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Post: #998872
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This message was edited by Pouchkine on October 17th, 2020 12:57 GMT
Royal Rumble 1989= 165 000
Royal Rumble 1990= 260 000
Royal Rumble 1991= 440 000
Royal Rumble 1992= 260 000
Everyone of those had the Main Royal Rumble + 3-4 random matches, 1992 also had the world title on the line.
1991 had The World Title match between Slaughter and Warrior is this the reason for this huge number? I know for a longtime it was the party line to be anti-Warrior around Vince and among so called smart fans but how do you explain this huge number when all around the WWF was less popular in 1991 than the years before and Hogan especially.
Warrior losing the belt against a fat and washed up Slaughter, in the kayfabe sense, seemed to have lost the WWF a lot of fans. When only a couple of months later with Hogan-Slaughter on top WrestleMania did LESS than the Royal Rumble and couldn't even sell out the Arena. I remember as a kid being devastated by this result and just couldn't understand, this whole Slaughter anti-america angle probably hurt the WWF more than the steroid scandal. It probably would have been much better to push Warrior properly (Earthquake) and if not having Hogan-Warrior II then toss in Savage into the mix for the World Title.
Let's be honest what was your main reason to watch WrestleMania 7 : Warrior-Savage or Hogan-Slaughter? If you take out Warrior-Savage you may look at the worst number of the entire Hogan era.
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 PeteF3 |
October 17th, 2020 14:26 GMT |
 
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Post: #998876
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It was actually Hogan-Slaughter for me, because I hated Warrior and wanted to see the belt go back to Hogan.
Putting the belt on Slaughter was probably the single worst booking decision--from a business standpoint--that the WWF made in its history to that point, and is probably still in the top-5 with only the WM X-7 Austin turn being definitively ahead of it.
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Post: #998897
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My main reason for watching WM 7 was definitely Warrior-Savage. Career ending matches always intrigued me, even though of course we knew the loser would eventually return. Hogan-Slaughter was very anticlimactic to me. I just found it too predictable. The second Slaughter beat Warrior I had WM 7 figured out. I actually had no problem with Slaughter winning the title. I liked the Iraqi sympathizer gimmick. It gave him something fresh to do and I think he played it well. But I guess I would rather have seen Hogan-Warrior 2 at WM 7. But that too would’ve been very predictable IMO. No way Hogan loses to Warrior two years in a row.
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Topics: 8
Replies: 1929
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Post: #998905
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This message was edited by Pouchkine on October 17th, 2020 23:00 GMT
It might have been predictable in a sense but a lot of "predictable" Main Event can still be exciting and have huge numbers. Now you needed one of them probably Warrior to at least tease a heel turn but it seems he wasn't willing to and Vince really thought this whole Slaughter thing would take off like crazy, it was the complete opposite, dragging it until SummerSlam was even worst. Watching Slaughter as a kid during that time was worst than Brother Love, he didn't have the kind of heat you wanted.
Give Slaughter to Duggan or Dusty and it would have been fine. Actually a Dusty vs. Slaughter feud could have been really fun.
A real feud between Savage with Sherri against Warrior for the World Title would have been fantastic, the promos would have been out of this world good. It would have been a fresh feud as well, really too bad.
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Post: #998909
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A Warrior heel turn definitely would’ve intrigued me if they did Hogan-Warrior 2 at WM 7. And I like ur idea of a Dusty-Slaughter feud. I always wished they could’ve done Warrior-Savage earlier in 1990 than they did instead of another Warrior-Rude program. I was kind of tired of them working together at this point
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Topics: 776
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Super Mod
Post: #998931
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91' did a really strong buyrate of 2.4% but the number is actually about 380,000 buys. A few months later Mania did between 415,000 to 420,000.
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Post: #998952
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I remember the Duggan/ Dusty vs Slaughter/Adnan tag from MSG. This was very surprising to me at the time that they would have Dusty submit to the camel clutch. This was the point I realized that they had big plans for Slaughter.
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Topics: 8
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Post: #998976
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Quoted from: AJ Petrucci Fan, October 18th, 2020 00:09 GMTA Warrior heel turn definitely would’ve intrigued me if they did Hogan-Warrior 2 at WM 7. And I like ur idea of a Dusty-Slaughter feud. I always wished they could’ve done Warrior-Savage earlier in 1990 than they did instead of another Warrior-Rude program. I was kind of tired of them working together at this point
For sure.
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Topics: 8
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Post: #998977
PT: #10/86
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Quoted from: Matt Farmer, October 18th, 2020 03:01 GMT91' did a really strong buyrate of 2.4% but the number is actually about 380,000 buys. A few months later Mania did between 415,000 to 420,000.
But why this particular Royal Rumble did so much better than the few before and the few after? Is it only the World Title match? Is there another reason?
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Super Mod
Post: #999073
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Probably had something to do with it. It's also one of the reasons they started going with title matches on Survivor Series.
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Post: #999075
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Could it have something to do with the fact that at the time war had broken out in the Middle East and maybe people were just itching to see Warrior take out Sarge and defend America? IIRC it was a very emotional time in the U.S. Granted the Guf War ended quick and thankfully so but people were on edge and during war time we do look to sports and entertainment more than usual I think. Just a thought, could be wrong. I remember the super bowl that year, which was only a week after this Royal Rumble being a very emotional sight as well.
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Topics: 8
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Post: #999086
PT: #13/86
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Quoted from: AJ Petrucci Fan, October 20th, 2020 08:07 GMTCould it have something to do with the fact that at the time war had broken out in the Middle East and maybe people were just itching to see Warrior take out Sarge and defend America? IIRC it was a very emotional time in the U.S. Granted the Guf War ended quick and thankfully so but people were on edge and during war time we do look to sports and entertainment more than usual I think. Just a thought, could be wrong. I remember the super bowl that year, which was only a week after this Royal Rumble being a very emotional sight as well.
I don't think so, well if it was then a lot more people should have wanted to see Hogan beating Slaughter but it sure didn't happen.
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Topics: 8
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Post: #999087
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This message was edited by Pouchkine on October 20th, 2020 14:26 GMT
Quoted from: Matt Farmer, October 20th, 2020 05:37 GMTProbably had something to do with it. It's also one of the reasons they started going with title matches on Survivor Series.
The more you look at those numbers the more you have to reconsider Warrior's impact without looking at the numbers as exact sciences either.
For example Royal Rumble 1991 with the added incentive of the World Title match with Warrior does a huge number around 380 000 you say. Then in 1992 the Royal Rumble match is actually for the World Title, you would think this would be a huge seller but the number I have is only 260 000. Flair and Sid are in the WWF at the time but Warrior is gone, could it be that Warrior was actually really good in terms of attracting people to buy PPV's?
Survivor Series is the same with 1990 being really impressive, 400 000 if the numbers are correct, with Warrior as Champion and the only added incentive being a final match of Survivors? While the numbers for 1991 are really down at around 300 000 with a big title match between Hogan and Undertaker. Once again Flair is there, Hogan is back as Champion but Warrior is gone, at the time I'll be honest I was around 10-11 and where we lived we couldn't order PPV yet but Warrior's leaving sure would have made me way less interested. I liked Hogan ok, he was like the biggest hit of a favorite band, it's often times not the favorite song of "hardcore" fans but I sure wasn't a Hogan hater either, but those cards Survivor Series 1991 and Royal Rumble 1992 would not have been must see tv for me.
WrestleMania 7 would not have been either if it wasn't for Savage-Warrior.
Savage was my 2nd favorite wrestler to be clear. I think I might speak for a lot of fans back then, Warrior's loss to Slaughter and him leaving hurt the WWF a lot more than they might have thought. Maybe that's why Vince kept wanting to bring him back actually!
Look at it this way, it's your favorite band, Hogan's the iconic lead singer but Warrior was now seen as the iconic lead guitarist as well, sure if the singer is gone it's not the same band and the fans leave, but take out the hugely popular and important lead guitarist as well and in most cases it's an incredible blow as well.
Maybe the WWF put the bar too high at the time in thinking Warrior would just replace Hogan on top and bring them close to the same numbers especially at House Shows. The WWF and wrestling as a whole were less popular come the early 90's and started to be more TV-PPV oriented and while Warrior wouldn't have reached Hogan's numbers and lasted as long on top, not booking him correctly while on top and then having him fired-leaving was something that hurt the WWF a lot. It took Austin much later to really turn things around and finally have another larger that life superstar.
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| PeteF3 |
October 20th, 2020 20:08 GMT |
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Topics: 34
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Post: #999107
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Quoted from: Pouchkine, October 20th, 2020 13:56 GMTQuoted from: AJ Petrucci Fan, October 20th, 2020 08:07 GMTCould it have something to do with the fact that at the time war had broken out in the Middle East and maybe people were just itching to see Warrior take out Sarge and defend America? IIRC it was a very emotional time in the U.S. Granted the Guf War ended quick and thankfully so but people were on edge and during war time we do look to sports and entertainment more than usual I think. Just a thought, could be wrong. I remember the super bowl that year, which was only a week after this Royal Rumble being a very emotional sight as well.
I don't think so, well if it was then a lot more people should have wanted to see Hogan beating Slaughter but it sure didn't happen.
But as I alluded to...Sarge may have actually been money as a challenger but not as a champion. They had one shot to earn real money with him and they got it, but then instead of just giving the fans some catharsis, they screwed them over and put the belt on him. That may have turned off more fans than it got "good heat" from.
*I* was happy, because as I mentioned, I hated the Warrior and had since the build-up to Mania 6. But...I also didn't order the '91 Rumble, I only heard about the title change after the fact.
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