bunch of jobber teams. It makes it seem like maybe they launched this division too soon if that was the best they could do in terms of who they could put in the match. 

17 minutes ago, SomethingSavage said:

Dunno. But to say your optimism is admirable can be an all-time understatement, brutha.

 

12 minutes ago, SmartMark15 said:

Love your enthusiasm but first quarter is a historically hot period for WWE with the Mania build. Things go off the rails in the last half of the year.

Thanks, bubbas!  

It's just that the build to Wrestlemania, and even going back to last year's Survivor Series, has been pretty damn good. Surprisingly so, even.

They have something they didn't really have in previous years, which is an unequivocally over, as hot as the sun top star which is booked to perfection. If they can carry this momentum to Summerslam, they are set for an exceptional year. Also, the fact that they have new people who the crowd actually love - Ali, Almas, Cross, Heavy Machinery, maybe EC3 - can make for a better all-around year, I think. (And hope)

I understand I am in the minority, but Becky is far from sympathetic and has been absolutely awful these past few weeks. Becky adopting the toxic pro wrestling masculinity trope of not seeking medical help and assaulting people who suggest she get the physical help she clearly needs is not something I thought I'd see in 2019. 

30 minutes ago, fakeplastictrees said:

I understand I am in the minority, but Becky is far from sympathetic and has been absolutely awful these past few weeks. Becky adopting the toxic pro wrestling masculinity trope of not seeking medical help and assaulting people who suggest she get the physical help she clearly needs is not something I thought I'd see in 2019. 

Yeah  I can see that, especially since on paper Stephanie was the babyface in the sense of protecting Becky from herself (since the story is she's more hurt than she's letting on) and got beat up in the process. 

However Charlotte is so over the top smarmy heel and Ronda is so naturally unlikeable, it almost doesn't even matter. 

*edit to add*

They really should emphasize the point that Becky doesn't trust the WWE doctors to not bench her for poltical reasons,  rather than her being the stereotypical alpha (fe)male who doesn't want medical help. 

5 hours ago, fakeplastictrees said:

I understand I am in the minority, but Becky is far from sympathetic and has been absolutely awful these past few weeks. Becky adopting the toxic pro wrestling masculinity trope of not seeking medical help and assaulting people who suggest she get the physical help she clearly needs is not something I thought I'd see in 2019. 

It's a call back to her being kept out of Survivor Series last year, which she referred to as 'Doctor Jail' on Twitter and potentially on TV as well. Maybe they could be more explicit about that but I think HHH was effective enough in explaining that last night. 

Charlotte was great at getting heat in that segment and Becky slapping HHH was a good moment but my God his promo could have done with them cutting like half the dialogue. That's just HHH I guess.

Becky got the match with Ronda by conniving her way into the women's Rumble after tapping clean to the other women's champion earlier in the night. If Alexa Bliss had done that, it would be seen as a total heel move. But since it's Becky and we love her, it's supposed to be OK. I get that it's WWE and you have to turn your brain off for anything to make sense. But calling it perfect booking is a bit rich.

On that note, have they explained why WWE brass is trying to screw Becky after letting her enter the Rumble when she did nothing to earn a spot? I'm reminded of Roman Reigns trying to paint unearned title shots as a conspiracy against him.

Dave noted on WOR that female viewership on Raw is leaving in droves.  It was the worst it has been in years this past Monday

Yikes. Definitely not what they want. You would've thought that featuring heavily a woman like Becky and having a huge mainstream star like Ronda would've helped but it's definitely not the case.

I'm curious to see how they gonna respond to that.

40 minutes ago, Strummer said:

Dave noted on WOR that female viewership on Raw is leaving in droves.  It was the worst it has been in years this past Monday

If we're being honest, the Ronda Rousey experiment as far as a drawing card has failed. And Becky Lynch is the hottest name in a cold company right now. The ratings are sinking and sinking. They did not sell out the Rumble. The female audience doesn't seem to care. It's just not working.

3 hours ago, NintendoLogic said:

Becky got the match with Ronda by conniving her way into the women's Rumble after tapping clean to the other women's champion earlier in the night. If Alexa Bliss had done that, it would be seen as a total heel move. But since it's Becky and we love her, it's supposed to be OK. I get that it's WWE and you have to turn your brain off for anything to make sense. But calling it perfect booking is a bit rich.

On that note, have they explained why WWE brass is trying to screw Becky after letting her enter the Rumble when she did nothing to earn a spot? I'm reminded of Roman Reigns trying to paint unearned title shots as a conspiracy against him.

Because her whole deal has been that Charlotte has gotten way more chances than her and she managed to get into Becky's matches both at Summerslam and Survivor Series. So she's afraid it'll happen again at Wrestlemania. You could say that she's being paranoid but, considering that they aren't fully portraying Ronda as a heel, it's fair to say that the story is that we're supposed to understand and empathise with her point of view even if not necessarily totally agreeing with it. Yeah there are a few elements that could have been done better but generally her push has been very well handled and it would be quite uncharitable to say that it doesn't make any sense.

2 hours ago, El-P said:

If we're being honest, the Ronda Rousey experiment as far as a drawing card has failed. And Becky Lynch is the hottest name in a cold company right now. The ratings are sinking and sinking. They did not sell out the Rumble. The female audience doesn't seem to care. It's just not working.

Did she not help them get the giant tv deals?

- I was really hoping not to see this "Stephanie is right!" stuff here. I saw on a Facebook post someone said "Stephanie is just looking out for her employee like a good boss would" and a few posts above someone argued Becky shouldn't have even been in the Rumble anyway. Jeez. If some of you had the pencil, Vince McMahon would've went out of business in 98'. I get that in real life, if your boss came to you and said you needed to take a sick day to see a doctor, it would be seen as caring. And, yes, Becky forced her way into a Rumble she wasn't originally entered in (which is some sort of egregious crime because the fucking Royal Rumble is sacrosanct? Like every Royal Rumble  ever has been 100% on the level?).

But this is a scripted drama and I don't think bootlickers and goody-two-shoes are characters fans are getting behind in 2019. I'm not saying this storyline is flawless - it isn't and the dots could be connected better - but it was clear enough to me when Stephanie McMahon, the most absolute heel of all the McMahon Family, tried to tell "The Man" Becky Lynch what to do that Stephanie should be booed and Becky should be cheered. Its like that "80s Hogan was a heel" stuff. Yeah, we get it. He broke rules and did multiple asshole/bully things. Its a funny thing to talk about - but anybody that truly believes the audience somehow "got it wrong" or was "dumb" in cheering the Hulkster is just being purposefully dense. Hogan was a babyface. Austin was a babyface after WM13. Becky Lynch is a babyface now. 

 

- I'd be curious to hear more about the female viewership numbers. I didn't hear the full context, but I'm not sure if this is a trend or just a one-week slump or what. It may also be a that a particularly popular show with women restarted on Monday? I don't know. I just hope that it doesn't steer them away from Lynch/Rousey in the main event. I mean, RAW was doing its historically worst ratings ever with Seth Rollins wrestling on top every week and he's still likely winning the Universal Championship at Mania. 

21 minutes ago, Matt D said:

Did she not help them get the giant tv deals?

That could make her the biggest draw of all time practically 

33 minutes ago, Matt D said:

Did she not help them get the giant tv deals?

I guess she did. That being said, there's no saying on much she'll actually be on the shows Fox bought at that ridiculous prices. Plus if those ratings don't get really good (and there's no positive sign they will), who knows... 

22 minutes ago, DMJ said:

- I'd be curious to hear more about the female viewership numbers. I didn't hear the full context, but I'm not sure if this is a trend or just a one-week slump or what.

Meltz said it's a trend that has been going on for quite a while now and is getting worse.

2 minutes ago, El-P said:

I guess she did. That being said, there's no saying on much she'll actually be on the shows Fox bought at that ridiculous prices. Plus if those ratings don't get really good (and there's no positive sign they will), who knows... 

I heard recently that Smackdown's second hour currently does a better rating in key demographics than it's Fox counterpart so there's no reason to suggest that their rating won't be satisfactory for Fox even if they just sustain that sort of number.

Do we believe the Slaughter AWA-ESPN story?

Add The Usos to the list of talent who could potentially leave WWE when their contracts expire. Theirs end in April.

10 minutes ago, FMKK said:

I heard recently that Smackdown's second hour currently does a better rating in key demographics than it's Fox counterpart so there's no reason to suggest that their rating won't be satisfactory for Fox even if they just sustain that sort of number.

Oh, ok. I just wish the TV fee bubble would collapse though.

Speaking of which, first Saoudi Parts Unknown show of the year is scheduled in May. There we go again... 

8 minutes ago, SirEdger said:

Add The Usos to the list of talent who could potentially leave WWE when their contracts expire. Theirs end in April.

If Twitter were reality, AEW have signed Orton, The Usos and The Undertaker just today. That's quite a bit of business lol.

Nowhere it was specified that this was the Usos intention to join AEW. From Sean Ross Sapp's article, he said WWE was worried they would leave.

Let's recall that Becky's current storyline arc began with her turning on Charlotte at Summerslam because she was upset about her constantly receiving title opportunities she didn't really earn (and even then, Charlotte did more to earn a title shot at Summerslam than Becky did to earn a slot in the Rumble). They feud for the title, which Becky wins. They then reconcile for no real reason other than it being the time of year when Smackdown wrestlers face Raw wrestlers in a series of matches that mean nothing and are never mentioned again. Becky loses the title to Asuka at TLC when Ronda interferes. In the rematch at the Rumble, she loses fair and square without even a hint of controversy. Later that night, she weasels her way into the Rumble match and wins. She decides to run from Asuka and use her title shot to go after Ronda instead. And the WWE powers that be, who sat back and allowed her to enter a Rumble she had no business being in, are now trying to screw her for some reason. If you didn't already know and like Becky and weren't inured to WWE's storytelling incoherence, would you find any of this even remotely compelling? It'd be beside the point if she were bringing in new fans the way Hogan and Austin were, but there's zero evidence that such is the case.