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MVPS OF THE NO AUDIENCE ERA, THE BRAND CROSSOVER, WWE WORKING WITH OUTSIDE COMPANIES AND MORE

By Dave Scherer on 2020-05-18 10:00:00

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How come WWE doesn’t promote that their superstars are on tv shows? There was no promotion of Becky on the show billions or Lacey Evans on that military house show that you wrote about. With ratings hit new lows wouldn’t you want to promote this so people can see them and maybe wanna watch them on Raw or Smackdown?

To be fair, pushing the appearances on Raw and Smackdown only tells people who already watch WWE that those talents will be on shows outside of WWE.  WWE usually will push an appearance if it’s on a network that they work with, or obviously if they have an interest in the project or get paid to promote it.  I don’t blame them for wanting to get something from a show that will get free promotion to millions of people on USA and FOX who may then watch the show in question to see the WWE star.

When ratings dip, Vince tends to resort to the "wrestlers moving between brands" theme.  Does it ever work to bring up the ratings, and if not, why does he keep thinking it will work each time?  Bringing Baron Corbin to RAW will hardly convince lost viewers to tune in next week.

It usually gives them a bit of a short term bounce before viewing patterns revert to what they were.  He does it because his hand is limited.  He can either realize that the main problem is that the creative is keeping the shows from being must see, which would mean admitting he let it get that way, or he can go with trying for quick fixes.

With Becky Lynch needing to take some time off now for most likely a good year or two, if not more, for an excellent reason, what will happen to her WWE contract?  Will they just freeze it until if and when she decides and is able to come back?  Or will they just release her from her contract since obviously she is not going to wrestle for anyone for some time and she just may want to take the needed time to be a mother and enjoy it however long that may end up being?

When a talent is hurt, WWE can freeze the contract by paying their downside guarantee, and extending the unused time on the contract.  I honestly don’t know how it works with a pregnancy.  I would assume they can do the same thing with her if they choose to do so.

Would you argue against Asuka and Jericho being the MVP's of their respective companies during this no-audience era?  They have done such a great job of adding sound to the silence of no crowd in their own entertaining ways.

Chris Jericho is absolutely the MVP overall of the era, bar none.  He has done an amazing job all around for AEW during this time and Tony Khan is really lucky to have him, in all facets of the business.  For WWE, I would go with Asuka and Drew McIntyre in a tie right now.

I saw that a lot of currently contracted WWE performers like Ricochet, Edge, Mia Yim and WALTER all have merch stores on Pro Wrestling Tees. Are all WWE talent allowed to sell third-party merch, or is it a case-by-case basis?

WWE almost always maintains the rights for their talents’ merchandise while they are under contract.  When they aren’t, however, they can make deals with ProWrestlingTees.com as the talent can sell wherever they want to at that time.

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