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Welcome back to the Excellence in Column Writing, coming to you just before PAY PER VIEW WEEKEND in terms of NXT and WWE hosting big events on the WWE Network. For wrestling fans, this is a great weekend. Instead of watching RAW and Smackdown which are filled with backstage segments, in-ring talking promos, video promos, and a general lack of good in-ring matches. Pay Per View events (or "special events" on WWE Network) are truly the last shows where you get to see actual good pro wrestling. I'm seriously considering "cutting the cord" on Cable and therefore, my main wrestling viewership will be on the WWE Network. Anyway, I wanted to write a SummerSlam themed column in addition to what I wrote on Monday. In case you missed it and you want my SummerSlam 2015 Predictions, click here. There have been a few developments since Monday which might cause me to change a prediction or two, but I'll stick to my guns. Looks like an exciting show with some real potential for "Match of the Year" candidates and great moments. In my opinion, this should be a show where multiple wrestlers should STEP UP in order to impress WWE Officials for Royal Rumble/Wrestlemania season. I'm looking at you Seth Rollins, Sheamus, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Roman Reigns, and others. Time for the Undertaker to redeem himself with a better performance against Brock Lesnar. Back in the day, what made SummerSlam so great was because the event acted like a sequel to Wrestlemania. Take SummerSlam 1988, for example... At Wrestlemania 4, the ending saw Hulk Hogan helping Randy Savage overcome Ted Dibiase in the finals of the WWE Title tournament. Hogan and Savage formed the famous MEGA POWERS team and Dibiase teamed up with Andre "the Giant to form the MEGA BUCKS. Then, at SummerSlam 1988, those two teams collided. Take the following year, SummerSlam 1989, it was Hulk Hogan/Brutus "the Barber" Beefcake vs. Randy Savage/Zeus as a follow-up to Wrestlemania 5 where the MEGA POWERS exploded after their break-up. SummerSlam 1989 also plays on the No Holds Barred film where Hulk Hogan, the actor, took on Zeus (played by Tiny Lister, most know him as Deebo from Friday). WWE would do the same thing at SummerSlam 1991 with Hogan/Warrior against Sgt. Slaughter/Colonel Mustafa to keep the Desert Storm War going in the WWE... But SummerSlam would also serve as the new WWE Champion's first BIG match. In 1991, the Ultimate Warrior fought "Ravishing" Rick Rude in his first true high profile WWE Title match while "Macho Man" Randy Savage defended his WWE Title against the Ultimate Warrior, the guy who retired Savage more than a year before at Wrestlemania 7. Then, at SummerSlam 1993, Yokozuna defended his regained WWE Title (won it at Wrestlemania 9 then lost it to Hogan and then regained it at KOTR 1993) against "All American" Lex Luger. Then, in 1994, Bret "the Hitman" Hart gave Owen Hart a rematch after Hart regained his WWE Title at Wrestlemania 10. At that same Wrestlemania 10 event, Owen Hart beat Bret before Bret went on to defeat Yokozuna for the WWE Title. The beauty of the Wrestlemania to SummerSlam timeframe is that Wrestlemania was usually held in April and SummerSlam was in August... FOUR MONTHS LATER! Think about that for a second... FOUR MONTHS! That's an enterity in pro wrestling right now given that Pay Per Views are now monthly. The Monday Night Wars pushed the WWE to create monthly Pay Per Views and that hasn't stopped... In addition to the classic "Big 4" Pay Per Views (Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series), you have 8 (sometimes 9, sometimes more) other Pay Per Views. Sometimes, since the early 2000's, SummerSlam and Survivor Series have become just regular Pay Per Views. For example, Money in the Bank has been a pretty good show lately and that's just a month before SummerSlam. After all, that event features a Ladder Match that may determine the future WWE or World Champion. SummerSlam used to be a sequel to Wrestlemania but the changes in the Pay Per View schedule has eroded that magic... If the WWE waited 4 months for the next big twist in a storyline or a feud, the internet would lose their minds. Let me explain how much I have loved the SummerSlam event... It all dates back to when I became a pro wrestling fan. I casually knew about pro wrestling during the mid-to-late 1980's because you couldn't avoid it. Hulk Hogan was a HUGE star and it was a topic of discussion at elementary school when I was a child. I remember hearing about the Hulk vs. Andre Wrestlemania 3 event and I remember my brother buying packs of WWE trading cards that were Wrestlemania 3 themed. However, it wasn't until an Uncle showed me a tape of Ric Flair vs. Sting at Clash of the Champions #1 during late 1988 that got me hooked. I was fully invested in that match and actually believed that Sting would become NWA/WCW World Champion that night. That match hooked me and I began watching NWA/WCW regularly along with WWE's programming more and more. I was a dedicated viewer for BOTH NWA/WCW and WWE during 1989 and began renting all big events. My neighbor rented SummerSlam 1988 during early 1989 and I was blown away... First and foremost, that Ultimate Warrior victory over the Honky Tonk Man. Granted, I'm 8 years old and instantly became a BIG Sting mark from that Clash 1... So when I saw a guy run to the ring like a maniac with facepaint similar to Sting's but had longer hair and tassels hanging form his arms, I marked out instantly. I could not believe it... Within a few months, I bought a Wrestling Buddy and several action figures of the Warrior. He was a GOD to me... Months later, I was FURIOUS when Bobby Heenan screwed Warrior out of the Intercontinental Title at Wrestlemania 5. Damn him!!! And that was the fascinating thing about the early SummerSlam events... Look at how important the Intercontinental Title was... As already described by SummerSlam 1988, the Ultimate Warrior became a star when he won the Intercontinental Title from Honky Tonk Man... Then, the Ultimate Warrior regained that important Intercontinental Title from Rick Rude at SummerSlam 1989. Kerry Von Erich beat Curt Hennig at SummerSlam 1990 in what could have springboarded Kerry's career in the WWE. Then, Curt Hennig did the honors once again at SummerSlam 1991 by putting over Bret Hart in one of the best matches, ever. I recently rewatched that match on WWE Network and was amazed at how tight and efficient those two were together. Watching the Hennig documentary on WWE Network, I didn't know that the poor guy was suffering from his back injury then. What an amazing worker... Then, of course, we have the 1992 SummerSlam where Bret Hart put over the British Bulldog for the IC Title. Crazy moment from England as Bulldog's homecourt advantage and an impressive performance by Hitman who was apparently carrying a pretty impaired Bulldog during those times. I've always said that the 1991 Hitman/Hennig match influenced Bret Hart on how to be a worker and it showed at the 1992 SummerSlam match with Bulldog. Look at today's midcard titles... Footnotes at most WWE events. The Intercontinental Title is a joke and the US Title is an accessory to John Cena. What makes SummerSlam GREAT are the big moments in WWE history. Already mentioned many GREAT Intercontinental Title moments which legitimately made brand new stars of tomorrow (Warrior, Hennig, Hart, Bulldog, etc.). But going back to SummerSlam 1988 with the match between the MEGA BUCKS (Dibiase/Andre) vs. MEGA POWERS (Savage/Hogan)... As an 8 year old boy, I believe that I became 100% straight, without a question, when Miss Elizabeth tore off her dress to distract Andre and Dibiase. Holy cow, those red panties... Between that and Vanna White on Wheel of Fortune, I easily found out that I really like women... Yes, yes, yes... Elizabeth's moment was so shocking because you never saw in pro wrestling back then or ever. That Mega Powers victory and Hogan celebrating with her afterward began the slow destruction of Savage as a babyface wrestler. Oh damn, things were about to heat up! Speaking of Miss Elizabeth, you gotta love that wedding with "Macho Man" Randy Savage at SummerSlam 1991. Classic stuff... Fans who watched Savage's storyline arc from Wrestlemania 2 through 7 really saw the payoff of Savage's evolution as a character. You nearly wanted to cry after Elizabeth and Savage reunited at Wrestlemania 7. Ohhhhhh yeah... Wasn't sure on what to think of the Undertaker vs. Undertaker match for 1994's SummerSlam event. Just a bizarre match with the fake being very obvious and I thought it was the peak of the mysterious stuff WWE tried to pull with the Undertaker since late 1991. Eventually, WWE needed to use Undertaker as a serious main eventer... Oh wait, WWE wasted him for another year at SummerSlam 1995 against Kama. But then there was SummerSlam 1996 in the Boiler Room Brawl with Mankind (Mick Foley). Yes, indeed... In my opinion, Foley helped the Undertaker wake up from his 5 year coma and become a better wrestler and main eventer for the WWE. Finally, Undertaker was allowed to wrestle a guy who could move a little big... Foley brought the best out of the Undertaker and the Boiler Room Brawl helped make a star out of Foley quickly in the WWE. Foley was so good at SummerSlam that it earned him a shot at the WWE Title at In Your House: Mind Games in an excellent match with Shawn Michaels. And THEN the Undertaker follows up his 1996 effort against Mankind with good matches against Bret Hart in 1997 and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin in 1998. And guess what? Undertaker put over both wrestlers. Granted, Undertaker lost to Bret Hart because Shawn Michaels, special guest referee, clocked the Taker with a chair when trying to hit Bret. That chairshot set up an AMAZING feud between Michaels and the Undertaker and led to the first ever Hell in a Cell match. Great, great match and it introduced Kane for the first time at the In Your House Badd Blood 1997 event. But then have SummerSlam 1998... Undertaker put Steve Austin over 100% clean and then shook his hand afterward. That's how you do business, folks. Amazing show of respect and it just thickened Austin as a main event level star. Speaking of that 1998 SummerSlam, it's the event that presented Triple H and the Rock as Main Event level stars to fans. Now granted, they didn't wrestle world's greatest ladder match... If you were expecting amazing bumps from this match, it didn't happen as much as other matches. The Rock could have walked up that ladder a little faster... But listen to the crowd. They are fully invested in both wrestlers as the Rock was amazing on the microphone that year and Triple H did great stuff with Degeneration X. It freed Rock up to eventually become WWE Champion at Survivor Series 1998 and started to push Triple H as a more serious singles wrestler. This match went over its time limit, as HHH/Rock turned down multiple "go home" calls by the referee and reportedly pissed off many backstage in the process (also cutting Austin/Taker short). Sadly, Triple H was actually denied the WWE Title at the 1999 SummerSlam when Mankind won instead. There were politics backstage that caused Foley to be added to the match as opposed to Triple H winning the title outright from Steve Austin. Stains the 1999 SummerSlam, in my opinion... First ever Tables, Ladders, and Chairs (TLC) match at SummerSlam 2000, although the first true one happened at Wrestlemania 16. How the Hardys, Edge/Christian, and the Dudleys can still walk, to this day, is just amazing to me. Sadly, SummerSlam 2001 was uneventful with the WCW/ECW Invasion but Kurt Angle vs. Steve Austin was good as always. But then, the following year may have had the BEST SummerSlam of all time. Go watch SummerSlam 2002 on your WWE Network... It is an AMAZING event. First and foremost, the Rock does the ultimate favor for Brock Lesnar by putting him over 100% clean for the WWE Title. The timing was perfect... Rock's peak was over and fans were turning on him while the timing for the quick learning Brock Lesnar was good. It was a win that made Lesnar a major star in the pro wrestling business for the next year and a half before he quit the WWE following Wrestlemania 20 in 2004. But this match, as big as it was, is actually outshadowed by Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels. Michaels destroyed his back at Royal Rumble 1998 and this was his first official WWE match since Wrestlemania 14. AMAZING match and was "Match of the Year" by many publications. Michaels didn't miss a step and Triple H was his perfect complement as a worker. Two HUGE matches on one show and then the midcard doesn't disappoint with Angle/Mysterio, Jericho/Flair, and Guerrero/Edge. The second ever Elimination Chamber match was at SummerSlam 2003. Pretty exciting, to be honest, especially the build up of Bill Goldberg finally getting released. Easily, the most over moment for Goldberg and yet he still lost to a badly injured Triple H at that time (groin injury, I think). But what I mostly remember from that event is the poster with Sable on it... Yes indeed. Did not like SummerSlam 2004 with Randy Orton being pushed too early towards the World Title. Just way too early... Worse yet, the WWE wanted to push him as a babyface on top of that. Orton had some good matches on the midcard and the talent was there but the connection with fans as a babyface was not. As a result, his World Heavyweight Title reign ended quickly and more than 10 title reigns later, the WWE still can't figure out his character. To this day, WWE has repeatedly made the same Orton mistake to other wrestlers with the assumption that the World Title will get he wrestler over and NOT the over wrestler should deserve the World Title. Shawn Michaels vs. Hulk Hogan at the 2005 SummerSlam... Lots of backstage politics surrounding what could have been a fun feud. There were supposed to be 2 HBK/Hogan matches with the victories being split... However, Hulk Hogan wanted 1 match with Hogan winning the match. Shawn Michaels was legitimately upset with this decision and oversells everything in this match... Crazy stuff. HBK's promo in Montreal, however, was worth watching leading up to this feud. We had a brief taste of the HEEL Shawn that we so loved during 1997-1998. I really enjoyed the Chris Jericho vs. John Cena match from this show as I believe it was Jericho's last show for a while during this period of time. The late 2000's SummerSlams are actually a blur to me... They felt like regular WWE Pay Per Views and not significant as prior SummerSlams were. Then again, I did have my self-imposed WWE boycott from 2007 through late 2009 so thus the shows during that time were watched later and not live. It wasn't until SummerSlam 2011 where the event caught my attention again. John Cena vs. CM Punk for both WWE Title was a good match but I HATE the ending with Kevin Nash mysteriously attacking and Alberto Del Rio cashing in the Money in the Bank briefcase. This booking move not only put the breaks on the "Summer of Punk", but Alberto Del Rio wasn't ready to carry the RAW brand at that time. We still don't know why Kevin Nash attacked. Poor booking... BIG match-up at SummerSlam 2012 with Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar. Though many don't consider it to be a wrestling classic, it was a major drawing show for the WWE at that time. Fans wanted to see that match-up. 60,000 more buys than the previous year... Tough act to follow, SummerSlam 2013 was GREAT... Even though the buys don't show it, as it had a major dropoff from the previous year (losing 60,000 viewers), the match quality is off the charts. CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar was my 2013 "Match of the Year" and I would possibly argue it as the best Lesnar match to date... Just a complete battle with seething hatred that you could feel through the screen. Amazing storylines between CM Punk and Paul Heyman to build this match up. But then, you have a big moment with John Cena putting over Daniel Bryan 100% clean in a great match as well. Sadly, that great accomplishment was short lived as Randy Orton cashed in his Money in the Bank contract after special guest referee Triple H turned heel and attacked Daniel Bryan. Bryan would have to endure many booking battles to finally get revenge on Triple H at Wrestlemania 30. SummerSlam 2014, last year's event, had the internet loving the destruction of John Cena by Brock Lesnar. I hated this match... You don't destroy your top drawing wrestler like this, particularly to a part-time wrestler who could have left the company in 2015. Questionable booking decision, in my opinion, which could have been made worse if WWE let Roman Reigns be the one who beat Lesnar cleanly at Wrestlemania 31 (which could have been Lesnar's last day with WWE). Did not like it... Rest of the show had good matches although Roman Reigns winning over Randy Orton in a dull match did nothing for me. I'm still wondering why Nikki Bella turned on Brie Bella because they reunited soon after this event... As you can see from most of the years, SummerSlam has been an important event for the WWE and this year should be no different. ================================================== PHAT QUESTIONS Question #1 - You've described costs of the WWE Network other than bandwidth. Do explain. First and foremost, bandwidth is the biggest expense hog for the streaming WWE Network particularly as WWE has more and more live events on the Network where many are streaming simultaneously. Here are some expenses to the WWE Network that many don't consider: - Royalties to wrestlers. Thank you Jesse Ventura for suing the WWE over his voice and likeness. There's probably a lot of kickbacks to the wrestlers and personalities based on the content that airs or streams on the WWE Network. The likeness, personality, and voice are unique properties of WWE performers and WWE has to pay up. - Converting old stuff to digital. Not cheap to clean up film and ensure that it looks moderately well on streaming HD video. - Debit/Credit Card costs. Many don't think this way... WWE Network requires you to utilize a Credit or Debit card of some sorts. Well, there's a cost... WWE has to pay interchange fees through the Visa/Mastercard network that gets transferred, in part, to the issuer or bank of the cards. The maximum interchange fee per transaction is around 24 cents per transaction. I can imagine that the WWE already has this, along with other costs, built into the $9.99 monthly bill. That 24 cents adds up... If you have 1,000,000 subscribers paying for all 12 months, the WWE has potential to be losing about $3,000,000 in revenues paid via interchange fees. Yikes. They also have to consider Card transaction disputes... Regulation E states that consumers can dispute any electronic funded transfers that post to their accounts. So if someone takes your card and runs up charges, you have every right to dispute those at your financial institution. When the dispute occurs, it is sent to the merchant (WWE) to respond and prove authorization of the charge. Gets messy and can be time consuming for WWE staff I can imagine. - Security... WWE is hosting Debit/Credit Card numbers on a server. They have to protect that data from a breach, as they are required to do so by regulation. I could imagine that recent hacking events has beefed up WWE.com's security surrounding logins and protecting card numbers. - Possible payoffs to Internet companies. Not sure if WWE Network is big enough to matter, but Netflix had to settle with Comcast over paying additional fees for bandwidth use of their server. Granted, Netflix has about 50 million subscribers worldwide to WWE Network's 1 million. So yeah, WWE Network is expensive to run and operate in addition to all of the man hours and production of newer content. -------------------------------------- Question #2 - Should pro wrestling have an off-season? To freshen up their product, sure... Financially, no. WWE is still too dependent on the television deals to survive. Not only do the TV deals pay up (almost $200 million annually), but they also heavily promote WWE Network and Pay Per Views. They'd die tomorrow if USA Networks cancelled them and nobody picked them up. -------------------------------------- Question #3 - Should I start my own pro wrestling website? Good luck because LordsofPain.net / WrestlingHeadlines.com is the very best... Listen, if you put your mind to it and are wiling to work hard for something, you can achieve anything in life. Never let anyone get in the way of your hopes and dreams... However, good luck with the wrestling website. You're going up against years upon years of Google searches of the top wrestling sites that keep those sites at the top of the search engine. You have that built-in infrastructure going against you. Furthermore, and I found this out with my columns... Twitter changed its policies on Trending items. Now, it only shows the most favorited or retweeted post. In the past, you could use hash tags and everyone would see your posts. Now, however, it's only if it has been favorited or retweeted multiple times. This makes it difficult to trend your content. Pro wrestling is a shrinking business in terms of sheer # of fans. Therefore, getting into a crowded market could be tough. Plus, you better have the free time to provide content to the website. I tried this with the separate Mr. Tito website on LoP during early 2012 and I quickly burned himself trying to keep up with new posts. Very difficult to do and that's why guys like Calvin Martin, webmaster of LoP/WH, should be commended for running this ship well for 18 years now. ------------------------------------- Question #4 - In light of the Stock Market seeing declines this week, should I consider buying the WWE stock as a safe haven or buying the dip? I proved in a few other columns that the WWE Stock actually appears to act differently from the rest of the market and appears unaffected by the economy. Because WWE has such a stranglehold on the pro wrestling industry, even during bad times, ratings and houseshow numbers are solid. Everything with the WWE appears to be strictly financial on how they do from quarter to quarter and potential business in the future. Doesn't appear to be economic. That being said, and I strongly suggest that you invest at your own risk... I don't like the WWE Stock above $12 but would consider buying below $12. WWE's stock fluctuates too much for my liking and I like to hold stocks for a long period of time. With the Comast/NBC/Universal contact being up in 3-4 years and ratings going down now, I really don't like this stock long-term. Thus, it's a Buy Low/Sell High stock and not much of a keeper even though the dividends are decent. All WWE has to do is lose their Cable TV deal and it's over... Bad for the stock. WWE stock is priced at $20.54 with a slight decline over the past 2 days of the market's overall decline. Historically speaking, that's a high price for the WWE stock right now. If you bought low, it's at a price point where you could sell... I personally would invest in other industries, but I'm old school with my investments... WWE is too risky that even when 1 guy, Hulk Hogan, says racial slurs, it forces WWE to act quickly to avoid any PR damage. SO JUST CHILL... 'TIL THE NEXT EPISODE! Comments and feedback are welcome. Follow and Tweet me @titowrestling or login in below to post comments. © Mr. Tito and LordsofPain.net/WrestlingHeadlines.com - 1998-2015
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