12/15 Wrestlezone Recap: History of the World Heavyweight Championship, Plus This Week’s Major News Topics, WWE/TNA Reviews and We Answer Your Questions

News of the Week

WrestleMania Locations Confirmed

WrestleMania 31The locations for WrestleMania 31 and 32 were announced this week. The 2015 event will be hosted in Santa Clara, CA just outside of San Jose. I’ve received a few emails asking why WWE would choose the San Franciso area over the much larger Los Angeles. I can only assume it’s because WWE has run SummerSlam from the Staples Center in LA for the past six years, and doesn’t want to risk over-saturating that market with two huge events in one year. There’s no real different in stadiums, as both the LA Memorial Coliseum and Levi’s Stadium are outdoor arenas. The other possibility is that Levi’s Stadium is currently under construction, and will be home to the San Francisco 49ers in 2014. The affiliation with an NFL team, plus WWE’s love for brand new buildings and setting attendance records is likely fueling the decision to host WrestleMania in Santa Clara. 

WrestleMania 32 in 2016, which just feels so ridiculously far away, has been “confirmed” for Arlington, TX by the same NBC affiliate who spilled the beans on Santa Clara last weekend. Not only is this exciting because Wrestlezone’s own Chris Cash will be close to home, but his beloved Cowboys Stadium has a very real shot at breaking WWE’s all-time attendance record. AT&T Stadium set the current record in 2009 at an astonishing 105,000 attendees for the Cowboys home opener against the Giants.

TNA is What Now!? 

We came across an interview with TNA executive Andy Barton, who is trying to grow the Impact Wrestling brand in India. Most of the interview talks about his background in the industry, the lack of home-grown wrestlers outside of Japan, Mexico and the United States, and what TNA plans to do to grow their product in the Indian market. A lot of that is trying to create a positive public image, and portray yourself as legit competition to the number one product, which of course is the WWE. But what really threw me about this guy, Andy Barton, is comments like this: 

“If we look at the UK market – we have pushed ahead of WWE there and our show is watched more in comparison to WWE week in,  week out. Ditto for Germany.” 

I don’t know the first thing about UK television markets, and I know even less about those in Germany. It sounds like he’s trying to stretch the truth a bit here, but it very well could be true. TNA has hosted some massive events in the UK in the past, and depending on who has what deal, with so and so television distributor, it’s possible TNA has a bigger presence that WWE in the UK. Plus, Impact isn’t live in the UK, meaning they can broadcast it at a time when normal human beings watch television. WWE, not so much… But check this one out: 

“…if you take a look at our wrestlers compared to WWE, we are more on the road than them. So it is really encouraging for young talent that wants to be ont he road for 300 days a year.” 

TNA is what now!? Either this guy seriously needs to clear up what he means by “on the road” or he’s just making things up. WWE is on the road almost every single day. In the coming week, they have a PPV on Sunday, two episodes of Raw Monday and Tuesday, two episodes of Smackdown on Wednesday and Thursday, two NXT live events, a short break for the holidays, and then the roster will be right back on the road the day after Christmas for a full “WWE Live Holiday Tour”. By the way, that tour runs every single day for the next several weeks, some days with multiple shows. What does TNA have going on? Well, they have the next month and a half of television already recorded. There’s a handful of live events (but not for two weeks), two PPV “One Night Only” specials that won’t air for months, and their next television date is in the middle of January. 

Care to revise your statement, Mr. Barton? 

[Original story link]

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