WWE Giving Bragging Rights a War Games Match?
There was at least discussion within WWE this past week of possibly making the Bragging Rights PPV five-on-five match a War Games match, similar to the one WCW did.
Gimmick PPVs Yield an Increase in PPV Buyrates
Though pay-per-view revenue was down for the fiscal year and well below the UFC benchmark, WWE got a hint of good news in returns for its Q4 2009 events.
For the three months ending December 31, 2009, WWE's pay-per-view revenue rose from $15.9 million in 2008 to $16.3 million in 2009. Fueling the increase was a surge in buys for three of WWE's four pay-per-views; all demonstrating that WWE's new "gimmick" concept is generating additional interest over their B-show franchise counterparts.
Hell in a Cell for instance, posted 283,000 buys, compared with 261,000 for last year's WWE No Mercy. Bragging Rights was up to 181,000 over 153,000 for Cyber Sunday, while WWE TLC scored 228,000, beating the 193,000 for Armageddon.
The limiting factor on the revenue increase, however, was the fact that WWE Survivor Series totally bombed. Buys fell from 319,000 to 235,000.
WWE Comments On Cena Bleeding At Bragging Rights
In an interview with The Hartford Courier, WWE spokesperson Robert Zimmerman disputed reports that Linda McMahon's Senate Campaign factored into the Bragging Rights decision to clean John Cena's cut. He noted that the choice was more deeply rooted in the company's new blood-free, PG broadcasting approach.
"WWE is PG and as part of being PG, we try to show as little or no blood as possible,'' Zimmerman told Courant.com.
He also attributed the decision to the obvious, that being Cena was cut and benefited from a clean-up from the trainers.
Cena Bleeding Causes Backstage Commotion
During last night’s Iron Man match at Bragging Rights, a spot where John Cena got busted open by accident caused a lot of commotion backstage.
According to Mike Johnson, an incident happened where Randy Orton hit Cena with a microphone causing Cena to start bleeding the hard way. From the backstage area, Vince McMahon ordered Cena to be cleaned up immediately after seeing the blood. WWE’s John Laurinaitis along with trainers rushed to ringside to clean him up, as WWE currently has a very strict “no blood” policy as part of their TV-PG programming initiative.
Cena wasn’t sure what was going on at first, but the cut was finally glued shut and cleaned up after the next fall.
Cena and Orton were scheduled to work among the crowd and WWE wanted to ensure there was no health issue with a bloody wrestler among fans. If it were to have happened, the issue would have been taken seriously by the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission and could be used against Linda McMahon in her Senate campaign.
Since the blood was not planned, WWE decided to stop the clock during the bout as it wasn’t known how long the clean up operation on Cena would take.
In their pictures of the event on WWE.com, the photos where blood can be seen on Cena's forehead are also the only ones in blank and white. A section of one of the photos can be seen above.
JR Blog
Jim Ross has posted the following blog over at JRsBarBQ.com and here are some highlights:
"Miz defeating Morrison mildly surprised me and the former tag team partners had a solid start to the show and it put Raw in a dominating position with SD having to win two straight which I felt like added to the underlying story of Bragging Rights. Miz can now tell the world that he carried the banner for Raw while the 'other guys dropped the ball.' Nice."
"I throughly enjoyed the 60 Minute Ironman Match and that was the match that I would have most loved to have participated in from an old school perspective. Cena and Orton rose to the occasion, in a physically demanding environment and told a magnificent story to bring the PPV to the close it needed. Loved the physicality and intensity as 'going the hour' is a challenging piece of business. Cena is unquestionably and obviously the 'Face of WWE' which is no revelation but was certainly reaffirmed Sunday night. Orton has raised his game to an extraordinary level and he's still not nearly as good as he is going to be considering his age and what lies ahead for the third generation wrestler. That's a scary thought."
"On a personal note, I am scheduled to get my MRI results late Monday afternoon of which I feel extremely confident that I'll get good news."
Bragging Rights Results
Come discuss WWE Bragging Rights here at WrestlingRevealed.com!
Results:
- Dark Match: Christian defeated Paul Burchill.
- Raw's United States Champion The Miz defeated Smackdown's Intercontinental Champion John Morrison.
- Smackdown's Michelle McCool, Beth Phoenix and Natalya defeated Raw's Melina, Kelly Kelly and Gail Kim.
- World Heavyweight Championship Match: The Undertaker (c) defeated CM Punk, Batista and Rey Mysterio.
- 7-0n- 7 Bragging Rights Match: Team Smackdown defeated Team Raw.
- Anything Goes 60-Minute Iron Man Match for the WWE Championship: John Cena defeated Randy Orton (c).
Chris Benoit Edited Off Batista DVD / Bonus Matches For Ordering Bragging Rights
On the Batista DVD, which was released this week, WWE edited out the Chris Benoit elimination from the 2005 Royal Rumble.
Speaking of DVDs, if you order the Bragging Rights PPV on WWE.com, you will get as a bonus, the RAW vs. Smackdown Survivor Series match from 2005 and the WrestleMania XII Iron Man match between Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart.
Reason Why Team Smackdown Was Changed For Bragging Rights Main Event
The change in the Bragging Rights main event with Team Smackdown was a decision made by Vince McMahon at an October 20th production meeting. Vince saw the two original teams together in the ring on RAW last Monday and felt that the Smackdown team looked too weak.
The changing of that match was all the big talk after this week’s Smackdown tapings. A lot of people were wondering why officials went with the original team in the first place and some were joking about the way the change went down. When everyone arrived at the tapings on Tuesday, they were told about the match between the old team and the new team with the planned finish being Matt Hardy hitting Shad Gaspard with a Twist of Fate to get the win. Shad was backstage and appeared to be fine but after finding out the match change, he became very sick and went back to his hotel room. Some were speculating that Shad got “sick” because he didn’t want to lose clean to Hardy on TV.
JR Blog / JR Missing Bragging Rights
Jim Ross updated his blog at JRsBarBQ.com and here are some highlights:
I saw my neurologist today in Norman and had a long consultation and some testing. He diagnosed me, as expected with full blown Bells palsy. It is on the right side of my face and has adversely affected my vision in my right eye more than previous bouts. We are concerned about the cornea in my right eye being damaged which is why I am using a ton of artificial tears and having to tape my eye shut at night to sleep along with using a gel in my eye under the eye patch.
My time line on returning to work is unknown as I write this. I wish it was going to be this Sunday in Pittsburgh as I wanted to be a part of Bragging Rights on PPV. I think it will be a fun and a unique show that will be showcasing some new talents in key bouts. How well they perform is up to them but I hope that they take advantage of their opportunities no matter their roles. It's easy to "get lost" in a 7 man tag, for instance, but it is up to every man in the match to make their presence felt. Quality minutes is just as important as quantity of minutes.
So, Sunday night I will be at home in Norman watching Bragging Rights on PPV. I don't know the announcer lineup but it "might" be a three man team of Cole, King, and Todd Grisham but that's only an educated guess. It could be something else altogether but obviously Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler will be figured in the mix prominently.
One huge regret this week was not being able to reunite, albeit for one night only, with the King. I hope we get that opportunity again some day.
For those fans that think that this is the end for me or the end is near I suggest you rethink your position. I won't allow your views to adversely affect me because I still love to play the game. I am an old school guy who still loves calling wrestling matches and sitting at ringside soaking up the adrenaline from the fans.
Calendar
Tag Cloud
Control Panel
