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VINCE HAVING A MONOPOLY, GREAT WORK FROM SAMOA JOE, HULK HOGAN’S WWE RETURN AND MORE

By Dave Scherer on 2018-05-06 10:00:00

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This one is a bit far fetched.  Everyone has a price, we know that.  Say “All In” is a huge success, and CM Punk actually shows up.  So ROH/New Japan has Cody and Punk, two guys we know want nothing to do with working for WWE.  Vince decides to flex his muscles and makes the owners of ROH an offer they can’t refuse.  At that point WWE essentially has a monopoly over pro wrestling in the USA.  Would the government ever care enough to investigate him for an anti-trust violation?  Or would they not care enough?  I wondered that after he purchased WCW but TNA came around right after. 

First, ROH is owned by Sinclair Broadcasting, which is a very well heeled corporation.  That doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t sell, but they would have to get their number to do so.  Beyond that, there wouldn’t be a monopoly.  No trade would be restrained.  I could start a promotion tomorrow if I wanted to.  Vince would just be making a corporate acquisition in your case.

I do think it’s admirable that Vince McMahon wants as many people as possible to get a WrestleMania payday - but we get a bloated card which lasts an eternity, filled with multiple man matches and battle royals.  But it’s Vince McMahon himself who decides on the payday/bonus amounts so why not trim the card down to spare the audience (live as well as on the Network) and just give all the talent who didn’t make the show a bonus anyway?

It isn’t about the bonus.  Talents don’t get PPV bonuses anymore.  They get a bonus from the DVD sales but the number isn’t a huge one.  The length of the event is all about Vince McMahon wanting WrestleMania to be Wrestling Day.  He wants the long show as its WWE’s one day of the year to be the It thing.

If and when the time is right to bring Hulk Hogan back on TV be it on Raw or Smackdown, how would you suggest the WWE do it properly?  Would you do like a 2-3 week video package saying like he is coming back or something along those lines?  Have the announcers go like Hey, Hogan is back next week to do a speech kind of thing?  Make it a surprise by one minute something is going on then the next minute Real American is playing and here he comes to save the day?  And is it more a question of when instead of if that Hogan will be on WWE TV again even for one last time to say thank you and goodbye to everyone?

If it’s me, I don’t advertise it in advance.  It would increase expectations.  Yes, it would bring in more viewers, but if he showed up unannounced it would send people to Social Media and other places to see his return and they would probably tune in the next week.  I like the idea of making it a surprise, that shocks the fans in the building and creates a “WWE moment”.

I get WWE network here in Canada as a specialty channel that I pay 11 dollars a month for. When they do a subscriber count do they count these in the subscriber count?

Yes, they do.

How good has Samoa Joe's promos been, particularly the past few weeks? They need to give him some big wins to back up his talk now. 

His promos have been great, they really have.  I think he should get more wins too and get a big push.  My fear is that he will have to do the job tonight and if he does it makes me mad that they booked the match in the first place.

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