WWE Week in Review July 21-27, 2019

I was thinking perhaps Vinnie Mac or Shane would come out to draw some heat while Austin was in the ring, but that did not happen either. Or maybe Kevin Owens would appear and have some friendly banter with Austin about using his finisher. Neither occurred. What did transpire is John Cena opening the show doing a rap battle with the Uso’s. I thought his comment about the Uso’s (particular Jimmy’s) recent arrest for DUI was done in very poor taste. There is nothing humorous about that.

We saw local guy Randy Rowe take one of the worst beatings I have ever seen on Raw courtesy of Braun Strowman. Poor Randy was launched across the ring numerous times in the air. I know the enhancement talent used to get $200 for getting squashed. I heard that number has increased to $500, but even that much wouldn’t convince me to take a whipping like that. Samoa Joe took on Roman Reigns had no clear finish, which leads me to believe we will see those 2 go at it on August 11 in Toronto at Summer Slam. Joe hasn’t had very many big wins since joining the main roster, but it would be reasonable to think he gets one there.

My favorite moment of the night was the arrival of the Hardcore Legend himself, Mick Foley. He talked about the great Raw moments which included his first WWE title win over the Rock which aired January 4, 1999. He was interrupted by “the fiend” Bray Wyatt who preceded to apply the Mandible Claw to Mrs. Foley’s baby boy. I will admit I marked out for this segment as I am a big fan of both guys. We found out the next night on Smackdown Live it will be “the fiend’ Bray Wyatt vs Finn Balor at Summer Slam.

The show closed with a big celebration toast led by arguably the greatest Raw star of all-time Steve Austin. The show never drew higher numbers than when Austin was at his peak, so that is a fair statement.

Smackdown Live began with further storyline on the Shane McMahon/Kevin Owens feud. I think it has been very well done thus far, but haven’t we seen this before culminating in their Hell in a Cell Match in 2017? (I was there!) Owens has been fantastic in this rivalry and it is no secret he has been given more liberty to be himself. Reminds me of the feud he had with SCUM in Ring of Honor before he won the title.

Dolph Ziggler showed up on the MIZ TV segment with Shawn Michaels. All 3 guys were great here with Miz eating a kick from Ziggler that was intended for HBK. I am not certain if they are going with yet another Ziggler/Miz match or Ziggler/HBK? Shawn is one of the greatest of all-time, but the last time we saw him in the ring it was not a site to behold. So not sure how many people would be clamoring to see that.

WWE Champion Kofi Kingston had the mic and announced his opponent for Summer Slam would be the “Legend Killer” himself Randy Orton. They played a video from their encounter in 2009 on Raw at Madison Square Garden. I remember that show well. Kofi had just 86’d the Jamaican accent gimmick and was starting to be more of a bad @ss. What Orton said about telling management that Kofi wasn’t ready for a main event run probably had some truth behind it. Kofi’s push was halted not long after that while Orton went on to continue in the main event scene. My prediction is that Orton puts him over at Summer Slam.

Main event saw Reigns vs Owens which wasn’t really much of a match due to interference courtesy of Drew McIntyre and Elias. I will give credit to Shane. He took some bumps in this sequence that the fans ate up. He took not only the Reigns spear but the Stunner from Owens as well. My guess is that he evens the score next week or perhaps the Tuesday before Summer Slam.

I counted only about 20 minutes of actual wrestling on the show. However, the show was very good at furthering story lines and some of the feuds really gained momentum heading to Toronto. It proves you don’t necessarily need good wrestling to have a successful show. It helps, but this week was definitely true.

WWE Financials were reported this past Thursday on their quarterly conference call. I have learned as I get older I become more interested in the business side of WWE. As everyone is aware, WWE ratings have been struggling for most of 2019 and house attendance is down (which reflects merchandise numbers). If it weren’t for the FOX/NBC Universal deals just signed, coupled with the obscene revenue from the Saudi Arabia shows, the company’s financials would look similar to 1994-95.

Anyway, here are some of the bullet points.

—-Vince McMahon stated the product will be edgier (as we have already seen) but not straying away from PG rating. Obviously, he doesn’t want to lose sponsors. I am not sure if this is good or bad. You could debate bad since the high point of the business was during the TV 14 era. You could debate good as if the kids are watching and remain fans as they get older, it will benefit more long term.

—-He mentioned a “potential competitor” but did not state AEW by name. Also stated there are 2 new “executives” for Raw and Smackdown, but once again did not acknowledge any names.

—-He is excited about the move to FOX for Smackdown Live. He quoted it will be available in 33% more homes.

—-Overall revenue was down $13 Million compared to the first quarter of 2018 (no surprise there).

—-Average number of subscribers to the WWE Network was 1.69 Million.

—-Domestic TV rating for Raw has declined 14% in 1st quarter of 2019 but improved a year over year decline of 11% in June. Same rating for Smackdown has declined 13% for 1st quarter of 2019 but improved to a decline of 7% for June. He did not mention that 3 Raw’s this year were the lowest rated of all-time in the 26+ year history of the show, but sadly that is fact.

—Average house show attendance is down 12% in 1st quarter and 2% in 2nd quarter.

Other than that, I didn’t think anything else was real newsworthy on the call. The move to FOX won’t occur until the 4th quarter, so I look for the 3rd quarter revenue to be about the same as the 2nd. Competition will be good for WWE. It was announced this week AEW will be airing on Wednesday Nights from 8-10pm on TNT. With that being said, will be interesting to see if NXT moves from Wednesdays at 8pm.

Well, that is about it for now. Hope you enjoyed the recap. Obviously, I could not touch on everything that occurred on the shows, but tried to mention the highlights. Till next time. 🙂