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| It doesn't take a Rhodes Scholar to see these guys at least partially make the WWE money Photo Credit: WWE.com |
@mattpeterc No I called an storyline that never drew a dime, crap
— Lance Storm (@LanceStorm) January 22, 2013
The storyline in question is the formation and current trials and tribulations of Team Hell No, by the by. Let's put aside the fact that really, "drawing a dime" is not one of the things I really care about when watching a wrestling show. I want to be entertained, and sometimes, I like what the "masses" don't seem to agree with me on. I'm okay with that. The statement he made that the teaming doesn't draw a dime is patently false for several reasons.
1. They have a t-shirt
Yes, right here on WWE's Shop, you can buy a shirt celebrating their team between the price of $19.99 and $24.99. Even better, there's usually a markup that takes place if you want to buy this shirt at a live event as well. As wrestling Twitter MVP and commentator of our time @typicalROHfan has conveniently pointed out, every time they sell one of those shirts, they make anywhere between 199 and 300 dimes (assuming of course that the live event markup pushes the price to $30).
2. They're pretty popular with the crowd
CM Punk, The Rock, and John Cena are all really popular with the crowds. You know who else is just as popular if not a little more so depending on what city WWE goes to? Yep, Team Hell No. Let's not forget that Daniel Bryan spawned the most popular chant of the year either. That has to count for something, right?
At a time when WWE is not moving the metrics guys like Storm and his Wrestling Observer cronies overrate, you have to assume that it's an ensemble effort, right? Well, it depends on the ensemble. I'd pretty much guarantee that the people who get the best fan reactions are ostensibly the ones that people want to come and see (or in the case of Punk/Cena, some people want to see lose). If Bryan and Kane are getting reactions similar to main event level, by transitive property, shouldn't they also be considered draws too? For a crowd like the Observer crowd that LOVES sticking in reports of "who got the loudest cheers?" at the end of reports, or commenting on "how over" a certain wrestler is, you'd think they'd make the correlation between decibel level and a dollar share attributed to their part of the show.
3. WWE is continuing to push them, even at the expense of their story progression
I've griped before that I wasn't a huge fan of WWE creative taking a warp pipe back to level 2 with the team after they had finally gotten to Bowser's castle in terms of story progression. However, the fact that WWE brought Dr. Shelby back to try and recreate the spark that it had back when it was in its beginning stages means they realize it's been a valuable teaming for them and they want to try and get the big returns on the moments that made them popular. Again, I don't have ratings breakdowns or buyrates or house show gates in front of me to back this up, but my guess is neither does Storm. Well, he might have the raw numbers in front of him, but there's no way he can make any claim as to how much of it is attributed to Bryan and Kane's story outside of quarter hours (and even then, unless there's a trend of viewer loss during a Kane/Bryan segment, it's irrelevant... furthermore, I'd also imagine their social media scores would be pretty good, and the last time I checked? WWE loves that shit).
The thing here is that I feel like Storm is expressing displeasure with this story. He's allowed to do that, and he's allowed to have opinions of what he thinks wrestling should be. What I object to is him trying to quantify his opinion, or better yet, validate it through making a claim that theoretically could be proven in numbers. The problem is that I'm not sure the angle would be given so much time or attention if it wasn't drawing money.
1. They have a t-shirt
Yes, right here on WWE's Shop, you can buy a shirt celebrating their team between the price of $19.99 and $24.99. Even better, there's usually a markup that takes place if you want to buy this shirt at a live event as well. As wrestling Twitter MVP and commentator of our time @typicalROHfan has conveniently pointed out, every time they sell one of those shirts, they make anywhere between 199 and 300 dimes (assuming of course that the live event markup pushes the price to $30).
2. They're pretty popular with the crowd
CM Punk, The Rock, and John Cena are all really popular with the crowds. You know who else is just as popular if not a little more so depending on what city WWE goes to? Yep, Team Hell No. Let's not forget that Daniel Bryan spawned the most popular chant of the year either. That has to count for something, right?
At a time when WWE is not moving the metrics guys like Storm and his Wrestling Observer cronies overrate, you have to assume that it's an ensemble effort, right? Well, it depends on the ensemble. I'd pretty much guarantee that the people who get the best fan reactions are ostensibly the ones that people want to come and see (or in the case of Punk/Cena, some people want to see lose). If Bryan and Kane are getting reactions similar to main event level, by transitive property, shouldn't they also be considered draws too? For a crowd like the Observer crowd that LOVES sticking in reports of "who got the loudest cheers?" at the end of reports, or commenting on "how over" a certain wrestler is, you'd think they'd make the correlation between decibel level and a dollar share attributed to their part of the show.
3. WWE is continuing to push them, even at the expense of their story progression
I've griped before that I wasn't a huge fan of WWE creative taking a warp pipe back to level 2 with the team after they had finally gotten to Bowser's castle in terms of story progression. However, the fact that WWE brought Dr. Shelby back to try and recreate the spark that it had back when it was in its beginning stages means they realize it's been a valuable teaming for them and they want to try and get the big returns on the moments that made them popular. Again, I don't have ratings breakdowns or buyrates or house show gates in front of me to back this up, but my guess is neither does Storm. Well, he might have the raw numbers in front of him, but there's no way he can make any claim as to how much of it is attributed to Bryan and Kane's story outside of quarter hours (and even then, unless there's a trend of viewer loss during a Kane/Bryan segment, it's irrelevant... furthermore, I'd also imagine their social media scores would be pretty good, and the last time I checked? WWE loves that shit).
The thing here is that I feel like Storm is expressing displeasure with this story. He's allowed to do that, and he's allowed to have opinions of what he thinks wrestling should be. What I object to is him trying to quantify his opinion, or better yet, validate it through making a claim that theoretically could be proven in numbers. The problem is that I'm not sure the angle would be given so much time or attention if it wasn't drawing money.
