Elimination Chamber Returns

Elimination Chamber will be returning in a few weeks. It will be exclusively on the WWE Network. I would consider this more of a special event than a real pay-per-view. This is the kind of thing they should have done since last year more often. They had title defenses here and there to hype the WWE Network, but nothing big ever really happened. You could make the argument that subscribers are getting two big events in one month for just $9.99. The WWE seems to be giving away too much for free. They are trying to draw in more subscribers.

Another item of note is that the Intercontinental Championship and the Tag Team Championship will be decided in Elimination Chamber matches. That has never happened before. This type of match has always been a main-event type of match. In general, I like doing it this way. It makes these titles feel even more important. The WWE had done a pretty good job with the Intercontinental Championship recently, despite Daniel Bryan's recent misfortune. The tag titles need the help more. A lot of these teams are made up of lower-midcarders or midcarders randomly put together. You can't treat someone or a team mediocrely, or possibly worse, for a while, then just start pushing them and think everyone will be excited for them. Yes, certain fans will get excited for Kidd and Cesaro getting a push, but that does not mean those guys have that great connection with the wider audience. And the feud and storyline development in the tag division has been poor. It is like the WWE just tosses a gimmick on some guys and gets lazy after that. Having special matches like this can help things.

Just one issue you might bring up. Think about Hell in a Cell. Such an iconic, legendary match type. So many great moments. Heated feuds would culminate there. What does the WWE do? They make a PPV devoted to it. Feuds that shouldn't necessarily be put inside the cell are put in there. You have a lot of matches in recent years that have been disappointing. The match type has lost its mystique. Will that happen to the Elimination Chamber? Will it lose value now that midcard matters are being decided there? Have to wait and see how the matches play out. Regardless of what happens to the image of this match type, the midcard and tag division stand to benefit. 

January Raw Viewership & Network Numbers & Other Stuff

My last update before the Super Bowl. I feel like I should do a football metaphor. I can see people heading to the exits already.

Instead, I'll do something else I like doing. I'm going to look at some numbers. For the purposes of what I am doing, January is already over. I am going to look at Raw viewership this month. I think it is interesting. I am going to compare it to January 2014 and January 2013, which was the first January to have weekly 3-hour episodes. I get my numbers from TV by the Numbers.

2013
Week 1 (CF): 4,420,000
Week 2: 4,550,000
Week 3: 4,317,000
Week 4 (RR): 5,020,000
Average: 4,577,000

2014
Week 1 (CF): 4,537,000
Week 2: 4,403,000
Week 3: 4,869,000
Week 4 (RR): 4,719,000
Average: 4,632,000

2015
Week 1: 3,763,000
Week 2 (CF): 3,905,000
Week 3: 4,100,000
Week 4 (RR): 4,420,000
Average: 4,047,000

Hopefully, I did all the math right and didn't botch anything. "CF" represents the Raw that went against the top college football game, whether by the old system or the new playoffs system they are now using. "RR" represents the Raw the night after the Royal Rumble.

You can look at the numbers and draw your own conclusions. Let me tell you what stands out to me. 2015 is bad. Yeah, you can bring up the fact that they went against the most-watched show in cable history and still did the kind of numbers you would expect during football season. However, the BCS game in previous years would put up strong numbers and the WWE would do well against it. You can also bring up the weather causing the Raw event to be canceled this week. Instead, they did interviews and gave away the Royal Rumble match and title match from the PPV for free. I was almost going to leave the number out just to be fair. I thought it would be horrible. It ended up being the best for the month, so I still included it.

It is not a very auspicious start to the year. This is where Wrestlemania season starts. It is usually hot, as you can see from viewership averages in previous years. You had Brock Lesnar appearing regularly. Sting made a surprise appearance. The Rock made an appearance. Knowing that these top guys can appear at any time, like how The Rock did on Raw a few months ago, should get fans interested to tune in. Daniel Bryan is back. Cena is around. Roman Reigns, whatever his worth is, is there. I sincerely doubt people are waiting on Randy Orton to come back to tune in.

If the WWE does not turn things around, you can imagine how bad these numbers might get. What can they do? I can't answer that right now. Guys that are supposed to be draws don't seem to be able to keep the audience coming in. They need to change how the full-time talent is utilized, but things are very messy now. These part-timers just cannot do it. If things remain mediocre for Wrestlemania season, the WWE will get murdered in the dry months and football season after that.

While on the subject of viewership, TNA's numbers have grown. Their last episode averaged 517,000 viewers. That is good. That is where I expected them to be for the debut episode on Destination America. The fact that they got there with taped episodes is a good sign. I am not saying they will get back to a million viewers, but they are certainly a top draw for their new network and that might help them in the long run.

Back to the WWE. The WWE Network finally reached a million subscribers this week. They finally reached that benchmark. The announcement was made against this attempted protest to "#CancelWWENetwork" after what happened at the Royal Rumble. It's good they finally got there. Their stock even rose a bit due to it. Just keep in mind, that number was the initial goal back when there was a 6-month commitment. A few things have been changed. The WWE is also giving away another free month in February. Remember when the WWE used to actually make money off of PPVs? Obviously, these kind of things are good ideas, but you just did this in November. Two months later, you promote another one? I would have waited six months. Congratulations on getting to a million, but now you have to try to maintain it and go further. And it would help a little if you could do it while making a profit.

Let me go back to when I was talking about making a kind of spectrum to rank the divas. Let me try to explain why it might be useful. Last year, I talked about grading the performers in various things. Categorize them based on their position on the roster, grade them on their talent, and grade them on how well they are getting over. Imagine doing that for various divas, whether you want to split it up by those currently in the company, those to have held a title, or whatever. By putting it into some kind of diagram, it might make it easier to evaluate these women. Separate the periphery divas from the credible jobbers and separate those women from the centerpieces. When I was talking about this last time, I talked about wrestling ability as the deciding factor to determine where the eye-candy divas to have held titles in the diva division would be placed. You can also do it based on overness. You can do it based solely on whom your favorites are. A lot of ways to do it. The important thing is to just understand that these women are being pushed differently and being utilized differently. Why do I bother putting so much thought into analyzing? Well, someone might find it useful and do something with it.

One last aside I want to make about what I talked about last time. I was talking about what it would mean for Stacy Keibler to have won the Women's Championship. One major point that relates to what is going on now, a title reign does not change your position in the division. Look at the men's division. Look at the saga involving Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan. Daniel Bryan is a 4-time World Champion in the WWE, in addition to some other solo accolades and the tag titles. Prior to last Sunday, Roman Reigns had never won any solo titles or distinctions. Just looking at that, you might say that Roman Reigns deserves to win the Royal Rumble, get this push, and eventually win the title at Wrestlemania. Daniel Bryan has also gotten his Wrestlemania moment last year. You can say he got two in one night. Roman Reigns has never had that. Thing is, despite those booking accomplishments and moments, Daniel Bryan is still not pushed as an A+ player. You might even get the sense that Roman Reigns, a guy that does not even have all that stuff on his resume, is being groomed to be ahead of him. 

What do those Daniel Bryan fans want? Do they want to settle for him getting a bone tossed to him whenever the WWE feels like it. That is, do they want to settle for a guy they love so much getting some accolades here and there, but never really being pushed as a true top-tier star? Do they want him to live in the shadow of guys that might not be better than him? Or do they want him to actually be treated the way he deserves? Treated. It doesn't matter how many times you have been booked to hold a title, even a World title, it comes down to how you are actually treated. That is what determines what your place in that division is. If you want to work your ass off to earn something, work to earn the treatment of a top star. Don't settle for just holding a title and not really being that guy they want to be a star.

Sometimes when I am on Twitter, I try to tell other Paige fans not to settle. They get excited for the most trivial of things and sometimes make excuses when the WWE isn't booking Paige well. Other times, they are dumbfounded by what the WWE is doing. I like Paige. She has a ton of potential. I also recognize she has been pushed as a credible jobber. It doesn't matter what the WWE booked her to be last year and what PWI has to say. She should be treated better. She should be given a legitimate opportunity and if she capitalizes to get very over, she deserves the better push. You do not see Daniel Bryan fans settling for Bryan just getting a moment here and there and getting a title reign occasionally, while someone not better than him gets the better career. Why should Paige settle for even worse? And why should her fans settle?

How about Mickie James? She was in the same position as Daniel Bryan. She got over with the fans and the WWE continued to treat her the same way they would have had she never gotten over at all. Fans obviously did not know what they were seeing. They never even considered whether she was winning the title because the WWE was actually developing her to be a star in that diva division or to put over the star and be used as a backup when the star was not there. Even I settled when she would win the title in 2008 and after. I knew they weren't actually pushing her like Trish or Lita. I didn't do a very good job realizing what was coming.

I once saw someone justify that the WWE must have wanted Mickie to be the top face of the diva division simply because she held the title so much. He then even measured how long each title reign was, as if holding the title a little bit longer means they care about you that much more. This guy fails to actually pay attention to what was going on in the diva division when Mickie James was being pushed. A lot of these pushes were obvious filler pushes. He fails to pay attention to the depth in the division at the time. Mickie James was often the only face with wrestling credibility when one needed to be pushed. And he fails to actually pay attention to the manner in which Mickie James was being pushed. Centerpiece push? Filler push? Jobber push? If simply counting title reigns and moments is not enough when talking about how the WWE is treating Daniel Bryan, why are people only looking at those things when understanding whether or not the WWE actually wanted Mickie James as a top star? Actually analyze how she is being pushed. You will find that she deserves to be in the same discussion as Daniel Bryan and other men that got over that the WWE never intended to get that over.

Team Cena Vs. Team Authority At Survivor Series: Final Preview

The main event for Survivor Series will be Team Cena vs. Team Authority. The Authority's reign of power is on the line. The jobs of Cena's partners are also on the line. There are a ton of different things to talk about for this match. Too many things. I am not even going to bother trying to talk about it all. Besides, there are some other things I want to also bring up.

The development for this match has been better than any other angle currently going on. It has been very good. They have done a good job creating that tension about which team various wrestlers will be a part of. Whose side is Ryback on? The Wyatts have gotten involved, but can they be trusted? The Authority has also done a good job throwing their weight around. I got the feeling they were starting to overproduce this feud near the end, but I can cut them some slack. Sheamus is injured. That obviously has an impact on things.

Who wins? I have already given my reasons why I feel The Authority should not disband. Can they lose power and still exist as a group? Would it still have the same feel? I have read rumors that Stephanie McMahon is pregnant again and that is why they want to write the stable off. That is stupid. You can run the group with Triple H as the leader. They wouldn't end the group just for that. They should not end it unless they have a great creative direction to go after doing it. On the other side, what happens if Cena's team loses and his partners get fired? Cena's job is safe. Obviously, being fired in kayfabe is nothing. Those four members of Team Cena can come back as some kind of stable of their own. John Cena does not need to turn heel for his team to lose. You can just have a situation where Cena could not overcome the situation or he gets screwed. One of his own team might screw the others to secure his own job. That is what I think is likely. There will be shenanigans. Team Authority is my pick to win.

Let me talk about the Survivor Series card in general. This is honestly the worst PPV card I have seen from the WWE since I started watching regularly in 1998. I am not talking about the names on the card and how much star power they have. I am talking about the number of matches and the build those matches have had. There are only 5 advertised matches for this year's Survivor Series. For the sake of comparison, there were 7 matches last year, not counting the pre-show. The only PPV that can get away with having so few matches is the Royal Rumble. That is because the Royal Rumble match takes up so much time and is the main draw for that PPV. The main draw for this PPV is obviously Team Cena vs. Team Authority. I doubt that match will last as long as the Royal Rumble match typically does. Moreover, I do not think it is a big enough match to sell this PPV. I have spoken about the feud between Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt, which is the top feud outside of the main angle going on, and the feud between AJ Lee and The Bellas, which is the top diva feud. I have pointed out that the storyline and feud development there has not been that great. Those other two matches added to the card recently are even worse. These are filler matches. That tag title match does not matter too much. The tag division is currently at a low it has not been in years. And that second diva match they added just screams filler. It is made up of divas that have not been doing anything major in recent weeks. It is made up of credible jobbers and eye-candy periphery divas that have nothing better to do than be treated like credible jobbers. I am not surprised they would add a diva match to the card as filler. I was also thinking they would add Adam Rose vs. The Bunny as filler. Let's see if they at least further the issues there at Survivor Series. I would expect them to still add more filler to the show in some way. I know about all the depth issues, but that is not excuse for not developing feuds better.

Of course, Survivor Series is free this month. There is that free trial for the WWE Network. When I talk about "selling" this PPV, I am really talking about creating interest in it, not talking about it financially. Why is it important to sell this PPV even when practically anyone can watch it for free? When you do this free trial thing, you want to convince fans to pay for it after the trial ends. You want to put your best foot forward during this month. Has the WWE succeeded in doing that? Well, they started out with a good move. Rusev won the United States title on the WWE Network. I will also give the WWE credit for developing Team Authority vs. Team Cena like they have. Outside of that, however, everything else has been mediocre or worse. Development for other feuds has not been great. Still a lot of filler and stupidity. I do not think this free trial will lead to more fans subscribing for $9.99, even without the 6-month commitment. Expect a lot of subscribers during Wrestlemania season, but before that and after that, poor numbers. The quality of the product needs to be hotter on a consistent basis and some of that excitement needs to be exclusively on the WWE Network if they want to draw fans in and get them interested in paying.

Rusev Wins The United States Championship

That was a pretty good episode of Raw last night. But one of the major segments of the night happened on the WWE Network. Rusev won the United States Championship from Sheamus.

It was a basic title feud. It was one that seemed likely to involve a title change. I wasn't even going to bother talking about it again as the feud progressed. Well, the title change happened just like that. What now? They can do some interesting things with Rusev holding this particular title. You can imagine a lot of great segments. On Raw, however, they already went in the direction of The Authority trying to recruit Rusev for their team at Survivor Series. Nothing wrong with having him in that match, but don't start treating him as a henchman for The Authority now. Rusev's character has potential away from just being another heel henchman for the top heel stable. Back when I was bringing up names to replace Randy Orton in The Authority, I did not bring up Rusev. He doesn't need to be in the group to be relevant.

The other thing worth talking about is that this happened on the WWE Network. They had multiple opportunities this year to have a title change happen on the WWE Network. I think it is a good idea to do it. Make people believe big things happen on the WWE Network. Of course, they are giving a month-long free trial right now. You would think the WWE would do their best this month to bring those subscribers in. Not to make too much of one night, but they did pretty well so far.

How about that WWE Network? I came across a graph last week that illustrates how it has been doing in terms of subscriptions.

It is still not at that 1,000,000-subscriber benchmark. They have spread out to more countries, although not their main international markets, but it is still very weak numbers. It is a smart move to offer a free trial for a month and get rid of the 6-month commitment. In general, however, this has not been a good investment. Keep in mind that they alienated a lot of their PPV partners. $9.99 is just too cheap for a PPV and all that other content subscribers get every month. Don't even bring up giving away November for free. Everyone can say that it will take time for the WWE to make a profit off of this venture, but they have not started off on a good note. First, I believe they were saying they would get 1,000,000 subscribers around Wrestlemania. Didn't happen. Next, they will get it by the end of 2014. Doesn't look like that will happen. And with all these other issues coming up, getting a million subscribers is really just a ceremonial benchmark. When do they start getting a real profit?

Assorted Topics

The Alberto Del Rio situation messed up what I originally had planned to talk about in the final days heading into Summerslam. Because of that, I will talk about a few different things today.

I was including the "$9.99" thing in my titles for a while. I would have done it more had Alberto Del Rio not been fired. I would have done it on Friday and again today. Of course, it is a reference to what the WWE did last week on Raw. Triple H playing with it in his promo was one thing. I could enjoy that. Matches the character he is playing. But continuing to run with the gag after that? That is when it started to get lame. Including "$9.99" in my blog entry title once may have been okay. But continuing to force it? That is when the whole thing might just get stupid. That was the idea I was going for. Kind of doesn't work when I only got to do it twice. And, yes, I am not afraid to make myself look bad to make a point. It is just this kind of thing that makes the quality of the product not seem as entertaining.

The WWE Network is obviously on the company's mind. They are now making it available internationally. Okay, that's good. If I understand it correctly, however, that million-subscriber benchmark was a goal they were aiming for before even releasing internationally. They were aiming for that many subscribers domestically. When they make it available to more countries, that is when you would expect a higher benchmark. The numbers released recently showed that the WWE Network is not a big hit. It lost a lot of subscribers, but still gained a lot to remain on the plus side of things. Still, not a big gain since they last released numbers. There are a lot of fans worldwide that are hungry for the WWE Network. But will the WWE be able to keep them? That is the issue they are facing domestically, in addition to getting new subscribers. I don't think this one venture will run them out of business if it is not successful, but it is a headache.

Dean Ambrose won the right to decide what type of match he will have with Seth Rollins at Summerslam. What did he choose? What type of match will fit the intensity of this feud? What type of match will stop Seth Rollins from always running away? What type of match will excite these fans? A Lumberjack match? Really? Well, I guess it can stop Seth from escaping. But it is such a dull choice. A lot of fans are unhappy with this. After everything these guys have done to each other, I was expecting some kind of hardcore-style match. What would I personally have gone with? Strap match. It would stop Seth from escaping and have some brutality to it. The kind of match they are having this Sunday, I cannot picture this feud ending at Summerslam. I can imagine it going over into Night of Champions. They might even have Seth put the briefcase on the line there.

What about the third former member of The Shield? He has his feud with Randy Orton. This is a match I think should also have some kind of gimmick to it. Roman Reigns faced Kane in a Last Man Standing match last week on Raw. They are overdoing it with that match type. Point is, I feel his match with Randy Orton should also be taken to another level. It has lost some of that heat to it. It felt more personal a few months ago when The Shield first broke up and Orton attacked Reigns like he did. This is another feud that might spill over to Night of Champions. I would rather it didn't, but it likely will. They probably can't come up with anything else for either guy to do.

Let me revisit the Del Rio situation. I did not bring up the possibility that this could all be a work. When CM Punk walked out on the WWE, part of me was wondering whether this was some stunt. I didn't have that feeling for this current situation. Why? There are some signs that it might be some angle. Del Rio is a victim of racism and was just standing up for himself. That is the idea that could make fans feel sympathetic towards him and support him. It could be a big work, like CM Punk's pipe bombs were. Thing is, why bother doing this with Del Rio? He has been pushed hard to be a star and not gotten it done. Moreover, you have other guys that already seem to be getting groomed to be stars. I am talking about guys like Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Dean Ambrose. A huge angle with Del Rio could take away the attention from these guys. Back when the WWE ran with CM Punk, Edge had just retired, Randy Orton was moved to Smackdown, John Cena was his usual self, and you really lacked other stars. It made sense to let Punk do what he did to make him into a megastar. With Punk gone, Daniel Bryan injured, and John Cena still his usual self, you can say that the situation is perfect for the WWE to pull another big angle to make someone into a star. But with these other guys being groomed to be stars, I don't think the WWE would try it. I don't think this is a work.

But for the sake of discussion, let's say this is a work. This is all an elaborate plan to make Alberto Del Rio into a star due to the current lack of stars. It would be similar to what you had with CM Punk. Could what the WWE is doing be viewed as insulting to CM Punk? What do I mean? That angle in 2011 was what made CM Punk into a top star. He became a legend after that. Does the WWE honestly think that they could make a star out of anyone simply by giving them a big, controversial storyline? I am not saying they are purposely trying to take a shot at CM Punk. I am asking whether this might cheapen what CM Punk did. If you can take a guy that cannot connect with fans very well like Alberto Del Rio and make him into a big star so easily, was there anything really unique about what CM Punk did? Just like controversy the WWE created would lead to Del Rio becoming a star now, controversy the WWE created back then was what led to CM Punk becoming a star. He is a WWE guy. Does that still make CM Punk such an "anti-status quo" guy? Or was what he did all just the WWE's plan to make him into a star, and they would like to cause the same buzz again to make another star?

TNA's TV Deal & The WWE Network

If you were wondering why I didn't bring up the hot topic from earlier this week about TNA possibly being cancelled, I was waiting for the numbers on the WWE Network to come out. Now that that info is out, I can talk about both.

Let me start with TNA. There were reports circulating that Spike TV has dropped TNA Impact Wrestling. The way some fans were acting, TNA is already out of business, the WWE has bought it, and Dixie Carter will be debuting the Raw after Summerslam to start an invasion angle. Slow it down a little. TNA still has time to negotiate their deal.

Let's assume they do lose the deal with Spike TV. That does not mean they are out of business. They can still negotiate with other networks. They are not dead yet. Let's say they have trouble finding another home prior to their final episode on Spike. Okay, they can run their shows on the Internet. That would be embarrassing, but TNA has been embarrassing before. Thing is, that would only be a short-term fix. They will eventually have to find a new TV deal. They will have to downsize to be able to keep going. They may not be able to afford the few true stars they have left. And that is when you would expect them to finally go out of business. We are not at that point yet. If they ever get to that point where they have no TV deal, I will talk about this again.

The WWE Network has 700,000 subscribers. From the last time they announced a number, they gained 161,000 subscribers and lost 128,000 subscribers. Because the WWE has done a lot to cut costs, they no longer need over a million subscribers to make a profit off this venture. Regardless, I still feel like holding them to that 1,000,000-subscriber benchmark they had put up for themselves. I am surprised they lost so much. I am not surprised there would be some people that would want to drop it before the 6 months ran out, but over 100,000 is more than I expected. Just a waste of money. And how many more will they lose when 6 months are up? I doubt they will be able to pull a million before the end of the year. They might even get to a point where they are losing more than they are gaining.

What kind of things can the WWE do to get more subscribers? They had offered another free trial a few weeks ago. They are now going to offer an option where you can pay $19.99 a month, instead of $9.99 with a 6-month commitment. Pretty much the same idea as just paying for whatever PPV you wish to see. That might appeal more to casual fans. They can also put up more content. I still think the best thing they could do is have major angles happen on programming exclusive to the WWE Network. Have title changes. Have big promos. If you put mediocrity on there, people won't feel like they are missing anything.

Scott Steiner recently did an interview and said some things that relate to the WWE Network.

All the social media and other things, a lot of it is manure. It doesn’t mean you’re going to draw or people are going to see you. You look at Charlie Sheen and then how many Twitter followers he had there and on Facebook. Then he tried to capitalize on it with a tour, and nobody came to watch him. Just because you have Twitter followers and Facebook doesn’t mean a whole lot and [doesn't mean] people are going to pay to see you. A lot of that is misjudged. Just because you have people on their phone or Internet doesn’t mean they are going to pay. Same for the Network. I think they misjudged the popularity of it.”

Just because somebody follows you don’t mean they are going to pay for it. A lot of people are misjudging the popularity of people or characters. It’s manure. I think they did the same thing. A lot of those wrestlers have a lot of Twitter followers, but all that combined they should be able to get $9.99 for the Network. They found out they don’t pay…When do you concede that you failed? They live in their own little box and think they are all geniuses. So when are they going to concede that they are not as smart as they think they are?

I agree with the idea. Just because you have a lot of Internet support, that does not mean that the support will translate when it comes to buying your merchandise, coming to see you, and really standing by you when it counts. I have a Twitter account. I don't follow a lot of people. I follow Ted DiBiase Jr., but don't ask me why. I have no idea. I'm not even a fan of the guy that much. My favorite singer, Shakira, recently became the first person on Facebook to get 100,000,000 likes on their page. Does that mean her music and videos and everything else is always #1? No. The music industry is still very competitive. Shakira is still successful, but the fact that she holds that record in social media does not mean too much. I don't care. She's still my favorite. 

It's the same idea I brought up months ago. Casual fans are not going to be that interested in the product to want to subscribe to the WWE Network. And a lot of those Twitter followers are just casual fans. The WWE misjudged the portion of their total fanbase that actually care enough to subscribe and are capable of subscribing. They will likely not meet 1,000,000 by the end of the year and had to cut a lot of expenses, including laying off workers, just to make their business more manageable. By trying so hard just to make the WWE Network a success, they may still end up putting themselves in a bad position.

The Shield Vs. Evolution At Payback

Not surprisingly, the feud between The Shield and Evolution will continue to another PPV. They definitely put on a great match at Extreme Rules. Many fans were also happy that the young team won. WWE building stars. And this feud definitely had a fresh feel to it when Evolution came back together and it first started. That is pretty much all the good stuff I can say about it.

It has gotten pretty dry. They just attack each other every week. The Authority sent out a bunch of heels to attack The Shield last week, but they had done that kind of thing before. The development has just gotten very boring.

And Evolution does not feel like Evolution. It isn't just because Ric Flair isn't with them. I'll get to that in a moment. When Evolution was first formed, they just gave off this vibe like they were elites. They held so many titles. They had Ric Flair to give them a rub. They went out there like they were the top guys. Now, this is just like gang warfare. It is like a bunch of thugs fighting a bunch of thugs. That elite feel isn't in the group anymore. I know this isn't about making Evolution look good. The Shield deserve to look good. Nevertheless, I feel making Evolution look more like the top dogs they once were would make this feud more interesting and give The Shield something better to work against.

What could the WWE possibly do to make this feud better? Let me give one idea. Go back to Ric Flair. Get him more involved. Make him a wildcard in this feud. He came back before Extreme Rules for a meaningless vote of confidence for The Shield. A lot of fans were anticipating Ric Flair getting more involved in this feud. It hasn't happened. They can still make it happen for Payback. How can you have Flair come back that night, get slightly involved, and not follow up at all on that point? It really does make his part in that segment seem trivial. I would like to have confidence that the WWE will not leave that storyline thread hanging like that. Potential right there to make this interesting again.

Let me change topics. The WWE stock had a huge drop at the end of last week. There were a few factors why. Let me just focus on one interesting development. The WWE Network is hurting the company right now. They will need at least 1.3 million subscribers now to compensate for losses.You can read an article about it here. The goal everyone was talking about was originally a million by the end of the year. That will still lead to a loss for the company. People are saying that the WWE will get 1.3 million in this country or that country alone. Okay. But what if the WWE was already anticipating those results? The WWE was thinking 1 million by the end of this year. Even if they do get that, they still lost money. When they go international, they will definitely get more subscribers. But what if they were anticipating a certain amount and the real number comes in lower than expectations or unexpected obstacles pop up? That is what has spelled doom for the WWE so far. And you still have to wonder how many will drop their subscription when 6 months end. To put it simply, recent developments are showing the WWE Network was not a great move. Will the WWE be able to take these short-term losses and turn them into long-term profit?

Extreme Rules 2014: General Post-PPV Reaction

Nothing specific today. I just want to give my general reaction to what happened at the PPV last night. It seems the WWE produced a PPV that would make a lot of fans out there happy and create some buzz. Considering that this was Extreme Rules and not all the matches really had an extreme gimmick to them, the WWE did well.

And it didn't start at Extreme Rules. The build to the PPV was pretty good. Most of the matches had some good development to them. The midget match did. There was a tournament to lead into the IC title match. The diva match could have been developed a lot better. Even the match to put over Rusev further had some build to it in the week leading up to it. I usually point out that the WWE does a poor job developing PPVs in recent years, but they did a better job here and did some good stuff at the actual event.

Could this all be to help with the WWE Network issue? Relying on a cheap price and all that content has not produced the results the WWE would have liked. And a major issue in there is PPV providers dropping them. I noticed a few more have done it recently, not just the satellite providers. This must be a wake-up call for the WWE. They cannot afford to be lazy. If they start pushing a great product again, that will get fans interested in buying the PPVs. That will either lead to PPV providers being pressured into offering WWE PPVs again or these fans being more willing to get the WWE Network. Either way, the WWE wins. That is, if they can keep the ball rolling.

Extreme Rules 2014: Assorted Thoughts

I am just going to keep it short for the other matches on the card. After that, I want to talk about an article I came across about the WWE Network and PPVs.

El Torito vs. Hornswoggle. Yep.

Alexander Rusev vs. R-Truth and Xavier Woods. The winner in this is obvious. At least the WWE did a little to make Truth and Woods look credible against Rusev recently.

Paige vs. Tamina. Once again, the winner seems obvious. No need to end Paige's reign here. I have been talking about feuds that should last beyond Extreme Rules in the last few days.This is not one of those feuds. The WWE has not developed a great feud here and I don't even want to see them try. It will be painful. Just move Paige onto something better.

Big E vs. Bad News Barrett. If any title is likely to change hands at this event, it has to be the Intercontinental Championship. Big E has held it for months. He has been pushed pretty mediocrely for the majority of that time. Not surprising at all. On the other side of that, you have Wade Barrett, who has been rejuvenated with this gimmick. Bad News Barrett is great. He has a ton of momentum on his side. He can be a great thing for the midcard.

Cesaro vs. Rob Van Dam vs. Jack Swagger. The likely match you could have had for Extreme Rules would have been between just Cesaro and his former partner, Jack Swagger. You had Heyman and Zeb to add a little spice to things. The WWE took it one big step further. They inserted Rob Van Dam. And I think they did a pretty good job of inserting him into the mix. The story is there. I usually do not like triple-threat matches where nothing is on the line, but I'll let this one go. Cesaro should win. He is the one they seem most interested in pushing in this match.

I came across an article in the last week about a topic I have brought up a lot in the last few months. It can be found here. A lot of points to bring up.

First of all, reading the article, I realized I did not properly account for international buys when I was determining what kind of benchmark you should want to have for Wrestlemania XXX. I admit it, I botched. All it really means is I should have kept the benchmark higher. Like 800,000 total PPV buys. For the millionth time, the reason is that you would want to have high standards for a Wrestlemania that should have been treated as something special.

The article mentions that expectations were at 295,000 domestic buys. That is low. I understand you have the WWE Network, it does not include international buys, and all that, but I would have expected at least 400,000, which is around the number they ended up getting. Of course, the WWE really did not create a stellar PPV card featuring legends and celebrities that generated a ton of hype. Hulk Hogan returned, but they did not do anything exciting with him. When The Rock came back, they started developing a feud between him and John Cena. This Wrestlemania season did not measure up to what you had in the last three years. That is probably the reason expectations were so low. Poor build leads to low expectations. That is underachieving.

The writer of that article said one thing I found very interesting:

Buying a PPV the old-fashioned way instead of subscribing to the network makes no sense for even casual WWE fans. One PPV costs roughly $60 -- the same price as six months of the network, which gives you access to six PPVs, around 1,300 hours of archived WWE content, and tons of exclusive programming.

It makes no sense? Really? I don't think a lot of people understand casual fans. Fans do not come in just one flavor. Let me break it down into 3 groups. You have your casual fans, regular fans, and hardcore fans. Hardcore fans are really into whatever it is they love that much. You ever see people get tattoos of their favorite sports team or get it shaved into their head? That's hardcore. Regular fans support whatever it is on a regular basis, including spending money on it now and then. Casual fans are the ones that care about it, but really are not that into it.

Why would fans that are not that into it subscribe to the WWE Network? The archived content? Tons of exclusive programming? They can live without it. And that would be why they are CASUAL fans. They just want to pay for what they want. As I have said before, drawing in the casual fans is why Wrestlemania is the most successful WWE PPV pretty much every year. These fans don't care that much about seeing the five other PPVs included in the 6-month commitment. That is why all those other PPVs would get lesser buys. It really isn't shocking at all that the number of subscribers for the WWE Network fell short of initial expectations, while the number of PPV buys for Wrestlemania exceeded expectations. The number of subscribers exceeded my expectations, but I was expecting a lot of PPV buyers. And just for the sake of repeating myself, I still feel the WWE could have done better and should have tried to do better.

Let me get to the main point of that article. PPV providers are dropping the WWE. You might have noticed how the commentators handled things on Raw. Satellite providers are not offering Extreme Rules. I have Dish Network. I had DirecTV before that. I have not subscribed to the WWE Network. I am not going to. Well, looks like I'm screwed. That is, if I am ever interested in watching another WWE PPV. Right now, I can live without it. They have gotten pretty pricey.

This is not how the WWE would have liked things to work out. They are losing money. Fans are essentially paying just $9.99 to watch these PPVs that would normally cost more than triple that. The WWE only gets about half that, while the other half goes to the PPV providers, but that's still more than $9.99. The WWE has not even gotten enough subscribers to break even yet. And what happens when 6 months are up and people start dropping it? Will the flow of new subscribers offset the drop? They will most likely have to raise the price of their network. If the WWE makes roughly half of what a PPV costs for themselves, it would make sense to charge a little bit more than roughly half of what the average PPV would cost. Make your money for the PPVs and for the other content. You cannot count on PPV revenue when those providers start dropping you.  

What Do You Do With The United States Championship?

There is a tournament going on to find the #1 contender for the Intercontinental Championship. That makes things a little more interesting in the midcard. How about the other midcard title? Dean Ambrose is still holding that. And why? He is part of a stable that is currently feuding against a stable that has authority power. How can the heels stare at their enemies holding a title and not try to screw them out of that title? I know it is only the U.S. Championship, but this is the kind of thing that could help the title seem more important. Dean Ambrose could end up holding that title for a full year and it wouldn't be because he was doing such a great job during the reign. It would be because they tossed the title on him and never featured him properly as U.S. Champion.

What can the WWE do? What could they have done differently? First of all, I don't think it is necessary to rush Evolution vs. The Shield. Save it for after Extreme Rules. Have some singles matches first. Dean Ambrose vs. Kane for the title would not have been bad. Have Roman Reigns face Batista. Where would that leave Daniel Bryan? He has Kane in front of him. Would it really be bad if you let Randy Orton get his rematch he is entitled to at Extreme Rules? Give Triple H and Seth Rollins the night off. If that isn't what the WWE wants, have Seth face one of the other henchmen of The Authority. As you saw on Raw, a lot of heels are on the side of the corporate heels.

Of course, that will not be how things play out. What is left for the WWE to do? I am not saying any member of Evolution should take the U.S. title off Dean Ambrose. Those guys are all above that title. As I said before, there are other heels supporting The Authority. Let one of them take the title off Ambrose. Even better, make him defend the title in a gauntlet match. He might be able to overcome two or three guys, but then he eventually loses the title to someone like Rusev or Swagger. Then they can sell it as The Authority screwing Ambrose out of the title.

In a related note, I have seen talk that the reason they brought back the mask for Kane is because the WWE does not feel he has enough momentum in his current corporate state to be a challenge for Daniel Bryan. That might be the case, but there were definitely other ways to work around that without giving Kane a makeover. Have Kane attack Daniel Bryan with a weapon. Not only would Kane destroy Daniel Bryan, and look intimidating doing it, but you can develop a match at Extreme Rules around whatever weapon Kane used. Or a stretcher. Or an ambulance. Besides, Kane has destroyed Daniel Bryan already just a few weeks ago. I am still going to give WWE credit for deciding to not settle for that stuff and bringing back the mask. It causes better buzz than just an injury angle or developing a gimmick match. 

Let me switch gears. The WWE released initial numbers for Wrestlemania XXX. A million households. Sounds impressive. But you have to actually break those numbers down a little. 667,000 were WWE Network subscribers. Almost 400,000 were PPV buyers. I have seen some fans shocked that it was that high. I saw one guy on a message board a while ago say that Wrestlemania would be a "huge" success if it got just 150,000 buys. Yeah, well, I would love to see what adjective he uses after Wrestlemania got more than twice that. This number is actually not that shocking. I have been saying for a while that the WWE Network would not snag in as many casual fans as some might think. There are fans that just want to see Wrestlemania and don't care about the other stuff the WWE offers on their network. They wouldn't mind paying the huge price for it.

For me, the minimum Wrestlemania XXX had to get in PPV buys was 700,000. As I have said before, you would think the WWE would put their best foot forward for a Wrestlemania as special as this. And if the WWE did put their best foot forward, forgetting the WWE Network ever came out, you would expect a million buys. With the WWE Network, that kind of made it more difficult to set a benchmark. I don't agree with people that believe 150,000 would be amazing. I still say 700,000 is a good benchmark. 600,000 might have been even more reasonable, but I'm not dropping below that. Fact is, ratings were mediocre during this year's Wrestlemania season. The WWE failed to really create a feud that I think could draw in the casual fans. The story involving Daniel Bryan was epic, but it is more appealing to the regulars than the casuals. They didn't hype any huge celebrity or legend to be there. With all due respect to Hulk Hogan, if he could bring the results The Rock could, you would have seen it in the ratings even before Wrestlemania. You didn't. Financial reports have said that the initial numbers for the WWE Network were lower than many hoped for. The WWE will have to work to get 1,000,000 subscribers by the end of the year. Point is, you could just anticipate that this Wrestlemania would not draw as many buyers as it could have had. If the WWE pulled out their Network when The Rock came back or any of the other Wrestlemanias involving him in a major way recently, I am confident you would have had more subscribers and still more PPV buys than you have gotten. The WWE will tout the success of Wrestlemania XXX, but they could have done better.

Some fans are looking at that 1,000,000 and are ready to praise Daniel Bryan as the greatest draw of all time. I feel like posting a picture of Bad News Barrett. I won't. But I do have some news for those fans that might be most unpleasant. The WWE offered Wrestlemania at a very cheap price for those who subscribed to their network. For $9.99 a month, you get the PPVs (special events), past content, and original content. Fans would have been eager to get that regardless of whom was in the main event. They are not necessarily subscribing just to see Daniel Bryan. They want to scoop up that good deal. Moreover, I already pointed out that the actual PPV buys for the event were lower than you would hope for a Wrestlemania following in the line of 1,000,000 buys you have had with The Rock. If this Wrestlemania had done a great job in creating hype, whether you want to praise Daniel Bryan for it or not, you would expect more than a 1,000,000 domestic households in between WWE Network subscribers and PPV buyers. The WWE would have met that 800,000-subscriber benchmark some analysts came up with and the WWE would have roped in a lot of casual fans to want to order. It seems the WWE did a better job promoting the WWE Network than developing a great Wrestlemania season. And the cheap price was the real draw.    

Last thing, I spoke to my cousin recently. I was actually surprised when he told me he subscribed to the WWE Network. He isn't as into wrestling anymore as I am. He was when he was younger. And he does still read dirtsheets. I don't consider him a true casual fan. Over the last few years, he has watched Wrestlemania either through illegal streams or at a friend's house. That is an example of the WWE getting someone to pay to watch Wrestlemania that would normally not pay for it.

Daniel Bryan: The Next John Cena?

I have spoken about whether or not Daniel Bryan should be pushed as the centerpiece or featured as the face of the company before. I am not revisiting that topic today. This is another issue.

Aside from being the centerpiece and face of the company, John Cena is a character. He is a character a lot of people do not like. He overcomes the odds, he bounces back from beatings like nothing happened, and he sometimes sounds like a politician during his promos. He has held this character for close to a decade. People hate how stale he has become.

Is Daniel Bryan the next Cena? The odds were certainly stacked against him recently. What did he do? Overcome. It looked like he was injured. What does he do? He just seemed to shrug that off after winning. And to top it all off, a lot of his promos recently have sounded like what you would expect out of John Cena. Being an underdog is one thing, but you really can make the argument that the WWE is developing Daniel Bryan to have the kind of character John Cena has. And I have noticed some fans already bringing it up.

Of course, Daniel Bryan has a few things going for him to save him from getting Cena-like reactions. He is a better wrestler. I don't think the WWE can ever do anything to ruin that. And he is still insanely over. They might be able to eventually ruin that. Maybe. Moreover, he has not become as stale as Cena. If they succeed in making Daniel Bryan stale, then they might succeed in ruining him. I am not saying they would intentionally do that, but it might be a side effect of attempting to developing Daniel Bryan to have John Cena's character, if that is the road they are heading down.

Do they really need to give Daniel Bryan these types of feuds and storylines that make him look like Cena? The Rock and Austin did not have that kind of character. The Rock electrified. Austin raised hell. Cena overcomes odds. All these guys feuded against the authority figures above them during their time in the company. But they all had different characters. The way they are handling Daniel Bryan, his character is looking more like Cena's than any other wrestler's. I cannot imagine Daniel Bryan electrifying like The Rock. He does have the fans going crazy, but he doesn't go about it like The Rock did. I cannot imagine Daniel Bryan raising hell like Austin. He has gotten the better of The Authority now, but not through the elaborate segments in which Austin did it. I don't need to imagine Daniel Bryan overcoming odds like John Cena would. I see it happening.

Personally, Daniel Bryan does not annoy me as much as Cena. I am more annoyed by the reaction he gets. It has gotten too insane. Blame the WWE for that. They shouldn't have played with those fans. And those few fans that are picking apart Daniel Bryan and comparing him to John Cena may just be over-analyzing it. If and when the majority of fans start turning on Daniel Bryan, then you can start looking at why that is. Right now, he is still very over and is getting what he deserves.

Let me go back to what I talked about a few days ago about the WWE Network and Wrestlemania. I said that Wrestlemania XXX should get at least 700,000 PPV buys to really match what you would want out of a Wrestlemania this special. I did not really explain very well how I came up with that benchmark number. I don't want it to seem like I am pulling numbers out of the air. Outside of the big four WWE PPVs (Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble, Summerslam, Survivor Series), these "special events" typically get over 100,000 buyers or 200,000 buyers. Usually somewhere around there. Survivor Series may not be that big anymore, but that is another issue. Point is, how do you go from those kind of numbers in recent years to all the way to 1,000,000 for Wrestlemania? That is a difference of roughly 800,000 buys. Who are these people? Wrestlemania is the biggest wrestling event of the year. It creates hype. That hype is what draws in the casual fans, as well as some regulars that always watch the big event, if usually no other PPV of the year. As I have said before, I don't think the WWE Network will be that appealing to casual fans. Even a lot of regular fans may not be willing to subscribe, whether due to money issues, technical difficulties, or whatever. Even though the WWE Network has 650,000 subscribers, don't automatically assume that it is taking a huge chunk out of that 1,000,000 you would expect for big Wrestlemanias. Wrestlemania is a major success because it is a top draw for the casuals, those fans least likely to get the WWE Network. Wrestlemanias in recent years have drawn roughly 800,000 more than the regular PPV buys. I think having a 700,000-buy benchmark is fair. I am giving them some leeway. The Network got a lot more subscribers than I thought it would, but when it comes to how many people actually bought Wrestlemania out of the non-subscribers, I am not confident this Wrestlemania came up with great numbers.

Your New Heyman Guy: Cesaro

After Cesaro won the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal, I was ready to talk about just that. I was going to compare it to Damien Sandow winning Money in the Bank. Both situations were the biggest wins in the WWE career of the respective wrestler. Both led to them getting good midcard feuds. Sandow got a good feud against Cody Rhodes and Cesaro is entering a feud with Jack Swagger. What happened on Raw now gives me something else to talk about. Cesaro ditched Zeb and joined Paul Heyman.

With Brock Lesnar once again riding off into the sunset, it would make sense to give Heyman a new guy to keep him active. Last year, that was Curtis Axel. Let me compare Cesaro to Axel. I just felt that push for Curtis Axel was doomed from the start. Not only was he not over, but they did not even push him properly. He was more of a pawn developed for the larger feud between Punk and Heyman than anything else. Will Cesaro end up like that? Is he only getting this push alongside Heyman to keep Heyman relevant? I would hope not. Cesaro has really developed himself to get over. He can be a great midcarder. I think it is too soon to talk about making him World Champion. There is nothing wrong with being a midcarder. There is nothing wrong with feuding with a few top guys now and then without ever winning the top title. Push him as a B+ player or an A- player. I wouldn't be quick to say he is bringing A+ overness, but that vocal audience is connecting well with him.

Is he a face or a heel? Paul Heyman, a known heel, is his manager. He is feuding against Jack Swagger, another known heel. He is getting face reactions, but that does not determine whether or not you are a heel or a face. Right now, he is in tweener territory. He should go complete face soon. It will be interesting to see how that works with Heyman.

Is this the kind of change CM Punk would love to see? What more will it take to bring that guy back? You have a lot of new talent and over talent getting pushed better now. Focus on new talent. Isn't that what TNA has been trying recently? WWE trying to follow TNA's lead? Whatever the motivation may be, this still may not work out for the WWE. TNA's focus on new talent will fail them. They couldn't take established stars and utilize them properly to help the company grow. They have not figured out how to handle stars as stars. What is all that new talent going to do for you if you can't feature them to connect with more than just wrestling fans and your core fanbase? The WWE's problem is still that their midcard is a mess. I saw a lot of filler matches on Raw last night. Cesaro vs. Swagger will be a breath of fresh air in comparison to all that, but can they keep the ball rolling after that? They didn't with either Damien Sandow or Cody Rhodes.

All this is nice. Cesaro getting a big push. Daniel Bryan finally gets a legitimate run with the title. Debuts coming. You have to keep in mind, it has to draw. There is a difference between being over and drawing. Ratings have been mediocre for a while now. If viewership sinks badly with the new direction the WWE might be heading in, they will have pretty much every right to move on to something else. That means possibly returning to the Cena quo. As long as the WWE gives these guys a fair, legitimate opportunity, it is up to them to prove that they can actually help the company grow, or at least stop sinking.

The WWE stock has been hit hard in the last two days. When the stock dropped the day after Donald Trump "bought" Raw, I said it was foolish to automatically blame it all on that. If you looked at how the market was that day and the WWE's own numbers throughout the day, it seemed more likely that overall market factors were the main reason for the WWE's decline on that day. The whole market took a hard it that day. The market isn't exactly amazing right now, but it does seem like this drop is happening independently of the overall market. There is an article explaining why that drop might be here.

Numbers are out for the WWE Network. They actually got more subscribers than I thought they would get. However, they seemed to have fallen short of some original estimates. Getting over 650,000 is still pretty good. I'll get to what that means for Wrestlemania in a minute.As for just expectations for the WWE Network, I keep on hearing that the magic number is a million subscribers by the end of the year. It is to be expected that the most subscribers would come before Wrestlemania. How many more can they really expect? How many international fans will get it? Moreover, I already see some fans wanting to cancel. Of course, you have a 6-month commitment. And it is the failure to get a better number that seems to be hurting the WWE stock right now the most. Hype for the WWE Network was one of the factors that helped boost the number a few weeks ago. It should be no shock that investors not seeing a number they like in terms of subscriptions will react. This is something that will appeal to the core fanbase of the WWE the most. The WWE better start pandering more to them. Daniel Bryan should hold the title for the rest of the year. Cesaro should be pushed to the moon. Give CM Punk anything he wants to get him back, even them ice cream bars. And if the content on the WWE Network gets stale, you can expect people to eventually cancel after the 6 months.

What does this mean for Wrestlemania XXX? I was saying that you should expect the WWE to want a lot of buys for a Wrestlemania so special. You had to give a little leeway for those watching it through the WWE Network. Given how many subscribers they have, do you automatically say that there should be about 350,000 in PPV buys from non-subscribers? Not so fast. As I said before, it is the core fanbase that is more likely to subscribe, not the casual fans. Wrestlemania is supposed to be a major success because of the casual audience it will draw in. How many of that 650,000 even would have bought Wrestlemania? Some of these WWE loyalists use illegal streams, watch it at a friend's house, simply read what is going on online, or other things like that. And just because someone subscribed, that does not mean that they were able to watch Wrestlemania on it. They might have had to work at that time, were having technical difficulties, or something like that. Point is, despite the number of subscribers, I would still have high expectations for the number of PPV buys. I will grant them a little more leeway. I would expect around 700,000 PPV buys. In terms of PPV buys, that might be horrible for a Wrestlemania in this age, but when you add in those that watched it on the WWE Network, it is a great number. The WWE pretty much roped in more of their regular fans to pay to watch Wrestlemania with the cheap price of the WWE Network, but was Wrestlemania good enough to get the casual audience?

Wrestlemania XXX Preview: Assorted Thoughts

The Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal is a nice idea. The WWE was going to have some multi-man match to put guys on the card they couldn't build proper feuds for, anyway, so doing it like this makes it seem like more of a big deal. And you would want big deals at Wrestlemania XXX. Battle royals where nothing is on the line just seem so worthless to me. A trophy is on the line. It may seem meaningless, but I like it. I am one of those guys that wouldn't mind seeing King of the Ring make a return. Those kind of things are fun. I want to see something that grants an honor besides a guaranteed title shot. The Royal Rumble is important because the winner gets a title shot at Wrestlemania. The guy that wins Money in the Bank gets a title shot whenever he wants. Those things aren't honors in themselves. Tournaments and battle royals like this can make things more interesting outside of the major title matters. Moreover, it has gotten some good development in the past few weeks.

Who wins? Big Show definitely is a favorite to win. Miz has never been beaten on the Wrestlemania PPV. Then again, he can get tossed out and the WWE can still sell it as him never having been pinned or made to submit. It can be a big push for Rusev to get that big win at Wrestlemania. Sheamus is also a good possibility. Jinder Mahal? No, probably not Jinder Mahal. You might also get some surprise entrants. Out of the people I have named, I think Miz might win it. It would give him back some momentum and give him something to brag about. In case you haven't noticed, he's a heel again.

This multi-diva match for the Diva's Championship is something I don't like. For years now, if they haven't relied on tossing a bunch of divas together, they have relied on celebrities. Or a mixture of that. And this is the first time the title will be defended at the big event. You would hope it would be something special. It will be a special moment for the diva that wins, but I am talking about the build of the match. This match has just been tossed together because of something AJ Lee said about Vickie Guerrero. Vickie Guerrero wasn't even relevant before that! Even though I don't like it, I expected it. People actually thought AJ Lee vs. Naomi was something they would actually develop for Wrestlemania? Not likely. Not only does it not follow the recent trend of what happens to the divas at Wrestlemania, that match just didn't have a big feel to it.

This match they are running with does not even have a big feel to it. AJ Lee? You can call her queen bee. This match is really centered around her. All the other divas are targeting her. Vickie Guerrero is targeting her. Is AJ Lee face or heel?  She continues to be the best-pushed diva of this dark age. She has better creative interest on her than anyone else heading into the match. I would expect her to win. Fans despise Vickie Guerrero more than heel AJ. The classic moment of Vickie raging over AJ Lee overcoming the odds seems likely.

How about Summer Rae? I could talk about Brie Bella, Naomi, Natalya, or any other diva. What does it mean that Summer Rae had a match on Raw and won it? I have said for a while that she is the likely candidate to follow in the line of Sable, Trish Stratus, and Michelle McCool. She seems to be breaking out on her own even more. Putting her on Total Divas is an easy way to give her some creative interest. Of course, that show gets less than half the viewers Raw gets. It would be smarter to develop her on Raw. And they did a little bit of that this week. Not only was there a match, but they aired footage of the Total Divas segment that set up this match. When Total Divas can lead to more depth in the diva division, it's good. But I think this is about more than just adding more to talk about in the diva division. They want to groom their new centerpiece. Are they ready to pull the trigger and give Summer Rae the title? I still think AJ is likely to retain, but Summer Rae winning would not be that shocking. Transfer AJ back into periphery angles by have her feud with Vickie Guerrero.

Let me go back to a question I asked many weeks ago. Over or under? Will Wrestlemania XXX get over or under a million buys? The last three Wrestlemanias all had over a million buys. The last three Wrestlemanias also had The Rock. Before that, Wrestlemania had 885,000 buys in 2010. I got my numbers from here. Can the WWE keep the ball rolling?

It all comes down to how well the WWE has created hype for the event in the last few weeks. No Rock, but Hulk Hogan has been around. You can expect Austin and other top stars of the past to also be there, but there has been no big hype for them. Just looking at the actual feuds, I don't think the WWE has created something epic that can draw in viewers outside of the regular wrestling fan audience. The Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal is nice, but I don't think it is a big draw. Cena's feud with Bray Wyatt has led to some interesting promos, but it is no big deal. The Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar match does not have that big feel to it, in terms of how they have developed it. The Daniel Bryan saga has become epic, but I don't believe it will be enough to draw the interest of casual fans. The other matches are not worth mentioning. And I doubt the possibility of a surprise return from CM Punk will do much. Raw ratings have been pretty mediocre in the last few weeks. That doesn't mean Wrestlemania won't get a lot of buys, but it is one indicator that the WWE has not created great hype to get fans to tune in for Raw. If you can't do that, how much can you expect when trying to get fans to spend money for the biggest PPV of the year?

How will the WWE Network impact things? People that are subscribing to that will automatically get Wrestlemania. But how many people actually have it? From the few polls I have come across, the majority of fans will be watching the event through the WWE Network. Looking at some of those results, you might think a lot of people have subscribed and a lot of people will be watching Wrestlemania. Just keep in mind that these are wrestling fans voting on these polls. They don't represent other types of fans that will really influence how many viewers Wrestlemania gets. But it is obvious that there will be less people spending money to buy the PPV because they can watch it through the WWE Network.

This is Wrestlemania XXX. You would expect great buyrates for it. Wrestlemania 25 got less than a million buys. And I think this year's Wrestlemania will see a decline from last year. Just to allow a little leeway for people watching on the WWE Network, I would say 900,000 PPV buys would still be great. I am not too sure they will even get there. They have not created great hype.

Batista Vs. Alberto Del Rio At Elimination Chamber 2014

Let's start backwards. Who wins this match between Batista and Alberto Del Rio? The obvious answer would be Batista. Keep his momentum up for Wrestlemania. It isn't like Alberto Del Rio needs momentum for anything.

Now that the speculating part is out of the way, how about critiquing the development of this feud? When Batista destroyed Alberto Del Rio by putting him through a table, I didn't think they would bother having this match. Alberto Del Rio even appeared in a neck brace this week to sell the injury. Batista even shoved him and made him look like an even bigger wimp. With all the momentum on Batista's side, you might typically believe Del Rio would win. Unless the match ends in some kind of DQ, there is no reason to let Del Rio win. Batista can get disqualified for destroying Del Rio.

Is Batista acting like a bully for a heel turn or just to make him look interesting? A heel turn was already a possibility. Have him replace Randy Orton as The Authority's face of the company. But do you really need to start foreshadowing it so hard from now? Yes, developing things is great, but there is such a time as spending to much time developing. Moreover, a little surprise here and there with no development can be great.

The other possibility as to why they are having Batista look so tough at Alberto Del Rio's expense is to keep him looking interesting. His return hasn't exactly gone over very well with the fans, including his win at the Royal Rumble. After those issues, how do you keep him looking interesting? I think an interesting, well-developed feud between Alberto Del Rio and Batista would be the best option. Instead, you get a one-sided feud where the outcome will likely not benefit the guy looking weakest right now. And I don't think Batista's dominance will really help him get certain fans on his side. A lot of fans point out that Batista has just been used more and more mediocrely as the weeks have gone by. Just a quick backstage appearance on Raw this week. Business with him will really pick up after Elimination Chamber. Until then, they have struggled to keep him in great focus.

Yesterday, I raised the question of whether or not Wrestlemania XXX will get over a million buys. A wildcard in all that will obviously be the WWE Network. How successful will that endeavor be? I am not talking in relation to Wrestlemania. Will it get a lot of fans signing up? Or will it last as long as the XFL? One thing to note is that cable and satellite providers are not too supportive of the move. Fans can get PPVs along with the other programming and at a cheaper price through the WWE Network. Besides that, how many subscribers does the WWE really think they will get? Raw is back to averaging over 4 million viewers. Will all those viewers sign up? I think it is obvious that the WWE cannot be imagining that. Only real wrestling fans will be interested in those match archives and a lot of the other programming. Offering PPVs might help to draw in a few more fans. But it seems like the WWE is really relying on support from the type of fans that have been screaming for Daniel Bryan. I have seen some say that these fans are just a minority. No matter how loud they are, they are not representative of the whole WWE fanbase. Regardless of that, this is the group that will likely be subscribing to the WWE Network. The WWE dances around giving these fans what they really want, but these fans still end up spending money on the WWE. As CM Punk once said, these fans are just going to keep pouring money into the company. Do I think the WWE Network will be successful? I don't think there are enough diehard fans willing to spend the money every month on this to make it a huge success. It is somewhat funny how the WWE has sometimes appeared to be distancing itself from wrestling over the years recently, but now they are expecting wrestling content and fans to deliver for them.

Will I subscribe to it? No. I have not ordered a WWE PPV since 2010, so the PPVs do not entice me. As far as all the old matches, I care more about being entertained by the current product than watching old matches. If I needed to, I would just watch stuff on Youtube. If I cannot find what I am looking for anywhere for free, I'll live. And there is nothing else on the WWE Network that makes me want to get it. I am not representative of a lot of fans out there, but the WWE is not getting my money on this one.