So what really comes to your mind when you hear of the draft? Is it good? Great? Alternatively, it’s just a waste of time. Well the way we see it, it actually falls between decent and could be so much better we reckon. The WWE has tried to adapt the draft, actually, it is the NFL draft style and it was for the good reasons.
Each and every year, a lot of football fans flood their way to the nearby sports bar as well as draft parties. As reported by some top NFL betting sites, somehow, the NFL has actually turned the Draft into a must-see kind of event. Most fans have been glued across the entire NFL Network, ESPN, ABC as well as some top digital channels. And it is not actually surprising why the NFL Draft has attracted an average of 6.1 million viewers.
And it’s actually a fact that the WWE will never surpass or even reach those numbers. Therefore, what it means is that they have a lot to learn from the NFL Draft.
Promoting The Draft Early Using Your Own Analysts
If there is one thing that the NFL is good at when it comes to the Draft, is making sure that they promote and market the event. Therefore, if the WWE wants to reach the same levels as the NFL when it comes to having a successful draft real marketing strategies is what they need. Even at most best usa casino online sites we have witnessed top casino marketing and promoting their brands by highlighting the games and bonuses they offer to players.
Make the Picks Feel More Important
The WWE missed the ship this year on how announced the picks during their Draft. Doing five selection all at the same time is actually not the way to go. When Becky Lynch was number, 1 it didn’t seem like a big deal. It should have felt like one big deal, unfortunately, it did not.
Looking back when Johnny Manziel was drafted by the Cleveland Browns back in 2014. It is something that wasn’t buffed. He simply came up to the stage and he gave his speech got his hat and hugged the commissioner. It was just an iconic moment for the NFL Draft, which went on and turned into a great event.
Well, you don’t have to stress about the Draft when you play online casino. Just place your bets and start winning big.
A new episode of WWE 24 airs tonight immediately following the conclusion of Starrcade on the WWE Network.
Titled WWE 24: Trish Stratus, this new episode follows the WWE Hall of Famer as she prepares for the final match of her career against Charlotte Flair at SummerSlam 2019. With seven WWE Women’s championship reigns to her name, the now 44-year-old had one of the most impressive wrestling careers which started in March 2000.
This is the sixth WWE 24 episode of 2019, two more than WWE typically produces in a year. This year, WWE 24 spotlighted Kofi Kingston, Batista, Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch, and WrestleMania New Orleans.
WWE will be holding its third Starrcade special event live tonight from the Infinite Energy Arena in Duluth, Georgia. A one-hour live broadcast from the event will air on the WWE Network starting at 7PM ET. The card is as follows:
Bray Wyatt vs Braun Strowman for the Universal title; Shinsuke Nakamura vs The Miz for the Intercontinental title; The New Day vs The Revival for the Smackdown Tag Team titles; The Kabuki Warriors vs Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair for the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles in a Texas Tornado match; Roman Reigns vs King Corbin; Rusev vs Bobby Lashley; AJ Styles vs Kevin Owens; Seth Rollins vs Randy Orton; and Kevin Owens with the The Kevin Owens Show with special guest Ric Flair.
WWE resurrected the Starrcade name three years ago for the post-thanksgiving non-televised live event. The pay-per-view was a staple during the NWA/WCW era and was the company’s biggest pay-per-view of the year.
WWE held a combined-roster supershow yesterday in Mexico City which also featured the second match of former UFC Heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez.
Velasquez has not showed up on WWE television ever since the Crown Jewel pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia where he tapped out to Brock Lesnar in his first WWE match. On this Mexico City show, Velasquez teamed up with Humberto Carrillo to take on Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, a match which Carrillo and Velasquez came out on top after Carrillo pinned Anderson.
Talking after the match, Velasquez said that it’s always a blessing for him to come back to Mexico. “Whether I’m competing or just doing whatever here. I think the people and the fans they are the best. Obviously, they’ve been some of my dearest most die-hard fans I’ve had throughout my whole UFC career and now my pro wrestling and WWE career,” he said. “So to come here and perform which I’ve done a couple of times and I always feel great coming here and doing it in front of the fans who were behind me since day one.”
On Smackdown last night, The Fiend Bray Wyatt debuted his own version of the Universal title which includes a replica of his mask created by Tom Savini Studios.
Now, WWE Shop is selling a replica of the title…for a whopping $6,499.99. Yes, that’s six-and-a-half grand for the custom hand crafted title.
The title is 64″ long and 12″ in height and carries 7 lbs and 8 oz in weight. It’s designed and hand crafted by Tom Savini studios with a highly detailed mask made of a latex skin and acrylic eyes that capture the intense stare of The Fiend. Each title is individually numbered and certified authentic and will receive a certificate of authenticity hand-signed by Tom Savini. Due to the hand-made sculpting process, no two titles will be identical. The title is mounted on a genuine leather strap.
Since this is a hand-made object, payments will be processed up front and no returns or exchanges will be accepted. Titles will ship on December 20th and Christmas delivery cannot be guaranteed. Shipping is only available to the United States.
Despite most networks running repeats, Smackdown still suffered in the ratings this week and had its worst viewership since moving to FOX with 2,336,000 tuning in off hours 2,350,000 and 2,322,000.
That is down 264,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast and Smackdown only beat viewership on The CW to finish fourth out of five networks. Smackdown won the 18-49 demographic with a 0.7 rating. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
WWE is presenting one of their combined-roster supershow tonight at the Arena Ciudad de Mexico in Mexico City which will also feature Cain Velasquez’s second WWE match.
The show is headlined by a steel cage match for the Universal title between Bray Wyatt and The Miz. Other matches announced for the show include The Kabuki Warriors vs Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair for the Women’s Tag Team titles, Seth Rollins vs Randy Orton, AJ Styles vs Kevin Owens, Cain Velasquez and Humberto Carillo vs Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, Roman Reigns vs King Corbin, Braun Strowman vs Shinsuke Nakamura, The New Day vs The Revival for the Smackdown Tag Team titles, and Rusev vs Bobby Lashley.
Card is subject to change. Interesting to note that Rey Mysterio is not advertised for a match although the arena has been advertising his name for an appearance. Originally, Mysterio was tag teaming with Cain Velasquez but the plan later changed. Styles vs Owens was also originally for the United States title so it’s not known if that match is still on.
David Sahadi, the long-time producer who worked for WWE and Impact, has returned to the business and is now working full time with Impact Wrestling.
“After a long hiatus, I’ve decided to jump back into ‘the game.’ Full time. @IMPACTWRESTLING is arising! And the best is yet to come…” Sahadi wrote on Twitter.
The Brooklyn native worked for WWE between 1992 and 2003 as Creative Director of On-air Promotions and was the brains behind several awesome-looking vignettes and opening videos to shows and pay-per-views. He was eventually promoted to an executive role in the later years but decided to leave in 2003. The next year, Sahadi joined Impact Wrestling, heading up their production department and after nearly 13 years, he left the promotion.
The 58-year-old is often praised for his creativity and is known for making Vince McMahon cry when he showed him the Legends Attitude Era promotional video featuring Patt Patterson, Gorilla Monsoon, Ernie Ladd, Killer Kowalski, and Freddie Blassie.
“I remember playing the spot for Vince, and halfway through the spot he was saying, “Damn.” I had no idea whether he liked it or not. Vince actually left the room,” Sahadi said in an interview several years ago. “I had asked Shane whether Vince liked it or not, and Shane said, “you got him.” I went outside to see tears in Vince’s eyes and he hugged and thanked me. Vince always had a soft spot in his heart for his dad and the legends. The spot meant so much to him that even a while later he was still visibly shaken by it.”
Three WWE Superstars returned to Smackdown last night, one in a video segment and two appearing live on the show.
First to make his return was former champion Sheamus. The Irishman has been out of action for eight months, having last wrestled during the post-WrestleMania Smackdown show. Sheamus was suffering from spinal stenosis and needed to have a lengthy break. Sheamus, who was last seen on TV cheering on his Liverpool football team on NBCSN a month ago, was back to his old look.
Another one who returned was former Raw and Smackdown Women’s champion Alexa Bliss. Bliss has been out since the Hell In A Cell pay-per-view and while her injury was said to be minor, her previous several bouts with concussions led to many speculations. Little Miss Bliss came to save her tag team partner Nikki Cross after she was attacked by Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose on the show. Bliss is expected to wrestle tomorrow at Starrcade.
And the third individual who popped up on Smackdown was Elias. Elias was supposed to be part of the King of the Ring tournament a few months ago but he was replaced in the semifinal match after WWE said he suffered an ankle injury and was not cleared to compete. He had not been seen on WWE television since the first round match nearly three months ago. Elias showed up in a backstage segment singing a song to Drake Maverick who just seconds earlier tried to kiss Dana Brooke.
On Saturday, December 7, former WWE champion Alberto “El Patron” Rodriguez will step back into the cage for a winner-take-all fight against former UFC champion Tito Ortiz. The show, airing live on pay-per-view from the Payne Arena at the U.S.-Mexico border in Hidalgo, Texas, is promoted by Combate Americas.
The two will each put their prized possession up for grabs: Alberto is putting up his WWE title while Tito has his UFC title on the line, with the winner taking the loser’s belt, hence the winner-take-all tag.
Rodriguez, who last had a mixed martial arts fight in 2010 losing to Yamamoto Hanshi, has a 9-5 professional MMA record and went on a six-fight winning streak between 2003 and 2010 before eventually losing his last fight via TKO at Cage of Combat 4: Spanish Bombs in Madrid, Spain.
But the former WWE and Impact champion is shaking off his proverbial “ring rust” by going back to basics: spending hours in the gym and train the way he used to train years ago and learning the new styles of fighting.
Alberto credits his boss, Combate Americas CEO Campbell McLaren, with coming up with the idea of him fighting Ortiz. “That is how we started on this fight. We have an excellent working relationship, and he is also my friend,” Rodriguez told Wrestling-Online.com. “This company has become my family, and my home. It started to grow the way we always wanted to do. This was the moment – to do one last fight.”
Campbell, who is the co-creator of the UFC, recruited Rodriguez to be the President of Combate Americas in 2016 but he has since stepped down from the role and is now part of the Spanish-language Univision broadcast team.
Rodriguez said that like every fighter, it was hard to be on the sidelines talking about the sport while not getting a piece of the action. “You get so close to the fighters, you see how much they want it – it gives you the feeling to be in the fighting game to do it again.” he said.
But this is a one-and-done deal for the 42-year-old who said he has no plans of stepping back inside the cage again. “I have been fighting to continue a legacy – to help the amazing athletes to be part of a pay-per-view card,” Rodriguez said. “Like Rocky…just take the beast out of the basement and to go home and see my children…to go back to San Antonio.”
Rodriguez is a busy man and while training for this fight, he’s also running Nación Lucha Libre with his good friend Chavo Guerrero Jr., a new wrestling promotion based in Mexico. “It started in my homeland,” he explained. “We have fighters and wrestlers from part of the world, but mostly, in Mexico – hopefully we will be as successful as Combate Americas someday.” Their first show aired in July in Mexico City and it was broadcast on the Mexico channel Imagen TV. There hasn’t been a second televised event so far.
Despite his early MMA career, Rodriguez is obviously best known for his time in professional wrestling. As Alberto Del Rio in WWE, he won the WWE title twice, the World Heavyweight title twice, the United States title twice, and won both the Royal Rumble and Money In The Bank in the same year. He also won the GFW Global title and the Unified GFW World title while working for Impact Wrestling.
Alberto confessed that he doesn’t watch any wrestling shows anymore but knows what’s going on. “When I get home, I get home to be a daddy and do to other stuff. But I know who is doing OK and not doing OK,” he said, adding that he still keeps in touch with a few individuals, namely Sin Cara and Drew McIntyre. “This is a difficult business and hard to keep real friends and real people.”
His exit from both WWE and Impact have been well documented, getting in trouble with both promotions during the last few months he was with them. He was released from WWE in 2016 and then had some interesting videos posted about the company while also in a turbulent relationship with former WWE Divas champion Paige.
But despite the very public separation between WWE and Rodriguez, when asked if he would take a WWE call, he answered, “Yes, of course. It’s been awhile since I have spoken to WWE, I know for this or any organization in pro wrestling that my door is always open.”
And his wrestling issues didn’t stop there. Moving to Impact in 2017, he was fired just a year later after he no-showed an Impact vs Lucha Underground live show in New Orleans during WrestleMania weekend.
He said he had no regrets on his exit from Impact Wrestling, although admitted that both sides could have done things differently. “But we both spoke at length and buried the hatchet. Recently, I talked with one of the owners and the door is open for me at Impact and also other companies,” Alberto said.
But before entertaining any wrestling offers, Tito Ortiz – the 44-year-old who has a 20-12-1 MMA record – stands in his way and Rodriguez is looking forward to take Tito’s belt away.
“I have my trophy room with my title belts at home in San Antonio. My wrestling…WWE titles. All the blood and sweat your put in that belt and it has so much meaning to me. I know what that UFC title means to Tito.”
If you’re interested in watching Combate Americas, live television programming airs regularly on both broadcast and cable television platforms: Univision and TUDN in Spanish and beginning in December on AXS TV in English.
Just like every other shop on planet earth, WWE Shop launched their Black Friday deals this morning with saving up to 75% plus an additional 25% at checkout when using the code FRIDAY and free shipping for orders over $15. The offer expires at Midnight PT today.
But a similar offer kicks off tomorrow and will run through December 1 at Midnight PT with up to 75% off and extra 20% off orders with the code FRIDAY at checkout and free shipping for orders over $40. Cyber Monday will have the exact same offer as Black Friday but using the code CYBER and that deal will last till Midnight PT.
Pretty much everything is on sale including replica title belts, video games, caps, t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts and hundreds of other items. You can shop at http://w-o.it/wweshopcom.
WWE Backstage drew 121,000 viewers on Tuesday night on FS1, down 59,000 viewers from the previous week’s show which featured the arrival of CM Punk. Punk was not part of this week’s episode. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
A new tag team showed up on Dynamite last night and took out the returning Cody Rhodes who had just won a squash match against Matt Knicks.
The two individuals are known as The Butcher and The Blade, and the two were accompanied by their new manager The Bunny, also known as Allie. All three made their way through a hole in the ring as fans at the Sears Centre were confused on who they are. Hell, even Jim Ross sounded confused. “Who is it?” Ross asked Excalibur who knew the identity of the group.
The Butcher and The Blade – played by Braxton Sutter and Andy Williams – are independent wrestlers and Williams is also the guitarist for the band Every Time I Die. Sutter is the former Impact Wrestling star who also happened to be Allie’s husband.
NXT referee Jessika Carr refereed her last NXT match last night and is now moving to Friday Night Smackdown starting this week.
Carr was in charge of the NXT main event between Finn Balor and Tommaso Ciampa last night and after the show went off the air, Carr addressed the Full Sail University crowd.
Ciampa, still selling Balor’s finisher, took the mic and said that NXT are exactly who they say they are, a family, and tonight they were losing one of their family members. Ciampa started a “Thank you Jess” chant as an emotional Carr hugged other NXT referees at the bottom of the ramp. The former NXT champ then announced that she would be moving to Smackdown to a big pop as fans then started a “You deserve it” chant.
“Jess, from the bottom of my heart, congratulations. I’ve enjoyed every single mile we traveled together, I’ve enjoyed every second, I’ve been lucky to share this ring with you. You are one of a kind, you broke down barriers,” Ciampa said, as he complemented Carr as “a gem.” He then invited her to the ring for a proper farewell from the greatest fans in professional wrestling as Ciampa hugged her and raised her hand.
“When you start this journey, not necessarily NXT, but the very very beginning, you don’t know where it’s going to take you. And when I started this crazy journey 10 years ago, I never thought I’d be the very first female WWE official,” Carr said as she cut a promo like a seasoned professional. Carr thanked the “team of zebras” who supported her throughout her journey and said she hoped she inspired other women to do whatever they want in life. Carr ended her address with “We are NXT” as proud ‘papa’ Triple H clapped from the top of the ramp.
Hot off a successful weekend, NXT returns to Full Sail University for the post-Takeover and Survivor Series episode.
Two title matches are part of tonight’s broadcast on USA Network with Lio Rush defending the NXT Cruiserweight title against Akira Tozawa and The Undisputed Era defending the NXT Tag Team titles against the team of Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic.
Apart from a very good Takeover: WarGames event, NXT also won four out of the seven matches at the Survivor Series. Last week, NXT won the ratings battle for the first time with more viewers than AEW thanks to the help of nearly two dozen Raw and Smackdown Superstars appearing.
Will the momentum keep to another week? Only time will tell.
Corey Graves publicly apologized to Mauro Ranallo on the newest episode of the After The Bell WWE podcast.
On Saturday during Takeover: WarGames, Graves sent a tweet saying that there’s a Hall of Famer and a former ROH champion on commentary, and he imagines they have a lot to offer. He left out Ranallo from the tweet and actually dissed him for the several pop culture references Ranallo made during the broadcast.
Kicking off the podcast, Graves said that he need to address the tweet he sent out on Saturday night. “It was an unpopular opinion…as I often do with the intention of just stirring up a little controversy and maybe have something fun to talk about on TV or here on the show. It was maybe not the most professional way to go about things…and it was never meant to offend or disrespect or disparage anybody,” Graves said.
Graves added, “That was never my intention and if it was taken as such, I apologize deeply. That was not my intention. I would never intentionally cause anybody any undue stress, especially a co-worker. So…I apologize.”
All Elite Wrestling is back at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois tonight for another episode of Dynamite.
The AEW World title will be up for grabs as Chris Jericho takes on Scorpio Sky following last week’s tag match which saw Sky pinning the champion. Hangman Page and MJF also go one-on-one with the winner getting the diamond ring presented by Diamond Dallas Page, and Cody will be returning to the ring after he was not cleared to compete following the Full Gear pay-per-view. Also scheduled for tonight is a Thanksgiving celebration with the Inner Circle.
AEW is looking to return to winning ways tonight after losing their first head-to-head battle with NXT last week.
POSTWrestling.com’s John Pollock has reported that Mauro Ranallo will not be at NXT tonight to do commentary and while communication between the two sides are open, it’s not even known yet if he will be back next week either.
Ranallo, who suffers from bipolar disorder, has been NXT’s main commentary man since his return in 2017 and was supposed to call at least one match at the Survivor Series this past Sunday. However, a disrespectful tweet from Corey Graves led to Ranallo deleting his Twitter and miss the pay-per-view.
Michael Cole painted a happier picture on the show saying that Ranallo was not there because he “lost his voice” but that was just a cover-up for what really went down. Cole also said that Ranallo would be at NXT this week to call the show but that obviously isn’t the case.
The series of events mimmic what went down a couple of years ago when Ranallo quit Smackdown and never returned following several reports of bullying by fellow commentator John “Bradshaw” Layfield.
Monday Night Raw drew just 2,109,000 viewers for the post-Survivor Series episode, meaning the show did not get the usual PPV bump and drew 18,000 less viewers than the previous week.
Hour one started with 2,241,000 viewers, then it went down to 2,190,000 viewers, before ending the night with 1,896,000 viewers. It’s the second non-holiday least-watched episode of Raw in modern-day era.
Raw was #4, #5, and #6 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and #10 in viewership on cable television. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Alexa Bliss is getting back in the ring this week at the Starrcade show in Duluth, Georgia.
WWE announced a new match for the show featuring Asuka and Kairi Sane taking on Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks and Bayley, and Bliss and Nikki Cross in a fatal four-way match for the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles.
Bliss has been out of action since the Hell In A Cell pay-per-view on October 6 and her last match was a tag team match with Cross against Asuka and Sane. She suffered an undisclosed injury which WWE described as minor but one which has kept Bliss for nearly two months.
One hour of this Starrcade event on December 1 will air live on the WWE Network but WWE has not yet announced which matches will be part of the broadcast.
