WWE Thread

[NYCCuse826]

☝

 

[NineOneSeven]

Incredible WM.

 

[OrangeDW]

Zayn will never be hotter than he was.

And neither will Cody be.

If not them, then who? They’re playing with fire IMO.

 

[jncuse]

Zayn will never be hotter than he was.

And neither will Cody be.

If not them, then who? They’re playing with fire IMO.

I certainly see your point, Its hard to picture who on the current roster can be the next guy to make a run. There becomes a real risk that nobody believes he can lose.

But I will also say, at this same point last year (after WM 2022 and his near 600 day reign) there was the exact same concern, and yet he has had 4 matches in the past 8 months where fans conceivably thought he could lose -- Lesnar, Mcintyre, Zayn, and Rhodes. And they were all very good or great matches -- even the Lesnar SSlam one, which was probably their only very good match they have had.

So somehow this year they were able to generate credible contenders who he has great matches. If they can continue to do that, I will be fine even if Roman keeps winning. But were they lucky in the last year -- can they continue to find matches that fans believe could go either way. I don't see that guy right now - although Zayn and Rhodes could probably still create enough doubt in a rematch.

 

[jncuse]

I suspect Reigns will defend his title at some point over the next 3 or 4 months against Jey Uso. Should be a good match and compelling continuation of the story, but Uso will not be the guy winning.

After that? Gunther? Big E Comeback?
Hard to picture that next credible contender.

 

[jordville]

Roman and Paul both said that this story is only in the 3rd inning. This was just the end of a chapter. Triple H echoed their remarks and said they are only getting started. None of them talked about the rumored sale.

 

[jncuse]

Going to throw some wild possibility out there -- Cody faces Roman tomorrow night on RAW or next week and gets over then.

With TV Negotiations going on, its important for them to have something huge happen on TV rather than a PPV, as TV is such a huge revenue stream.

OK i don't believe it will happen.

 

[jordville]

Injuries...
Shane torn quad.
Finn had staples put in his head while in the ring.

 

[jncuse]

Roman and Paul both said that this story is only in the 3rd inning. This was just the end of a chapter. Triple H echoed their remarks and said they are only getting started. None of them talked about the rumored sale.

HHH can't really speak about the specifics of a sale. It could potentially be a serious SEC violation if he addressed it right now.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Injuries...
Shane torn quad.
Finn had staples put in his head while in the ring.

Torn quad is fitting. That ladder hit Finn squarely too. Seems like yesterday (okay, not really) we had Eddie (RIP!) in the ring basically bleeding out.

 

[jncuse]

Injuries...
Shane torn quad.
Finn had staples put in his head while in the ring.

The Finn head bump was a scary one -- I know some people would have rather him wrestle while he was bleeding out, but I think its better they stopped the match since it was hard way rather than blade. Surprisingly it didn't kill the momentum that bad.

I don't need blood to make matches compelling.

 

[Knicks411]

I just cant get over how dumb the finish to the main one. I think if Cody wins, Sunday still wouldn't have been as good as Saturday, but it would've been in the ballpark, and you probably are talking about the single best weekend in the history of the company.

Cody will never in his life be hotter than he was last night. Ditto Sami in Montreal, but I can see why they did what they did there. Sami doesn't fit their idea of a superstar, etc. I am not even a huge Cody fan but he totally fits the idea of what WWE wants as their top guy

 

[Symphony Steve]

I just cant get over how dumb the finish to the main one. I think if Cody wins, Sunday still wouldn't have been as good as Saturday, but it would've been in the ballpark, and you probably are talking about the single best weekend in the history of the company.

Cody will never in his life be hotter than he was last night. Ditto Sami in Montreal, but I can see why they did what they did there. Sami doesn't fit their idea of a superstar, etc. I am not even a huge Cody fan but he totally fits the idea of what WWE wants as their top guy

What's especially strange in hindsight is that Sami couldn't go over in Montreal b/c they had the story already in place where Cody would defeat Roman at Wrestlemania. Which didn't happen.

Maybe they'll do the title change while trying to hot-shot a big TV rating...

 

[jordville]

Injuries...
Shane torn quad.
Finn had staples put in his head while in the ring.

I could tell it was a direct hit live, but this is just nasty...
And to get that stapled in the ring and finish the match at a high level. Kudos Finn. Demon should've won that one imo. That character doesn’t come out much and isn't supposed to lose. Heel Finn has been a hot... and I thought this match would continue his push. No need for Edge to win this imo.

 

[OrangeDW]

I just cant get over how dumb the finish to the main one. I think if Cody wins, Sunday still wouldn't have been as good as Saturday, but it would've been in the ballpark, and you probably are talking about the single best weekend in the history of the company.

Cody will never in his life be hotter than he was last night. Ditto Sami in Montreal, but I can see why they did what they did there. Sami doesn't fit their idea of a superstar, etc. I am not even a huge Cody fan but he totally fits the idea of what WWE wants as their top guy

Maybe they’re milking it so they can do a War Games match first? Zayn, Owens, Rhodes, and they find one more to join them because being outnumbered cost them last night.

 

[Symphony Steve]

The sale has been announced. Endeavor will control 51% and WWE 49%:

Endeavor Announces UFC® and WWE® to Form a $21+ Billion Global Live Sports and Entertainment Company

Endeavor Announces UFC® and WWE® to Form a $21+ Billion Global Live Sports and Entertainment Company

corporate.wwe.com

 

[Knicks411]

Maybe they’re milking it so they can do a War Games match first? Zayn, Owens, Rhodes, and they find one more to join them because being outnumbered cost them last night.

Could be? But I just think its dumb! The good guy has to win at some point!!

 

[jncuse]

Doesn't seems like shareholders are that happy either today, with the share price down 6%. I probably wouldn't be either if I had bought to take advantage of a sale. This was much more of a merger than a sale, and their is zero finality here in terms of what they will receive.

I suspect shareholders were hoping for an outright sale to a private company (where they get paid out immediately), or a sale to a much larger private company, where even if shareholders thought WWE was overpriced and the price went down on final sale date, it would be diluted over a much larger market cap.

This scenario puts the future WWE value at much more risk.

They are claiming the sale is worth $9B as part of a new public $21 B company that has not been launched- this is their own valuation (all on paper ), but will it be the public valuation once the new public company launches? Really depends how the public will view the UFC. which will now become a publicly owned rather a privately owned asset -- and without an outright sale the current market cap of WWE is about $6.5 billion not the $9.3 billion valuation it currently has.

I would be stunned when the new company launches that it has a market cap anywhere near $21billion (which would suggest the worth to WWE shareholders is about $10.2 billion). WWE shareholders own 49% of the new company, so anything over $14 billion on launch would be a profit over the current market price entering today. But shareholders are not fully buying that either with the decrease today.

 

[OrangeDW]

Felt bad for Shane, but Snoop’s “you alright Cuh’?” was absolutely killing me. And then he really saved the segment. That was entertaining.

Was kinda surprised Edge won.

IC triple threat was great.

Also enjoyed Brock, though was hoping he’d lose. At least he was bumping and selling and there wasn’t a billion false finishes.

Cody should’ve won about 3 times. I feel like they are risking the fans giving up. I think it’s still Cody who takes the title off him. Small chance of Zayn. If they try someone different like Seth or Jey Uso…I think that will flop.

 

[jncuse]

That would be a notable change of plans from what Endeavor had said.

Of course, when it comes to stuff like this, everybody lies.

Brandon Thurston addressed this fairly well in a podcast -

Endeavor said they had no intention to incur additional debt to purchase WWE -- which would have been needed for an outright purchase.

In the end, they didn't incur any debt, so technically they never told any fibs -- instead of paying off the existing WWE shareholders (which would required a lot of debt), they agreed to buy 51% of the WWE, and as compensation gave up 49% of the UFC.

It was a good move for Endeavor in that they already had a fairly high debt load so they didn't need to incur additional debt to get 51% ownership control of the WWE. But the cost of getting that control was giving up 49% of the UFC, which is apparently a more valuable of an asset of about 30%. So the cost of gaining control of the WWE was fairly significant.

 

[jncuse]

I wouldn't be surprised that they start doing more things on TV for the next 3-6 months, and perhaps less on PPV. Perhaps something big regarding Roman in the next few weeks.

PPV's are locked in for almost another 3 years with Peacock with very limited additional upside for the WWE.

And now that none of the large TV networks are involved in the WWE moving forward, they may up what happens in TV to make that asset more attractive. Of course a TV partner might be able to sniff it out pretty easily.

 

[jncuse]

Now that the deal is done, its interesting to see if it became any more clear what Vince's intentions were when the sale proceeding started.

What did he get:
1) Doesn't have ultimate control of the WWE (that is with Endeavor)
2) Appears to have a Senior Position that is in charge of WWE operations.
3) He didn't get any cash pay out. The WWE (and now the UFC) will need to do well moving forward for his investment in WWE to grow.
4) It didn't move to another public company (Disney/Comcast) that would have likely taken much more control away from Vince -- now to be fair no indication they were interested.

In the end Vince, may have a retained a decent amount of say of what happens in the WWE, gets to stay involved in an active WWE operation. It wasn't about getting max $ value for him it appears.

 

[jncuse]

Is the deal good for Fans?
- The concern in 3 years is that the WWE goes back to a PPV model for more events... Peacock is a hell of a sweet deal for fans.
- No Saudi Arabia - so less moral concerns of watching the product. Which is good.
- Also wonder if it had went to a mainstream Pubco, if the product would have become even safer. Perhaps this allows it to get an edge again, but that is spectulation.
- Vince is still around. But how much over creative?

I think all things considered, this is probably a fairly decent deal for fans.

I think the deal is a bad case scenario for many office employees however. That being said I think the accounting / reporting team may be in decent shape, because they are used to working in an SEC environment, and the UFC teams do not.

 

[NineOneSeven]

HHH killing it here

 

[jncuse]

This is probably the most booing that Roman Reigns has had in a while. And most of the time the booing / noise is because in this run he is a great heel involved in good storylines.

Its possible this time though it could be more fan frustration based - more like the Roman of pre-2020 Let's see what they can do over the next few week.s