Summerslam in Wembley

GTR63

rovert wrote: »

There's also talk of having Summerslam 2014 in UK. Partly to boost UK interest in the product ahead of the TV rights negotiations. Partly they think they could make more money than having it in Los Angeles if they price the show correctly live gate wise. Biggest hurdles is forecasting the drop off in PPV buys in North America for a taped show and secondly could they fill Wembley. If they filled Wembley they could most likely offset the revenue lost on PPV.

Haven`t the buy rates been sagging for that event anyway?
Lesnar vs Punk nor Bryan vs Cena (despite being a rarity of fresh matches) failed to draw much interest tbh

rovert

GTR63 wrote: »

Haven`t the buy rates been sagging for that event anyway?
Lesnar vs Punk nor Bryan vs Cena (despite being a rarity of fresh matches) failed to draw much interest tbh

Yes and yes. A disaster compared to the 2012 number.

On another note Summerslam has quite the large fanfest before it so if they transport that to the UK it could be really cool.

Charisteas

rovert wrote: »

Biggest hurdles is forecasting the drop off in PPV buys in North America for a taped show

Well the show doesn't have to be taped, they can still broadcast live to the states. Understand that an 8pm bell time would mean 3pm for East coast, midday for Meltzer coast, but give people several months notice. I reckon most people would rather watch a live broadcast in the afternoon, rather than a tape delay in the evening.

rovert wrote: »

secondly could they fill Wembley.

Personally no I don't think so. 10 years ago maybe they would come very close. I wonder if filling Wembley would break the attendance record of 93,173?

GTR63

Charisteas wrote: »

Personally no I don't think so. 10 years ago maybe they would come very close. I wonder if filling Wembley would break the attendance record of 93,173?

Propane Nightmare

rovert wrote: »

If they filled Wembley they could most likely offset the revenue lost on PPV.

When you say Wembley, im hoping you mean Wembley Arena, the 13k seater, as there is not a chance they would even come close to filling Wembley Stadium. WWE is nowhere near popular enough these days to do that.

rovert

Propane Nightmare wrote: »

When you say Wembley, im hoping you mean Wembley Arena, the 13k seater, as there is not a chance they would even come close to filling Wembley Stadium. WWE is nowhere near popular enough these days to do that.

Stadium.

I am completely aware the WWF was a MASSIVE national fad in 1992. As evidenced in how much interest dropped off when they returned in 1993.

However the world is much smaller now than it was in 1992 with cheap Ryanair flights etc and the UK national infrastructure is better and more connected there's more of a chance than you might be giving credit for. I don't follow Soccer so I will admit those that do may have a leg up in terms of rendering an opinion on this.

Furious-Red

Yea i think they could pull of Wembley Stadium just for the fact that you will a lot of people around Europe being able to afford to go since the distance would not be near as long if they were going stateside

jaykhunter

I couldn't see WWE hosting SummerSlam in the UK (again), mostly because annually they do 2 rounds of house shows and TV tapings in Europe, and doing a PPV would harm business of those shows, it's the same well of fans. They'd get all huffy about timezones but Charisteas' solution is fine for one day! I bet they even hem & haw about going to Canada. I could see them doing SummerSlam in Mexico if it were safe & had the venue/power etc. If WWE has taught us nothing else is that when it comes to big money they go for the safe, easy option. Prove me wrong, Vince

gnfnrhead

Doubt it would be SummerSlam. Maybe a B level PPV instead of risking one of the big events bombing.

rovert

jaykhunter wrote: »

I couldn't see WWE hosting SummerSlam in the UK (again), mostly because annually they do 2 rounds of house shows and TV tapings in Europe, and doing a PPV would harm business of those shows, it's the same well of fans. They'd get all huffy about timezones but Charisteas' solution is fine for one day! I bet they even hem & haw about going to Canada. I could see them doing SummerSlam in Mexico if it were safe & had the venue/power etc. If WWE has taught us nothing else is that when it comes to big money they go for the safe, easy option. Prove me wrong, Vince

Wade Barrett vs Mason Ryan at Millennium Stadium it is then.

In terms of the UK house shows that is a concern but it could be offset by 75,000 odd people attending a massive stadium show too. The UK & Ireland house shows are in May not April so in theory you have one less month to promote the November ones. Maybe WWE have foreseen the issue you raised and have internally removed the second set of 2014 house shows from their schedule.

A Rogue Hobo

Reckon they could fill Wembley at the drop of a hat if they didn't structure a european tour around it. But I don't think it's gonna happen, tape delayed PPV's are a thing of the past and I don't think many casual American fans will buy a PPV that airs 12pm on a Sunday.

ShagNastii

A Rogue Hobo wrote: »

Reckon they could fill Wembley at the drop of a hat if they didn't structure a european tour around it. But I don't think it's gonna happen, tape delayed PPV's are a thing of the past and I don't think many casual American fans will buy a PPV that airs 12pm on a Sunday.

They could easily fill Wembley for a Mania or a Summerslam. I'm not even the most diehard anymore but I know me and my mates would be instabuys if it was one of the big events and spectacles.

I'd imagine a Summerslam would but a must see for a huge chunk here. People would travel big style.

Degag

I think they'd have to have an AMAZING card to come anywhere close to filling it.

Bounty Hunter

I guess Summerslam was there once before so has the history but I thought they were really trying to establish Summerslam in the staples center everyear where they now have a week long mania-esque list of events inc Access etc.

Would love if it happened though although im not holding out hope for it.

P_1

I'd say they'd be well able to pull off a sell out in Wembley, just look at the success of the NFL games there. An Axxess like event, followed by the PPV could work very well in my eyes, a European Wrestlemania if you may...

ShagNastii

IMO if Summerslam was mooted for Wembley it would definitely sell out. I'm no longer a diehard and I would see it as an instabuy. There are many like me I'd guess.

hufpc8w3adnk65

Yup if wwe done home work and had package deals from say Liverpool Manchester Dublin & Glasgow flights hotel transfers and access and Ppv "gold" tickets etc I know I'd be all over it!

rossie1977

Propane Nightmare wrote: »

When you say Wembley, im hoping you mean Wembley Arena, the 13k seater

wembley arena lol, wwe play houseshows these days in the o2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR15sKd6Ms4

takamichinoku

If they had the Rock, they could sell out while still doing house shows and stuff around Europe along with it. He also might help sustain the PPV sales for that year a bit (although if they're doing the network at that point, it shouldn't matter too much regardless?). The financial incentive would definitely be to try and boost their position for television contract negotiations though.

undertaker fan 88

would be excelent i know of at least 15 of me and my friends who would fly over from ireland if it was on.and thats just my friends i reckon there would be a good crowd

ShagNastii

It must not be understated the power of a whopper TV deal. The rumours going around that their could be a huge offer for the WWE in the pipeline.

If I'm correct I think a major part of the UFC coming here was honouring contractual agreement about staging an Irish event.

gerTheGreat

Surely the level of multi-year UK TV deal that we are talking about would justify the sacrificing, (or at least the risk of), a single poor PPV buy. If it helped stoke the coals in a bidding war between BT and Sky, you'd imagine that the payback would be well worth it.

GTR63

Source: The Wrestling Observer

According to a sources, there were reportedly discussions within the WWE on holding SummerSlam in London at Wembley Stadium. However, it appears the idea has now been nixed.
The feeling within the company is that the pay-per-view buyrates would be take a hard hit in the US as a result since the show would have to start at 3PM EST due to the timezone difference.

Decobuzz

Has anyone credible reported this?
Zero doubt in my mind Wembley would sell out.

9pm start in Wembley is 4pm start eastern time and 1pm western. Eastern time isn't bad but I suppose they could delay it by an hour or two

ShagNastii

Ya have to laugh about all the crap about timezones. Us Europeans spend our lives dealing with stupid 2am live kickoffs. The yanks on the other hand can't seem to fathom a PPV that's starts at a reasonable 1/2pm.

gerTheGreat

To be fair, their conditioned to think that the world stops at US boarders. Take for example their news. US news will rarely mention outside of the US baring natural disasters and wars.

Furious-Red

Surely the money they would make over the Summerslam weekend but make up for the buy rates over in America for 1 (yes i know its one of the big 4) ppv

LOTD

if they weren't sure if Wembly could sell out maybe try Old Trafford instead. Plus it's not the end of the world if American fans had to see it at a different time. We don't even get RAW live when it's in the UK, come on!

I think it be a great experience for European fans experiencing a fan axxess type thing which American fans get twice a year.

Business isn't what is was a few years ago but I definitely can see it selling out, WWE putting on a marquee event in the UK would do great business.

ShagNastii

I was thinking about this today. It would be amazing for the UK/European fans. But I'd imagine the WWE see "UK Raw and Smackdowns" as plenty enough for the fans this side of the pond. You have to admit they always deliver something special with these shows and from a business sense make a tonne load from the yearly European tours.

Could be a no need to shake the boat scenario.

LOTD

Not saying that they don't put on a great show. It has been 22 years since the WWE has brought a major event outside North America, I think.

The tours are cool, but a week long fan axxess type situation would be great, it would attract some serious business.

rovert

Meltzer's suggestion in the latest Observer:

Regarding the deal in last week’s issue regarding the talk during the European tour of SummerSlam in London, as I figured, it’s a longshot, as in it’s not going to happen because of the feeling a 3 p.m. start time on the East Coast and Noon on the West Coast would kill PPV business. The idea as talked about was Wembley Stadium and not the O2 Arena, the same site as the 1992 SummerSlam, which was the first and last time WWE did a PPV for the North American market from Europe. In that instance, the PPV was a delayed airing show the next day. Vince McMahon, when asked about the famed show that actually did a legitimate 79,128 fans, largest paid and total in company history (and a good chance the largest legit paid in world history), had said that they couldn’t do another one because the PPV didn’t do well. The PPV didn’t do well more because it was the first time they had done a major PPV without Hulk Hogan, and I can’t emphasize how big a factor that was in that era. I have no idea what they could draw in 2014 in a stadium in the U.K., because a SummerSlam is going to do far bigger than a TV taping. If they could fill it, the combination of the increase in live gate and increase in European PPV numbers may offset the decline in North America. I actually think there’s a real good chance they’d take in more money. You’d need not just the show but two more TV’s the next day, and likely set up house shows around it. But if they are timid about risking SummerSlam’s North American numbers, they could experiment with a “B” PPV from Europe that they did work on about a year ago. A “B” PPV may do 110,000 buys in North America for a normal time show and 45,000 in the U.K. and another 25,000 for the rest of Europe, airing at 1 a.m. or so. If you offer the show live at 3 p.m. in the U.S. and Canada and replay it in the more familiar slot on a time delay, how much of that 110,000 do you lose? The only estimate would be to look at how UFC PPV’s from Europe did based on what the same show would have done in North America at the time. So you may lose 25-30%., or let’s estimate 33,000 North American buys. But in Europe, since the show is there, it means more pub than usual, particularly London since the local market always goes way up on PPV buys. Plus, the show moves from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m., where you’re only drawing super hardcores to 8 p.m. where you can get families. It’s also a first for the market. So how much of an increase would there be in Europe? Certainly way more than 33,000 buys. But there are other costs involved, plus given the difference in what they make from a European buyer vs. North American buyer due to cost, you’d need a lot more than 33,000 to break even. But you could also charge more and draw more at the live gate because a real PPV hasn’t been held in Europe in 20 years, and even the U.K. only stuff ended more than a decade ago.

D.Q

rovert wrote: »

Meltzer's suggestion in the latest Observer:

I read that in his voice.

montyrebel

what if they took an idea from tna and did something along the lines of the one night only tapings, biggish ppv feel to it and something new for the fans that cant afford to travel to the usa etc

CSF

ShagNastii wrote: »

I was thinking about this today. It would be amazing for the UK/European fans. But I'd imagine the WWE see "UK Raw and Smackdowns" as plenty enough for the fans this side of the pond. You have to admit they always deliver something special with these shows and from a business sense make a tonne load from the yearly European tours.

Could be a no need to shake the boat scenario.

UK Raw recently was absolutely awful.

Loughc

CSF wrote: »

UK Raw recently was absolutely awful.

Raw recently has been awful not just the uk edition!

The Ayatolla

CSF wrote: »

UK Raw recently was absolutely awful.

100% agree.

I hit the jackpot last year in London with the Undertaker/ Team Hell No/Shield stuff.

Have ringside seats for Raw again in May, hopefully something big again will be in the works.

rossie1977

montyrebel wrote: »

what if they took an idea from tna and did something along the lines of the one night only tapings, biggish ppv feel to it and something new for the fans that cant afford to travel to the usa etc

been there done that, much better than tna do today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTfQNjsGs0Q

gnfnrhead

Insurrection and Rebellion were woeful stuff.

LOTD

gnfnrhead wrote: »

Insurrection and Rebellion were woeful stuff.

No they weren't they actually felt like events rather than being afterthought.

Charisteas

gnfnrhead wrote: »

Insurrection and Rebellion were woeful stuff.

They were much better than the Raw's and Smackdown's that have been in England the last couple of years, some of them were quality shows at a PPV standard apart from the only downer being that the WWF Championship was never going to change hands.

gnfnrhead

The last Insurrextion featured matches like Triple H vs Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner vs Test, The Dudleys vs Chris Nowinski, Rodney Mack and Teddy Long(!!!!) and Goldust vs Rico.

They were the bare minimum in regards effort by the end. The first one wasnt bad but they quickly went off a cliff.

LOTD

gnfnrhead wrote: »

The last Insurrextion featured matches like Triple H vs Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner vs Test, The Dudleys vs Chris Nowinski, Rodney Mack and Teddy Long(!!!!) and Goldust vs Rico.

They were the bare minimum in regards effort by the end. The first one wasnt bad but they quickly went off a cliff.

To be honest americans got matches like that as well, business by that stage wasn't as hot as before and a lot of guys like Rock and Austin were gone by that stage.

2003 was pretty woeful but you can't just disregard the other events from previous years, that's lazy.

As said before, titles never really changed but there was good matches.

Plus WWE had good events in the late 90s like One Night Only and Capital Carnage (Which might be more remembered for a certain incident then any match that night)

Charisteas

gnfnrhead wrote: »

The last Insurrextion featured matches like Triple H vs Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner vs Test, The Dudleys vs Chris Nowinski, Rodney Mack and Teddy Long(!!!!) and Goldust vs Rico.

Teddy Long actually in a tag-match, dats history right there playa!

The Insurextion card really could have used Flair vs Michaels, instead of them only being in the corner of Triple H/Nash in the main event, but there was about 4 or 5 matches which also then featured in the Bad Blood PPV which followed, so probably a reflection of the brand split more than just randomly booking the card 5 hours before the show.

rossie1977

gnfnrhead wrote: »

The last Insurrextion featured matches like Triple H vs Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner vs Test, The Dudleys vs Chris Nowinski, Rodney Mack and Teddy Long(!!!!) and Goldust vs Rico.

i was at that show and it was enjoyable. they basically held the same show a week later on ppv in america ie bad blood. for me though the highlight reel was the "highlight" of that final uk ppv

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N97-P9E1ndg