Vince McMahon Returns to WWE

[Dolphman 3000]

2 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Why run arenas at all? I betcha didn't have a return to the Thunderdome on the docket, did you?

I was thinking earlier that if the McMahons wanted to stay in the business outside of WWE, using their legacy to negotiate a sweetheart deal with MSG that would let them run TV tapings at Hulu Theater/Manhattan Center/Hammerstein Ballroom with monthly (quarterly?) big shows at Madison Square Garden is feasible.

Just call it Capitol Wrestling and they're back in business

Or, conversely, WWE could do the exact same thing - at one point in 1996 WWE ran that one long-ass RAW taping with the entire Undertaker/Mankind feud and the same crowd was ringside for like 5 straight episodes.

[Elsalvajeloco]

1 hour ago, Dolphman 3000 said:

I was thinking earlier that if the McMahons wanted to stay in the business outside of WWE, using their legacy to negotiate a sweetheart deal with MSG that would let them run TV tapings at Hulu Theater/Manhattan Center/Hammerstein Ballroom with monthly (quarterly?) big shows at Madison Square Garden is feasible.

Just call it Capitol Wrestling and they're back in business

Or, conversely, WWE could do the exact same thing - at one point in 1996 WWE ran that one long-ass RAW taping with the entire Undertaker/Mankind feud and the same crowd was ringside for like 5 straight episodes.

Right...about that

Unfortunately, I think especially with WWE and the years of fan loyalty they were able to rely on even when the shows/creative were terrible counts for so much. They have built up so much goodwill despite doing their very best to negate that someone trying to capitalize on that OUTSIDE the WWE name would need AT LEAST two or three decades and a revitalization of the wrestling business overall to do anywhere close to the same under a new name. That's virtually impossible.

Thirty years ago, when Jim Crockett Jr. tried to get back in years after the sale to Ted Turner, it did not go well. I think he was relying mostly on guys on the pro wrestling scrap heap who either had left WWF and won't signed yet to WCW or vice versa.

I remember when things were coming to a head with NXT and Levesque being demoted (or not demoted) a year and some change back, people were expecting and envisioning Paul Levesque to lead this Pro Wrestling NOAH like exodus when in actuality it would take the circumstances much better than that for it to work. If Paul leaves, he ain't taking a major TV deal with him. Moreover, he would have a bunch of trouble finding one. It would be XWF all over again. It would be this Global Force type scheme that never fully materializes. 

[piranesi]

I think it's kind of an unknown. I mean here are the known knowns and the known unknowns:

1) There is the conventional "Meltzer" wrestling wisdom that house shows and touring are absolutely essential and the business will fold without them. That wrestling and wrestling fans are "different" and this is one of the ways.

2) There is the known unknown of whether a corporate buyer will buy into that idea just because the old guys insist it needs it or if they'll be like "media is media. Content is content. it's just bits on our servers."

3) there is the unknown unknown in that we don't really know if that old conventional wisdom is true. Maybe it's wrong and the new WWDisney could be t.v. tapings only and not live and everything will chug along fine. Or maybe the old ways are there for a reason. But that's what old guys always say even when they're wrong. But that's what new business degree types say even when they're wrong.

 

[Dolphman 3000]

Wouldn't Disney in theory be able to give WWE land for their Hall of Fame? Rebranding one of the lesser popular theme parks like Disney Hollywood Studios as WWE Land complete with free TV tapings for guests and a giant Hall of Fame seems optimal for what they've been trying to do with their memorabilia

Edited January 8, 2023 by Dolphman 3000

[piranesi]

12 minutes ago, Dolphman 3000 said:

Wouldn't Disney in theory be able to give WWE land for their Hall of Fame? Rebranding one of the lesser popular theme parks like Disney Hollywood Studios as WWE Land complete with free TV tapings for guests and a giant Hall of Fame seems optimal for what they've been trying to do with their memorabilia

Do you know how many marriages this will end?

[Niners Fan in CT]

4 hours ago, GuerrillaMonsoon said:

Do these institutions see Vince's IP and expertise as an asset, or too much of a liability given the accusations at play/SEC investigation? Does that even factor into Vince's preference for how a deal is reached?

No.. i don't believe that matters now.  The prospects of a sale is the only reason why the stock popped and really i should have bought some puts off the 20% increase because the share price usually falls quite a bit off that initial pop.  Buy the rumor sell the news 101.  

The thing about Amazon is do they really want a traveling circus?  They'd probably really only be interested in the streaming content.  

Disney has the infrastructure but again..  they messed up the Star Wars ip to an extent. They really messed up Pixar.  They have a lot of other issues with the parks, etc.  Doesn't seem like a great time for them.  They'd also like to sell off ESPN i'm sure.. that's gotten too costly for them with all the sports rights hikes. 

[Dolphman 3000]

29 minutes ago, piranesi said:

Do you know how many marriages this will end?

Imagine Epcot, but every "region" of the park has indy shows going on

So you go to "Mexico" to see the twice-daily lucha show, and the indy wrestlers get full pay/free housing just like normal park staff

If you're a young wrestler, there's probably worse ways to break into the business

[piranesi]

2 minutes ago, Dolphman 3000 said:

Imagine Epcot, but every "region" of the park has indy shows going on

So you go to "Mexico" to see the twice-daily lucha show, and the indy wrestlers get full pay/free housing just like normal park staff

If you're a young wrestler, there's probably worse ways to break into the business

Damn. I say "fuck them wives!"

[piranesi]

4 minutes ago, Dolphman 3000 said:

Imagine Epcot, but every "region" of the park has indy shows going on

So you go to "Mexico" to see the twice-daily lucha show, and the indy wrestlers get full pay/free housing just like normal park staff

If you're a young wrestler, there's probably worse ways to break into the business

 

Camera pans down to tiny baby

Scientist: "[smiling] It's a Haku!"

 

camera pan to Alan Grant holding tiny baby

tilt up to closeup on Grant

 

Grant [looking suddenly afraid] "You created a Tongaland?"

[odessasteps]

I’d think NYC is the last place an entertainment company would want to run permanently, given all the union costs.

arent sweetheart deals a main reason NXT is in Florida, be it the state and or Full Sail deals a few years ago? And the Orlando/Tampa Manias? 

[Dolphman 3000]

17 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

arent sweetheart deals a main reason NXT is in Florida, be it the state and or Full Sail deals a few years ago? And the Orlando/Tampa Manias? 

TNA inherited Nickelodeon's sweetheart deal they had with Universal Studios Florida

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickelodeon_Studios

Quote

In November 1988, Nickelodeon contracted space within the soon to be built Universal Studios Florida for its first production studio. Universal had determined through market research that a working studio was crucial in attracting guests to a movie themed park, and they offered Nickelodeon a sweetheart deal to supply that production. The promise of a custom-built studio at no expense, coupled with rent-free production, lured Nickelodeon away from negotiating with Disney-MGM Studios. The contract stipulated that Nickelodeon promote Universal Studios Florida on-air 1,000 times per year, while also broadcasting the park's television commercials.

Did WCW tape at Disney-MGM Studios for free? Not sure if AEW is currently using Universal's soundstage for free, but I'm guessing they are. Herb Abrams' UWF ran that outdoor taping at Universal in 1991 right after they opened and he didn't have to pay.

Edited January 8, 2023 by Dolphman 3000

[Elsalvajeloco]

39 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

I’d think NYC is the last place an entertainment company would want to run permanently, given all the union costs.

arent sweetheart deals a main reason NXT is in Florida, be it the state and or Full Sail deals a few years ago? And the Orlando/Tampa Manias? 

Re: NYC and the union costs

Nash went it into a little on Kliq This and how the boys made shit payoffs at MSG due to the union.

[piranesi]

5 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

 

Nash went it into a little on Kliq This and how the boys made shit payoffs at MSG due to the union.

 

I wonder if there is a single person on the board of Disney, Warner, Aol, Cabletown, Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, etc who can read this sentence and have any idea it is real.

[Elsalvajeloco]

17 minutes ago, piranesi said:

 

I wonder if there is a single person on the board of Disney, Warner, Aol, Cabletown, Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, etc who can read this sentence and have any idea it is real.

I would like to think the folks at AOL are carny enough to understand the wrestling business seeing they are as archaic. The fucker who was behind the bombardment of free internet trial CDs should be forced to wrestle Nick Gage.

[piranesi]

Just now, Elsalvajeloco said:

I would like to think the folks at AOL are carny enough to understand the wrestling business seeing they are as archaic. The fucker who was behind the bombardment of free internet trial CDs should be forced to wrestle Nick Gage.

I may have mispkoen, they might not be in the running. sorry! but it is after 11 oclock and edibles are legal now.

[John E. Dynamite]

50 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

I would like to think the folks at AOL are carny enough to understand the wrestling business seeing they are as archaic. The fucker who was behind the bombardment of free internet trial CDs should be forced to wrestle Nick Gage.

God damnit, I have absolutely seen the application of freeware CD roms in an early-00's Fans Bring The Weapons Deathmatch and I cannot for the life or death of me remember where.

[NoFistsJustFlips]

-Boy are there some... bad posts in the last page or so. Mostly by the same person. Uh why in the world would Vince come back to sell WWE and run a Capitol Wrestling territory out of NY? At the age of 78 or 79 by then, he's just going to start over from scratch? For what purpose? If he does sell WWE (and I'm still not sure that's the purpose of any of this) why in the world would he stay in the non-WWE wrestling space? Wrestling isn't Vince's life. WWE is his life. The brand. The history. The family connection. His 40 years of control and molding a vision. Less that ZERO chance of something like that happening or even being considered a rational thought.

-WWE Land with multiple shows happening in the same park, also dumbbbb. Pro wrestling ain't Disney. There's what, AT MOST, a top line number of 5 million-ish people in the United States that even care the tiniest slightest bit about wrestling. Of that number less than half watch a TV wrestling program regularly. Less than that number care to attend the shows. Disney has hundreds of millions of people all over the world willing to come to their parks. And even they are having trouble making it work. You couldn't even have ONE WWE Land in the world because your pool of people willing to go is probably about 1 million. And of those 1 million I'd venture to guess less than half have the means to make it happen.

-Now Triple H, if not retained in a WWE sale, I could see trying something. What it is I'm not sure. I could see him being savvy enough to work a deal to get the rights to NXT & it's library instead of his share of a stock buyout. Now he wouldn't get the performance center. But a corporate whatever that doesn't know wrestling won't really understand the value of the NXT brand and trademarks. I mean it's not WWE right? It's just the name of a show to them that doesn't get that many viewers. I could see them, saying sure turn down your 30 million payout and keep NXT. Do your thing Paul lol.

[Mister TV]

3 hours ago, Dolphman 3000 said:

Wouldn't Disney in theory be able to give WWE land for their Hall of Fame? Rebranding one of the lesser popular theme parks like Disney Hollywood Studios as WWE Land complete with free TV tapings for guests and a giant Hall of Fame seems optimal for what they've been trying to do with their memorabilia

Disney Hollywood Studios isn’t a lesser park, it has Star Wars Galaxy Edge aka Star Wars Land, the most popular ride at any of the Disney Florida Parks in Tower of Terror, along with a ton of Pixar stuff. If Disney bought the WWE(which isn’t going to happen) the best they could do is an update of the Aerosmith Rock-n-Roller Coaster which is really dated. 
 

The only reason WCW taped at Disney was due to the Mouse wanting Disney MGM Studios to look like it was an actual studio, they bailed on that idea years ago and used all the studio space for rides. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

19 minutes ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

WWE is his life. The brand. The history. The family connection. His 40 years of control and molding a vision. 

A coke fueled vision. The necrophilia. The miscarriage angles. The hand babies. Three hours of Art Donovan commentary. Multiple implied incest storylines. Constantly bringing back Jimmy Snuka years after he murdered a woman. Pulling JR's own head out of his ass. What would we have done without him? 

I really hope that if somehow WWE comes to an end, they do the prudent thing and play a montage of all of these things set to Simple Minds' "Don't You (Forget About Me)".

[Curt McGirt]

Don't worry, Maffew will do that for you. 

[Kuetsar]

13 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Re: NYC and the union costs

Nash went it into a little on Kliq This and how the boys made shit payoffs at MSG due to the union.

The entire company was on it's ass then. . .I wonder how the boys did in the 70s and 80s. Really the old wwwf territory was strong union land.

[Kuetsar]

As for selling, unless vince has a fatal disease no one knows about, I don't see him selling. Could be wrong, but he's devoted most if his life to that place, he doesn't seem like the type to be able to walk away. The sale shit is likely his carny way if retaking control with tanking the price of the stock.(apologies if this what everyone else is saying;didn't read the whole thread)

[Lawful Metal]

What if Tony Khan buys WWE?

[Mister TV]

47 minutes ago, Kuetsar said:

The entire company was on it's ass then. . .I wonder how the boys did in the 70s and 80s. Really the old wwwf territory was strong union land.

MSG and the other big arenas in the Northeast had great payoffs, that’s why everyone jumped at the chance to work “New York”.

[Ziggy]

On 1/7/2023 at 8:36 AM, just drew said:

I doubt he hires tons of people. And that would make the contracts even more scarce. There’s like 10-15 folks on the current wwe roster I think would fit what AEW is trying to do that make enough money while not being Vince’s cup of tea (or tyrannosaur blood, whatever he drinks in the morning to relax);

-Ricochet

-Mustafa Ali

-Bayley

-Nikki Cross

-Cedric Alexander

-Shelton

-Mia Yim

-Angel Garza

-Humberto Carrillo

-Dragon Lee

You add Mercedes & Mandy Sacs to that and let the big stiffs make the move to new ownership…

 

 

 

We all know Vince isn't going to let people go just because they aren't his model of what a wrestler is. Alot of talent he let go fit his vision very well more than most. Some were kept on because the value they would have to AEW and elsewhere. Even some of the talent Vince didn't make available that TK brought in having been used properly and some ,like Athena is just now finding her groove in AEW.

I think if Vince decides he has to cut a ton on people for a sale he might as well just end the developmental system for now. If it's for logistics. All that untrained talent and the people and the resources used to keep it up over the talent already on TV. 

It'll look bad Regardless if Vince Cherry picks most the guys Hunter brought back at once. Plus I doubt Vince would remember every single talent he signed off for whatever reason. He might wake up today with a completely different list of people he'd want to get rid of and some of Hunters guys might not make the cut without Vince knowing the difference