[Emperor Smeat]

Dirtsheets:

Originally Posted by Observer For the first time, historically, there is proof that streaming is affecting the volume of television viewing ... The key aspect of it and how it relates to wrestling and MMA is that its niche audience will become more important because it’ll be tougher to get new fans. The key to television in the past has been its ability to make new fans of people switching the dial and seeing something and getting into it. With specialized services, you are relying not on people finding it themselves, but word of mouth buzz among friends. But if cable constricts, ratings will decline and there won’t be people switching channels and finding what’s good on and watching, but the audience will be those who always watch as a pattern. In other words, the regular fan base will become more important and marketing to the casual audience will become more difficult than ever. And introducing a new product for mass consumption won’t have the barrier of needing to get on television, but it will be umpteen times harder to get anything but a cult audience.

So theoretically WWE is looking at a really bad ratings future once it drops to a certain point and likely won't have Cena's audience as the basis for this new future audience (already bailing out in high numbers).

Originally Posted by Observer The Hell in a Cell PPV, headlined by Cena vs. Orton and Ambrose vs. Rollins, did 21,000 domestic buys and 56,000 international buys. The international buys were up due to the U.K., but the previous domestic low was 31,000, and it’s not like network numbers were any higher. Survivor Series is the one where it’ll be interesting if anyone bought the thing when it was offered free.

Originally Posted by Observer We were told most, but certainly not all, of the WWE talent loved some of what he said what he said. Many were not happy about him complaining about his booking when he was booked better than all but a few guys over the past three years ... One major name, while seeing Punk’s side on the medical issue and some other issues , felt most of the interview was “sour grapes.” Many felt he came off badly about complaining that he was booked against HHH at WrestleMania, noting he’d be in one of the top matches and would get ample time to promote it. McMahon in the Austin podcast said that WrestleMania wasn’t about one main event these days, although Punk’s argument to that is that the guys in the one real main event get paid far better than just about anyone else on the show ... Another person who knows several major WWE talents said, discounting the few that will parrot whatever Punk said, his experience is that there was a feeling that Punk’s comments on Ryback were unprofessional and cheap, and that nobody bought Ryback kicked Punk as hard as he could or intentionally broke his ribs ... Almost nobody had any sympathy for his injury situation, noting that every top guy on the roster that works a full schedule has a litany of injuries.

CM Punk's recent podcast with Colt Cabana has naturally drawn a lot of attention and thought. He talked about his departure from WWE, battling injuries and the company's policies. The industry took notice, including Rene Dupre, the second-generation star who broke into WWE as a teenager and is now a regular in Japan. Dupre recalled his own health scare, where his head exploded. To tell the story, you have to go back in time, to the fall of 2005, when Dupre was on the WWE roster, a singles competitor on the Smackdown roster ... He had a hematoma on his right temple, a deep bruise that looked worse than it felt. At the Smackdown taping, he was given the night off -- he was supposed to wrestle The Big Show. "They were going to put me in the ring, but then Michael Hayes came around and said, 'Hey man, can you actually work?' I said, 'I don't know.' I wasn't going to go in the ring, regardless. I had this massive thing on my head. I went in and talked to Stephanie [McMahon], and Stephanie said, 'No, take the night off.'" After the show, Dupre boarded a flight to Cincinnati. He went to the restroom on the plane and a sudden change in cabin pressure changed everything. "The pressure in the cabin changes when you touch down, and the f---ing thing just exploded in the lavatory. It looked like I got shot in the head there was so much blood. I was wearing a white Gold's Gym t-shirt and it was covered in blood," Dupre recalled for SLAM! Wrestling ... "But when the paramedics and EMTs and said, 'Listen, you've got to go to the hospital now, because ... you could die.' Chris Candido had died a few months earlier from a blood clot in his leg -- I had one in my f---ing temple," recalled Dupre. "But I could see the trainer, when the EMTs were talking, our trainer was looking at me, shaking his head 'no' because it would have cost the company too much money. Basically, that's what I got [from the trainer]." Instead, Dupre boarded the connecting flight from Cincinnati to Louisville, like a good company soldier. Back in Louisville, he did have surgery under WWE-approved doctors, which the WWE did pay for. A scar remains from the incident and surgery to this day. "The way I look at it, I risked my life to save the company a few extra bucks." ... "One time, Johnny Stamboli, he got berated in front of the locker room because he was icing his shoulder -- and that's when I thought, 'Holy f---.' That's one thing my dad always told me too, 'If you're hurt, don't let any of the office see it.' And that's coming from a guy from the '50s. That's a long tradition in wrestling; if you're hurt, don't let the office see it because then they'll think, 'Aw, this guy's not strong enough, he's not tough enough to hack it.'"

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/.../22108176.html


Some other sheet news include the 2nd week in a row RAW started off with huge numbers in 8pm (4.23 million) and then crashed by 11pm (3.47 million) because the audience was tired of waiting for someone to show up (ex. Sting last week, Bryan this week).