Does anyone know what WWE contracts end in 2015? I read a while back that Mark Henry signed a 3 year deal last year. But who of the older wrestlers is coming due? Seems to me if they were serious about cost cutting, they’d let some of those guys just expire. (Looking at you, Glenn Jacobs!)
I was a huge fan of late 90s Kane but I don’t really understand what he brings to the roster, either, and I’m sure since he’s usually at least tangentially involved in most Raw Main Events and many of the PPV Main Events or upper card matches he’s probably drawing big pay.
Of guys on the roster who are almost 50, he is the only one who appears to still work a full schedule, though. And to his credit when he wrestles (as opposed to interfering in Seth Rollins matches) I don’t think his skills are any degraded from where they were–his style is lumbering and methodical, so he’s going to be less affected by age than others.
Since it’s all non-public information who knows, but I’ve heard Mark Henry and Show are both among the highest paid of all the talent. I genuinely don’t understand what Henry is bringing to justify that. Big Show might be worth it just as a live event draw since he’s a legit giant and people will pay to see that at the house shows, but not sure about Henry.
While much maligned Brock’s contract is probably one of the fairest in WWE, he gets paid per appearance and since most of those appearances are headlining PPVs he probably actually generates enough revenue each time he shows up to be worth what they’re paying him.
If Jericho comes back again (and he’s indicated he plans to online), I hope they actually put effort into developing a story for him to come into because for a guy you know you get for only a few months at a time and who is still pretty good Jericho was basically not used for anything meaningful. He beats Bray several times clean then loses to Randy in a meaningless match?
If they can figure out a way to turn him, I can actually see Rusev as a decent babyface; in a lot of ways, he’s already working a babyface style–the only thing heel about him is Lana and his occasional (broken) English promo. He sells like a champ and seems to have an excellent, intuitive grasp of psychology in the ring. I’m not sure if it’ll work–I don’t know if he’s ever going to be great on the mic in a babyface sort of way, and without the foreign heel gimmick, he’d just be a “super athlete”. We’ll see–I’ve got my fingers crossed for him. And damn, do I want to see him go up against Brock sometime, somehow.
Kane is baffling. I assume he’s thought to get some sort of a nostalgia draw, but I don’t see it. He’s a black hole for heat, usually, and he’s pretty much a jobber to the stars at this point–he doesn’t win nearly often enough to be any sort of a credible threat to anyone. I’ve gotta think he’s on his way out the door and maybe they’re just gonna give him a gold watch run here soon, give him his spot in the HoF and send him on his way to try his hand at politics–I hear he’s a libertarian guy.
Jericho… hopefully will be used better if/when he comes back than he was in the Bray run.
It’d be risky turning Rusev face. They tried that with Nikolai Volkoff back in the day and it led to nowhere, but he was aging out anyway. It did work with Nikita Koloff, and it was a last minute decision because they needed somebody to be a main event face after Magnum TA had his career-ending accident. If Rusev were a face, could you accept him getting beaten up by the heels?
Kane fills a utility role. He’s large and looming, and ejjikated enuff to have a decent vocabulary, so he can ably represent a despised authority figure. He’s the stand-in for HHH and Steph during road shows. He’s also the one the main event faces beat to get their heat back after losing to the main event heels. When The Authority angle finally pans out, that will probably be his swan song. At this point, WWE is better with him than without him.
Chimera: You could probably ask the pros at PWTorch about contracts. I asked them who got to be Adam Rose’s bunny and they actually answered it. 
So, turns out I nailed it - Alberto Del Rio said in an interview that was released today that he’ll be debuting in Lucha Underground early next year. Since leaving WWE he’s made a few appearances in AAA and WWC (the Puerto Rican promotion) as a vaguely mob-boss-ish character called"El Patron" - I wonder if he’ll be calling himself that in LU as well.
In other, stranger news, WWE has announced its guest host for next week’s episode of Raw - Grumpy Cat. I don’t even know, people.
It would definitely be a mistake to turn Rusev face, but the problem with him is that other than being anti-America, there is literally nothing else to his character, so I can’t imagine what they’ll do with him once he’s done with this storyline.
I am not well-versed in the history of wrestling, and I know the "angry foreigner’ is not original so they’ve done SOMETHING in the past.
“I fight FOR ME! For ME!!!”
[/Ivan Drago]
The point w/ Rusev is a) he’s basically wrestling face most of the time anyway (he doesn’t cheat, he isn’t cowardly) and b) he sells like no one else on the roster, which would help generate sympathy. (Also, FWIW, since WWE faces have a habit of being assholes, he’s occasionally wound up in face-in-peril situations even now, but that’s beside the point.) It’s basically the same point good ol’ JR’s been making about Brock for a while now–it would only take a bit of a tweak to make him more sympathetic and a vicarious wish-fulfillment character for young guys. He’d probably always need a manager, but so would Brock.
Anyway, I don’t really expect it, and I’m worried what’ll happen once he eventually gets fed to Cena. But we’ll see.
Hey, from what I understand, there’s been a run of decent episodes on both Raw and Smackdown (I’m still on hiatus from main roster outside of PPVs). Expectations must be managed.
So they’re just gonna have Aubrey Plaza have a giant voice over while they show the cat in the ring? Okaaaayyyy
In case those don’t know, there is the Lifetime Original Movie (what’s with the wwe and lifetime?) Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever, so surely its a plug for that
I made a macro.
And oh good fucking grief.
Ryback comes back from injury and has been getting a nice face reaction.
WWE decides to immediately turn him heel and feed him to Cena.
AGAIN.
:smack:
We’ll see in an hour, but from what I’ve heard they aren’t turning Ryback heel, they’re actually gonna end up using him to join Team Cena
Well shit
I have to say, I really liked last night’s Raw.
I thought the way they handled Ryback was perfect. It makes it so he’s not just a plain vanilla babyface, but without turning him full heel. Say what you will about Cena, he sold Ryback hard, too.
The only real low spots for me were:
-Mark Henry in Team Authority, I don’t feel we need MH in the Survivor Series main event
-Same for Big Show and Team Cena
-I’m still not “feeling” this Ambrose-Wyatt feud. It doesn’t feel like it’s doing anything to resurrect Bray’s standing and worse, it feels like it’s deflating how hot Ambrose was. If they turn in a stellar match at SS all will be righted.
-Rusev joining Team Authority, now Rusev has lost non-singles matches before (he was knocked out of a Battle Royal by Reigns awhile back), so I don’t think it matters if he gets eliminated at Survivor Series per se, but I didn’t like how Stephanie basically made Lana and Rusev look weak. You’re building this guy up as a monster heel then show Lana get cowed by Stephanie? Just didn’t work for me. I really liked his match against Sheamus though. I also disagree with the earlier assessment he wrestles as a face all the time, in his feud with Swagger he pulled the cowardly stuff several times, and in his feud with Show he resorted to using a weapon when Show got the upper hand.
Things I was genuinely pleased by:
-Luke Harper apparently joining Team Authority. I always really liked his in ring abilities and thought he was the underrated Wyatt, it’s good to see someone in WWE recognizes his talent.
-Just after bashing him, I thought Kane did a good job last night. Showing him get annoyed and lose his cool (and thus wreck Team Authority’s acquisition of Ryback in the process) actually was done well and was a lot better than his usual stooge behavior.
Also, being fairly unfamiliar with Ryback, I have to wonder how this guy stays on the good side of the WWE Wellness Policy. Clearly a big time juicer.
I agree that it was a berry decent raw. The matches were good (and long!) the storylines were progressed pretty well, everything was good.
Except for one thing:
THE DAMN CROWD WAS HORRIBLE
This was one of the better raws in recent memory, and the crowd wasn’t paying attention or caring at all. It was the most childish raw I’ve seen from supposed “adults” in ages.
But quick hits on the action:
Likes: The Ryback storyline progression throughout the show, the Rusev/Sheamus match, HHH being hilarious and crashing Cena and Zigs’s conversation, signs with lights on them, “she’s not here”, Ryback’s “goin solo” frame of mind, the fact that if the Authority loses they are out, and nothing happens if Cena loses, less matches, but longer ones with good people, Ryback in general, Tyson Kidd winning, the ending of the show/harper on team authority KOFI IS COMING BACK!
Dislikes: The goddamn crowd, whenever Paige talks/screams/makes a noise, mark henry and big show being a part of SS, Ambrose/Wyatt, Bray Wyatt in general, Kane, Stephanie in bitch mode, mini miz, Rollins’ beard
In other news of something I’ve been complaining about, I was listening to my Youtube music and I heard a commercial for the Network, actual advertising outside of the same people every week!
Well, where’s their network?
/lana: Drazir, drazir. You despicable Americans. In Russia we SHUT UP YOU STUCK-UP RUSSIAN TWIT! Yow! Stephanie wants to be the only bitch goddess under the Ws!
Creative really dug into character development tonight. They planted seeds for Team Authority to come apart at the seams at SurViVor Series. That’s why I think the Authority will actually win. There will be that swerve out of the blue comparable to the Shield breaking up, like Roman Reigns returning to plunge a 10-foot dagger in Cena’s back.
The Liverpool venue seemed to have screwy acoustics, as the crowd sounded muted. They were singing some kind of soccer chants… yes they call it football over there, but this MB is in America, dammit. In France, whistling is like booing. In Outer Congolia, pissing is seen as a sign of respect. Hah, gotcha ya.
Contemplating on how I can watch the ECW specials at work at not be noticed…
As much as I’d like to see the entire Authority story-line come to a conclusion here, I can see them winning here while semi-imploding, then continuing to a Wrestlemania blow-off. I just don’t know how they manage to do it without a repeat of last year’s fan revolt.