Topic: Wrestling?

I am not the biggest fan of Bayley either, she is by far the most bland of the four horsewoman. But her booking was indeed abysmal when she was portrayed as a weak little teenager girl with a hugging fetish and it only went downhill when she was asking for sympathy and the crowd booed her mercilessly. This would have actually been a good gimmick if we were living in pornotopia, but in WWE not so much.

From the four horsewoman, I think Charlotte Flair is the total package. Her aura is royal, her skills are strong. If she was Charles Flair, we would probably all say Roman Who?
Next would be Becky Lynch. Very good in the ring, fiery and passionate but only soso in promos.
Then Sasha Banks. Her entrance is nice, her wrestling skills good, high entertainment value. Still she comes behind Becky as she always has a little aura of arrogance and a high maintenance feeling for me in a way.

So...

I believed that Takeover REvolution would never be topped.

It feels so very very good to be wrong

NXT is probably the reason many long time wrestling fans still cling desperately to the WWE in the hope that HHH will someday take over and bring some NXT booking to the main shows.

I wonder how WWE thinks of this kind of customer. Not in a sense of how many they are and what they spent, but if they deem them important to the well being of the company itself.
We have a discussion about football ultras in Europe, and clubs are actually trying to balance monetizing vs fan culture because they are concerned about the long time health of the product.

WWE aren't concerned about the health of the product. They just got 2 billion from TV deals and the Saudis.

The GB Premier League has a similar TV deal but only for 3 years. CR7 would not even get up for the meager money Roman Reigns makes. The bottom club of the PL gets a guaranteed 180 Million dollar from TV rights. The PL would rather erect the Hadrians Wall new than allow the two Glasgows entry into the PL. I am yet to see a Saudi prince or Russian oligarch who is willing to fork over 220M dollar to lure Neymar to PSG pay a similar fee to bring Daniel Bryan over to NJPW or a brand new federation.

Nearly every big league(Spain, Germany, France, Italy) has a slightly smaller or similar deal.

Still they are concerned about the attractiveness of the game. Ultras march the streets, several 1000 people strong to protest monetarism. Pyro is fired, police comes under attack. Maybe wrestling fans are just more polite or badly organized, I can´t tell. I personally would be concerned if people begin to leave the arena once my supposed superstar enters the arena.

Not in a sense of how many they are and what they spent, but if they deem them important to the well being of the company itself.

Aren't those two things kind of linked, though? Like, having hardcore fans is nice, but it's only really a benefit if they're bringing a certain amount of money to the product.

Yes and no.

Who will bring in new fans or pay the bills should the advertisement machine ever fail if not the hardcore people? I would assume hardcore fans are a safety net every company should thrive to have. Like a product you sell for years with a rather small gain but as a safe bet that it will bring you in the money you need for your energy and personal costs.

Harrier wrote:Yes and no.

Who will bring in new fans or pay the bills should the advertisement machine ever fail if not the hardcore people? I would assume hardcore fans are a safety net every company should thrive to have. Like a product you sell for years with a rather small gain but as a safe bet that it will bring you in the money you need for your energy and personal costs.

Takes quite a bit of ego to assume that Hardcore fans are the reason for either paying the bills or bringing in a new fan base. Especially since, in WWE's case, a lot of hardcore fans don't pay for anything, and only tell people to skip the show and watch NJPW instead

If interest in the product is only casual, how will it stay afloat if times turn rougher? I am not saying that you should give them the key to the kingdom, but ignore them seems not a very good idea either. Maybe NXT is indeed the attempt to hold people like that or bring them in again?

As you said several times yourself, Wrestling has lost it´s true kids charm through larger than live figures it had in the 80s. It also has lost it´s edge from the late 90s and the trashy storylines of the late 2000s. So what is left? Pancake jokes and part timers, with the latter part probably being unavailable in a few years.

They aren't ignoring them though. NXT LITERALLY exists to get the Hardcore audiences money. It literally exists to cater to hardcore wrestling fans and their love of indy/Japan guys. Same goes for WWE's tournaments

Something a lot of Hardcore fans don't understand, is that every other wrestling promotion caters to the hardcore audience. Indy wrestling caters exclusively to the hardcore, NJPW/AAA/CMLL caters to Hardcore and Casual audiences in their home countries.

Raw and Smackdown are the ONLY wrestling shows that cater to a casual audience instead of a Hardcore one, and it's their inability to understand that they don't get to control these shows, that these two shows are not JUST about what they want, that leads to them bitching and whining about every aspect of them.

Hell, even with that, the shows still cater to them. Thats why you have indy guys coming onto the main roster and getting main event spots and titles and Mania title matches within their first year on the roster, but that's not enough for the hardcore fan, because the hardcore fan refuses to be satisfied unless they get THREE WWE tv shows designed only to cater to them.