Here's my rundown of Wrestling Observer Live tonight. Just a word of warning, this is a LONG post, but has some TNA, RVD, and lots of WSX stuff in it. Kevin Kleinrock of WSX was the guest in the second hour.
The show opened with Dave saying "On Monday, Undertaker will decide whether or not he'll face Bobby Lashley (NO LAUGHING), Cena, or Batista at WrestleMania. He could face Kennedy, who will be facing Batista for the SmackDown title, which he will not win.".
Dave: WWE is hot right now, UFC is hot right now, and there are a million people trying to follow in their footsteps." "Tito Ortiz vs. Chuck Liddell started an industry.". "IFL will be on a network that 96% of the country gets, but no one watches.
Bryan: I thought when you mentioned Calvin Ayre, you were going to mention seeing another billboard with just his face on it.
Dave: I don't know how much that cost, but I'm sure I could have come up with a better product that actually promoted his company. The McMahons put their faces on trashcans, which at least mentioned the name of the product, and their network. God, this reminds me of Eyada, and how much money they spent on ads for our show - we could have retired off of it.
Dave: Pride's theme song being played on a UFC broadcast is the equivalent to Nitro's theme playing on Raw in 2001.
Dave: Did anyone ask about the song playing?
Caller: Well, one person did.
Dave: ONE PERSON!?".
Dave: There are some big-time players in the works to buy PRIDE, I'm not sure if Calvin Ayre is one of them, but it wouldn't shock me. Oh God.
Dave: "For 14 years people have been voting for UFC as promotion of the year, and how could it not win? Who else could? Ring of Honor? I don't think Gabe Sapolsky himself would vote for ROH ahead of UFC.". "Boxing is a true sport, UFC is a true sport, and pro wrestling isn't a true sport. There are people who don't like the MMA-wrestling comparison, but that's the business reality of what it really is. UFC is basically the best of pro wrestling, but real, and taking what pro wrestling should have done on its own but didn't.".
Caller: Please pass along a note to WWE to hire the Tallahasee marching band for 'Mania.
Bryan: It's too bad the Spirit Squad's gone... poor Mike Mondo.
"If WSX is around by the time ECW's TV deal is up, they'll keep it going just to fight them. At least we've learned that Vince hated that Lashley vs. RVD vs. Test 3 way. I think it was the show with Punk vs. the teacher. When JBL said that Vince should be president, all I could think is what we'd invade one day, pull out the next, then start testing for steroids, and then only hire the biggest soldiers.". "HHH getting hurt was the best thing possible for WWE short-term. It lit a fire under Shawn Michaels, got heat on Orton and Edge, and he'll come back in 7 months, they'll have even bigger business, and more heat.". "Cena vs. Umaga was a great, great match.". "Kennedy did a good job in that match, but BATISTA IS HORRIBLE. His offense was way off. Was his offense better or worse than his promos? Oh boy... next to Cena... what an expose that was."
Dave: Some people have been comparing Batista to Warrior recently.
Bryan: These people clearly didn't listen to Warrior's podcast!.
"Unfortunately for Batista, "careful" and "being a good worker" are tough to pull off unless you're Shawn or Lawler.". "Vince was mad that RVD and Test didn't make Lashley look good enough in the 3 way, so he decided to run through the program on TV.".
Dave: The Rumble was another hint out of many hints that WWE doesn't want Jim Ross around. He could go to TNA, but that would require TNA to be around, and with all of their cutbacks... oh boy.
Caller: The Test-Lashley match got crapped on by a lot of people.
Bryan: Including me!
Bryan: It's one thing to drop down so you don't get gored, but he did it in a title match, which means he's an idiot, and the belt looks worthless.
Dave: And then he got powerslammed anyway!
Bryan: Like the third match was really important.
Dave: I could tell that people were booing Cena, but it was maybe 10% what it was a year ago.
Caller: There was a guy in front of me, about 40, and he was so excited about Shawn that when he was eliminated, he was hitting his leg with his forearm and his wife had to console him.
Bryan: When you look at what they've done with Undertaker and Batista, and HBK and Edge and Orton, and I can't imagine that this same company is writing ECW.
Dave: Unlike two years ago, where we had one hot HHH-Batista feud, and now we've got the whole top of the card built up strong. It really is a promotion of 100+ being carried by 6. At least there are those people.
Bryan: It's better than trying to get EVERYBODY OVER on TNA.
Dave: Yup, and then you end up having no one being special.
Caller: I hope that RVD goes to TNA, then TNA folds because he's an idiot. He gets the WWE title and then blows it for smoking weed.
Dave: HOLD ON! Bryan, how many guy do you think have... something... on them driving back from a show.
Bryan: ...Some. It was dumb. Not the dumbest thing ever, but dumb.
Dave: I've seen so much worse, like guys going 110, and out of their minds. I'm not defending him, because his attitude towards the cops and Vince didn't help. What about Hogan, Warrior, or Shawn? Do you think that Shawn was a clean liver before finding Christianity? All of these men were champions.
Bryan: I think he's going to end up in WWE.
Dave: If he goes to TNA, they'll do the same thing with him that they've done with everyone else - maybe get one buyrate, and I don't think he's anywhere near as big a star as Kurt.
Same Caller: Hey Dave, I called you six years ago and said that Bigelow had died in a car crash. Did I have anything to do with him dying?
Dave: No, that was uncool. Bye.
Caller: Who's Lashley facing for Mania and will he pin them the week before on TV?
Dave: The idea I get is that if Marcus Cor Von gets over, he'll get the spot.
Bryan: So... we'll be getting someone from another brand to face him.
Dave: Holly might have a
Caller: Why has TNA been plugging Brock and Goldberg?
Bryan: It's called getting people's expecations up so you can't deliver.
Dave: You might as well promise Michael Jordon or God.
Bryan: God? That'd be too current for TNA.
Dave: And it might turn some people off.
Caller: What's it mean that Dana's using the PRIDE theme?
Dave: Because Dana thinks he's got the company. Otherwise, he'd be plugging the competition, so he must not view them as competition anymore.
Bryan: Here's your sports report here on Wrestling Observer Live. The Colts are ahead in the third quarter.
Caller: You guys are way ahead of the curve as far as covering MMA, and it reminds me of '88/'89 when people were pro wrestling fans. Will it last?
Dave: That's the million dollar question. If I look at history, and all I can look at is Japan, Japan had a bunch of stars, but then it died out, now it's not hot, but if they can continue to create new stars, they'll make it. If they're covered as a real sports, they can hold on a lot longer, as you're 'in'.
Bryan: I think the thing with UFC is, unless they do something crazy, I don't see a giant collapse. They have a similar business model to WWE - they aren't spending a ton of money, that they'll be fine.
Dave: BUT, if they buy PRIDE, they'll risk spreading themselves too thin.
Caller: It's getting to the point where I'm hooked on MMA and almost feel like I can miss wrestling. I just don't want the bubble to burst.
Dave: Remember the Who wants to be a Millionaire? show? When they find something hot, they run it into the ground. 2-3 years ago, you couldn't get MMA on TV, but when Ultimate Fighter became a hit, TV people suddenly cared about it.
Caller: Was the UFC show last night in HD?
Bryan: I don't think so, as no one with cable got it in that, but DirecTV people did.
Caller: What's the feeling in TNA now that WSX got a 1.0 right out of the gate and they struggled for years to get that?
Dave: Kevin Kleinrock will be on shortly, and we'll address that.
Kleinrock is now on the show.
Dave: Kevin, how many times will the show be on?
Kevin: I'm not sure, but I think we got 14 airings between MTV and MTV 2. We do have a regular Friday night slot at 11 PM, which I believe will be the 'sneak preview' night.
Bryan: Are they looking at just Tuesday's ratings or are they looking at all of them.
Kevin: Well, he hit our audience expectations, and they're very happy with our Friday and Tuesday ratings. They want programs that replay well and air well on their first national airings.
Dave: What goals do you have? What next? Do you want to do merchadise? Touring? PPV?
Kevin: It's all been discussed, but our focus is just on getting this first season into getting the first season on TV, and making it the best it can be. We're finishing the post production on the last two episodes now. There's potential that we'll come back much much sooner from most MTV from our next season break. Merchandise, touring, and PPVs are in the future. I think you'll see more indy shows with WSX talent than you'll see anything MTV-authorized with it, as they're a TV company. Since there hasn't been somthing like us before, that's a TV show first, the focus is just going to be the next step television-wise.
Dave: How challenging is putting together a 30 minute show? TNA feels rushed because they try to cram tons of stuff into just one show? You're trying to do three matches and do character development?
Kevin: We've got about 19 1/2 minutes tops, which gives us maybe 18 minutes to get in exactly what we want. The pilot was set up to be an airable pilot, but it was also done in mind to bring MTV the most crazy and spectacular stuff we've ever seen. Some of the insane stuff you saw there will give way to more character development and wrestling. We'll probably never have 15 minute matches on the show. If people are left wanting more every week, you're basically giving a sampler on TV, which will make it more worthwile to spend your money on a house show or a PPV, where you won't walk away saying "eh, that wasn't anything I couldn't have seen on TV". The short matches on TV will make those shows special. We're very lucky to have the 30 minute WSXtra show online, as we can have more character development and more lengthy matches.
Bryan: Was there anything you learned from the first set of tapings that you incorporated into the second:
Kevin: Well, other than getting Jack Evans his omellete... no. Even Waltman and Vampiro, who have been touring for years, were taxed by having to do 10 tapings basically at once. We were lucky to have escaped without any injuries really, and making adding 1-2 days to work on the non-in-ring promos would be helpful. For the most part, it was a structure that was kind of a necessity given our deal with MTV and our production on the show. It ended up being easier than a lot of people expected, and some folks wondered after a couple of days how they were just going to get through that week. It made for a week that went by pretty fast, and was exhausting.
Caller: What waits longer to reach its climax...
Dave: I got him pretty quick.
Caller: WSX is great, but you guys need more deathmatch workers.
Kevin: What about Mr. California? I think the "next generation pro wrestler superstars" of Human Tornado and Jack Evans will be key to our success on MTV, and I think we're providing something you aren't seeing anywhere on WWE or TNA. Because of the time constraints we're under, this new highspot-heavy style is going to be important to us. As far as the deathmatch stuff, there's a large number of hardcore matches, but we're under strong guidelines of what we can and can't do, even more restrictive than TNA on Spike, so we've got to find a more spectacular way to do our violent stuff so it isn't so violent We've got a pirhana deathmatch, a time bomb death match, and some other hardcore stuff coming up.
Dave: What did MTV want out of this? They had wrestling on a couple years ago with WWE, but what kind of things did they want?
Kevin: Really, the difference between us and what they did with WWE, is that WWE handed them a program and they just threw it on TV - they didn't feel it was an MTV program, it wasn't developed by them, it was just part of the Sunday night block there, and I'm not sure that executives ever watched it, and it seems like something they just had to do. When Justin Roberts and I brought the show to them, and said that had it not been for MTV and the stuff in '84, wrestling wouldn't have become what it has become, and yet there hasn't been an MTV wrestling product, so this is our vision of what wrestling could be on MTV. By the time we left their office and arrived to ours, we got a call saying that wanted to do a pilot. One of the major reasons they wanted it is so they could bring some male eyeballs to the network since most of their shows have female-heavy viewer demographics. At first, they didn't know what to expect from us and we didn't know what to expect from us, but after a few days, they knew what we were trying to do and they 'got' us. I think that 95% of the suggestions they've made have actually helped us overall to make sure that the show can be enjoyable so someone who 'gets' pro wrestling and those who don't, and maybe need their hands held for story progression. They want to make sure that the show doesn't offend or alienate die-hard wrestling fans, and while there are some folks who think we're the antithesis of pro wrestling due to short matches, I think they'll so more of a wrestling how as the season progreses. They'll always say with their changes "only do them if they makes sense to you or wrestling fans" - they're very supportive of us and pro wrestling fans.
Dave: What did you say when you knew they'd slotted you against ECW?
Kevin: Well, it was exciting to just have a timeslot, and then seconds later, I realized that it's when ECW's on, and their stance was that they didn't put it on there just to oppose it - it was just done there to fit the Tuesday block, so they aren't going to worry about it.
Dave: Did you tell them how Vince thinks?
Kevin: Well, they actually watched ECW.
Bryan: That's too bad for them.
Kevin: The subject that I got from one of the execs was "... ECW sucks"
Bryan: Well, he got it.
Caller: Any luchadores coming in?
Kevin: There are some guys we want, but since WWE likes to sign guys who aren't under contract, I don't want to say who we do or don't have under contracts. I think that international could be a big part of WSX, as it's on MTV, which IS the biggest network in the world. If we were on every network they're on, we'd be in even more countries than WWE. It's not unusual for TV shows to not air at the same time across the world, but it is unusual for wrestling, so hopefully we'll be able to merge all of these storylines together and present a unified worldwide project. Just so people know, MTV never confirmed to us that they'd be airing us at the same time across the world.
Dave: The age group you're going for is different than WWE, as they're trying to get everyone, and TNA... who I'm not sure they're trying to get, but I'll ask them someday. As for your demographics, it seems like the 18s to 24s are into the show.
Kevin: MTV considers themselves a 12-34 network, which is the primary reason why their standards and practices standards are different.
Bryan: Is it odd that this list isn't okay but man eating fish are?
Kevin: Their concern is how easy it is to imitate, and since boxes of live wires and boxes of pirhanas aren't just found in peoples' backyards, they're okay. Every stunt we do is approved on paper, but just because it's approved on paper, doesn't mean it's been approved for air, which can cause some problems if we end up having to clean something off the show. There's one example of that, and it'll be very clear in the weeks to come what it was.
Dave: Kevin, in how many weeks to you expect to hear what's next?
Kevin: Honestly, I don't know. Finding out something soon would be WONDERFUL, but I do anticipate knowing something sooner rather than later. Right now, I know we have 10 episodes that'll air until the Tuesday after 'Mania, and we'll know within the next 30 days whether we'll be coming back sooner rather than later, and whether we'll get a shorter break, no break, or a longer break. Hopefully all goes well and people keep watching on Tuesday nights and we show them that it's a good idea for the network.