Mailbag: TNA, Brisco, Dana White, McMahon, NXT, Lesnar


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Hi Guys,
 
Everyone keeps talking about what ratings TNA will do when they switch to Monday nights. In reality, that is completely irrelevant. That is an out-dated mind set, and Vince Russo's obsession. This week Buddy Wayne, Jerry Jarrett and Jim Cornette all came on the radio shows and talked about using wrestling shows to draw money not ratings. The important thing is to see how the change to Monday will effect TNA's buy rates. TNA is already hot shotting the wrestling return of Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan to pop a big rating on March 8. That will probably do a big rating. It probably will also cost them thousands of buys on PPV. They will then celebrate getting a big rating, not mourn the fact they cost themselves possibly $1 million in lost PPV revenue to do it.
 
With these constant polls and guesses about ratings, this website is playing into the mindset that causes wrestling companies to fail. TNA should use their new exposure on Monday night to focus on increasing revenue over getting good ratings. If they get a 1.2 on Monday and triple their PPV buys, that will be a success. If they get a 1.5, but continue to do embarrassing numbers on PPV that will be a failure. However, marks on the Internet will talk about it being a success, falling into Russo's trap. You are better than that. The purpose of a wrestling show is to draw money. How entertaining, creative or highly rated a wrestling show is does not matter at all. If no one buys the product it is a bad show. TNA may be producing less cluttered shows, but they are making the PPV's increasingly less relevant. That means iMPACT! is still a bad wrestling show. Please keep in mind the purpose of a wrestling show when reviewing iMPACT! in its new timeslot and do not get caught up in the Vince Russo focus on ratings.
 
 
 
Sincerely,
 
 
Jereme Warneck
 
Dave, I pride myself on being immersed in my passion (covering combat sports) 24/7 but you,my friend are incredibly prolific and I can't tell you how much I appreciate your knowledge. Your bio on the late Jack Brisco was one of your best yet,and that's saying something. You are the greatest resource of Pro-Wrestling and MMA insight and I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate it.
Amiably,
Mauro Ranallo
Dave,
 
As always, the silver lining in a death is your obit.  Can't believe Brisco is gone.  I started going down to Tampa in 1972 when my uncle moved there.  Of course, the only thing I cared about was going to the matches on Tuesday and the TV tapings on Thursday.  My first memory of Brisco was from a taping at the tiny Sportatorium.  He was wrestling The Great Mephisto and had him in the figure four when Bearcat Wright ran out of the heels' dressing room (about ten feet from the ring off camera) to attack Brisco.  At the Armory, my first memory was a "One Night Tourney" to determine the challenger for Dory when he came to town.  Brisco, Woods, and of course, Terry were the three.  I think Brisco and Terry were both DQ'd or counted out, and then Woods pinned Brisco after Terry clobbered Brisco with a chair, and then Woods pinned Terry. (How is it possible any sane human can remember this shit?)
Other than those two, I was generally not lucky in Florida seeing Brisco.  Never saw any of the Jones matches, which lasted a whole year.  Hey, did you cover that feud?
 
Saw him against Fuji at Shea Stadium.
 
Anyway, great job as always.
 
Jeff Bukantz
 

Dave
That was one of your finest achievements as a journalist - congratulations.
Lee Samuels
Top Rank
 
 
 
Hey Dave. Just got through the Brisco career retrospective in the Observer. It was an excellent piece & one of the best you've ever done. Jack was before my time but I did know who he was when I started watching in the mid 80s. My uncle gave me this big wrestling book called Main Event when I was 10 or so. It was printed in the 70s & had bios on all the big stars at the time, Race, the Funks, Sammartino, Billy Graham, etc. But I always thought that Jack Brisco was the coolest guy in the book. I had learned his history as I got older & I would have loved to see him in his prime. Great piece. 

A little side story, my pal Chris is dove hunting down in Mexico right now. One of the guys out in the field with him today was Brock Lesnar. He had a beer with him later on in some bar. Must be in Cabo, but I didn't ask. He texted me when he was drinking with him & told me what a cool dude Lesnar is. I responded by asking him if he told Brock that I predicted that he would dominate UFC from the off while my friend Chris thought he would lose to Randy. The next text I got was "you're a true Lesnar fan, John Zile, best regards, Brock." Not every day that you get a message from the UFC Heavyweight Champion. It sure made my day. He also saw Jimmie Johnson in this same bar. NASCAR races in Fontana this weekend. 

John Zile
 
Terrific work
 
 
Dave,

Just a terrific Brisco bio. Loved every bit of it.

In cricket, they used to call West Indian Michael Holding “the Rolls-Royce of bowlers” because he was so smooth and also so effective at his task.

Jack Brisco might have been the Rolls-Royce of professional wrestling.


Kind regards,
Steve Ogilvie
New Zealand

Hey Dave,

I just wanted to write in to complement you on the extraordinary Jack Brisco bio in this week's Observer. As a fan who grew up in the 90's I have become more interested in the history of wrestling as I've gotten older; I've seen and read a lot of stuff about the 80's but the time before that had remained largely a mystery to me. Your bio on Brisco as has served as a fantastic look into that time period for myself and I'm sure many others.

Your work is always great, but you truly outdid yourself with this piece.

Take care and keep up the great work,

Jon Bartolomei



Hi Dave-- just wanted to tell you what a fantastic piece you did on Jack Brisco's passing.  All of your obit pieces are fine work but this was a completely different breed of animal.  It is very telling from my perspective to read 10 1/2 pages on someone who I had never seen a match of or grew up watching since I did not become a fan until '87-'88.  While I certainly know who Jack Brisco was and have heard stories of his legend, I read this article cold and came out of it wanting to see some of his matches.  Often in these type stories involving wrestlers from a lost generation, it is easy to gloss over the fine points, pay your respects and move on.  This really had me from the beginning and is a tribute to your work as a journalist and Brisco's legacy even to those who never really knew or seen his work.  I actually went to the Wrestling Classics website to purchase that Dory Jr. match they have on DVD, but their security certificate is either expired or non-existent.  While I am sure they are a reputable site for you to plug them in the newsletter, I was the victim of identity theft a few years ago and am leery to plug my info into a potential non-secure site.  If there are any other outlets you know of where some of his matches are available to purchase, I would certainly be interested in following up on it.  Thanks again for the outstanding work.
 
Joshua P. Christie
Glendale, AZ
 
P.S. - I appreciated the side piece on Ron Simmons this week also.  I was disappointed you didn't mention his promo ability which always came across to me as his greatest strength.  It seemed he was always underrated in that regard when at one time he was one of the better promo guys in the business.
 

Dave

Great job as always. Your comments about Vince and the tv network reminds me of how Vince and one of my favorite musicians, Gene Simmons are alike. They are both excellent at what made them famous (wrestling for Vince and KISS for Gene). HOWEVER, when they branch out or at least try to (Vince with the XFL, and didn't he try to go into body building also?. Gene with being a Hollywood actor, and is in some business deals that never seem to pan out trying to be a businessman even though he is having success with "Family Jewels" his reality show), they fail and run right back to what they were successful at. 

Some of the ideas for PPVs may work, but it is way too soon to tell. Gimmick PPVs only last so long (Cyber Sunday for example). Fans tend to get tired quick, IMO.  As for the dumping of Survivor Series, well, I may be a bit old school, but I just think that is wrong.  I know last years SSeries didn't do well. However, it seems to me that instead of blaming himself and creative for very poor promotion and poor ideas for matches....he blames the name.  Seems like he is blaming the ratings on the NFL or whatever. Why not create better angles and matches people will pay to see, and also don't damage angles that start out good ala the Bret/Vince angle, and the HHH/Orton angle. In this economy, you have to have a product that people are going to shell out descretionary income to see.  You can only use the economy as an excuse for so long.  The Jacksonville Jaguars NFL team had all of their home games (except for one I think) blacked out (the local tv station would not show the game due to the stadium not be sold out). They blamed the economy. The economy is terrible everywhere, but teams like the Steelers, Colts and Patriots are selling out their games. Even the Saints sold out their games.  Hardly anyone cares about the Jaguars. Their team is awful.  People are not going to shell out money to see a bad product. 

I was kind of surprised to see Taker kick Edge that hard. I know it happens from time to time. I thought I noticed Edge's face getting red as he walked up the ramp. However, it must have healed pretty quickly because at the FCW event in Melbourne where he signed autographs, his face looks normal.  There is a teeny cut on his cheek, but otherwise normal.

Great job

Terri Bey
 

 

We’ll find out exactly how this show will work soon, but from the initial press release of 8 “superstars” mentoring 8 “rookies” it’s funny/insulting that Bryan Danielson and Low Ki are included in the “rookie” group.

 

I don’t see what sort of “mentoring” they’re going to give Bryan Danielson, a multiple time Observer award winner for workrate, and Low’Ki, a 10-13 year international vet, unless the “mentoring” is teaching them how to suppress their wrestling ability, pointing out whose asses they should kiss to get ahead, and tips to beat the Wellness Program.  Throw in the fact that the superstar assigned might very well have LESS ring experience than these two and it gets even more insulting. 

 

It’s bad enough they’ll kill their style backstage, but to have it all done on a weekly TV show, I fear they’re going really going to work hard to crush these guys egos to a nub, and humiliate them to “prove to them” how their pre-WWE careers were completely worthless, and they will come out of this like the AAA megastars who were “de-masculated” by WCW Nitro in the 90’s.


Steve Te Tai
 
I note again the rating for the second week to be no higher than it was pre-Hogan......
 
my question is this, if the Monday night ratings spike was a one off, and the Hogan novelty is wearing off (even with a switch to Mondays), do you think it likely Hogan will start griping about his hip and bail rather than his name being attached to a failure (which I think that a lack of permanent ratings gain would be considered and be a permanent black mark in regards to his drawing power). 
 
How many weeks of no rating gains do you think it would take before Easy E and Hogan decide to bail on TNA?  IMO, 2 months tops.....what is your opinion?
 
Mark  Watson
 
DM:   If things so bad, they'll know when to bail.  Ratings are a factor but there are so many other factors involved, mainly if money is being lost and the people who supply the money get antsy.  That could happen with good ratings, and may not happen even with so-so ratings.
 

Why not just make the match a non-title HW fight?  

Brock needs a tune-up after a long layoff, Randy is not a HW contender, but a credible opponent and he is at least 2 fights away from a LHW title shot.

Brock wins, he moves on to Mir-Carwin winner with Nog-Cain winner to follow. Randy goes back to LHW, takes on a contender while waiting for that title picture to sort out.

A loss at HW should not affect Randy’s standing at LHW.

If Randy beats Brock, he is now in the title hunt. Brock now defends against Mir-Carwin, appearing to be vulnerable. Brock wins, Randy’s next in the rubber match.

 

What do you think? Makes business and booking sense, especially since there is money to be made with Randy and no money match-up on the immediate horizon.

I know Dana has one of his insane paranoias against non title matches. I personally think UFC should do more non title matches when there is no clear cut top contender.

Featuring one of the champs on free TV in a non title match every now and then would make more of those shows must see. Worst case, if champ loses, you have a new contender.

 

On UFC buy rates declining. I really believe the issue has been no compelling “must-see” fights. But do you think the free re-airs have done anything to hurt buy rates?

I used to be a bigger boxing fans, but rarely (twice) brought a PPV, because it would reair the following week for free.

Vince, to my knowledge, has only re-aired WrestleMania  on a couple occasions, months after the event and DVD had been released.

 

Personally, I got P.O.’d last year when Dana decided to air UFC 100 on Spike just a few weeks after the event. I had already brought 101, and vowed not to purchase anymore 2nd rate UFC PPVs.

I had been a regular buyer, only missing the odd, non-stacked show (Rashad-Bisping/Rashad-Chuck/Rampage-Jardine). Since that time, I’ve still pretty much seen everything on free TV.

The main events of 102 & 103 aired. 105 was a free show. 107 re-aired for free.  Think Tito-Forrest II was already on Unleashed, even though I missed it.

Only fight I haven’t seen yet that I really want to see is Machida-Rua and I’ve saved a couple hundred bucks (without pirating, Dana!)

 

Any thoughts?

 

Bert Turelli

 

 

DM:  Don't see the airing of shows a few months later having significant impact given that they were already doing that from day one during the rise.  Every major main event will air a dozen or two dozen times on Spike over the next year and that has always been the case.  They've stopped thinking out of the box when it comes to main events.  The hottest UFC match in history when it came to crowd reactions, Couture vs. Sylvia, would never happen today because of the feeling they couldn't justify it, even though it did one of the biggest PPV numbers of that year (which is saying something for a Tim Sylvia main event).  The lack of putting Kimbo Slice in a money match seems to show that concern.

 

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