The Wrestling Thread: WWE WrestleMania 31 [NSFW]

[Rog]

Just saw the headline "MCMAHON DIES" and rushed to see it, turns out it was just some TV presenter

[Return_of_the_STAR]

So the Trump angle was a 1 week ratings spike attempt and a bit of publicity. What an anticlimax.

I at least expected that the storyline would continue till Summerslam or something with McMahon getting RAW back somehow. If it really is over then what the hell? Interesting to see if it really did boost the ratings though.

I wonder if the ad free thing will continue though, as USA network are now running some other programs this week ad free as well.

[KK]

F4WOnline.com reports that the Trump storyline was originally expected to last much longer than one week. While specifics on what led to WWE nixing the angle so quickly are unavailable, sources say WWE officials were indeed disappointed with the reaction the Trump announcement got on last week's show.

The Green Bay crowd were well into it last night - in fact, overall, they were the loudest & most 'alive' Raw crowd in yonks.

I hope the WWE don't start going down the instant results route.

BTW, I thought the backstage vignettes with Vince were great; especially the limo breaking down on him.

[Adam Pollard]

BTW, I thought the backstage vignettes with Vince were great; especially the limo breaking down on him.

That was Impact-level pointless gooseberry fool.

I'm actually quite looking forward to The Bash though, even if the main event can strawberry float right off (THREE ORTON v HHH GIMMICK MATCHES FOR THE PRICE OF ONE!); Punk v Jeff should be great, Jericho v Mysterio should be great, I've got a feeling the tag match is going to be decent, Cena v THE MIZ should be pretty good, and even the ECW Title scramble match should be good (seeing as statistically over half of the competitors are good workers).

[Rog]

It's definitely a card grafted for GRAPL. I'm going to be spoilt for choice when making the questions.

[teh bork]

It's definitely a card grafted for GRAPL. I'm going to be spoilt for choice when making the questions.

I'm going to just pick randomly this time, as that's what the bookers seem to do.

[KK]

More on Trump:

As of early this weekend, the script for last night's WWE Monday Night Raw was not finished and the belief is that the decision to kill the angle of Donald Trump as the new owner of Raw was likely a last-minute situation reports The Figure Four Weekly Newsletter.

The original Trump storyline was scheduled to go much longer than one week, although the general feedback among mostly everyone in WWE was said to be negative about it in the first place. The announcement of Trump "buying" the show last week also didn't help matters as it didn't get the reaction Vince McMahon was said to be expecting.

The obvious goal with the storyline was an attempt to get some press, although very few media outlets picked up on the story last week and those that did ended up looking bad when they reported it as fact. This forced WWE and USA to issue an apology press release later in the week. Another problem was that after the mess that was created last week among the media, the company again hoped they would get picked up when it was announced that Trump was providing a full ticket refund to everyone attending the show last night in Green Bay. Of course almost no one picked up the story except for local media. The line right now is that WWE ended up buying themselves $230,000 worth of publicity and it probably wasn't worth it in the end.

The only way this can get worse for the WWE is if the ratings haven't moved at all.


Current poll on wwe.com:

Relieved - Trump was going to run the show into the ground. 40.84 % (16649 Votes)
Annoyed - I was looking forward to the Donald Trump era of Raw. 34.90 % (14227 Votes)
Concerned - Mr. McMahon paid twice the price to get Raw back. I hope he doesn't take it out on the fans! 24.24 % (9884 Votes)

[Lonestar]

Raw rating was a 4.5 .

[Jam-Master Jay]

Damn, that's a pretty decent rating.

[Cropolite]

I'm telling you, the brand split is half the problem with these poor ratings.

[Johnny Ryall]

Damn, that's a pretty decent rating.

I suppose it's irrelevant this week in a way - no ad revenue! Fnarr.

[Zellery]

Damn, that's a pretty decent rating.

I suppose it's irrelevant this week in a way - no ad revenue! Fnarr.

But the whole point of it being ad free was to boost ratings.

[KK]

Now don't take this as gospel, but I do believe that may just be the highest rated Raw since February of 2006.

[Cropolite]

Now don't take this as gospel, but I do believe that may just be the highest rated Raw since February of 2006.

Indeed, 4.5's also hit March 2004 before that, March 2003 before that, and then you're looking at the regular 4.5+ ratings of 2002 & before.

Basically, this is only the fourth time they've hit that high since the weaning end of the Attitude era.

[Return_of_the_STAR]

Now don't take this as gospel, but I do believe that may just be the highest rated Raw since February of 2006.

Indeed, 4.5's also hit March 2004 before that, March 2003 before that, and then you're looking at the regular 4.5+ ratings of 2002 & before.

Basically, this is only the fourth time they've hit that high since the weaning end of the Attitude era.

I'm hoping that those extra's that watched last night still liked what they saw after Vince bought RAW back. He was involved with some good backstage skits and the show ended on a violent note between orton & HHH.

Also

World Wrestling Entertainment just sent out the following for immediate release:

Donald Trump “Fired”

STAMFORD, CT, June 23, 2009– After yesterday’s monumental announcement by Monday Night Raw® “owner” Donald Trump that all ticketholders attending last Night’s show in Green Bay would receive a ticket refund, the tables were turned and he was unceremoniously “fired” by Chairman Mr. McMahon. Fortunately, prior to being “fired,” Donald Trump doubled his money by selling Monday Night Raw back to Mr. McMahon.

Although Trump is no longer the “owner” of Monday Night Raw, this may not be the end of the feud between these two world class promoters.

[Cropolite]

Hopefully it is the end, or Trump gets his hair shaven.

[Return_of_the_STAR]

Hopefully it is the end, or Trump gets his hair shaven.

That would be cool. I hope Vince & wwe realise that the people didn't tune in because Trump was on RAW they tunned in because of the hype and they wanted to see what was going to happen.

[Johnny Ryall]

I don't know about you guys but whenever adverts come on TV I don't watch them I change the channel, and then unless I was really interested in the first show I usually end up watching something else. I'm sure I'm not the only person in the world to do that.

[Return_of_the_STAR]

I don't know about you guys but whenever adverts come on TV I don't watch them I change the channel, and then unless I was really interested in the first show I usually end up watching something else. I'm sure I'm not the only person in the world to do that.

I always watch adverts, otherwise i wouldn't know what car, pasta sauce or toilet roll to buy.

I can't speak for wrestling as i always watch it on sky plus and fastforward the breaks. I probably do turn over a lot when watching other things but usually to something like a music channel or sky sports news this way i will probably turn back and carry on watching the original show.

[Cropolite]

Because a point rating is worth more these days - last Monday's Raw was the most watched since March 2002 - the first ever WWE Draft