Originally Posted by Observer

A key story to watch for next month are the Shinsuke Nakamura contract negotiations. There is WWE interest in Nakamura, and unlike with Kazuchika Okada, who has made it clear his goal is to build New Japan up and already had his taste of U.S. wrestling, Nakamura has never had any kind of a U.S. run. From a WWE standpoint, Nakamura is tall enough, which is a current management knock on Hideo Itami on the main roster, but his age, as he’d be 36 before he’d start, is a factor as WWE traditionally doesn’t like to start guys of that age in NXT (Samoa Joe or James Storm are different as the ideas for them were strictly NXT and not main roster, while Nakamura would likely start in NXT but the goal is main roster). Nakamura is intrigued with the idea of being an American star, and the huge reaction he’s gotten on ROH shows may give him the idea that his charisma would carry over. At the same time, owner Takaaki Kidani in the past has said that they may have to offer seven figure or near seven figure deals to top guys, so it’s not a situation like AAA with Alberto where they couldn’t match with WWE offer.

Originally Posted by Observer

Lethal is another one whose contract expires relatively soon and WWE has shown interest in for NXT. One of the perks for ROH is the New Japan connection and he’s doing the Dome show in a probable title match (unless he loses between now and then) with Michael Elgin.

Originally Posted by Observer

That all said, it is not a good thing that the audience watching is smaller, and even worse that the audience watching is significantly less engaged and switches off the show quicker than any time in history. The latter point is the key, in the sense if people watch out of habit but care about the product less, it’s a bad sign. I can recall Lance Russell in the late-80s, who was a successful program director before wrestling announcer became his full-time vocation, talking about the enormous ratings Memphis wrestling was still getting during a period when live attendance was falling greatly noting that on a show like wrestling, which draws based on people being creatures of habit, the ratings decline comes last, not first. That was the case with WCW, where there was a huge ratings decline as they went down the drain, but the decline in PPV, live events and other revenue streams was far greater ...

In talking recently with someone who runs one of the major arenas in the country, WWE, even though live gates are $200,000 to $300,000 for a house show, and more for TV, has gone from an event that is a key regular franchise event for the building, to an event that is considered a low grossing event compared to most entertainment events (unless it’s a major PPV event, which is actually of more value than ever before because of the higher ticket prices), but is fine to have for an otherwise free night in the building. ...

The big flaw is that the questions are being asked of the company’s most hardcore fans, given the Fan Nation status, meaning for the most part, they are not getting the input from the key fans they need to reach, the casual fan, sometime fan or lapsed fan, which are the fans who are the keys in growing the business and the ones dropping out now. The Fan Nation fan, while important to know their thoughts, are more likely to be satisfied and less likely to have the mindset to the product of those who are less interested or have faded away, or watch but aren’t nearly as invested and thus don’t stay for the whole three hours. Unfortunately, the audience that they need to contact is the one they can’t find ...

In the mid-card era, they’ve created nobody new, with most of their efforts geared to Roman Reigns, a cosmetic pick in an era where cosmetics don’t connect as much as in the past. Ironically, the crowd has tried to pick stars on their own, who are either grudgingly accepted after a fight (Punk and Bryan), are given early lip service to and quickly put “in their place” (Owens) or on a much smaller level, are rejected and shoved in their faces (Cesaro).

Originally Posted by Observer

Culturally, while the publicity is not good, this has not resulted in the type of reaction something like this would get if it was a similar-level star in the U.S. It’s notable because the press covers Japanese wrestling far more than in the U.S. (although the gap isn’t nearly as wide today as it was for most of the past 60 years), and while this incident got some mainstream publicity, many key people in the Japanese pro wrestling industry were unaware of it even after it had been covered in Japan and discussed in the U.S. Honma is still working nightly in the New Japan tag team tournament. However, the story did start to garner more interest in Japan when Honma responded by threatening a lawsuit and claiming all of the incidents described were him acting in self defense.

Originally Posted by Observer

Both Multi Screen Media (MSM), or Sony Six, their television partner which was bringing TNA in for the tour, and TNA made an agreement that neither side would publicly give a reason for the tour being canceled.

The announcement said the tour would be rescheduled for 2016. TNA’s contract with Sony Six that was recently signed calls for TNA to have to tour the country at least once a year, or the contract would be breached. Sony Six was on board with this cancellation so this won’t be held against TNA.

It was believed to be a direct financial issue, since it was the Indian group that was financing much of the tour. It was not a ticket issue as no tickets were being sold for the three shows, and they were people who would be let in free.

Originally Posted by Observer

Regarding Destination America, the station is going to be rebranding. Apparently after doing record numbers for the live exorcism, they are moving to a paranormal channel five nights per week as soon as possible, and moving to seven nights a week of paranormal programming in September, so wrestling didn’t fit into the new direction. They are also going to be changing the name of the channel. At least that was the internal plan announced within the company this past week. It has not been announced publicly yet.

Originally Posted by Observer

In addition to the recently added episodes of NWA World Championship Wrestling, Smoky Mountain Wrestling and Mid South Wrestling, the WWE Network has added AWA All Star Wrestling to its lineup. They’ve also resumed adding WCCW shows after a long break. It appears that they’re focusing on shows featuring big name WWE legends to start with.

Originally Posted by Simple Fan (Post 4738600)

Who's the dude to the left of Big E?

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4738513)

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kMcFiPVx1Ww" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Is it wrong that I can already sort of see how the whole Lana-Rusev thing is going to end again. They are stressing too much on Lana and/or Rusev actually cheating with each other which probably gets revealed slide-show style when Ziggler and/or Summer interrupt their WWE wedding.

Probably can already predict the punchline as well:

Originally Posted by SlickyTrickyDamon (Post 4738611)

Rusev is comedic gold.

Rusev: I joined this new thing Instagram.

Cole: It's not new.

Rusev: :) :mad:

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4738595)

Originally Posted by Big Vic (Post 4738728)

I'd like to see CyNick defend TNA.

Originally Posted by WWE

The WWE Tag Team Champion Triple Threat Match at WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs between titleholders The New Day and challengers The Usos and The Lucha Dragons will now be contested under Ladder Match rules. Tom Phillips broke the news in a video posted on WWE’s official Facebook page.

Originally Posted by Observer

The Brock Lesnar vs. Undertaker blow-off at the 10/25 Hell in a Cell show did slightly smaller numbers as the year before, which is a positive given a substantial increase in network subscribers over the year ... did 87,000 buys on pay-per-view, broken down as 23,000 domestic and 64,000 overseas. It’s a drop domestically from the 31,000 the prior month’s Night of Champions did domestically

... Last year’s Hell in a Cell show did 29,000 domestic PPV buys, and 75,000 overseas buys, for a total of 104,000.

... But the network subscribers have increased significantly, both domestic and overseas, so a direct comparison isn’t as meaningful. What’s notable is that even with the push to actually even insult people who buy the show on PPV on broadcasts, that ever since last year’s Hell in a Cell, that the B show numbers in North America, which fell to 21,000 for last year’s TLC show, have never fallen below 22,000 since. The overseas numbers, at 64,000, have been increasing, as they ranged from 40,000 to 50,000 most of the year, before hitting 55,000 at Battleground, fell to 46,000 in September, and grew to 64,000 in October.

Originally Posted by Observer

There is nothing new going on with GFW right now. We’d heard nothing about a U.S. deal being close and the U.K. deal that they were hoping for hasn’t been completed at this point. Some people have noted how ROH and TNA were able to get new TV quickly after Destination America canceled while GFW hasn’t been able to, but the circumstances are different. GFW needs television that pays or they can’t afford to run. They don’t have major money behind them. From what I understand, Toby Keith has told Jeff Jarrett he’s willing to come back to the table but Jarrett needs to get certain things done, which I presume is a viable television deal and a method to where the company can be profitable. ROH got on a new Sinclair Network, which likely isn’t paying them considering how hardline they’ve been about contracts of late, and TNA took a deal that didn’t pay them with POP TV. How they can afford that is a question but obviously Jarrett can’t afford that.

Originally Posted by Observer

It was notable that the WWE web site put up articles on Rey Mysterio Jr. & Maria Kanellis recently. It’s well known WWE would like to get Mysterio Jr. back and keep him from going to Lucha Underground. Kanellis is a free agent as the contracts of Kanellis, Michael Bennett and Matt Taven have expired. It’s an interesting situation. It comes down to who and what WWE wants regarding the three, New Japan’s interest and ROH’s interest, in the three both as a group as well as individuals.

Originally Posted by Observer

Neville has been added to at least some of the NXT shows on the upcoming tour. The tour is 12/10 to 12/16, and he’s advertised on the first two shows, which includes the opening night in Newcastle, where he’s from. Sami Zayn is advertised for the entire tour. He’s been back training of late and his return was being pushed on NXT TV this week. It’s not clear if he’ll be just appearing or wrestling at this point.

Originally Posted by Observer

Right now the partnership between Del Rio and Colter is not looked at as being a long-term thing and there is already talk about him after they are broken up. Of course nothing is definitive here given they change their minds on stuff like this every day but there is a 2016 direction for him away from Colter.

Originally Posted by PWI

The 9 p.m. airing of Impact on 12/2 did 221,000 viewers, down from last week’s 234,000 viewers.

The replay did 73,000 viewers, down a little from the previous week's 78,000.

Overall they did 294,000, down from last week's 312,000 viewers..

So, in the first week with no Ring of Honor, TNA's audience dropped.

Originally Posted by Sixx (Post 4738972)

What exactly is The Dudley Boyz' gimmick?

They dress like military but also kinda like dorks. Are they military accountants or something?

Originally Posted by Sixx (Post 4738979)

I'm not asking where they're going with this. Just what are they supposed to be now.

I'm just drunk and thinking about meaningless shit.

Originally Posted by Sixx (Post 4738979)

I'm not asking where they're going with this. Just what are they supposed to be now.

I'm just drunk and thinking about meaningless shit.

Originally Posted by DAMN iNATOR (Post 4738710)

Just wait until Lana finds his SnapChat and AdultFriendFinder accounts!

Originally Posted by SlickyTrickyDamon (Post 4739074)

AshleyMadison is the site that got hacked though.

Originally Posted by Fignuts HD Edition (Post 4739023)

They had the camo and glasses for most of their wwe run, so I'm not really sure what the issue is.

Originally Posted by Rammsteinmad (Post 4739071)

Just realized TNA's stupid world title series is still going on haha. Somewhere, there is someone who has actually followed it all right from the start.