731,000

"Most people who watch wrestling on television never would think of buying a PPV, going to the arena, or spending much of any time thinking about pro wrestling except during the hour or two of escapist entertainment they spend watching it each week." - Dave Meltzer, in a mid-1996 Wrestling Observer Newsletter

So the number WWE released today for their WWE Network subscribers was lower than even the most optimistic projection, a total of 731,000.

While their international launch into 170 new countries (UK not included) pulled in 286,000 new subscribers, they lost a total of 255,000 subscribers at the same time, leaving their efforts over the last three months at an improvement of 31,000.

The breakdown is listed at 703,000 subscribers in the US, and 28,000 internationally, which tells me that, as expected, most of the people who wanted it in those foreign countries just signed up to the Network before under a US address before it was "technically" available to them.

The six month commitment idea has been totally scrapped, and apparently they are giving away a free month in November. Rumours that Vince McMahon re-hired Jim Ross then fired him to make himself feel better are unconfirmed.

To spell things out clearly, WWE needed to be at 1.1 million subscribers to even get to the point they were at before the launch of the Network by doing regular, tried and tested Pay-Per-View, and that was only after massive budget cuts, as the original break even number was 1.5 million.

Look, I'm not predicting eternal doom for this thing, over time it may be worth it if the slow trickle of newcomers elevates the number. And hey, the UK is the segment of the world most willing to spend big money on WWE, so when we get the Network things should pick up a little. But the point I made in my column three months ago on this subject has now been validated. On a worldwide basis, there are no floods of people dying to spend money on WWE, and there haven't been for a very long time.

The quote at the start of this piece isn't some hidden gem of wrestling knowledge, that's an accurate analysis of the wrestling business since the beginning of television. The bullshit statistics they were looking at in the beginning to gauge whether or not this pig would fly have no bearing on reality. They inflated the number of television viewers they had with their usual McMathemathics, Voodoo, and just plain making it up. It's one thing to spin doctor figures to project success to the outside world, who will take something at face value and never really ask questions. It's another to base the company's future on them.

I'll say what I said in August one more time. The WWE has never convinced more than 1.25 million people worldwide to spend money on a wrestling television product, and that's a one off, special event with a unique attraction, and it's happened less than a handful of times in history.

The WWE Network has absolutely zero appeal to casual fans. None. Casual fans, as Meltzer said, are there to watch a couple of hours of escapist entertainment, and see what's happening on the wrestling show. That's it. The goal is always to hook as many of those casual viewers into buyers as possible, and make them drop some cash on an event you've made them want to see. Those casuals don't give a fuck about having more wrestling than they could possibly watch at the push of a button.
The lower price was supposed to turn some fringe PPV buyers into regulars, and the total number isn't horrible when you look at WWE PPV numbers in recent years. But they've been completely ignorant to reality, so here it is.

Casual fans, the ones who make the difference and create those record setting numbers, don't want archives, don't want the history of wrestling at a finger tip. They want a hot product that makes them say "you know what...I know I was going to earmark that money for Jack Daniels, but Goddamn I'd love to see what happens in that match". You do that with a great television show. You write TV to create something they want to see, and charge them for it. The only way to pull in casuals to buy the network, and get the numbers up to the level they want and need, is to get them to buy the once a month "special events", or Pay-Per-Views as we know them.

And therein lies the stupidity. If that's what makes big money, and it is, then why the hell didn't they stick to PPV where, if they could convince more people to buy, they'd make far more money than they will with this system?

Right now they probably need 2-3 million subscribers to make this a project that elevates company finances enough to justify the change. Worth the risk, because the difference would be significant. But they're not close, and honest analysis would told them they weren't going to be. Once the UK is added and WrestleMania has come and gone, their level of real growth is finished. That alone is not going to get them to 2 million.

What's the answer? Through all the corporate rhetoric, stockholder-pleasing ga-ga and delusions of real world grandeur, it's the same thing it's been for over a hundred years. Produce a TV show that makes stars and sells big matches. The problem begins and ends with Raw. Fix that, and you have a prayer.

Wrestling Television - Answering the Cry For Help

It's been a while since I've revisited this page, mostly because the world of wrestling has become a largely uninteresting place of late, and with Squared Circle Gazette Radio picking up, history has become far more fun to evaluate than trying to feign excitement about the most missable stretch of WWE TV in quite some time.

Which gets me thinking about TV. One of the great things about wrestling history is that there have been so many different ways of producing television that at any given time, you can watch an old show and get wrapped up in the angles and feuds, at times overlooking some of the negatives because the positives get you so excited.

Raw and Nitro set a trend in hot wrestling television between 1996 and 2000 that is, sadly, likely to be unequaled ever again. But there are a couple of other shows I want to focus on today for different reasons.

ECW Hardcore TV 1995-1996

I was a wrestling fan during this period of time, but like most others, was unable to see their revolutionary style of television during this heyday. I did catch some in 1997, and to be quite honest, after reading for years in magazines and seeing in pictures these incredibly wild events, and hearing about what an excellent show it was, I was disappointed.

But going back and watching the two years before I was joined in watching, when ECW was truly on fire, this show was magic.

A lot has been said about Joey Styles - some found him annoying, but in the role of the smart-ass narrator and empassioned voice of the company, Styles was perfect in conveying a brilliant range of excitement, interest, credibility, knowledge and gravity to a company that could very easily could be a mess without it.

The wrestling ranged from state-of-the-art to old-school heat and drama, and from good to bad. Certainly from this perspective it wasn't like things were perfect, but the context given on the show meant more than the quality of the matches in a lot of cases anyway.

95-96 ECW, from a character development and promo perspective, was one of the most diverse and captivating periods of TV I've ever seen. Perhaps the best work of Mick Foley's career with the Anti-Hardcore promos. Steve Austin becoming a main event personality before your eyes. Raven comes into his own with one of the best contemporary characters of the era. Brian Pillman creating a legendary mystique as the Loose Cannon. Taz making a splash, transforming himself into a serious badass and creating tremendous anticipation for a match with Sabu. Public Enemy, Stevie Richards and the Blue Meanie providing fantastic comic relief.

The style of the show is quick without being rushed, focused on making you attend live shows and purchase videos without being overbearing, and is over the top and in your face without making you want to turn the channel.

Nothing is perfect, and there are some flaws to pick. The over-reliance on acts I never personally liked such as the Pit Bulls and the Dudley Boys (pre-Bubba/D-Von tag team) does feel like filler. But the unique ways the show has of making you want to watch the next episode, or just want more ECW, is the real charm. The Pulp Fiction montages, the music videos, ending the show out of nowhere with a hot angle going down in the arena with the rabid fans going ballistic, it hooks you like few shows I've ever seen.

You never knew what you were getting with an ECW TV show. Not to say there wasn't a formula or repetition, because there is to some degree, but the show could open with Raven in the dead of night cutting a promo in a park, Joey Styles in the ring introducing a promo, or a video recap of a prior angle just as easily as the show opening video itself. There were some outstanding matches, red-hot angles, and captivating promos. ECW Hardcore TV in 95-96 is what you love about wrestling.

Mid-South Wrestling 1984

Based out of the Shreveport Boys Club, 1984 Mid-South is among my favourite eras of wrestling television. The whole show is ran out of the venue, with no studio throws, just the ring surrounded by enthusiastic fans, and the commentary booth.

The feel of this show works so well, the ambience reeking of territorial wrestling, with the kind of superficial imperfections (terrible graphics/shitty venue) that would likely turn a casual fan of today off in second. But it doesn't matter, to me it works for it. In this little world, everything that takes place is of the utmost importance, and carries the gravity we are told it does.

Jim Ross is finding himself as an announcer during this time and is already great, and Bill Watts on commentary is often tremendous in his own right. They have the inate, rare ability to convey any emotion needed, explain everything to leave no unanswered questions, and tell you straight up why the angles you are seeing are important. The entire vibe of this company is keeping the foundation true to the fundamental elements of why wrestling works, but mixing in enough angles, twists and turns in an episodic fashion to feel like it's far more than "back to basics"
.
From Magnum TA getting tarred and feathered and the fantastic week by week implosion of the Magnum/Wrestling II team, to the Russians cutting Ricky Morton's hair, the emergence of Terry Taylor, and the rise of Jim Cornette and the Midnight Express, this year has so much to love. The wrestling isn't always the best - there are plenty of Masao Ito matches to fast forward if you wish, but regardless, the TV is so easy to absorb.

You're never overly spoiled by being given the whole ball of wax for free on TV, but you never feel short-changed by spending time watching it. You're never confused with an angle or a direction, a credit considering that a lot of very key moments in the story of Mid-South (such as Mr. Wrestling II beating JYD for the title) are relayed to fans in the form of video clips from live events and aren't played out live.

There are some fantastic outdated music videos to enjoy (Magnum TA video to "Sweet Dreams" by Eurythmics, anyone?), but despite the handicap of watching these so long after they were intended to be seen, you can easily enjoy them for what their intention was.

Cornette really steals the show this year with the Watts angle and feuds with Magnum/II and the Rock and Rolls, and is just at his absolute best as a guy that really doesn't belong in this neck of the woods, rolling in and pissing on your heroes with a smile on his face.

--

It is easy to feel like nothing that happens on Raw these days matters, because the truth is it doesn't. There are fewer over guys on the roster than ever thanks to holding patterns, resistence to going all the way with new stars when they had the chance, and a tendency to rinse and repeat wins, losses and midcard titles amongst the same core unit. The reason I cite these two television shows is because they never feel like that. These shows make you care. It's hard not too. Like starting a Breaking Bad, True Detective or Mad Men, once you have the ability to sit through these periods as a series, you'll find it hard to stop. And that's why I love them. They bring out passion in wrestling fans, both in very unique ways.

Want a pick me up? Don't go to YouTube, find enough of these full shows to remind you why wrestling is great.

Vince McMahon's Plastic Action Figures

Watching Raw this week and seeing the great Brock Lesnar video package, it was even more apparent, as it is with his every appearance, why Brock Lesnar works so well in his role. He's completely real. You can believe that this is the authentic Brock, just with a camera on him. He's a dick. He doesn't give a fuck about you, me, or anyone else. He's superb in his role, more convincing than just about everybody else in WWE by a country mile.

WWE's biggest problem is not being "PG", it's not a lack of talent or potential stars. It's not even the overexposure of TV content or the need to shill the Network. It's the fact that very few guys on WWE TV are actually cool. Why? Because WWE's tendency to force it's stars to be one-dimensional caricatures has never been worse.

Sheamus is a great example. A good worker, certainly, but if you've seen one match or heard one promo, you feel like you've seen everything he can do. WWE doesn't like to give anybody too much depth, but if a new fan asked you to tell him something about this Sheamus guy, what would you say? He's Irish? That's fuckin' captivating. That's not to say that's all Sheamus has to offer, he might be capable of more, but you'd never know. Sheamus never really took as a top guy despite a huge push in 2012, and he didn't show that he was really good enough or had the transcendent charisma to succeed regardless. Scripting is one thing, but the way the guys are scripted is sculpting them in plastic, forcing them into an unnatural mould.

Roman Reigns is about to get the megapush. But all they know how to do is the Sheamus push. The Diesel push. The push of so many guys who never really took at the top - strip away anything other than a look, a tagline, the most generic verbiage imaginable, and have them win all the time and hope for the best. Sometimes that works if they have something unique about themselves, a flavour that just clicks. But they've already started this direction with Reigns, between being smashed over the majority of the time (which is fine) and his "Assess and Attack" promos that couldn't be more bland if they were cut by Bob Backlund in 1993 (which are not). It's going to doom him when it comes time to take the throne, barring a drastic turnaround or change in philosophy, because the fans will inevitably ask themselves why they love him, and they're not going to have enough answers to justify spending their money. Again, at the WWE 2K15 Roster Announcement show on Summerslam weekend, Reigns showed he has far more personality and a good natural charisma, that you'd never know he has by watching Raw every week.

Bray Wyatt and the recently fired Alberto Del Rio both had the same issue when coming into WWE - a brilliant introduction with a hot character that seemed like it has a ton of potential to do great, interesting things. But the character never actually gets out of first gear. They never evolve, those characters don't actually do anything interesting or unique (or "Creative") after stage one. They just show up and do what everybody else does and before long, they become another flower in the garden, and never change. Eventually flowers like that start to smell pretty putrid.

Look at Dean Ambrose, and ask yourself why he's been getting crowd reactions far beyond the level of his push. The answer is because he's himself, and unlike almost everybody else in the entire company, he's fucking cool. Everything he says fits him, he feels different, and this angle with Seth Rollins allows him to act how his character should. He's doing the kind of whacky antics you'd hope an erratic guy like him could do - hiding in the boot of a car to get at people, throwing an ice bucket in Seth Rollins' face and brawling with him out of nowhere. There is actually something to sink your teeth into, and you want to see what he'll do next because this character, unlike Bray Wyatt, ACTUALLY DOES INTERESTING THINGS. And even if he is scripted, he's good enough to not let it typecast him in a one-dimensional manner.

The underlying theme here is that the WWE desperately needs to let the guys be themselves, rather than washing away the idiosyncrasies that makes any great character in the history of any medium special. Let them be more hands-on, to get involved in ideas for their character, to speak with their own voice, pitch their own angles and try their own things.

The nature of WWE Creative is to take that out of the talent's hands to give the company more control. If a talent tries something and fails, then he may fall short and fuck up future company plans if he sinks instead of swims on his own volition. You can also take a guy who may not be able to cut promos or come up with dialogue and put the words in his mouth. Those type of guys do need scripting.

But by taking that ability away, not only are you preventing failure, you're hindering potential success. In 1997, with WCW kicking the shit out the WWF, Vince held a meeting and told the guys that he was going to, within reason, hand the reigns of people's characters over to themselves, because they knew what they needed to be. But today, with nobody succeeding at his expense, even if the product is colder than a polar bear's dick, they'll stay this course. Wrestling is at its best, and its most popular, when the stars on the show are cool. When you as a fan want to feed of that magnetism.

There is not that much cool or interesting about modern WWE to the male audience, and how could there be? How can a person be told how to act by a team of over a dozen people and come off as anything other than one of Vince McMahon's personal action figures instead of an individual who knows exactly who and what he is, to the point you've got to tune in and see him?

Maybe I'm being too hard on WWE. Maybe these guys like Sheamus, Del Rio, Dolph Ziggler, The Miz, Kofi Kingston, Jack Swagger and Big E don't have enough about them, deep-down, to be top guys. Not everybody does. Not everybody has that special personality. I don't believe Seth Rollins has the personality to be a top guy, and even during the height of his popularity earlier this year, I was among the few to say that Cesaro never showed the ability to connect at a main event level.

But you'd got some guys on the horizon that can make a difference. Dean Ambrose is on his way. Roman Reigns has real potential, but they're forcing him into the same path as those before him. Bray Wyatt should still be a big deal, but they don't have any idea what to do with him. Luke Harper is interesting and could be a psycho killer if they had the balls.

But the fans will always compare the current generation unfavourably to stars from the past, if these guys don't have to chance to be themselves. The guys from the past did. And in many cases, that's exactly why they were stars to begin with.

SCG Radio Update!

We've been a little slow on the ball updating this site with the podcasts, but here goes!

SCG Radio #8 - The Overrated In Pro Wrestling
http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/play/e4m7is/SCGRadio8-TheOverratedInProWrestling.mp3

SCG Radio #9 - The Highs And Lows of TNA
http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/play/mz6g9q/SCGRadio9-TheHighsAndLowsOfTNA.mp3

SCG Radio #10 - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly of 2000
http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/play/y93ptz/SCGRadio10-TheGoodBadandUglyof2000.mp3

SCG Radio #11 - The G-1 Climax and New Japan Pro Wrestling
http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/play/acnh5x/SCGRadio11-TheG-1ClimaxandNJPW.mp3

SCG Radio #12 - Analysing the nWo
http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/play/yza72e/SCGRadio12-AnalysingthenWo.mp3

The Lantern's Light Is Fading Away

It's no secret, nor is it a revelation, to say that Bray Wyatt has lost a good bit of steam of late. The current feud with Chris Jericho failed to deliver any kind of deep-rooted rivalry that long time fans of Y2J may have been hoping for, and as a result, Wyatt has gone from having "The Whole World In His Hands", to standing in the midcard with his cock on his hand.

The audience's reaction to his Raw promo was telling, and it isn't the first time a live crowd has been apathetic to Wyatt's verbal jiu-jitsu. As well delivered as it is, his promos are void of substance, much ado about nothing, and the fans are clocking on to it.  

Just a few months back, however, Bray felt like the hottest rising star the WWE had, and it was watching SummerSlam that inspired this column, when one of the people I was watching with, a longtime Cena detractor, tried to pin the blame on ol' JC for Wyatt's recent fate, calling him "the career killer", a comment I had to take exception to.

Let's get a few things established about Bray now - firstly, John Cena was THE reason he began to get the reaction he did. Before that, Wyatt wasn't this surefire, ready-to-explode-into-the-atmosphere character it later appeared he could be. Even though the feud itself was slapdash at best in terms of the content, direction and driving theme, the one thing it accomplished was allowing Bray to call attention to the anti-Cena backlash in such a way to tie it into his own momentum, and create the illusion he was on the cusp. The feud ended with Bray's best match thus far, a Last Man Standing match, that Cena won due to Daniel Bryan being injured and the need for him to step back up as the top babyface.

The second Cena was stripped away from Wyatt, Bray immediately began to flounder, and his reactions became less and less impressive. Love it or hate it, it's clear what the fans were responding to in hindsight - while Bray was the beneficiary, Cena was the facilitator.

Now, saying this sounds critical of Wyatt, and it's not. It's simply the nature of the character. These type of characters, the rooted in pure evil, "rare-breed" persona, is reliant on being constantly fed to stay relevant. They are what they are because they are special. They're involved, and involving. They can't be ignored, they are always to be dealt with, a unique presence that we happen to be witnessing at this particular place in time that is always a step ahead of the audience and his opponent. A Raven in ECW. A heel Jake in the WWF. This character exists and thrives because of the situations he finds himself in, that he creates. You have to cater to them, and it's fundamental wrestling booking.

You have this distinctly evil character, he builds up mega heat, and then it gets blown off in the end. Fundamental booking says that this character needs to come back more evil than ever. In other words, he needs to get his heat back. Once the fearsome monster gets what he has coming, what do you have to fear unless he reinforces why he's a terrifying presence? Bray Wyatt, like his predecessors, needs a constant stream of hot opponents or situations, or else he will fail to maintain the level of heat that results in success.

He can't be just another guy, and you can't book him like you do everybody else. He can't flounder in the middle. His entire appeal, and the reason the character works, is because he isn't "just another guy". He's not like every other wrestler, he's special. Once the audience subconsciously realises he's part of the furniture, just like everybody else in tights on the show, then the very basic element that got him over in the first place is lost. All he has to stand out then is his promos. Promos that can only do so much to separate him, when the fans know it's meaningless.

The problem with Bray Wyatt is that this character, as interesting as it could potentially be...doesn't actually do anything. What dynamic angle has this guy given us? "Creative" should be having a field day with this guy with all the manner of whacky human sacrifices, symbolic mind games and whatever else to give an aspect of danger to Bray Wyatt to make him a guy to tune in for every single week to see what he'll do next. And yet, the most memorable angle he's ever done on Raw is when Daniel Bryan beat the shit out of him in a cage.

That's as big a problem as anything. It's harder to get over and become a genuine star right now than it has ever been, because so many of the typical star-making devices mean less now than they did before. The fans need something concrete, but the character is all talk. He can talk about being the eater of worlds, but if you judge him by his actions, he's bluffing, he doesn't act evil. He commits no horrible sins for us to be angry about. He doesn't break any of the established conventions in his actions. He just talks about it.

Chris Jericho, on paper, is not a massive step down, and given the verbal abilities, it should have worked to reheat Bray after the Cena feud. But winning a match alone won't do it. Nor will going 50-50 in wins and losses with Jericho on Pay-Per-View. A half-assed program isn't the answer. Creative needs to do it's job, or Bray needs to come up with some diabolical acts he can perform, and push to do them.

That character needs to be fed to survive. But he's been positively starving since Last Man Standing.

Creative Has Nothing For You

Out of sheer curiosity, when was the last time the WWE introduced a new concept?

You know, something different from the status quo, that broke out of the regular annual rotations and interested the masses because they were about to see something unique that they couldn't judge against history. Wrestling fans are often creatures of nostalgia, and comparisons to the past rarely reflect well on the present. So why not give them something uncomparable?

Between 1994-2004, they introduced the Ladder Match, the Hell In A Cell, the Last Man Standing Match, the TLC Match, the Elimination Chamber, Lion's Den Match, Buried Alive, Three Stages Of Hell, as well as bringing back older concepts like the I Quit Match and Empty Arena match to the WWE for the first time, to name just a few. Granted, you also had your Hog Pen matches, so not everything is going to be a slam dunk.

But between 2004-2014, what do we have? They introduced the godawful Punjabi Prison that lasted two matches, and the mess that was the Championship Scramble, which lasted three. Isn't it funny, they've got more people on the creative team than ever before, and there has been less innovation and progression in the product itself than any other point in history. The crown jewel of creativity for the last ten years, easily, is Money In The Bank.

But Money In The Bank has completely outlived it's usefulness. Somewhere between Jack Swagger and Damien Sandow winning the briefcase, or the fact that most of the midcard has held one of the two World titles and ended up back where they started after cashing in Money In The Bank, it's no longer got the potential star making ability it had for the first three years of its existence. It helped push Edge over the top. But that's really all it ever did.

This Sunday, Brock Lesnar should absolutely, without a doubt, beat John Cena for the WWE Title. There is no justifiable reason for Lesnar to lose this match. It was bad enough he lost to Cena at Extreme Rules. But this, this would be horrific. The guy that broke the Undertaker's Streak after twenty three years loses his next match? To the one guy who doesn't need it? Please, no. Of course this does beg the question of what to do with the WWE Championship. After all, Lesnar has limited dates, and only a handful of matches on his deal. Do you keep the WWE Championship off television?

I've battled with this idea, and it might turn out to be a nice, creative idea that doesn't work out logistically. The idea of a new concept taking centre stage while Paul Heyman shows up stroking the championship belt every week is pretty enticing, but a weekly product and house show circuit, as well as Pay-Per-Views to sell, all without a World Title, may well flounder.

But to go with this line of thinking, if they did put the belt on Brock, the upside is that every Lesnar match now becomes even more important than it ever has been. Triple H begins to regret his decision to give Lesnar the chance to win the title, because it shifts the power to Paul Heyman, and Brock only has to defend when he's contracted to fight. Lesnar's future title defenses can be announced well ahead of time, and television can be built around who gets the shot. Around who gets to be the guy to try and break Brock's grip on the title, bringing the belt back to the company because they're disgusted that Lesnar chooses the UFC model of "the superfight" over being there every week.

The Royal Rumble in January is a no brainer. Winner gets Brock at Mania.

But if you have Brock for the Rumble as well (as they did this year), then do something different. Remember the King Of The Ring? A former staple of the WWE's PPV calendar, this one night tournament culminated with one man standing tall, being put over for his major accomplishment. The company shied away from this idea, because historically, tournaments on Pay-Per-View aren't successful. Understandable.

So update it. Modify it. Tweak it.

You may have read on websites or heard via word of mouth over the last few weeks of the G-1 Climax, New Japan Pro Wrestling's annual tournament to determine the number one contender to the IWGP World Title. Without question the last two tournaments have been amongst the all-time best, due to the quality of the matches. But as a booking mechanism, it's perfect for the WWE, especially in a world without the WWE Champion on every show.

Two blocks of wrestlers (lets say ten per block, for argument's sake), in a round robin tournament where everybody faces everybody else in their block in one-on-one matches. 2 points per win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss. The two block winners face each other in the climactic final (ideally on Pay-Per-View), with the winner taking the entire tournament.

Why I think this could work is because, quite honestly, these three hour Raws are brutal. They're long, they drag, they're tedious, and while there is sometimes some good wrestling, there is VERY little consequence to any of it. Random pairings, there solely to fill time in between Network plugs and the Stephanie McMahon angles that are more important.

If you hold the tournament over ten episodes of Raw, and it becomes the focus of the promotion, every match has meaning. Every match has consequences. The chase to lead the group grows more and more tense week by week. Add the WWE element of promos from the guys talking about the importance of each match, with budding rivalries sprinkled throughout the tournament, and you've got a unique element to the product you've never had before.

The downside to the idea is the idea of repetition for ten shows, and the "pure sports" element that might turn off some who enjoy their whacky angles. And that's valid. But to me, the idea on paper of a "top babyface versus authority" angle in 2014 is brutal, and more repetitious than anything else. A guy with a Money In The Bank briefcase being foiled from cashing in has been done for years now. There is absolutely nothing fresh about Raw at all in its current form, so you really have nothing to lose, and with the production tools and storytelling capabilities WWE has at their disposal, it could make for a really fun experience.

The use of the "analysts" could become a regular part of Raw, as Renee Young breaks down the matches with the panel. And it isn't like the show has to be exclusive straight matches and no "WWE-ish" traits - you could weave an angle like the current Ambrose/Rollins feud throughout the tournament perfectly, and it would actually mean more because Ambrose would actually be costing Rollins something important when he loses.

With this idea, Raw has a meaning, it's fresh, you can elevate certain guys a little bit, and at the end, you have a fantastic challenger for Brock Lesnar and a big time title match. If the company puts all of its promotional might into making this tournament important, the finals themselves would be a big deal, let alone the winner Vs. WWE Champion Brock Lesnar, the guy that ended the streak.

Maybe it wouldn't work. But as John McClane once said, "At least I'm thinking, Goddammit!"

Hell, even if they don't do a G-1, do SOMETHING. I'm sure it's not an easy job at all, especially with the whims of Vince McMahon, the fact he drives the car no matter what, and the need to produce so much first-run content. But on the surface right now, calling them a creative team is rather magnanimous.

Armchair Quarterback - Rebooking WrestleMania XI

On the WrestleMania List Of Lists I wrote earlier in the year, I stated that this was the second worst WrestleMania in history, and I stand by that. I won't dwell on it, you can read that blog if you so wish. But rather than bury the show for the sake of it, let's have some fun. Was this show really the best they could do at the time?

The roster in 1995 is pretty awful, and depth is a major issue in this historically shitty year. But I'm going to give a shot, making the best of it. This is being booked on the assumption that I have inherited the situation as it was at the start of 1995, with the roster as it was in March.

Liam O'Rourke's WrestleMania XI

WWF Title
Diesel (c) Vs. Shawn Michaels w/Sid

This is the only match on the card I'd keep the same.

If Diesel is champion, the only ready made big match challenger he has is Shawn Michaels, which poses a problem because a) the dynamic of the feud was bad with Shawn as the undersized and overmatched heel challenger, and b) the match itself didn't work out as a result. I think this has to be more of a grudge match than it was, in the vain of Taker/Shawn at Ground Zero. I'd have Shawn and Sid beat the living hell out of Diesel with a steel chair in the run-up, and the idea that after all the superkicks, the spotlight hogging, and the assisted beatdowns, Diesel is finally going to get Shawn one-on-one. In the real world, they tried to position them as equals, which was a big mistake. Since they'd paid the cash to get Pamela Anderson, I guess use her here in the same way they did, but she has to be supplemental to the revenge story.

Same outcome, if you're going with Diesel as champ in the first place, he had to win here.

Winner: Diesel

Bret Hart Vs. Lex Luger

Lex turns heel at the Royal Rumble, costing Bret the WWF Title. The bitter, obnoxious Luger starts to show himself in his post-match explanation - last year at the Rumble, the Lex Express hit a Pink and Black brick wall, and the fans chose Bret over him when they tied at the finish. He dropped his Narcissistic way to represent his country, and they spat in his face when he needed them.

As much as it pissed him off, he swallowed the bitter pill to be the nice guy. Then as soon as Bret lost the belt, he immediately was given a chance to get it back against Diesel, while Lex was never given another chance after he got blatantly screwed at Mania X. Luger is an angry, bitter heel in the build to this match, desperate to prove he is better than the Hitman. And in the cheapest, most gutless fashion, he wins, which marks a turn in the character to super obnoxious, holier than thou self-entitled dickhead Luger a la 1989 Total Package, because he "proved" he was right after all. This can continue with Luger either going after Diesel, or continuing the Bret feud all the way through to Summerslam, where the Hitman gets the win.

Bret can "get his win back" over Backlund on one of the In Your House Pay-Per-Views if its actually needed.

Winner: Lex Luger

Lawrence Taylor/Razor Ramon Vs. Jerry Lawler/Jeff Jarrett w/Roadie

Jerry Lawler was perfect for the LT program. He wasn't the most credible guy after the Doink feud, so he really had nothing to lose. He was that perfect heel to antagonise the celebrity and incorporate some of the Kaufman elements again (hell, could even reference Lawler's past fending off outsiders), and his promo work could have made this a bigger deal than it was.

As evidenced by Bigelow, nobody that worked opposite Taylor was going to come out better for it, so I think LT works better in a tag format where his partner gets the shine of being next to him in all the pubicity and promos, a la Hogan and Mr. T. And Razor in 1995 would have benefitted from some celebrity shine to avoid the midcard typecasting a little bit.

I'd keep Razor as IC Champion at the Rumble, but continue the Jarrett/Roadie feud going. Lawler gets eliminated by Doink or the 1-2-3 Kid in the Royal Rumble, and gets the shove on LT for laughing at him. Lawler, Jarrett and Roadie as a heel trio has big potential as their paths cross leading up to the match, the Memphis-style stooging and verbal prodding is ideal for this scenario, and Lawler gets to complain forever about the loss and doesn't get killed off the way Bigelow did.

Winners: Razor and LT

Undertaker Vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

Because lets face it, King Kong Bundy sucked balls. They'd need to do some serious work near the end of 94 and in the beginning of 95 to heat up Bigelow because he'd been treading water in the middle for a while, but this has a lot of potential. There was a standard formula for Taker feuds at the time - bad guy steals the urn, Taker beats him and gets it back.

I'd go a little more hardcore here and have Bigelow beat the shit out of Paul Bearer, giving him three headbutts off the top rope while Taker is restrained or incapacitated by the rest of the Million Dollar Corporation. A Bearer-less Taker goes it alone, until Paul returns just in time at the finish, urn in hand, encouraging Taker to victory.

Winner: Undertaker

Yokozuna Vs. Davey Boy Smith

Was contemplating going with Owen Vs. Davey for a good match and strong win for Owen, but two reasons why I'll go with booking logic over a good match - number one, Yokozuna did barely anything for 1995, as his team with Owen didn't produce a lot of good anyway, and number two, given the big problem in 1995 with a lack of credible heels for Diesel, Yoko is good for one PPV defense at least. Again, they went with Sid and Mabel, people. I'd maybe change Yoko's look up slightly in his big return, make him a bit darker after losing the Casket Match, and give an impressive win over Davey Boy here, a strong midcard face, to help put some steam back on him after he'd been phased down a bit after losing the title in 94.

Winner: Yokozuna

WWF Tag Team Titles
Smoking Gunns (c) Vs. Owen Hart/Bob Backlund

Owen Vs. Davey left me with a Backlund/Yoko team, which is kind of funny in an absurd way, but the matches would be awful, because both Yoko and Backlund needed help for a team to work. Owen and Backlund have the Bret connection from Survivor Series, and I see them being a potential good act together, with Bob as the crazy hyper-intelligent type, with Owen's cocky heel shtick beside it. Gunns lose the belts, and hopefully this team can elevate the belts a bit.

Winners: Owen & Backlund

1-2-3 Kid Vs. Hakushi

This replaces Owen Vs. Davey as the hot action match on the undercard, serves to give Hakushi his first win on a big stage, and sets him up for some good stuff throughout the Summer.

Winner: Hakushi

Heavenly Bodies/Tatanka/IRS Vs. Headshrinkers/Adam Bomb/Bob Holly

The traditional "lets get a bunch of guys on the card" match, just a fun and quick way to open the show, babyfaces get the win.

Winners: Headshrinkers/Car Bombs ¬_¬

Final Thoughts:

Overall, not only do I think this is significantly better than what we got, but it's very plausible that they could have gone this direction just as easily. One of the major problems coming out of the real show was that there were absolutely no heels worth a fuck afterwards, as the babyfaces smoked through them all in the key matches. Here we elevate Razor as a babyface, get some awesome promos with Jerry Lawler, give Bret a hot issue which he sorely needed since he spent his 1995 in the midcard, create a hot new heel in Lex Luger, we give Yoko some heat, we don't eviscerate Bigelow, Taker gets a notch on his belt and MUCH needed good match, the tag titles are set up nicely on an important team, Hakushi heads into the Spring with some steam, and the Diesel/Michaels story gets its blowoff.

And more importantly, no Harris Twins or King Kong Bundy.

Analyse This - The Failure Of The Invasion

It is viewed as the biggest dropped ball and missed opportunity in history. And it was. But when you look a little deeper, my theory is that it was always destined to disappoint no matter what.

There are three major elements to consider when looking at what happened to piss away such amazing potential - The Fans, The Stars, and The Booking.

The Fans

Looking at the facts and figures, the WWF was starting to lose momentum in early 2001. Ratings had began to fall, even if slightly, from their peak. Things were getting stale on top, and people following closely knew it. WCW clearly would have filled this void, had it been executed the way most fans would like it. But I want to touch on something modern fans may lose sight of.

Back then, in the days of wrestling magazines, talent jumping back and forth, and two powerful national promotions, fan allegiance to the WWF or WCW was almost tribal. No matter if you watched both, you had a side that you grew up on, or fell in love with first, that deep down you rooted for. WCW fans hated the WWF and anything that resembled it. WWF fans were told to never accept WCW. It bred a visceral hatred within millions of people.

When WCW was purchased, and early  mentions of WCW matches or shows were made, they were booed out the building by WWF fans. Ultimately, casting WCW as babyface in the early going was a huge mistake, and the first misread of many.

Everybody remembers the famous Booker/Bagwell stinkfest from Tacoma on Raw, the match that caused Vince McMahon to completely change course and bring in ECW to "save" the invasion angle. And as nice a moment as that was, at the time and in hindsight, the fact they even had to do that so early into the WCW angle is appalling. And with even a minute of analytical thought, how they thought Booker Vs. Bagwell was a good idea blows my mind.

WWF fans didn't want WCW Vs. WCW on their time. Take that shit to TBS, it's second rate, it's garbage, it's inferior. The WWF had conditioned these people to despise this for years. And now, that's what you are presenting them, and you wanted people to cheer. Instead, the Tacoma crowd violently turned on the match and direction of the angle. But in a major faux pas, WWF saw that and took it as a sign that the WCW brand was too damaged, and that there wasn't money in the WWF Vs. WCW story. But there was. That was the dream for years.

And as it turned out, the dream alone, even with a terrible build, helped do the best non-WrestleMania buyrate of all-time at the Invasion Pay-Per-View. Conflict they liked. Conflict they believed. Conflict they wanted. The people just didn't want what you gave them. The fans were not the problem. They were ready to see the dream. There was just something massive missing.

The Stars

WWF Vs. WCW relies on one thing. Stars Vs. Stars. That's the fantasy that fans had argued about for years, read about in magazines, and always wanted to see. The ultimate "what would happen" scenario.

And therein lies the major issue. WWF wasn't willing to get the stars. They did in the end anyway, but Goldberg, Flair, Steiner, Nash, Sting, DDP, Booker T and many more of the potential difference makers were under Time Warner deals, and were offered buyouts at 30 cents on the dollar, hoping the WWF would come calling with contracts for the guys and help offset the costs. This meant the WWF would have to make massive offers in order to convince the WCW wrestlers sitting at home, collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars, that they should get off the couch and take bumps.

And as it turned out, that wasn't a game WWF was willing to play. Booker and DDP (who has since said he lost $487,000 by making the deal) were happy to take the gamble of the buyout and a comparitively low WWF offer to be part of the angle. The others weren't.

When it comes to the stars needed to make it really work, WWF came in without the ammunition. And while we can wax lyrical about all the guys, Goldberg was the one that mattered. The discussion starts and ends with him. Bischoff would have been great for the promos and the heat. Flair would have been great for the identity. Sting and Steiner would have been tasty bonuses. But the big money was in Goldberg.

When looking at the Time Warner deal and the amount needed to get Goldberg, you were looking at paying him anywhere from 3 to 6 million dollars. The company could easily afford it, and the reason stars get paid more is because they produce more. At that time, Goldberg was worth every penny, because his market value dictated it, and the potential was there to make it back tenfold. Goldberg without WWE wasn't worth 6 million dollars. Goldberg with WWE was worth a boatload more in 2001. But a few issues popped up. While logic lets you justify that contract, the wrestlers on the winning side making significantly less were likely not so eager to.

Nowadays, it's different if Brock Lesnar and The Rock, guys who were considered successes outside the business, come in and get big money with the hopes of shifting buyrates, because the rest of the guys can't compare themselves to that success. That's okay. But in their minds, the comparison to Goldberg does nothing but piss them off. The salary structure is gone.

So there's the dilemma that kills it. You either spend a shitload on buying contracts, paying (some of) the WCW guys more than the WWF crew and pissing them off royally, or you do what they did, and hold out.

Granted, the WWF guys would have had nowhere to go. But for the long term health of the company backstage, that creates a poisonous atmosphere, rife with bitter feeling amongst colleagues. Jealously. Undercutting. Sounds just like WCW.

The catch-22 here certainly makes it difficult to get the stars you need. But lack of star power wasn't the only reason it was fucked.

The Booking

You could, I suppose, wait until all those contracts expired and sign the guys like they ended up doing anyway. But does that really fly?

Unfortunately, the answer is probably no. At that time, the business moved so fast. A week was like a month. Four months felt like a year. A year was a lifetime. Things evolved so fast you had to strike while the iron was hot. But for that reason, it was never going to work. You had to do the angle there and then in 2001, while the product, the news of the sale and the hatred in the fans was there, when the stars were still relevant and not nostalgic retreads.

As mentioned, casting them as babyfaces was a mistake. Putting Shane with them was another mistake.
The only way it could have worked was to keep it the way it was. The "evolution" of WCW died the second it was purchased. This kind of angle, as much as it is about the personalities, is also about the bigger picture. You are pitting image Vs. image, history Vs. history, that is what is selling. Once you change the image to fit a WWF guy in there, the fundamental element of what people were paying to see was gone. Down the line, four to six months in, there is money in a turncoat. But the leader of WCW having the last name McMahon? Not gonna work.

I also think that you make a mistake ever lying to the people. Even if people know wrestling is a work, nobody ever questioned that the WWF and WCW hated each others guts for real. That's the raw, once in a lifetime emotion that does the biggest PPV number ever. Once you give them something they can't buy into, something that takes it into the realm of just another WWF angle, while it may not kill it, it does more damage than good.

Let's not forgot egos. Obviously Vince, Kevin Dunn, and all the WWF guys, even though they purchased WCW, and owned the company, still had a grudge, and was reluctant to put it over as an equal. I don't care what anybody says, the Undertaker was fucking unbearable during this time, burying DDP, Kanyon, Booker T, Mike Awesome, Sean O'Haire, Chuck Palumbo and others, both on and off screen. The locker room being worked up could make for great on-screen chemistry. Letting the WWF guys slaughter the WCW crew maliciously was bad business.

WCW has to be equal in perception. A massive threat. WCW.Com, post WWF-purchase, ran an article with Stacy Keibler, referring to her as being signed by "the now-defunct WCW". An interview with Gregory Helms on WCW.Com noted that the WWF was the big time and he was so glad to be a part of it. Same writers on both website. WWF.Com selling WCW shirts. This is the kind of shit that would get you a knuckle sandwich from Bill Watts back in '84. Attention to detail was lacking, big time.

Their initial idea to do essentially a brand split, and maintain WCW as its own TV show, was nice on paper. But TNN wasn't so hot on a WCW show. Logically, they could have expanded Heat on MTV, since nobody gave a shit about that show anyway. How did "Excess" make air in 2001 when WCW couldn't, by the way? Ultimately the WCW brand looked to TNN like it fell out of a dog's ass, and they just didn't want that show. Believe it or not, before the Booker/Bagwell match, the plan was for the Vince and Linda divorce angle to split everything down the middle, to give Raw to "WCW", and have all WWF/Alliance wrestlers in the first ever draft, so "WCW Raw" would actually be half WWF guys, and "WWF Smackdown" was half WCW guys.

A WCW show on it's own, or even the horrible half-and-half draft idea, faces the same issues - without the iconic stars, it's stillborn. And in the end, without giving people the stars they first think of when the letters "WCW" enter their mind, there is only so well a TV show or an invasion angle is going to do, even perfectly booked. In an ideal world, if you could do anything you wanted, you'd deal with it significantly differently...

The Dream

Jim Cornette's Guest Booker, while highly questionable for a lot of his ideas, did have the best idea I've heard for how to acknowledge the sale. Be honest. Vince bought it. The war is, in reality, over.

And by the way, in my ideal world, Steve Austin doesn't turn heel at Mania when you're bringing in WCW. Why the fuck would you ever think you need a new top heel when WCW is coming in for Christ's sake?

From day one, the WCW guys should be completely isolationist. Vince cuts his glorious "I rule the world" speech that he'd no doubt practiced for twenty years. No Shane McMahon, no "somebody else owns it". But a harsh reality soon becomes apparent concerning his new purchase. The WWF guys want nothing to do with these motherfuckers. No sharing a locker room, no trust, no respect, nothing. They hate them being on their turf.

And more importantly, WCW is now in Vince's building. And they're fucking pissed at Vince McMahon and the WWF for killing their company. Some of the biggest names in the business, WCW to their core, united.
You have the big stand-off, guys like Flair, Booker, DDP, Sting, Steiner in the crowd or at ringside, Austin, Triple H, Taker, Angle, Jericho, the whole WWF locker room, on the ramp, Vince in the ring in between it all, and McMahon slowly starts to realise he's actually got a major problem on his hands. You create an immediate divide, steeped in real tensions, and you don't show all your cards at once. What is Vince going to do?

As things go on, Vince decides not to book WCW wrestlers on the show, because he's afraid of what could happen. He "ices" them, until he can figure out what to do. But WCW, who are employed, have carte blanche to show up when they want and do damage. Serious damage. Vince is trying to play peacemaker, and failing miserably. He declares that nobody from either side is to have any physical contact with the other until he says otherwise. But of course, WCW has other plans.

Right as McMahon is making his declaration, Eric Bischoff shows up as the ultimate outsider, personally employed by the WCW guys, and not the WWF, as their "strategic advisor". Some of the best promos and angles in history can now begin.

Bischoff in the crowd, surrounded by WCW guys, cutting a promo on Vince McMahon and the WWF, vowing revenge. Imagine. While Vince has disgust for WCW, and doesn't know what to do about the wrestlers yet, he utterly despises Bischoff, and it begins to cloud his judgment further, insulting the WCW stars directly. Bischoff's presence only intensifies Austin further, the guy who fired him is now on the scene.

At the same time, the WCW guys are chomping at the bit. Booker T calling himself the best World Champion there is and that Austin is a fraud. Scott Steiner threatening to kill Vince and his family. Ric Flair cutting a promo on anything that moves.

Things are very clearly escalating. Regardless, on one fateful episode of Raw, McMahon orders an incredible fleet of security, the most we've ever seen, to not let any WWF wrestler touch a WCW wrestler, or vice versa, in any circumstances. Things are reaching a boiling point, but he is still going to try and contain this.

But Chris Jericho is found laid out backstage, and when he's asked what happened, he points the finger directly at WCW. McMahon's order has been ignored. Austin is furious, and since Vince doesn't want them to fight on his turf, we'll do it outside in the parking lot, where security can't stop it. Just visualise that fucking promo for a second. Austin challenging WCW to the first fight. Potentially incredible.

Vince runs to the ring, demanding Austin, the guy he's never been able to control, to stop. But the WWF has had enough. Years of insults back and forth, they're on our turf, one of our own has been attacked, and we want to fight. Of course, it doesn't happen. The WWF guys are ready in the parking lot, but WCW is nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, the doors to the building slam shut. The WWF guys are locked out.

Back in the arena. the not-employed by the WWF Bischoff hops the rail. Vince is livid. Security rushes to pull outsider Bischoff away from the ring, and succeeds. But Vince's attention is diverted, calling Bischoff every name under the sun on the mic, when from behind, for the very first time in a WWF ring, is Bill Goldberg. There is no way the crowd doesn't go ballistic. And he spears Vince McMahon to death.

The WWF guys break down the door. They're charging back in, Austin leading the way, to get to Bill Goldberg. Security bombards the scene, holding everybody apart, exactly as Vince ordered. And in a very important detail, Goldberg doesn't run away, he's fighting to get past security, a one man army in his own right. The scene is as wild as any ever seen. Jim Ross and Paul Heyman are going insane on commentary. And the show abruptly cuts to black.

It'll turn out, way down the line at a crucial moment, that Jericho is a mole, and never was attacked by WCW in the first place, his claim was simply to get the WWF worked up and out the building to allow Goldberg to get to Vince.

Vince McMahon declares all out war. He doesn't fire them, because he wants to squash them for good. And with Bischoff as the surefire heel heat magnet, WCW can stay one step ahead and keep the heat.

From this point, any manner of promos, confrontations, attacks, Nexus debut-style ringside destructions, ANYTHING, is fair game. Keep it tense, don't do interpromotional matches on TV unless it's rare and a very big deal. The anticipation of violence and conflict is key. Make people WANT it. Give them just enough to make them want more. You can do a major beatdown angle where the WCW absolutely destroys the WWF, nWo style, so long as Austin isn't there. You can have the WWF catch a hit-and-run angle and beat the fuck out of an O'Haire and Palumbo the way they did, but WWF moments of victory are rare in the beginning. Austin and Goldberg, despite a mutual desire to fight, never touch, even when war breaks out. Not until the Pay-Per-View you want to do that match on, do they ever make contact.

Whichever direction you wish to take it - what a platform you'd have, huh? Sound good? Sound like a blueprint that could sell a Pay-Per-View or six?

Wake Up Call

It's just a dream. We all had ideas. But the realities of the world in 2001 didn't allow something like this, not even close. The problem for the WWF was that this is the stuff people wanted. For years they salivated at the thought, and they never truly believed they would. And then it happened. The sale heard around the world, and fans couldn't help but think big. Because it was big...potentially the biggest they would ever see.

Unfortunately for all of us in 2001, we found out that dreams don't always come true.

The WWE Network - A Lesson In "Value"

I've been mulling over an article on the WWE Network for a number of months, but held off because I was genuinely interested to see how things were going to play out first.

Back in January, I had a conversation with my good friend Tom Campbell about the WWE building their business around the Network, and immediately brought up my feelings that this project was doomed to fail. Campbell, to my surprise, said I was the first person he'd heard be negative on it.

I'm sure I wasn't, but looking at how things are playing out, I'm more baffled that people didn't see this coming. Looking at the basic principles and mathematics, it's an awful premise. Let's evaluate:

The biggest audience WWE gets is 4 million viewers, give or take, for Raw (in the US). For their Pay-Per-Views, they would average about 200,000 buys, with the exception of Rumble and Mania. This would be converting about 5% of free viewers into buyers. 

Their plan was to cannabilize Pay-Per-View. As a result, the WWE Network, as it was laid out from almost the beginning, needed 1.5 million subscribers in the US alone to break even. TO FUCKING BREAK EVEN.

That's 37.5% of its Raw viewers. They were hoping to go from 5% to 37.5%, on the premise that putting Pay-Per-Views and archived content on at a lower price would create a significantly higher viewers-to-buyers conversion rate. On paper, it sounds difficult, but possible. But to believe this was going to work ignores a fundamental aspect of why Pay-Per-Views weren't doing better in the first place.

The vast majority of those free viewers are not conditioned, and haven't been for some time, to spend money on wrestling. They'll tune in for free, granted, but most of them don't separate from their cash to see more of it on their television. They get 3 hours of Raw every single week, and seldom is there a show where, at some point, it isn't dragging a bit. 3 hours is more than enough for the casual fan, and even if it wasn't, and were looking for an extra dose of wrestling, they also get a bonus two hours of Smackdown for free as well. Why would that fan, Mr. John Q. Walmart if you will, possibly want to pay for more? To see the Pay-Per-Views? Value doesn't work that way, and that's been historically proven.

WWF's In Your House series was supposed to be a cheaper alternative for major Pay-Per-Views, and it failed, because while the idea of attracting people that didn't buy before is nice, none of them did, because they weren't conditioned to. Meanwhile, the consistent buyers purchased the show in lower numbers, because they saw them as missable. Cheaper. Less important. Less value = fewer buys. When the In Your House shows were raised from 20 dollars to 30 dollars in September 1997, in line with the major shows, they didn't do any less buys, and they made 50% more money.

People will buy WrestleMania whether it's ten dollars or fifty dollars, because the buying audience that's there sees its value. And value does not come in dollar figures, it comes in your personal sense of gain, which stems from passion you have for the medium, and the importance you place on the item (in this case PPV/Network) in context to it.

WWE has NEVER convinced 1.5 millions fans in the US to purchase WrestleMania, the most valuable thing they sell. 1.5 million subscribers was a fantasy, a number they didn't have a prayer of reaching, at least at first. WWE announced 667,000 subscribers in their first conference call discussing figures. Consider again that a chunk of the more passionate overseas fans figured out how to get it as soon as, and it makes you question what the true American number is.

On July 31st, WWE is announcing the updated number of subscribers. Anything less than 850,000 should be considered horrifying, but I will be very, very surprised if it's that high. There is potential for growth when it gets launched internationally, don't get me wrong. The British market is thriving for wrestling, they're the ones who dominate WrestleMania and Raw, flying across the world to be part of the product and express themselves, the latest breed of "ECW fan". They are willing to spend the most money on the product out of anyone in the world right now.

In addition, Japan is an interesting nut to crack, especially if KENTA gets some traction in the WWE. But as the Network expands, so do the costs, and the necessary number of subscribers to make it all fly.

The Network is not the XFL, a "nice-to-have". They have changed the face of how they operate their core business. As a result, I'm surprised they aren't pushing the Network harder. The last two weeks they've done a fairly serious sell for it, but given how much constant verbal fellatio we had to put up with about Tout and Twitter a couple of years ago, which made nobody any money at all, it's baffling to me why there isn't a new video package every week on Raw detailing a historic moment, match or television show, giving people a taste of something distinctly different every time, saying they can only see it in full on the Network.

Pay-Per-Views should be more important than ever in terms of promotion, but they'd rather spent valuable TV time on the Fandango/Layla/Summer Rae fiasco than focus more seriously on reasons to separate fans from cash for the monthly megashows. The television needs more focus. Things have been a bit better lately, but they need to tighten up what we're seeing. When you have so much time to fill, it's harder than ever to create a perfect product, but there is very little in the WWE that seems important of late.

We have some rising stars, but outside the key 6 or 7 guys and the World Title, everything else is filler - guys treading water, fighting for unimportant belts they've all held before that didn't get them anywhere the first time. This needs to change. And it can. Whenever people think back to the time they loved wrestling the most, they almost always talk about how much things meant back then. How important something was portrayed as being. In those moments, people attached great personal value to the product. That doesn't exist to many people today. They follow it, but the high stakes that the product thrived on in years past is gone. A lot of it is due to the same talent being in the same positions for so long. Results matter far less when the consequences are negligible.

While Vince McMahon is pulled in a million different directions, has countless masters to serve, and is hellbound, till the day he dies, to do it all his way, he surely hasn't lost sight of the fact that separating fans from cash is, was, and will always be what the wrestling business is really about. And he'd better figure out how this Network is going to go about doing that real soon, because it's going to take a lot more than Jerry Lawler's begging like a homeless man to recondition a million people.

SCG Radio #7 - The Underrated In Pro Wrestling

Join myself, G. John Chase, Karl Jones and Luke Edwards, as we take your comments and discuss the Underrated in Pro Wrestling, featuring discussion on Mick Foley, DDP, Ronnie Garvin, Lex Luger, Terry Taylor, Randy Orton's 2004 push, music videos, and much more. A great show, check it out!!

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/web/f8gusp/SCGRadio7-TheUnderratedInProWrestling.mp3

The Final Swerve?

I've debated Vince Russo on a number of occasions with a number of different people. But regardless of his merits in WWE or his negative effect on WCW, the latest news concerning Vinnie Ru and TNA is jaw-dropping stuff.

In case you didn't know, Vince Russo, by accidentally emailing somebody in charge of a wrestling news site instead of Mike Tenay and Taz, exposed a fact that TNA didn't want out - that Russo was, in fact, working with TNA again as a consultant. Where this becomes a hilarious story is not just that TNA management lied to the wrestlers and lied to others in the industry, not just that it knew that Russo's reputation was so bad they made him sign a confidentiality clause so nobody would know, but in the fact that Spike TV, the single most important aspect of TNA's existence, was bold-faced lied to, and told Russo wasn't working there.

Spike doesn't like Russo’s work. Most people with a functioning brain don't. His run as TNA writer from 2006 to 2012 was utter shite, and at a pivotal time for the company, he helped eviscerate any chance for the product to catch fire and for the company to make money on Pay-Per-View. Spike knew he wasn't good for the wrestling show they air, so they didn't want him back.

Don't worry, said Aunt Dixie, it's all bullshit.

TNA's television contract expires in two months. Spike doesn't usually let things slide this late, and the fact they are this time is not a promising sign. The company has been in dire straights for months and months, with financial cutbacks changing the roster and look of the television drastically. Sale rumours have been floating since late last year, all of which Spike is surely aware.

Then they get lied to. Not only is it indicative that Dixie Carter will truly never learn a single thing about wrestling by bringing back the guy who failed to get the job done before, but it's a massive, arrogant slap in the face, especially considering that without Spike, TNA is dead. And I don't mean that to be dramatic, it’s true. There is no TNA Wrestling if Spike TV drops them. It's over.

Despite what its defenders may say, the product has never been firing on all cylinders. It was never a great show. There were times when certain things happened of merit, a great match, a good character, a bit of momentum gathered for something. But it almost always fell short. And typically, the bad far outweighed the good.

And that comes down to Dixie Carter's fuck awful decisions regarding who runs the show. Decisions that have bitten her time and again, but through her almost admirable stubbornness and award-winning inability to open her doe-eyes (well, Worst Promotion Of The Year is an award in the Observer Newsletter), have replicated themselves to the point of comedy. Remember in the early 90s, how WCW relied on a steady-string of people to book, one after the other, all either completely unqualified, or guys from the past who had no idea of wrestling in 2014 and beyond? Dusty, Ole, Herd, Frye, Watts. And oh yeh, Russo.

Sometimes I feel bad for Vince Russo. He doesn't seem like a bad guy, really. It's got to be tough to get constantly joked about and insulted for doing something he wanted to do all his life, a dream job that most of us would take if we had the chance. And hell, I’m not afraid to say it, a job that Russo was actually successful in for a brief period of time in the WWF. So in fairness to Vince, this isn't about him this time. He took a job to help, and do it to the best of his ability.

Granted, he wasn't right for the job at all. But the fact he was kept for so long is not his fault, nor is it his fault that the company lied to its business partner. We may be about to witness a sad moment in wrestling - I want a healthy number two promotion to thrive, it only benefits us as fans, and TNA, which has always struggled to fill even modest expectations for "number two", may soon be a thing of the past. It’s all in Spike’s hands, and it may all depend on much that slap stung.

If that is the case, maybe Dixie will finally learn this lesson - You don't shit where you eat. But given her track record, I just don't have the faith in her learning a single thing.

But at the very least, you'd hope they'll use this as a chance to learn how to put the right name in the fucking email.

SCG Radio #6 - The Trial Of Triple H

Join myself, G. John Chase, Karl Jones, Luke Edwards and Kieran O'Rourke, as we engage in the first ever SCG Court Case! We hold Triple H up for debate for his potential crimes against the wrestling industry - his one man conspiracy to manipulate the system to the detriment of the company, and indecent overexposure. Judge Chase presides, Karl Jones and I are the prosecution, while Luke Edwards and Kieran O'Rourke form the defence. Does Triple H walk away a free man? Listen in!

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/web/ay7qrj/SCGRadio6-TheTrialOfTripleH.mp3

The Bullet Club Fucking Sucks Ass

I can't come up with a more apropos and fitting title, creativity be damned. "Bullet Club Firing Blanks" did come to mind, but why sugarcoat my feelings?

The Aces and Eights of New Japan Pro Wrestling have dominated the landscape in 2014, much to the chagrin of anybody that's been watching the product closely for the last couple of years. Now, I like to write impartially, to analyse and explore both sides of the story. Not in this case, and I'll tell you why.

New Japan has been so good, for so long, it was almost hard to believe. The superb roster, the most consistently great Pay-Per-Views in years, excellent matches, exciting new stars and established acts reinventing themselves. As the clock turned to midnight on December 31st, 2013, it appeared as though things were heading in a direction reflective of it's current hot streak. Sure, the Tetsuya Naito experiment didn't pan out. The push was an honest attempt, but it was the wrong place and time for Naito, and people seemed to resist the idea of him being anything more than he currently was after his comeback.

Regardless, New Japan had so much going for it that it didn't matter. Kazuchika Okada as champion, engaging in a staredown with Katsuyori Shibata after defeating Hirooki Goto, teasing a match that had incredible potential. Shinsuke Nakamura and Hiroshi Tanahashi waging war for the prestigious Intercontinental title. The rise of Tomohiro Ishii, and his excellent series of matches with Naito. Kota Ibushi signing a contract and tearing the house down every time he had a chance. Things were great. Moving forward, they could have gotten even better.

Instead, they signed AJ Styles, and went all in on The Bullet Club.

I love AJ, incredible wrestler, but there is nothing worse in wrestling today than watching this group of nerds make nWo hand signs, crotch-chopping and screaming "suck it", like a bunch of backyarders acting like their heroes in 1999. Styles immediately getting the IWGP Championship seemed like a decision so disconnected from the audience, who had no desire to see Okada lose to this type of act (and not in a money drawing way). The large New Japan audience didn't know AJ well enough, and of all the things Okada was lined up for, this was such an anticlimax for his great reign. That would be bad enough.

But oh no. Shinsuke Nakamura, who has made the Intercontinental Title as important as the IWGP World Title in the last two years, loses the belt to Bad Luck Fale (pronounced Far-Lay, enough if "Fail" is a more accurate description), a man who has no business playing a role of importance in a company this good. Quite why this guy is in the spot, other than the fact he's big, is a mystery.

The insanity continues, as Yujiro Takahashi, a guy who was in the exact spot he deserved to be in, a midcard sleaze who didn't chew up too much of the scenery, was turned heel, put in the Club, and beats Tomohiro Ishii for the Never Title. Ishii was the breakout guy of 2013, and this was the year for that to pay dividends, putting him in important matches people were dying to see. Instead, he's cast aside. Yujiro, bless him, doesn't have close to the upside of Ishii.

Add Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows as tag champs (the only decision I don't have a problem with), and clearly the theme, by design, is Bullet Club domination of New Japan. Awesome. But the fact is that nobody cares. Gauging opinions from Japan, nobody hates them in a way to pay to see them lose. Like me, they just want it over with so we can get back to what we wanted, the product we loved.

Shibata, Ishii, Ibushi, Nakamura, Goto, Naito, Okada, Tanahashi. They make New Japan great. I will say, as my only defence of the Bullet Club, that they aren't the sole reason for NJPW's booking woes. It feels like Minoru Suzuki and Toru Yano have been feuding for about six years now, and the "divisions" that have been strong in previous years (Tags and Jr) are lacking in depth, which means the undercard feels the same, give or take, as it has for a while now. And maybe that is the reason why they took the gamble with the Bullet Club - to give the company a different vibe until the G-1 Climax, where the cards will really start to shift in a positive manner.

But like Naito, the Bullet Club is an experiment that didn't work. The entire foundation of the group was Prince Devitt, and once he was gone, the pure heel backbone was ripped out. Even when Devitt was around, the idea of Devitt getting the title and the company being built around them was utterly absurd. Of the members now - Styles, Gallows, Anderson, Tonga, Yujiro, Young Bucks, nobody has the charisma or appeal to justify basing a company around them in Japan. Styles was in the unfortunate position of being the stand-in for somebody else's faction, a no-win situation to begin with, that has gotten worse because they decided to go balls-out. All it did was shine a bigger light on the failure.

Shinsuke Nakamura should win the G-1 Climax at the Seibu Dome. Kazuchika Okada needs to beat AJ Styles for the IWGP World Title before the end of the year. That's your main event for Wrestle Kingdom on January 4th, 2015, and I believe this will occur.

But sooner rather than later, for the sake of New Japan Pro Wrestling, the company I've loved so dearly - somebody please put a Bullet in the Club.

SCG Radio #5 - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly of 1994

Join myself, G. John Chase, Karl Jones and Kieran O'Rourke, as we take your feedback, and talk about the Good, Bad and Ugly of 1994 in pro wrestling, including WrestleMania X, Taker Vs. Taker, Hulk Hogan, and all things WWF, WCW, ECW, Mexico and Japan.

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/play/hjbyi2/SCGRadio5-TheGoodBadandUglyof1994.mp3

The John Cena Appreciation Society

 By Kieran O'Rourke

Ok, I get it. John Cena isn't everyone's cup of tea. His body mechanics are clunky. His promos containing the word "poop" can be cringeworthy and heat killers. And he's been pretty much the same guy in the same position for a decade.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion and everyone is free to like or dislike whoever they feel compelled to. But the polarisation of Cena is often used as evidence of his talents or, more often, the lack there of. The marketing appeals to kids, but 'smart' fans see through it and him. I guess that's the gist right?

Like I said, it's understandable. I'm not trying to get grown men to denounce their citizenship and emigrate to the Cenation, but I do think Cena is, by many, the most under rated and under appreciated wrestler around. And one day it'll change.

Let's not forget, once upon a time John Cena was cool. He was charismatic. He was edgy. He got popular. Really popular. And he was changed in order to cater to the populous. To carry the company. Witty innuendo was replaced with clichéd slogans and merchandise a grown man would be embarrassed to wear in public, other than for fancy dress or general ironic social commentary.

Therein lies the dichotomy of John Cena. Vital to the survival of a company who's most faithful fans are alienated specifically from him. Kinda like the other JC carrying his cross. That's right, John Cena is a bloody martyr.

Ok maybe not. But what would the WWE (née the mainstream wrestling industry) meant opportunities for other people to be positioned and protected as the top guy, would any have broken out and been more successful than Cena has been? Any answer is hypothetical. But what I would say is it's not like there would have been a different roster to consider. Hypothetically, had Steve Austin come around in 2010, and made the same undercard waves he did in '96-'97, do you think he would have been made stoop for Cena's glass ceiling?

To this day Cena is still the most certain ratings and box office draw on the roster. While emphasis on WWE as the key the brand somewhat guarantees (although not always a benefit) a relatively stable ratings environment, Cena is still the guy who consistently affects business metrics positively.

Yes, Cena appeals to kids. How old were you when you first got drawn to wrestling? New fans and kids in particular are the lifeblood of the wrestling business. We wrestling fans probably don't want to hear this, we're forced to defend our love enough as it is. But I don't mean it's a business for kids only. Today's WWE caters for a broader demographic audience than any wrestling company in history. But it's rare for the roots of an individual's wrestling fandom not to originate in their childhood.

Quite simply, John Cena has brought WWE more new fans over the last ten years than anyone else. It's not even close. Without him the company wouldn't be dead. But I think the baseline for success would be lower. Maybe a guy like CM Punk would have been given a proper run sooner and stronger. Maybe in the absence of the spectre of Cena, as the true number one guy, someone else would have flourished in the role. The evidence suggests there's a bottom line difference between appealing to a new fan base and being popular with an existing one that isn't going anywhere.

But enough amount money. People who think Cena Sucks don't care if 900,000 extra people will tune into Raw for him and not Punk. And neither should they. But John Cena doesn't suck as a worker. In fact he's really rather good.

John Cena is a fantastic babyface. Yes he can look awkward, often when bumping, but he sells better than anyone. And he an absolute pro at connecting and interacting with the crowd. Watch him on the apron in a tag match. He works his ass off getting the crowd into the story of the match. Apart from knowing I'd be
jobbing if our team was losing, I'd pick him as my tag partner everyday of the week.

And he has a lot of really good matches. I challenge anyone to give me a list of guys who have had more 3.5+ star matches over the last ten years. Stylistically he's best suited to drawn out brawls (most recently with Bray Wyatt) where the emphasis is on selling and storytelling.

Is he Shawn Michaels? Of course not. Is he limited? Absolutely. Is a match with Kane a guaranteed stinker? He's only human. But he can go. Antonio Cesaro didn't carry Cena in their match before Elimination Chamber, he knew how bring out the physical, dramatic best in Cena while supplementing with his own talents.

One way or the other, Cena is always over. And one way or another his matches usually get over too. Which makes the claim that he's stale an interesting one. I equate staleness with apathy. The kids aren't apathetic. And everyone else seems to ferociously hate the guy.

Indeed, WWE seems to have been settled on how Cena is to be presented for a while, trying to cater to the Lets Goers while still manipulating his heat and rewarding the Cena Suckers with pay offs for their guys (think Punk at MITB, Bryan at Summerslam, even RVD at ECW) or, more recently, playing up to them with
Wyatt.

One of the most disappointing aspects of the Wyatt feud was the heavy handed, set piece orientated approach to the premise of fans gravitating towards Bray. They knew where the feud would go (think cellphones and sing alongs) but the feud was hollow. Bray was brilliant, and the association with Cena raised his stock. But the story told be Cena wasn't natural. It didn't grow and just felt phony.

As with the aforementioned "poop" promos, sometimes Cena's material does indeed suck. When Cena said he was scared of Wyatt, before anything had really happened between the two, it was an example the superficial, set piece and sound bite approach to booking and presentation WWE often takes. Maybe one of the reasons WWE highlight videos are so great is because angles are designed for SportsCenter moments rather than as narrative functions.

What's frustrating with the bad Cena material is he himself is capable of delivering such an intense, engaging promo. There's catering to kids and then there are shit promos. Poop = Shit. Can we blame him for bad material or angles? He could say no I suppose. But without knowing the man or the political situation maybe it's a little unfair to pass judgment. I think most would agree poopless Cena is usually a good to great promo.

By now you've probably assumed I'm a huge mark for Cena. I'm really not. If you're a wrestling fan you mark out for good stuff that has intrinsic appeal to you. So I don't mean that term negatively. I was a mark for The Shield. I wanted them to win. Always. I'm not a mark for Cena. I just think he's totally under
appreciated.

One day this will change. One day people will start using the word respect. Respect for Cena's talent. Respect for his work ethic. Respect for the respect he has for the business. Respect for asking to work with new guys.

Can the Cena Sucks crew be won over as things stand, while kids are still perceived as his target audience? Maybe not. While he may get an occasional standing ovation after a great match, Cena Sucks is a permanent part of the show. It's a contrary reaction to the PR of the Cenation.

A heel turn isn't happening in the foreseeable future. Not until a proven replacement comes along, and even then the stain of the Austin turn may weigh heavy. When one guy is so solely responsible for attracting a certain demographic, will turning him just alienate away his current fans and not bring in any new ones? The hardcores may be more entertained by his performance but they were watching anyway.

So maybe it can't happen until Cena's full time career is over. When there is no perception of being over pushed or in the way. Nostalgia and a change in perspective can make a believer out of anyone.

And if nothing else we've got all those kids to grow up and write their version of wrestling history.

The bandwagon will be picking up steam sooner or later so hope aboard today. Send a postal order for £50 (Sterling) to The John Cena Appreciation Society, PO Box 578, UK and receive your JCAS certificate, fridge magnet and tie clip.

SCG Radio # 4 - Who Is The Best "Big Man" In Wrestling History?

Join myself, G. John Chase, Luke Edwards and Kieran O'Rourke, as we take your feedback and discuss our own picks for the Best "Big Man" in the history of the business, featuring discussion on Andre The Giant, Vader, The Undertaker, Bam Bam Bigelow, Stan Hansen, Jerry Blackwell, Big Show and many more. A fun listen, so check it out!

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/web/ftwmvy/SCGRadio4-TheBestBigManInHistory.mp3

Show Me The Money

On June 29th, WWE is in an interesting situation. And as fans, so are we.

A lot of the fun of being a wrestling fan, the thing that drives us to want more, and feeds our thirst for knowledge, is in the mystery, the not knowing, the thrill of being taken along for the ride. Obviously with the internet, there is very little that people can't find out, and as such, future directions are typically known months in advance, and the only thing we really don't know is the detail of the execution. The thrill of ride is often sacrificed.

Though I do hate the fact that Daniel Bryan got hurt when he did, and the sad fact that he has been completely derailed by poor planning and worse timing, this does create a very unique scenario, one we don't often get any more.

At Money In The Bank, there are eight directions the company could conceivably go. Of them, six are completely realistic. And the beauty is that we have no idea which path they're taking.

Eight men are wrestling for the WWE Title in a Ladder Match, at an event likely to start the course for Summerslam. The lingering presence of Brock Lesnar looms large, as his inevitable return may well play a factor in the outcome. But since the purpose of this site is analysis, let's examine the seven possibilities that lie in store.

Roman Reigns

People loved The Shield, they really did. And as much as that is to be credited to the three individuals, equal credit (if not more) needs to go to the much-maligned creative team. Regardless of what anybody wants to say, I can't think of anything in recent memory that was booked as inch-perfectly as the Shield's entire run. Three unknowns brought in, straight to the top, immediately portrayed as important. Given promo time, put over everyone for months and months, rarely jobbed, never sacrificed. Elevated correctly over former stars.

Was there more mileage in the group? Possibly, but regardless, the timing of the split may also be a masterstroke. Every single member of the team is still completely fresh, and now must sink or swim.

And that's the interesting thing with Reigns. Roman Reigns is going to get the chance to be THE guy. And not a half-assed chance either - the company reportedly sees him as the next John Cena, and that comes with a lot of protection. But people need to realise right now that the job description for the top guy is much different to being one third of a perfectly booked act with two other incredible performers. It's going to be all on him. To work. To talk. To convey. To connect. Not saying he can't do it, but he's got a lot to prove, and this is the time to prove it.

The flipside is that being put in this Ladder Match is dangerous. It seems incredibly soon to win the WWE Title, and we've seen rushed megapushes tarnish potential top stars before (as Randy Orton can attest).

The possibility of Reigns Vs. Lesnar not being at WrestleMania is enough to turn my stomach, and while I'm as big a supporter of the business stepping into the future as anybody, this is one move I wouldn't make.

Not yet, anyway.

Cesaro

This one is a big surprise. He seemed like a shoo-in for the actual briefcase (a position I now see Seth Rollins sliding into very naturally, possibly with the King Of The Ring '99 finish as the corporate favourite), so his entry into the big one is quite surprising.

Whispers and rumblings seem to indicate that Cesaro may end up in the title mix at some point, and that a Cesaro/Lesnar match may be on the cards.

Since WrestleMania, Cesaro's momentum has somewhat slowed down. A lot of people point to the alliance with Paul Heyman as a reason why, but I disagree. The timing is strictly co-incidental. The break-up and feud with fellow heel Jack Swagger was an awkward one for anybody to thrive in, and since then, Cesaro has been directionless. Treading water in the middle with Sheamus isn't doing anything for anyone.

If he was being elevated at the same time as the Heyman element was added, that's one thing. But ultimately, I think this is where his own weakness comes to light. I wrote a column called "The Ceiling Of Cesaro" about a month ago, where I said that the overall package and presentation of Cesaro needs improvement, and that a lot of it lied with him. The look. The charisma. The promos. Granted, he has Paul Heyman to talk for him, but the fans know that Heyman is the established star of the two. The Heyman rub alone didn't make Curtis Axel. It didn't make Ryback either. You can't rely on the manager entirely if the client is booked to tread water.

But to be devil's advocate here, Cesaro himself hasn't done anything particularly memorable other than a strong match with Sheamus at Payback, but guess what, we see really good matches with a lot of different guys on TV for free too. We need more from Cesaro for him to break out. Cesaro hasn't been built to be the champion. If they pull the trigger, and he gets it out of nowhere, who knows - with Heyman and the megapush, it may work. But it is, without a doubt, a gamble at best.

Alberto Del Rio

No.
















Randy Orton

2014, thus far, has been the most heatless year for Randy Orton since 2006. Almost every avenue this character can go down has been explored ad nauseam at this point, and his last WWE Title run was a ratings and Pay-Per-View bust.

Orton has a place on the show, but to be perfectly honestly, near the championship is not that place any more. They may be tempted to go this route on the belief that he "never lost the belt", and makes a natural opponent for Daniel Bryan's comeback if the idea is to put title back on Bryan before or at Summerslam, but I don't see how this route excites anybody in any way, or, most importantly, ends up getting anybody over more than they already are.

He should be in the match because he's a name associated with the title, and you need that in there with the new guys. But that's all, folks.

Sheamus

This guy has had his chance to be a difference maker in the company, and it didn't pan out.

A good worker for a guy his size, I can appreciate he's talented, but at the same time there is absolutely nothing interesting about him that tells me he needs to be anything more than he is right now.

A guy to hang around the upper midcard, win most of the time and lose to the guys who are top priorities. A Sheamus win would get us nowhere, and this isn't the time to be going nowhere.

John Cena

This is where this match gets tricky. If we absolutely must have a babyface winning, Cena is the choice. I know it's not what a lot of people want to hear, and I'm not saying I want him to hold it for any length of time. But of the three babyface choices, he's the most credible, he brings stability to the belt because people truly believe he's the top guy (and given the last year of booking the title could do with a credibility boost), and when the next big heel beats him for it, it means a lot more beating John Cena for the title than anything else will. I still wouldn't do it.

To me the more interesting options are the heels. I fear Reigns would be hurt in the long run more than helped if they pull the trigger now, and I wouldn't take the risk on him. Let that build.

The downside is that during a time when we need the product to progress, this would reaffirm the belief that we are riding the treadmill.

In addition, the only justifiable reason for a babyface victory is that the winner faces Brock Lesnar at Summerslam. And if this match takes place again, anything other than a Lesnar victory is inexcusable.

Bray Wyatt

I think this is the pick I would go with. New. Interesting. Dynamic. 

A character like Bray Wyatt's, exactly like those that came before him, needs to be fed constantly to stay relevant. If Wyatt ends up as a floating character like so many others in WWE, his luster will fade, and it's not as easy to get back. 

We also are yet to see how Wyatt will fare at the top away from Cena, who, for better or worse, always guarantees maximum audience interest and interaction. But if the people want to ride this wave, there is more immediate potential in Bray than any other option. You have the ready made match with Daniel Bryan at Summerslam (with a callback to the Royal Rumble where Wyatt pinned Bryan), and you can go anywhere in the world with it, depending on which way the wind blows. Fans want to cheer him? Then go with it. You want him as the purest of evil heels, you can go that way too.

The only downside is that, with Brock on the horizon, the fact is the shadow his return will cast following his WrestleMania win will easily engulf any WWE Title match that doesn't involve him. And that isn't the start you want for a first time champion that you're going to want to bank on for the next few years.

Kane

Speaking of new, interesting and dynamic, here is the old, uninteresting and uninspired option.

I hate this character. In 2014, it has no business at the top of the card, and the fact this is all they had for Daniel Bryan, the man who won it all at WrestleMania 30, is a disgrace, and the biggest indictment of the creative team's current presentation there could possibly be.

With that said, as much as I absolutely hate the possibility, there is a case to be made for Kane. And the case is - he holds it for one month and jobs out to Battleground, proper, to Daniel Bryan once and for all. If the destination is Bryan Vs. Lesnar at Summerslam, the logical choice is, unfortunately, for the man they pass off as a Demon (you know, the guy that got beat in 3 minutes at Mania), to win it in a match where it hurts nobody in losing, and has a built-in (and short) shelf life. He put Bryan out, he has to face him on his return. I hate it, but that's what we've got. It can make sense, it all just depends on the destination.

Final Verdict

With the F4W newsletter reporting Cena as the most likely winner this past weekend, a lot of the above (written the prior week) seems to be verified. But ultimately, we don't know until Sunday. The wind is blowing in different directions than was originally forecast. And it's rare that we get swept along a different path, one we don't have knowledge or preconceived notions of. 

Knowledge is power, but power isn't everything. Enjoy the ride.