Speaker 1: Hey, this is Brian Alvarez and this is today's edition
Speaker 1: of the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network.
Speaker 1: By from San Francisco. I'm a sports byline broadcasting network.
Speaker 1: You are listening to Wrestling Observer Vibe with your hosts
Speaker 1: Brian Alvarez and Mike simper VVV. Ready are you ready?
Speaker 1: Let's get it all? How's it going everybody? Brian Alvarez
Speaker 1: here on or Wrestling Observer Live. We are here every
Speaker 1: day Monday through Friday, New Pacific three Eastern, Sunday three
Speaker 1: Pacific sixth Eastern, Saturdays at Tenday and Pacific one Eastern
Speaker 1: with Jim Valley. And we got a lot to get
Speaker 1: into here today Friday, here on this program, and I
Speaker 1: will be going solo at least for half this show
Speaker 1: as Mike simper viv fairly struck some sort of animal
Speaker 1: with his vehicle and he's getting a rental car as
Speaker 1: we speak, so anyway, he's not gonna be here today,
Speaker 1: But today Melt will be joining us in the second
Speaker 1: segment of the show talking about the biggest stories in
Speaker 1: the newest edition of the Wrestling Observer newsletter, including w
Speaker 1: w E once again record breaking revenue for a quarter
Speaker 1: and it's only gonna go up as a lot of
Speaker 1: these television deals are escalating. Also great news for a
Speaker 1: w business. The Forbidden Door pay per views sold out
Speaker 1: pretty much immediately and a lot more. But I do
Speaker 1: want to mention the beginning of the show here. Best
Speaker 1: wishes too. Big E provided an update on his recovery
Speaker 1: from a broken neck and a tweet on Friday. The
Speaker 1: former w W champion shared the C one vertebra apparently
Speaker 1: is not healing optimally. He is going to spend another
Speaker 1: four to six weeks in a neck brace in hopes
Speaker 1: of avoiding fusion surgery. For those desires of an update,
Speaker 1: he says, my SEE one apparently is not healing optimally,
Speaker 1: spending on four to six months in a brace, hopes
Speaker 1: I can avoid a fusion. But don't you frets. I've
Speaker 1: a tremendous support system and what shall be shall be.
Speaker 1: Of course. He broke his neck March eleven when he
Speaker 1: took an overhead belly to belly from Ridge, Holland and
Speaker 1: landed right on top of his head. Fractured his C
Speaker 1: one and his C six, but they were not displaced.
Speaker 1: No spinal cords damage, no ligament damage. So he was very,
Speaker 1: very lucky, and I hope you will continue to be
Speaker 1: lucky here and not need to get fusion surgery. So
Speaker 1: that's the update on Biggie and all the best to him,
Speaker 1: his family and his friends. We're gonna do break. We
Speaker 1: come back all of the news. Wrestling Observer Live back
Speaker 1: in the show. Bright Nowver is here, Wrestling Observer Live.
Speaker 1: No Mike Supper VV, but he will be back very soon.
Speaker 1: Dave Meltson joining us for the second segment of the
Speaker 1: show here and uh, We've got a lot of business
Speaker 1: news to get into. I'm mostly gonna talk the business
Speaker 1: news with Dave, but a couple of notes here and
Speaker 1: what's becoming old had w W announced another record of
Speaker 1: breaking quarter on Thursday, three hundred and thirty three million
Speaker 1: in revenue in the first three months of two year
Speaker 1: over a year, increase of twenty seven operating income ninety
Speaker 1: two point four million for the quarter, increase of forty
Speaker 1: two stock down over three percent for the day at nine,
Speaker 1: although they weren't the only ones with stocks down. Revenue
Speaker 1: increased Drivers media rights thirty six million year over a
Speaker 1: year thanks to the February Saudi Arabia elimination at Chamber Show.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, Live events up twenty three point one million
Speaker 1: from just a half million a year a year ago.
Speaker 1: Consumer products increased eleven million. They made so much money
Speaker 1: during the pandemic and now out as they have opened
Speaker 1: up everything again, now they're making even more money than
Speaker 1: they made in the pandemic as a result of different things.
Speaker 1: Live events in particular, you don't run a lot of
Speaker 1: live events in the pandemic when you're in that thunderdome.
Speaker 1: The video game part of the consumer products increase in
Speaker 1: edition A four and a half million of live event merchandise,
Speaker 1: offsetting at two point three million dollar dip in e
Speaker 1: commerce revenue. Yeah, a pandemic ends and people stop buying
Speaker 1: stuff online and they go to shows and buy stuff.
Speaker 1: That's what happened here. They mentioned their supporting press release,
Speaker 1: multi year expansion of content for A and E, which
Speaker 1: we'll see one and thirty plus new hours of w
Speaker 1: w E theme series and specials, their m E n
Speaker 1: A region broadcast deal with NBC Group, long term et
Speaker 1: comment commerce licensed merchandise deal with Fanatics, release of w
Speaker 1: W E two KWO WrestleMania thirty eight. They claimed in
Speaker 1: terms of Peacock that domestic viewership was up year over year,
Speaker 1: global unique viewership up, making it the most of you
Speaker 1: quote premium a live event in company history. Viewership in
Speaker 1: India record one million views increase a year over a year.
Speaker 1: So yeah, things going very very well expected for and
Speaker 1: their television deals still have some time left, so those
Speaker 1: deals will only increase and then it will be time
Speaker 1: to negotiate a new deal. And provided there is not
Speaker 1: a global economic collapse or something crazy, they're gonna get
Speaker 1: an even bigger deal the next time around. So long
Speaker 1: story short. If you're like, if you're hoping for change,
Speaker 1: you know, like raw for exast, I mean, don't hold
Speaker 1: your breath. They're gonna keep doing what they're doing, creating content,
Speaker 1: whether it's good or bad. People are paying for content,
Speaker 1: and so there you go. We also had a double
Speaker 1: business news. The remaining three thousand tickets for June's a
Speaker 1: W versus New Japan Forbidden Door pay per view sold
Speaker 1: out in minutes Friday as part of the public on
Speaker 1: sale ensuring the event Chicago's United Center will be sold
Speaker 1: out as fall. As Thursday's pre sale, they sold eleven
Speaker 1: thousand tickets in forty minutes on Thursday, meaning on Sunday,
Speaker 1: UH June. Event will have over fourteen thousand fans in attendance.
Speaker 1: Final number will depend on how many production hold tickets
Speaker 1: will be released. First co promoted a W New Japan event,
Speaker 1: So for those of you concerned that nobody knows the
Speaker 1: amount New Japan, they're not gonna go this show, well
Speaker 1: they do. So this is the second time they've done
Speaker 1: huge numbers without any matches. Well actually the the Punk announcement,
Speaker 1: they didn't announce Punk was going to be there, but
Speaker 1: I think everybody knew, and so they sold twelve thousand
Speaker 1: tick gets in their first pre sale and that ended
Speaker 1: up being free sixteen for the night. And this one
Speaker 1: probably will be doing somewhere in that neighborhood, although it's
Speaker 1: a as a big event. There might be uh perhaps
Speaker 1: a more area taken up for production, but I guess
Speaker 1: we'll see. But that's the update. Sold out very very quickly.
Speaker 1: Same thing with the Double or Nothing show coming up
Speaker 1: at the end of this month. That things sold out
Speaker 1: very very quickly, so fans reached in the a W
Speaker 1: Big Shows. A W prepared to introduce trios titles we
Speaker 1: talked about this in the new edition of the Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer newsletter, which of course you can read in its
Speaker 1: entirety at a Wrestling Observer dot com, as well as
Speaker 1: all of the back issues. Dave wrote that Trio's title
Speaker 1: belts have been made, so now it is just a
Speaker 1: matter of when they pull the trigger. Tony Cohn was
Speaker 1: asked about making trios titles, gave the indication a few
Speaker 1: months ago that it was happening, but they didn't want
Speaker 1: to do the tournament until Kenny Omega was back, and
Speaker 1: Tony Cohn, in a media call it was actually months ago,
Speaker 1: noted that he will be more interested in Trio's division
Speaker 1: when Kenny is back. He said, we have a lot
Speaker 1: of great trios here, that's for sure. I'm very interested
Speaker 1: in it. I will be honest with you, This is
Speaker 1: the most blunt answer I could give. I am much
Speaker 1: more receptive to doing it when Kenny Omega is back. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't know when Kenny Omega is going to come back,
Speaker 1: so I presume that he's going to continue to wait.
Speaker 1: But it's interesting when you watch the show and you
Speaker 1: watch certain things that they did. For example, they were
Speaker 1: really strongly teasing split between the young Bucks and Adam
Speaker 1: Cole and Red Dragon, and then suddenly one week they
Speaker 1: just did a a segment where Adam Cole said, listen,
Speaker 1: we've all been losing, uh, but we are strong as
Speaker 1: a unit and we need to go prove that. And
Speaker 1: so then they did that ten man tag and they
Speaker 1: just slaughtered their opponents, and then they gave the shirts
Speaker 1: to the young Bucks. And there's been zero teases of
Speaker 1: dissension in the last couple of weeks. So I could
Speaker 1: be reading too much into this, but when I saw
Speaker 1: that would appear to be a change, my presumption was
Speaker 1: they were expecting Kenny Omega back, and now maybe they're
Speaker 1: not expecting him back so soon, and that's why they're
Speaker 1: slowing down the split between the Bucks, Red Dragon, and Aticle.
Speaker 1: I don't know that. I have not been told that
Speaker 1: by anybody. I just watched the television and that's the
Speaker 1: conclusion that I came up with. But for all I know,
Speaker 1: Kenny Omega could end up being the joker. I don't
Speaker 1: think he's gonna be the joker in the Own Heart Tournament,
Speaker 1: but I suppose he He could be Canadian. So that's
Speaker 1: the update on the six man titles. Also in the
Speaker 1: New Observer this week there was talking about that w
Speaker 1: w E business and how you know, business is great.
Speaker 1: They're making money hand over fist Saudias are paying them,
Speaker 1: you know, forty million dollars to show or whatever and
Speaker 1: making all this money off television. So like, if you
Speaker 1: want the quality of the product, change, don't hold your breath. Well,
Speaker 1: you guys, remember when they they were teasing the USO's
Speaker 1: against r K bro in a unification match, and for
Speaker 1: weeks on television they teased a unification match, and then
Speaker 1: they went to do the contract signing and the big
Speaker 1: brawl broke out and Drew McIntyre ran in and Roman
Speaker 1: Reigns ran in, which, by the way, begs the question
Speaker 1: did they ever signed that contract? Because if they signed
Speaker 1: the contract before the brawl, I mean, we should still
Speaker 1: be getting unification match in storyline. But maybe they didn't.
Speaker 1: But the void of this is they changed it to
Speaker 1: a six man and like an idiot, because I never learned,
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, they tease that damn match for weeks,
Speaker 1: So maybe tonight on SmackDown they're going to announce that
Speaker 1: all of the belts are on the line and you know,
Speaker 1: unify the belts, whichever team wins. If if Drew's team wins,
Speaker 1: Drew becomes champion, and if Romans team wins, the USOS
Speaker 1: unified those belts and Roman retains his title. And as
Speaker 1: it turns out, this is not plans change. This is
Speaker 1: apparently planned from day one. From day one, the plan was, well,
Speaker 1: we're gonna tease a unification match for weeks, but we're
Speaker 1: not going to deliver. We are going to change it
Speaker 1: to a six man So all of those storylines, all
Speaker 1: of that build it was all. I mean, you can't
Speaker 1: even have more of a bait and switch than that.
Speaker 1: They had no intentions of doing the unification matic. Now
Speaker 1: I guess maybe you know, plans do change sometimes, so
Speaker 1: I guess they could announce tonight that all the belts
Speaker 1: are on the line, but not looking like that it's
Speaker 1: gonna be the case. Back in a moment, Observer Live
Speaker 1: back in the show Bright Now Barez here Wrestling Observer
Speaker 1: Alive Day. Melts are joining us here today. A new
Speaker 1: edition of the Wrestling Observer newsletter available right now at
Speaker 1: a Wrestling Observer dot com. And there's a lot of
Speaker 1: news in the issue this week. And we started this
Speaker 1: show here today Dave talking about the basics of w
Speaker 1: w e s quarterly report, and you've got all of
Speaker 1: the in depth, in depth news on this, So what's
Speaker 1: what's the big story here? There really wasn't a big story. Um,
Speaker 1: we're making a lot of money. They made a lot
Speaker 1: of money. A couple of categories are up, a couple
Speaker 1: of categories are down. A lot more people are watching
Speaker 1: the pay per view shows because they're on Peacock, and
Speaker 1: because Peacock has expanded its audience. So um. And you know,
Speaker 1: they made a big deal about how the Elimination Chamber
Speaker 1: show was bigger than the prior Saudi show. But between
Speaker 1: the growth of Peacock, which was primarily due to the Olympics,
Speaker 1: and also the fact it was on a Saturday rather
Speaker 1: than a Thursday, that kind of explains it. You know,
Speaker 1: Thursday afternoon isn't going to be a giant number compared
Speaker 1: to a Saturday afternoon. But you know, the Mania numbers were.
Speaker 1: They said it was the largest audience ever to watch
Speaker 1: a w W show, But I mean, it's probably the
Speaker 1: largest ever to watch a pay per view show. Um,
Speaker 1: in fact, it was, but you know, I mean it
Speaker 1: paled in comparison to like you know, you know, like
Speaker 1: Austin and undertake million viewers for a raw. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, or or or Hulk Cogan and on Hulk
Speaker 1: Coogan And um, wasn't Andre the Giant. Yeah it was Hull.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I mean it's not even it's probably one
Speaker 1: tenth of that. But they claimed it was the biggest ever.
Speaker 1: Um and you know, it's just a bunch of stuff.
Speaker 1: But there was no real, no real big news. You know.
Speaker 1: Nick con was very bullish about Amazon and you know,
Speaker 1: Netflix and h Apple and people like that getting into
Speaker 1: the wrestling business and more people bidding um, you know,
Speaker 1: and that's probably gonna happen in w w is in
Speaker 1: great position because they are you know, they're not the NFL,
Speaker 1: but they are a um you know, they're there's somebody
Speaker 1: that can move numbers. They have a big fan base
Speaker 1: and can help a streaming service and so, um, there's
Speaker 1: gonna be a lot of people interested in um in
Speaker 1: w w E when their rights fees come up, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure that they will get a big increase and
Speaker 1: they'll make even more money than they're making now. So
Speaker 1: we also had the story and the Observer about the
Speaker 1: main event of the pay per view this weekend and
Speaker 1: how it was always planned to be a six man Yes,
Speaker 1: it was. There was never that was always the plan.
Speaker 1: This was the way they got into the plan. Um,
Speaker 1: I have no idea. If you're asking me why, I
Speaker 1: have no clue. But that's the deal. Well, I can
Speaker 1: I can understand if if all the belts were going
Speaker 1: to be on the line and you're still going to
Speaker 1: deliver what you advertise, which was a unification match, But
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess we'll find out tonight. But not
Speaker 1: looking like it's going to be any sort of unification match.
Speaker 1: Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no,
Speaker 1: definitely not a tag team title unification match on on
Speaker 1: on this weekend. No, why would you do this? Um?
Speaker 1: You know it's weird because you know Vince. Vince has
Speaker 1: a rule of not like it's not not necessarily like
Speaker 1: like he does never rule against false advertising. He does
Speaker 1: that all the time. But he does have a rule
Speaker 1: as far as building up something that he eventually will
Speaker 1: not not deliver. And there is no plan for unification,
Speaker 1: or at least there was as of a couple of
Speaker 1: days ago. That could always change. Um, although it makes
Speaker 1: no sense to do it, so I think that there's
Speaker 1: a good chance it won't be. So as far as
Speaker 1: like why he did it this way, I have no idea. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I think that it's probably something they thought would draw
Speaker 1: ratings and and uh but they you know, it doesn't
Speaker 1: look like they want once in a a Tag Team Champions.
Speaker 1: I don't see any problem with having once in a
Speaker 1: Tag Team Champions because if you've been watching the show lately,
Speaker 1: like radio in riddle around both shows anyway, so we'll
Speaker 1: be they don't, but they don't want to. They don't
Speaker 1: want to keep that, you know, they don't want to
Speaker 1: keep that going for a long time. Um, having having
Speaker 1: having the stars on both shows, well both both both
Speaker 1: networks kind of want unique viewer, you know, unique Um
Speaker 1: what is his unique rosters? I mean you can do
Speaker 1: some of that back and forth, but really Fox in
Speaker 1: particular really wants kind of exclusivity on its guy. All right.
Speaker 1: I I don't know, I've been I understand wanting like
Speaker 1: kind of an exclusive roster. But like I, all I
Speaker 1: ever hear about is is complaints about oh, we were
Speaker 1: promised this person and then this person went over there
Speaker 1: in the draft and then you know, we thought we
Speaker 1: were gonna get this person. Like if you remember when
Speaker 1: they first went to Fox, they had a graphic of
Speaker 1: of a bunch of superstars for when they were advertising
Speaker 1: the move to Fox, and it was like Charlotte and
Speaker 1: and then they did the draft and none of them
Speaker 1: went there. And I remember there was like, you know, well,
Speaker 1: how come we didn't get this person out? You know
Speaker 1: he could get everybody if we just combined these rosters. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well now all those people brock Lessner and Rhonda Rowsie
Speaker 1: and Charlotte Flair, they're all there now finally, and Roman reigns.
Speaker 1: So uh that, uh I know that. I got a
Speaker 1: text from a filthy Tom today and uh he was
Speaker 1: commenting on his Uh I think give it four and
Speaker 1: half stars him and Moxley. That match was great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this guy is like, oh, there's no way it was
Speaker 1: more than four. That's how he is. This was a
Speaker 1: great match, wasn't The match was great? Yea, thats the
Speaker 1: best time match I've ever seen in my life. It's
Speaker 1: the best time match I've ever seen. But I haven't
Speaker 1: seen like a million time matches, but I've seen I've
Speaker 1: seen dozens, and it was by far. It was by
Speaker 1: far the best. Um. I really liked the match structure.
Speaker 1: I mean that was the thing that I liked more
Speaker 1: than anything. Is just um you know, kind of like
Speaker 1: the timing of what they did and when they did it. Um,
Speaker 1: And it had a real especially by the end, it
Speaker 1: had a real nice fight fuel and um, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like for an independent match, or for any match
Speaker 1: for that matter, it was really intense. I I really, um,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean it's like, I'm not a big
Speaker 1: fan of blood bath matches. And and the thing is
Speaker 1: is that match if you took away all the blood,
Speaker 1: it still would have been exactly as good. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was just a really well, really well put together match.
Speaker 1: And Um, Moxley is you know, Mocks is really good
Speaker 1: at his He's fantastic at his style, and um, and
Speaker 1: Tom's a real good opponent for him because of the credibility.
Speaker 1: Is yeah. Yeah, Like when I saw that, when I
Speaker 1: saw that match, and it was like midway through the match,
Speaker 1: it wasn't even at the end. Midway through the match,
Speaker 1: it was just like and Tom, you know the other
Speaker 1: thing that Tom is, he's he's there's certain things mannerisms
Speaker 1: that he does when he comes to the ring, and
Speaker 1: during a match, you know, not moves like as for
Speaker 1: like not moves wrestling. He's like really good and it's
Speaker 1: like it's it's sort of like something that is unique
Speaker 1: to me, that showmanship aspect that so many of the
Speaker 1: younger guys don't have. And like I was watching, going like,
Speaker 1: you know, he really needs to be like an a
Speaker 1: w because they don't have anyone like him. Um you know.
Speaker 1: I mean it's not like he's better than everyone there
Speaker 1: or anything like that, but they have no one like him,
Speaker 1: and it's like the the you know, his I just
Speaker 1: really like his idea, not his ideas, but just what
Speaker 1: things that does. It really impressed me. Yeah. I watched
Speaker 1: his entrance and I was like, oh my god, this
Speaker 1: guy is a superstar. I mean, he just he was
Speaker 1: so great during his his interest and of course Moxie
Speaker 1: comes out in the place just goes absolutely nuts. Yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: his his interest Moxley. You know, Moxley's got a fantastic
Speaker 1: or around him, especially on an independent show because, um,
Speaker 1: you know a lot of the top guys um will
Speaker 1: go to an independent show and they'll work like they
Speaker 1: would work on television, and independent wrestling is very different
Speaker 1: from television wrestling, and Moxley totally gets the difference. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I remember there was another DeFi show and I remember
Speaker 1: the Briscos were there and uh my god, they worked
Speaker 1: there asses off on this DeFi show. I remember watching
Speaker 1: this mansion. I'm thinking, like, do they think it's Final
Speaker 1: Battle or something like that because they worked so hard
Speaker 1: and man, Moxi went out there and this guy didn't
Speaker 1: half acid ever. I mean, dude, he went out there
Speaker 1: and just was I mean, he was on fire. And
Speaker 1: I'm and that's the thing. It's like a guy at
Speaker 1: his pay level working in an independent show could just
Speaker 1: basically make an appearance, you know what I mean, an appearance,
Speaker 1: do his you know, do his moves that people want
Speaker 1: to see and everybody want to be happy. But he
Speaker 1: went way above and beyond, you know. So yeah, that
Speaker 1: match was Um, that was a tremendous match. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: so a w huh fan Forbidden Door is uh, it's
Speaker 1: all sold out. It's all sold out. Immediately. All the
Speaker 1: people who thought that this concept wasn't viable, um at
Speaker 1: least as a as a as a live show, we
Speaker 1: know it is. I mean, pay per view will be
Speaker 1: the pay per view, but the ticket demand was the
Speaker 1: highest for any a w show since UH all Out
Speaker 1: and the highest actually of any show in the United
Speaker 1: States in a long long time, which will get people mad,
Speaker 1: but it's just the truth, you know. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: nobody else that had twenty thousand people UH signed up
Speaker 1: at buy tickets on the pre sale that was never
Speaker 1: advertised at all. You know, it wasn't like it was
Speaker 1: for today when it was advertised. This was the day before.
Speaker 1: I mean, people didn't even most people didn't even know
Speaker 1: about it. Obviously, Obviously twenty thou people knew about it,
Speaker 1: and they were you know, there's there's no doubt they
Speaker 1: were very much. Um, there was. It was. They were
Speaker 1: very lucky in a sense that the secondary market scalpers
Speaker 1: number one made a ton of money on the recent
Speaker 1: pay per view shows, so they knew to buy in.
Speaker 1: And secondly, um, there were no other big shows that
Speaker 1: went on sale that day, so a lot of the
Speaker 1: high level scalpers that don't touch wrestling, but just you
Speaker 1: know kind of like with what tickets were you gonna
Speaker 1: buy today? Um, there were like no big concerts, no
Speaker 1: big sports events that went on sale that day. So um,
Speaker 1: there were a lot of people. There were a lot
Speaker 1: of secondary market tickets sold. But the reality is is
Speaker 1: that you know those those uh you know, like on
Speaker 1: the the show in Vegas, right double or nothing. Um,
Speaker 1: so far, the secondary market people have made about four
Speaker 1: times the ticket price a little under four times about
Speaker 1: three and a half times the ticket price that they
Speaker 1: paid for it. So it's not like, you know, the
Speaker 1: demand isn't there, or oh it's just scalpers buying. It's like,
Speaker 1: actually scalpers are buying because the demand is so freaking
Speaker 1: high for these shows in you know, because they're in
Speaker 1: buildings too small for the ticket demand. That's the reality
Speaker 1: of it. The funny thing is the last time there
Speaker 1: was a joint show in America with New Japan, it
Speaker 1: also did a one million dollar a gate. Yes, so
Speaker 1: you would have you would have thought that, you know,
Speaker 1: people would have learned it. You know, maybe New Japan
Speaker 1: and a WI doing a joint show is going to
Speaker 1: do all right? Yeah yeah, um yeah. I mean I
Speaker 1: was sure as a live show would do really good.
Speaker 1: I didn't I don't know it was a pay per view.
Speaker 1: I mean, like it's uncharted water. It'll do well. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure it will do well, but you know, will
Speaker 1: it do like what see Him Punk did for his return?
Speaker 1: You know, I'm guessing no, but maybe it will and
Speaker 1: we'll all learn and then if we do, you know,
Speaker 1: there'll be more. It's it's uh but yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: a would we gotta we gotta do a break, Sorry, Dave,
Speaker 1: but we'll talk more after the break on this and
Speaker 1: take your calls. Observer Live are the show. Brian elbre
Speaker 1: is here Wrestling Observer Alive. If you want the new
Speaker 1: Observer forty thousand words forty thousand words of news and
Speaker 1: information on pro wrestling, mixed martial arts, historical stories, analysis.
Speaker 1: It's like a half a half a death of w
Speaker 1: c W every week Dave writes not quite half half
Speaker 1: of the original one third of the new and expanded edition.
Speaker 1: But anyway, you can get it at Wrestling Observer dot com.
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Speaker 1: to give us a call here today, the phone line
Speaker 1: is open. The phone lines we have five lines because
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Speaker 1: is the phone number. Eight four four nine one three seven.
Speaker 1: If you want to send me a text four to
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Speaker 1: four to five seven zero seven, five six six. Brian
Speaker 1: at Wrestling Observer dot com is the email at Brian
Speaker 1: Alvarez on Twitter and of course at four W online
Speaker 1: on cameo. Do you know that you can get a
Speaker 1: Mother's Day cameo for just thirty five dollars? That's right,
Speaker 1: so don't miss out at four W on line thirty
Speaker 1: five bucks heading into Mother's Day, So go over there
Speaker 1: and grab one now. Dynamite ratings very quickly, the show
Speaker 1: got killed by the NBA again eight thirty three thousand viewers,
Speaker 1: down about ten lowest numbers since May nineteen one over
Speaker 1: a year ago, almost a year ago, point three two
Speaker 1: in eighteen to forty nine, second lowest rating of the
Speaker 1: year in that category. However, as noted, it was the
Speaker 1: n b A and uh, the show is actually fourth
Speaker 1: on cable in eighteen forty nine, trailing only the NBA,
Speaker 1: the n b A and the NBA. So for those
Speaker 1: of you that were panicking yesterday, don't. For those of
Speaker 1: you that are gonna panic when you get to the
Speaker 1: Rampage numbers on Monday, don't bro. If Rampage even makes
Speaker 1: four hundred thousand, they should they should throw a party
Speaker 1: because that show is starting in less than two hours. Okay,
Speaker 1: my kids not even out of school, and Rampage is
Speaker 1: airing today to thirty Pacific five thirty Eastern. Not an
Speaker 1: ideal time. And for those of you that were looking
Speaker 1: at the quarters, Rendan Thurston had the quarters. And yeah,
Speaker 1: there was a pretty big, pretty big collapse in the
Speaker 1: last half hour of the show, which coincides with that
Speaker 1: last hour that people were pretty critical of. They actually lost, uh,
Speaker 1: not a significant but a fair amount of viewers for
Speaker 1: the end of the Dante Martin Ray Phoenix match that
Speaker 1: the fans were going crazy for. They lost viewers there,
Speaker 1: and uh it pretty much stayed at that level for
Speaker 1: the main event. Ring of Honor. Ah was the unification match.
Speaker 1: Um I couldn't get both of those, but suffice to
Speaker 1: say the show would have done probably what are the
Speaker 1: the show averaged eight thirty three. The show would have
Speaker 1: averaged eight fifty or eight sixty if you would have
Speaker 1: taken out the last half hour of the show. But
Speaker 1: the last half hour dropped enough to drag the entire
Speaker 1: show down to thirty three. So that's that's basically what happened.
Speaker 1: First hour and a half of the show was very
Speaker 1: very stable at about eight sixty or so, and then
Speaker 1: it fell off there at the end. So anyway, let's
Speaker 1: uh see who's on the line. I know who's on
Speaker 1: the line because we have one person that calls from
Speaker 1: Old Bellows Falls in the year, Dagan, what's up? What's
Speaker 1: going on? Brian? What's up? Twitch homies? So I wanted
Speaker 1: to continue that discussion you were just having with Dave
Speaker 1: about the ticket demand for some of these big A
Speaker 1: W shows, and it's kind of clear to me that
Speaker 1: they could start to run some bigger venues for some
Speaker 1: of these shows. You know, I was just at that
Speaker 1: Boston show a few weeks ago, and as a there's
Speaker 1: a small venue and I'm kind of thinking like this
Speaker 1: idea of potentially running thinking outside of the box a
Speaker 1: bit and maybe running like a Friendly Park in Boston
Speaker 1: or like a Wrigley Field in Chicago. I wanted to
Speaker 1: see what you thought about the idea of them starting
Speaker 1: to run some bigger venues or potentially some venues that
Speaker 1: you wouldn't expect, like Arthur Ash Stadium last year. Anyway,
Speaker 1: thanks for taking my call. Yeah, I want to thank
Speaker 1: you very much for the call. I mean, here, here
Speaker 1: are the things that are obvious to me. Okay. Number one,
Speaker 1: for the bigger shows, I'm not talking about your your
Speaker 1: average Dynamite, because I'm not sure that Dynamite should be
Speaker 1: regularly running twelve thousand seed buildings. I think that that
Speaker 1: would be a mistake because they're I don't think they're
Speaker 1: selling twelve thousand tickets every week for Dynamite, but for
Speaker 1: the bigger shows, for the pay per views, for the
Speaker 1: new Japan versus a w stuff like that. There's two
Speaker 1: things that are obvious. They need to run bigger buildings,
Speaker 1: and they need to raise the prices. And of course
Speaker 1: it's gonna be experimental because the amount of the ticket prices.
Speaker 1: Now it's clear that they would sell significantly more tickets
Speaker 1: too many of these events. Of course, if you raise
Speaker 1: the ticket price, maybe they wouldn't sell that many. I
Speaker 1: don't know. But you know, as Dave noted, they've got
Speaker 1: double or nothing coming at the end of the month,
Speaker 1: and scalpers when they bought those tickets, are selling those
Speaker 1: tickets for four times what a W charge. That tells
Speaker 1: you something a W is under charging for their tickets
Speaker 1: for live events. Now my recommending they go out there
Speaker 1: and start gouging people. No, but I mean it's not
Speaker 1: like w W E tickets are cheap. I mean, I
Speaker 1: know Tony wants to make these tickets accessible and everything
Speaker 1: like that, but you know, when you've got twenty thousand
Speaker 1: people that are ready for a a pre sale and uh,
Speaker 1: and twelve thousand get tickets immediately, Bro, there's eight thousand
Speaker 1: people where those tickets weren't accessible. It doesn't matter what
Speaker 1: the price was, they couldn't get a ticket. So uh,
Speaker 1: it's going to be something needs to change, and that
Speaker 1: is either raising ticket prices, expanding the size of the
Speaker 1: buildings or both and then finding the balance. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you can, if you can regularly sell twenty tickets
Speaker 1: to your four quarterly pay per views and increase prices
Speaker 1: by ten. You know, this is a business, and we
Speaker 1: don't know what the television landscape is going to be
Speaker 1: when it's time for them to get a renewal. They
Speaker 1: may end up getting a renewal for the exact same
Speaker 1: price that they're getting now. And if you look at
Speaker 1: all the people they're signing and how they want to
Speaker 1: be competitive and how they don't want to lose people,
Speaker 1: the w W E, I mean, you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: be paying your top stars more. Well, where's the money
Speaker 1: coming from if you're making the same television deal money, Well,
Speaker 1: you need to sell some tickets. You need to uh
Speaker 1: sell more tickets. You need to raise the price of
Speaker 1: the tickets. You need to make your money in different ways.
Speaker 1: So I think the easiest way is raise the ticket
Speaker 1: prices a little. I'm not saying double them necessarily. And
Speaker 1: uh and for the big shows clearly run some bigger
Speaker 1: buildings of twenty people are in the queue for the
Speaker 1: pre sale, twenty people get their tickets and not twelve.
Speaker 1: So I think those are the two things that that
Speaker 1: I think. I mean, obviously there's a lot of things
Speaker 1: like get more bidders, get a streaming deal, sign us
Speaker 1: all beside the point, But this is something you could
Speaker 1: do now and the evidence is there based on what's
Speaker 1: going on, that you could sell more tickets to big
Speaker 1: shows and raise surprises. If you want to call us
Speaker 1: eight four four seven. Phone lines are open, so jump
Speaker 1: on if you had. Like everybody, we've also got what
Speaker 1: other news have we got here? During a comedy show
Speaker 1: Thursday night, Malcolm Bivens addressed his release from w w E.
Speaker 1: He said, there's a lot of rumors, a lot of speculation.
Speaker 1: Was I offered a contract in February? Yes? Did I
Speaker 1: say no to this contract? Yes? Was I offered to
Speaker 1: be with Omas? No? No one said a word to
Speaker 1: me about managing Omas. Was I told about the maiden roster? Yes?
Speaker 1: And people i think I'm crazy, Like Malcolm, you threw
Speaker 1: away millions. Potentially you walked away. Yeah, he says I
Speaker 1: did because I didn't want to do it anymore. And
Speaker 1: unfortunately I just wasn't happy it's stand and deliver. At
Speaker 1: a conversation with the head writer and I told him so.
Speaker 1: And then two weeks ago I said the same thing.
Speaker 1: I don't think this is for me, and that's okay.
Speaker 1: Your happiness is not dictated by what people say you
Speaker 1: should do. It is dictated by what you think that
Speaker 1: you should do. He was a manature obviously of the
Speaker 1: diamond mine, and which is, by the way, it's impossible
Speaker 1: to say diamond mind. I've noticed it's always diamond mind.
Speaker 1: But anyway, he says, shout out to Brutus Julius Ivy.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna miss them. I love them like they were
Speaker 1: my kids. But you know, sometimes in life you have
Speaker 1: to move on. People ask me, or they have been
Speaker 1: asking me, Malcolm, is this it for you? Is this
Speaker 1: it as far as pro wrestling goes? And for now
Speaker 1: I have to say yes. I have to say yes,
Speaker 1: will I I'm back maybe maybe for the right price.
Speaker 1: So right now, at this point, Malcolm BIBBNS is out
Speaker 1: of pro wrestling. And it sure is amazing how many
Speaker 1: people go through this system, in the main roster system
Speaker 1: and they just want out and then like passion is killed.
Speaker 1: I mean, what this is is it's a It's a
Speaker 1: sports entertainment company. And and if you grew up and
Speaker 1: you you love sports entertainment and you want to be
Speaker 1: a sports entertainer, I mean, maybe this is for you.
Speaker 1: If you are a if you grew up a professional
Speaker 1: wrestling fan and you and your brother listened to this
Speaker 1: podcast in college or whatever, and you went to indie
Speaker 1: shows and you worked on the independence and you you
Speaker 1: did professional wrestling, well this place probab reason for you.
Speaker 1: And Roderick Strong has tried to get out, can't get out.
Speaker 1: Candice Larray now free agent, so she can go anywhere
Speaker 1: she wants if that's what she ends up wanting to do.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, what what's what's happening here is
Speaker 1: We've talked about it before, is this business is split.
Speaker 1: If you are if you're an old school professional wrestling fan,
Speaker 1: then you're gonna grabbed eight towards a w and New
Speaker 1: Japan and etcetera, etcetera. And if you grew up and
Speaker 1: you love w w E and w w E style
Speaker 1: and you went to w w E shows and you
Speaker 1: never watch anything else, well that's probably gonna be the
Speaker 1: place for you because you probably aren't gonna like it
Speaker 1: anywhere else. So it's gonna be very interesting. We've talked
Speaker 1: about you know, everyone gets mad at me for talking
Speaker 1: about n x T, but there's a reason I talked
Speaker 1: about it, Like that's the future of w w E.
Speaker 1: N I l deals. People didn't grow up wrestling fans.
Speaker 1: People offered money to go become wrestlers. Anybody can be
Speaker 1: trained to be a pro wrestler in this system that's there,
Speaker 1: that's their feeling. So this this you know, you watch
Speaker 1: a w watch n x T and and w w E,
Speaker 1: and they're different products and they're only diverging further. They're
Speaker 1: not coming closer together. And what's gonna be interesting is
Speaker 1: you know, when I was a little kid, I I
Speaker 1: only watched w w E, and I watched Brett Hart,
Speaker 1: Sean Michaels, I watched Rick Flair when he was there,
Speaker 1: And Uh, I know people are going they're both they're
Speaker 1: both sports. You're right, they are both sports entertainment, but
Speaker 1: they're totally different. This is diverging. Okay, w w E
Speaker 1: is way more entertainment than pro wrestling, and a w
Speaker 1: has met way more pro wrestling than entertainment. The booking
Speaker 1: philosophies totally different. They're they're completely different. My point I
Speaker 1: was making a moment ago was I grew up in
Speaker 1: and uh and I loved WWF and when I was
Speaker 1: doing the y WF, you I would have been all
Speaker 1: I all I thought about was, man, you know w
Speaker 1: w F w w F Championship I got smartened up
Speaker 1: about and that was the end of wanting to do
Speaker 1: anything there or w c W or really or else
Speaker 1: except the indies. But the question is the kids today?
Speaker 1: What are the kids today? These young kids, where are
Speaker 1: they gonna want to go? Are we gonna have kids
Speaker 1: growing up they just want to go straight to w
Speaker 1: w E. Are the kids growing up today wanting nothing
Speaker 1: to do with the w w E and only wanting
Speaker 1: a w new Japan, et cetera. And they're out there
Speaker 1: because I've talked to him back in a moment is
Speaker 1: they were lively ring and I think it's me that
Speaker 1: can My gosh, there's nothing that I won't try. But
Speaker 1: I'm back on the show right now. Barez here Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer Alive and uh what it asked me about? Got
Speaker 1: UFC Tomorrow Charles Oliver and Justin gaith G and uh
Speaker 1: no longer a championship match. Olivera missed wait by a
Speaker 1: half pound and his punishment is he has been stripped
Speaker 1: of the championship and tomorrow, if gaith G wins, he
Speaker 1: will win the championship, and if OLIVERA wins, he's still
Speaker 1: stripped to the title, So laying that hammer down. So
Speaker 1: if you were yeah, half pound half pound, but the
Speaker 1: thing was, he missed by half pound. They gave him
Speaker 1: an hour, he still couldn't lose the half pound and
Speaker 1: so he flat out and missed weight. So that's the
Speaker 1: end of that. He is no longer the champion and
Speaker 1: cannot win the title tomorrow in their match. So if
Speaker 1: you're planning to get the UFC, that's the update on
Speaker 1: on that story. There, Ah, what we got here in
Speaker 1: the text message ben oh must I about n x
Speaker 1: T Texas, Poor b J the Virgin. Whether he gets
Speaker 1: over or not, this is forever gonna be brought up
Speaker 1: to him and promos by his opponents that he was
Speaker 1: the nerd that couldn't get laid in n x T
Speaker 1: two point Oh. I hope he Well, you know, once
Speaker 1: he gets called up, I'm sure he'll get a new gimmick.
Speaker 1: If he ever gets called up. Well, someone's very uh,
Speaker 1: someone's very mad at me for getting banned from the chat.
Speaker 1: Too bad, brother, Well, when we do about it, if
Speaker 1: you got banned from the chat, you deserve it. So
Speaker 1: don't get mad at me. Look in the mirror that
Speaker 1: goes for everybody. Okay, yeah, I was in a mood yesterday,
Speaker 1: so why would you push my buttons? That's it. You
Speaker 1: know what to do. Don't be an idiot, that's it.
Speaker 1: There's nothing worse than being an idiot getting banned and
Speaker 1: then saying it's somebody else's fault. That's it, putting up
Speaker 1: with this crap. Jeff Hardy is forty four and Bobby
Speaker 1: Fish is forty six. Yeah, it was it was rough.
Speaker 1: That match was rough. Anyway, We're gonna wrap it up
Speaker 1: for today, every buddy Tomorrow. Jim Valley is going to
Speaker 1: be on the show to Pacific one Eastern andrews Arian
Speaker 1: on Sunday, and I'll be back on Monday. Also this weekend,
Speaker 1: tens of shows for subscribers to Wrestling Observer dot com.
Speaker 1: And that's it. Thanks. Mike has always callers and listeners
Speaker 1: ever for the studio. We'll talk to you next time
Speaker 1: Wrestling Observer Live. You have been listening to the Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network