– It was announced during the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view that the official attendance for the show was was 14,101. The show was legitimately sold out.
– According to fans who were in attendance, Daniel Bryan got the biggest pop of the night from the live crowd. As we heard on television, The Wyatt Family vs. The Shield match also got a very strong fan response. Whenever footage of Hulk Hogan was shown on the big screen, he got a big pop as well.
– Batista got heavily booed during his match with Alberto Del Rio, with loud chants of “Bootista.” Fans also chanted “Si! Si! Si!” when Del Rio attacked Batista with his crutch before the match.
WWE blasted Batista’s music when he made his entrance, which barely drowned out the boos.
– Speaking of Batista, there are various reports that he might have suffered an injury to his left arm during his match against Alberto Del Rio. He’s not expected to miss any ring time.
WWE released their Q4 2013 and Full Year financial results on Thursday morning. Here are the final pay-per-view buy rates:
Battleground in October: 114,000
Hell in a Cell in October: 228,000 (up from 199,000 in 2012)
Survivor Series in November: 177,000 (down from 208,000 in 2012)
TLC in December: 181,000 (up from 175,000 in 2012)
Without factoring in WWE Battleground (which was a new pay-per-view in 2013), WWE sold 586,000 buyrates in the quarter, up from 582,000 in 2012.
The buyrate for Hell in a Cell was the show’s best since it debuted in 2009 – and the Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton main event outdrew the John Cena vs. Randy Orton WWE World Heavyweight Championship Unification match by a wide margin (26%).
Overall, you can see that pay-per-view is no longer a growth sector for WWE, which makes it an opportune time for WWE to transition those shows to the WWE Network.
– The New York Post has published an article looking at WWE’s ongoing TV rights fees negotiations and NBCUniversal’s exclusive negotiating period expiring last week.
– USA Today has published a long article looking at Daniel Bryan’s “Yes Movement” crossing over into mainstream pop culture. Bryan was quoted in the article, saying,
“People like to do it because it’s fun and it’s interactive,” he said. “When you’re part of an arena, a whole arena with thousands upon thousands of people doing it, it’s very, very surreal.
“I don’t know what is going on in my world that this happened,” he added. “Now these basketball teams are doing something that I made popular. How this all happened is surreal.”
WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross has updated his blog with some thoughts about Monday’s RAW, which you can read in its entirety at JRsBarBQ.com. Here are some highlights of what JR said about:
Rising Stars Getting Exposure “For many it was a good night of exposure: Daniel Bryan, who just a few weeks ago was being eulogized by many of his fans, the Shield, who had multiple ‘moments’ throughout the broadcast, Cesaro, who is so good just ring the bell and watch him demonstrate the art form of in ring wrestling, The Wyatt’s, who are rapidly evolving as stars and who, along with the Shield, have the opportunity to turn even more heads coming up on PPV.”
Roman Reigns: “Roman Reigns winning with his spear over Mark Henry was big…no pun intended. If I had to pick an early favorite to either be the WWE World Champion at WM31 or to win the title there, it would be Reigns. How Roman Reigns is ‘built’ going forward is imperative to the long term success of WWE as it relates to constructing the next, major, WWE superstar.”
Cesaro vs. John Cena: “Loved the Cena vs. Cesaro match. One of the best matches that Cena has had in a while. Cesaro is on the cusp of breaking through. Got lots of feedback on why Cesaro did not win and certainly, as it is almost always, an argument can be made on the topic of who wins and who loses. With great commentary, the loser can come out of a great presentation better than when going into the match. I thought Cesaro was made whole after Cena pulled one out in the bottom of the 9th that could have gone either way.”
Monday’s episode of WWE RAW from Denver, Colorado went off the air with participants of Sunday’s Elimination Chamber match, The Shield and The Wyatt Family brawling.
After RAW went off the air, John Cena, Daniel Bryan, Cesaro, Sheamus and Dean Ambrose were the last men left in the ring. Cesaro gave Ambrose the Cesaro Swing and got him around nearly 30 times before releasing him. A dazed Ambrose finally got up and got hit with a Brogue kick from Sheamus. Cesaro and Sheamus left the ring.
Ambrose got back up and Cena hit him with an Attitude Adjustment. As Cena left the ring, the crowd erupted with a Yes! chant for the final babyface left – Daniel Bryan.
Bryan hit Ambrose with his running knee and got a huge pop. The Yes! chant continued as Daniel Bryan celebrated with fans at ringside.
– Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella celebrated their third anniversary as a couple this past weekend. As previously reported, the two will be getting married this April.
– Speaking of WWE couples, the following is a video of The Miz and Maryse at the Hall Of Game Awards this past weekend:
WWE Superstar John Cena recently spoke to Zap2It to promote his new BodyChange fitness program. The following are highlights from the interview.
On Daniel Bryan’s popularity: “Predicting the next WWE Superstar is like predicting the crooked stock market at the turn of the 19th century. You just can’t. That’s what’s beautiful about the WWE audience, that’s why I love it so much. It changes everyday, every arena, every city. I don’t know who will be next but I will keep trying to put people front and center so the WWE Universe gets a good look at people.”
On the CM Punk situation: “Don’t even know. There’s one dude who knows all the answers to that and that’s him.”
WWE has begun looking ahead to the March 3rd RAW show in Chicago, Illinois, the hometown of CM Punk. There is said to be a considerable amount of concern within the company as to how the crowd will react at that show. With both Hulk Hogan and The Undertaker returning to RAW the week prior in Green Bay, there is some talk of bringing those two into the Chicago RAW as well, as a way to combat the Punk chants.
Despite the concern, there is said to be less than originally feared after Monday’s show in Los Angeles. Since the chants haven’t been too passionate or long-lasting, especially at the L.A. show, WWE feels that it may not be a situation that gets out of control like the recent Daniel Bryan hijacking fiasco.
Regarding the L.A. RAW, WWE feared fans would hijack the Randy Orton vs. John Cena main event, so they had Daniel Bryan go out twice. The idea was to bring Bryan out early, and again before the main event, as to let the fans get the chanting out of their system before the main event began.
– It’s rumored that The Usos will be getting a WWE tag team title shot against The New Age Outlaws at the upcoming Elimination Chamber pay-per-view on February 23rd.
– Daniel Bryan’s opponent at WrestleMania XXX remains undecided. Following the WWE departure of CM Punk, Bryan has been discussed as a possible opponent for Triple H at WrestleMania There’s also talk of Bryan being added to the Randy Orton vs. Batista WWE World Heavyweight title match. However, based on the way Orton has been booked in recent weeks, it remains to be seen if Orton will still be champion in 2 weeks time.
It appears that Bryan’s proposed match against Shemus is no longer being considered and WWE might wait until after Elimination Chamber to make a decision.
– WWE superstar Daniel Bryan appeared on “NFL Total Access” on the NFL Network on Tuesday night and talked about some of the league’s best beards. You can view the video at NFL.com.
– The 2014 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony will air live on the WWE Network on Saturday, April 5. Triple H made the announcement during an interview with Michael Cole that was shown to the live crowd at Tueday night’s Main Event tapings from Ontario, California.
– During a commercial break of Monday’s WWE RAW, Shield member Seth Rollins grabbed a microphone and responded to fans chanting “CM Punk” by asking them, “CM Who?”
He continued, “That’s Dean Ambrose the United States champion. The man every guy wants to be and every woman wants to be with.”
The Shield did a similar routine over the weekend, running down CM Punk at live events.
– The dark match main event that took place after RAW went off the air saw John Cena, Daniel Bryan and Batista defeat the Wyatt Family by disqualification. The finish came when Bray Wyatt and Eric Rowan attacked Batista, who had given Luke Harper a spear and was about to give him a Batista Bomb.
Cena and Bryan then chased Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper out of the ring, leaving Rowan alone with the babyfaces. Cena hit him with the AA, Batista hit him with the spear, and Bryan hit him with a running knee to end the show.
– Layla wrote the following on Instagram, denying rumors that she won’t be returning to the ring:
“I will be back soon … Don’t listen to the rumors!!!”
– Brie Bella recently spoke with Bang Showbiz to promote the upcoming season of Total Divas and talked about Daniel Bryan filming for the show:
”When we started ‘Total Divas’ it was really hard at first, because you notice the cameras. But after around two weeks we just totally didn’t them. My sister is very loud and funny, and as you can see I’m much quieter than her and so is Daniel. He would just be at our house, staring at the crew and would say, ‘We don’t live an exciting life, is this fun for you guys? Because we don’t know if this is fun.’ They were like, ‘This is great, pretend we’re not here, don’t talk to us.’ Now we’re so used to it, we’ll say things and then we’ll look at each other and be like, ‘Gosh, did they catch that?’ ”
The following are highlights from a new Live Audio Wrestling interview with WWE Hall Of Famer Mick Foley:
On CM Punk’s WWE departure: “The last time I touched base with him was after the Rumble and I don’t want to discuss what he said exactly. I’ll just say I wasn’t shocked when he decided to leave because he and I – there is a deep, mutual respect there and we like each other. I would say to him after I watched him at a house show and I would say “geez, you don’t have to work that hard every night” and he would say “if I didn’t I wouldn’t be here” and I respect the work ethic and I understand if you’re hurt and you’re not enjoying yourself that it’s not the place to be.”
“I would hate to see CM Punk turn into what I did where my philosophy became “good enough is going to have to be good enough” and it wasn’t that philosophy that helped me succeed, to get me into the WWE Hall of Fame and I kind of regret going through a few years where things had to be that way. I don’t think Punk wants anyone to see him at anything less than his best and I know he’d been frustrated for a while. He’s a pretty outspoken guy and in the end he’ll make the decision that’s best for him. What I said and I’ll repeat for you guys, if he can reconsider one thing it’s not to let whether or not he’s officially the main event dictate how good his match is. If he had a big match coming up at WrestleMania I would encourage him to at least think about taking advantage of that. In 2006, in no way, shape or form were Edge and I the main event of WrestleMania but we had a great match…I didn’t walk away from that WrestleMania thinking it was any less special because we weren’t the feature so that’s the only piece of advice I’d give him, not to let those words “main event” dictate how important the match is but if your heart’s not in it, it’s not in it.”
On not being in the WrestleMania 15 main event and comparisons to Punk and Daniel Bryan: “There’s a piece of video, I think it’s been lost now, on the WWE (website) where I actually was asked about the match after I had lost the title to The Rock in February where it was obvious I was out of the WrestleMania main event picture and I didn’t realize how much it meant to me, what a blow it was and I broke down, I just started crying for real, on the interview. I didn’t realize it until that moment that “man, my one chance is gone”. I’ll be honest Daniel Bryan is more over than I ever was.”
“You have to seize these moments in time, I had confidence that even if that wasn’t my moment I was going to be okay and I had the ability, my character blended with a lot of guys in the ring. But I think this is a special moment and the WWE risks losing it if they don’t capitalize on it. I’ll be watching as a fan, I still love the company and by and large I still love the product, but I will be watching eagerly and hoping for the best possible outcome. I did receive confirmation that I will be involved in three or four events during WrestleMania week so I will be there, I will be part of the company that week and I want what’s best for the company and in my opinion that involves Daniel being a big part of that show.”
– Daniel Bryan will be appearing on the NFL Network’s NFL Total Access show on Monday to discuss the Seattle Seahawks winning the Super Bowl.
– Tickets for Monday’s WWE RAW from the Staples Center in Los Angeles are now sold out. Additional tickets might be released once the production set is finalized. Tuesday’s SmackDown from Ontario, California is also closed to sold out.
– NXT star Leo Kruger has changed his Twitter handle to reflect his new Adam Rose gimmick, which will debut on TV soon. He tweeted on Thursday:
Everything you know is about to change! Hope your ready for this world. Me and my Rosebuds are ready, and cant wait! #ExoticExpress
Daniel Bryan’s “Yes!” chant is turning into the latest worldwide meme. WWE is getting on the bandwagon, encouraging groups to post videos of their Yes! chants to social media with the hashtag #YesMovement.
Fans in Indonesia show their support for Daniel Bryan:
Virginia’s Paul VI High School does the Yes! Chant chant before their game against rival Bishop O’Connell High School on Thursday night. The chant was led by coach Glenn Farrello:
Regarding WWE’s top merchandise movers, John Cena is still far and away the number one guy in terms of overall sales. Interestingly enough, CM Punk is said to be a clear-cut number two when it comes to merchandise sales, and is number one when it comes to sales on the WWE Shop website. Daniel Bryan is reportedly the number four guy in terms of merchandise.
Two names that aren’t active on a regular basis — one of which is completely inactive — that are pretty high up on the WWE merchandise sales list are Sin Cara and The Ultimate Warrior. Both of their merchandise is reportedly selling well recently, both at live events and online.
– The latest episode of the Steve Austin Show: Unleashed is now online, with Steve Austin taking calls from WWE fans about the Royal Rumble, Daniel Bryan’s booking and the departure of CM Punk. Listen now at PodcastOne.com.
– WWE has added “The History of WWE” & “Triple H: Thy Kingdom Come” DVDs to Netflix for streaming.
– Radio host Sam Roberts has published the following video talking about CM Punk leaving WWE:
The latest Triple H and Michael Cole sit-down interview, which we posted notes from earlier today, has been added to the official WWE YouTube channel.
The interview, which can be seen above, is accompanied by the following description: “The WWE COO addresses Kane’s actions toward Daniel Bryan and reveals Randy Orton will face Christian on SmackDown and John Cena on Raw.”
– The latest edition of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s “Steve Austin Show” podcast, which features Austin taking calls on current controversial WWE subjects, such as the CM Punk situation, as well as Daniel Bryan, is now online. The show is available at PodcastOne.com/Steve-Austin-Show.
– WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan was reportedly part of the Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl victory parade on Wednesday, which took place in downtown Seattle and featured approximately 500,000-750,000 fans.
– Former WWE Superstar Romeo Roselli is currently being featured in five new television commercials. Roselli appears in clown makeup in bed with Jenny McCarthy for her new EPIX television special, “Dirty Sexy Funny,” which airs on Valentine’s Day.
– WWE Superstar Evan Bourne has been working out at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida lately. Bourne, who was as the Performance Center as recent as Tuesday, is currently training for his official WWE in-ring return.
WWE has posted the latest sit-down interview between Triple H and Michael Cole on their official company website. As usual, “The Game” talks about a number of topics.
HHH spoke about the upcoming main event on next Monday’s RAW between Randy Orton and John Cena, referring to the match as an “epic main event.” He also noted that big things are expected for the match.
Regarding Kane’s attack on Daniel Bryan at this past Monday’s RAW, Hunter claimed Kane was just defending himself. He claimed that there will be an internal investigation to determine whether or not Kane made a mistake on the job.
Triple H also praised Bryan’s effort on Monday’s RAW and noted that he expected Orton to have a better performance.
You can check out the new HHH and Cole interview right now at WWE.com.
– The dark match main event at the WWE SmackDown television taping on Tuesday night in Des Moines, Iowa featured Daniel Bryan and Bray Wyatt in one-on-one action. Bryan would go on to win the match via disqualification when Erick Rowan and Luke Harper interfered. The Usos would then come out to make the save for Bryan and “send the fans home happy.”
– The latest edition of Chris Jericho’s new “Talk Is Jericho” podcast, which as reported recently will be expanding to two shows per week, is now online. As noted, Jericho’s guest this week is Chavo Guerrero. Part one of their two-part interview is available right now at PodcastOne.com.
The following are highlights from a new Jim Ross Q&A update:
On why fans should take Randy Orton as champion seriously after losing multiple “non-title” matches: “It’s an old school philosophy. The champion losing non title bouts gives the impression that the title holder is vulnerable and ripe for the pickings.”
On his thoughts of a potential Daniel Bryan vs. Kurt Angle match: “If both were healthy and the match was creatively presented as it should, there is no doubt that those two wouldn’t have a great performance.”
On his thoughts on how WWE should handle the upcoming event in Chicago without CM Punk: “The show must go on and hopefully it will have enough good content to help some fans move on so as to not to negatively disrupt the broadcast to an unwatchable degree.”
On his thoughts of all the recent hatred from the fans towards Batista: “I’d guess it was merely the fall out of the Daniel Bryan situation and not directed directly at Batista.”
– WWE Hall Of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin taped an episode of his “Unleashed” podcast today where he took phone calls from fans on current WWE controversies, such as the CM Punk and Daniel Bryan situations. Austin was joined during the show by Wrestling Observer Newsletter editor Dave Meltzer. The episode is expected to air this Thursday.
– The Key Arena website has removed their Facebook post regarding WWE Extreme Rules not being booked for May. The post, which is no longer featured, originally read as follows:
“Unfortunately we do not have WWE on May 4th. We are aware of the rumors that have been circulating. We love having the WWE and WWE Fans in our building and can’t wait to have them back!”
The following are highlights of a recent interview with former SmackDown head writer Alex Greenfield:
On CM Punk: “I know there’s been a certain amount of dissatisfaction from Punk backstage according to the rumor mill anyway. He seems like he’s always got some level of dissatisfaction but it never occurred to me that he would walk away. I’m 70 percent sure this is not a work, that he has really walked away. Which isn’t to say he can’t be brought back but there is a chance that this some sort of high level story telling that they’re trying. Presuming it’s real I kind of understand it. His body’s all banged up, he’s looking at the same creative we are and probably feeling a very similar sense of dissatisfaction. I can understand walking away. It makes sense to me. It also makes sense to me though like I can articulate a story where in which this is a work and we get him together with Hunter and we can all sort of telescope that this is a work version of the story out and if that’s the case I just feel like this is the 2nd time we’ve gone to this well with this character so it doesn’t make sense to me that you would tell that story again which is one of the reasons why i think the preponderance of the evidence is that he’s actually walked away and I can feel it cause just as a fan I’m going to walk away for a little while.”
On Daniel Bryan: “You look at the way Bryan’s been booked since Summer Slam. An argument you see a lot is that Daniel Bryan’s PPVs didn’t increase numbers and neither did his RAW segments well you gave him sh**** booking that involves belittling him every single week. This is something went with Rey (Mysterio). We had Mark kill him and the Great Khali killing him. We were burying our champion every single week. Of course that’s going to turn people off when you don’t give them what they want. Telescoping forward, I have the feeling that this is all going to come to a head and that they will put the title on Bryan in a big of a way as they feel is right and Vince is going to start booking him like Rey. Here’s a guy whose job is to get his ass kicked, and slip over every now and then. I think it’s terrible storytelling, it’s not what the people want and when people bitch about Bryan’s ratings and say well that’s the reason they’re not going with him they gave him a shot already. I don’t think they gave him a legitimate shot. I think they gave him a story that undercut him at the knees from the moment he walked out of the curtain.”
On the Royal Rumble and Bryan not being part of it: “WWE seems to want to fight against the crowd just doesn’t make any sense to me. Why aren’t you taking advantage of the lighting and that’s one of the things that frustrated me so much about the Rumble is I don’t think you can get that moment of triumphing over adversity in that way and there’s so many stories it opens up like did Kane help him get in? So many things you can do. Even if they change plans and give him (Bryan) a big WrestleMania moment I feel like the lightning in the bottle has been lost because now it’s all repairing shit they broke. It’s silly if they didn’t have some idea of what would happen before the world title match started. If you get to the end of that world title match and you don’t call the audible to get Bryan into the match, hell even having Batista eliminating him and having them be the final 2 I think would have sent people home a lot happier. But that you don’t even call that audible just to me indicates the calcified my way or the highway thinking that makes wrestling not very fun.”
As noted, there have been a number of creative meetings in the past week regarding booking the card for WrestleMania XXX. At this point, the only match that is considered a lock is John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt.
According to one source, there is a lot of back-and-forth discussion regarding Brock Lesnar’s match on the show. The original plan was for Lesnar to face The Undertaker, however some are of the belief that there is something to the tease between Lesnar and Batista on RAW recently.
Additionally, there is a lot of talk about how to use Daniel Bryan on the show. Originally, Bryan was to work with Sheamus at WrestleMania. After the crowd hijacking at the Royal Rumble, there continues to be talk of featuring Bryan in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match.