Is Reigns tainted?
For a few weeks now, the game plan was to discuss Roman Reigns and whether he had become the modern-day Lex Luger.
But with the new Raw deal between WWE and NBCUniversal breaking two weeks ago and with the WWE deal with Fox for Smackdown Live breaking last week, the focus went in that direction.
Reigns has been loathed for years now by male fans, while being one of the top merchandise sellers and one of the most popular wrestlers for women and children.
Despite the fact that Reigns is routinely booed out of arenas on a weekly basis on Raw, Vince McMahon still chooses to shove him down the collective throats of wrestling fans. After all, McMahon has said for years that he knows what WWE fans want more than they know.
So back to the modern-day Lex Luger comment.
What exactly does that mean, you ask?
Lex Luger was a star in the NWA/WCW from 1987 until 1992 when he left for McMahon蘑菇视频 World Bodybuilding Federation (WBF).
The WBF? Yep, it was a short-lived promotion that Luger was brought in for.
While in the NWA and WCW for his initial run, Luger had countless opportunities to win the NWA/WCW World title but was only able to secure it once.
Luger appeared in an interview at WrestleMania VIII in 1992 and later that year, vignettes began airing of Luger making his eventual WWE debut under the moniker 鈥淭he Narcissist鈥� at the 1993 Royal Rumble.
Luger eventually turned into a good guy that summer and chased Yokozuna, who was the WWE Heavyweight champion while portraying a Japanese sumo wrestler.
Despite being built up for months, Luger came up short and never won the WWE championship before leaving for WCW in 1995. He would win the WCW championship one more time, but again, he came up short so many times that fans never bought him as having a chance to win the 鈥渂ig one.鈥�
That is where Reigns is now.
He has had so many chances to beat Universal champion Brock Lesnar but has continuously come up short. Hence, me calling Reigns the modern-day Lex Luger.
For all we know, Reigns could be the man to unseat Lesnar for the title, but he has lost so many times now, WWE would be much better served to go in a different direction.
Then again, McMahon knows what fans want more than the fans know themselves, so maybe Reigns will still dethrone Lesnar.
Regardless, Reigns needs to go in a different direction, and the best choice may to turn him into a bad guy.
More on WWE蘑菇视频 new deals
It seems there is updated news almost daily on WWE蘑菇视频 new TV deals, and here are a few tidbits on the situation.
While Amazon and Facebook both showed interest in getting Smackdown Live, with one reportedly offering even more than Fox蘑菇视频 offer, WWE went with Fox because traditional TV is better for creating new fans and retaining old fans.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, approximately half of the current Smackdown audience is over the age of 53 and WWE felt that that demographic is the one who it would have lost had it gone to a different platform.
WWE couldn鈥檛 pass on Fox蘑菇视频 promise to heavily promote its programming during NFL games, college football games and MLB games.
There has been some talk that Fox tried to get both Raw and Smackdown Live, but NBCUniversal had first right to match any offer. Fox offered between $240 and $270 million a year for Raw, but NBCUniversal matched the offer.
Considering how crucial Raw is to NBCUniversal蘑菇视频 USA Network, it had to match the offer. Estimated figures suggested that had Raw left the USA Network, its overall rating would have dropped 21 percent, which is a huge number for one show.
Between the two deals, WWE will bring in over $470 million per year over the five-year deal, or just a little over $9 million a week.
Another thing that has not been discussed much is how WrestleMania Week will be handled. This year, the Hall of Fame was on Friday night, NXT was Saturday and Mania was Sunday.
But now that Smackdown Live will be on Friday night, does WWE move the Hall of Fame event to Thursday night? Or, does it move the NXT show to Thursday night and the Hall of Fame back to Saturday night?
On this date:
In 1991, Steve Austin won his first major singles title when he won the WCW TV title from Bobby Eaton.
Five years and 20 days later, Austin 3:16 would be born.
This week蘑菇视频 question:
How will Smackdown Live蘑菇视频 move to Fox, and subsequently Friday nights, effect WWE蘑菇视频 schedule? Timmy, Waynesburg
There has to be changes because WWE hires crew members as 鈥渋ndependent contractors鈥� and they have other events to work such as NFL, NBA, MLB or NHL games on the weekends.
One option will be for WWE to hire another production crew as it just wouldn鈥檛 be fair for the same crew fly into a town Sunday night or Monday morning for Raw, fly home Tuesday, then fly out for Smackdown Live on Thursday night or Friday morning and return home Saturday night.
And that doesn鈥檛 even include when there are PPVs on Sunday nights.
Considering how much more money WWE will have coming in with the new TV deals that start in October 2019, it would make sense for a second crew to be hired.
But, would the move mean that the current crew would make less money since they aren鈥檛 working two TV shows a week?