An Inside Look at WWE’s Unlikely Business Empire

[Joy Black]

Vice Sports ha fatto uscire questo lunghissimo articolo molto interessante sulla WWE, se conoscente l'inglese ne consiglierei la lettura (Ne hanno parlato anche Meltzer e Alvares nel Wrestling observer radio).

Ecco il link -> https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/b ... ess-empire" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Alcune cose bene o male sono già conosciute nell'ambiente altre meno. Per dire questa storia su Shane che nel 2012 cerca di ritornare nella compagnia e prendere il controllo del creative team, in un incontro segreto con Vince e Kevin Dunn (all'oscuro di Stephanie e HHH). Storia di cui lo stesso Meltzer non ne era a conoscenza.

A few years ago, as Levesque was gearing up to launch NXT, ratings were down and Vince was on edge. The writing room became a battlefield, and even people outside of the company took notice, including Shane McMahon. In March 2012, Vince, according to a source familiar with the exchange, called a surprise meeting at the WWE production office, a separate facility from the main headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. Shane had returned with a friend: James Frey, the author of the critically acclaimed and, later, highly controversial A Million Little Pieces and by that time the CEO of Full Fathom Five, a content creation company he founded in 2010.

(A spokesperson for WWE originally denied that Shane had approached WWE in any capacity between 2009 and 2016, but later confirmed that this meeting took place when asked about this exchange specifically.)

"When Stephanie found out Shane was going to be there, she went white in the face," the source told me. "And Paul freaked out." Shane had set up the meeting through Kevin Dunn, WWE's executive vice-president of production and Vince's right-hand man for nearly three decades; he is the second-highest-paid employee at the company behind Vince (according to SEC documents, Dunn's 2016 base salary is $909,560). Shane had a simple proposal: that he take over all of creative, including the writer's room, with Frey and his team at Full Fathom Five as consultants.

"Kevin Dunn is very close to Shane," the source said. "And there's tremendous tension between Kevin, and Paul and Stephanie. They feel like the company is theirs, but they don't have power to control Kevin." Presumably, if Dunn could figure out a way to get Shane back in the company in a high-ranking position, he would have even more influence with Vince. And Shane, too, could regain control over at least a portion of his family's legacy. It was a win-win for the pair.

In the end, however, Vince declined his son's offer. It would be four more years before Shane found himself on the inside of the company again. In the meantime, WWE would go through major changes internally as it continued its transformation from a TV-only wrestling outfit to a digital-forward entertainment super-corporation.

Si parla anche di NXT e di come HHH li abbia il pieno controllo, mentre nel resto del prodotto Vince decide praticamente tutto (insomma cosa anche qui risaputa). In aggiunta però ci sono dei dubbi da parte di altri dirigenti su quanto le star di NXT possano fare breccia sul grande pubblico.

NXT has always been Levesque's project, and, being wholly separated from the flagship programs Raw and SmackDown, it may also give him some autonomy within the company.

Being in charge of new talent gives Levesque an opportunity to implement his vision outside of the writer's room. "Paul can't control the main product the way he wants to. Vince wins in the end," a former senior-level executive told me. "NXT gave Paul his baby because Vince can't oversee everything."

"Differing points of view oftentimes help drive the best results," Levesque told me, referencing Vince. "While there are times people across the organization have different opinions on a topic, what we do well is collectively execute once a decision is made." He added, "Vince has been, and continues to be, very supportive of NXT. The fact the he continues to promote performers from NXT to Raw and SmackDown is a clear sign of his support."

But Levesque's vision of what a performer should be doesn't always correlate with what the corporation needs to keep ratings up and money coming in. "He's an old-school guy—a true wrestler," the same senior-level executive told me. "But look at the ratings. Where are the stars? Smart marks love these characters, but that's not the audience that drives a giant business."

Former head writer Brian Gewirtz echoes this sentiment. "If you don't have a compelling character, it doesn't matter how good the match is athletically," he said. "You'll just have people sitting on their hands, waiting until it's over."

Despite the criticism, much of what is seen on Raw and SmackDown these days, and what sells WWE as a brand, is due in part to NXT. "We look for people we can turn into stars but there is no set formula to follow. My job is to find individuals with athletic ability and charisma and then determine what pieces of the puzzle are missing to help turn them into stars that can succeed at the highest level," Levesque told me. "We have a good track record as more than half of our current WWE roster has come up through our developmental system."

Pezzo molto interessante riguarda i cambiamenti dirigenziali, in sostanza i dirigenti intorno al traide Vince-HHH-Stephanie non durano (A parte Kevin Dunn che è il braccio destro di Vince, ma non è ben visto da Steph e HHH)

During its formative years, WWE was run by wrestling people, for wrestling people. That's all it needed to succeed. But as Vince McMahon's vision for the company expanded—wanting WWE to be an all-encompassing entertainment outlet, a household name for the everyday watcher, a cavalcade of content fueled by an over-the-top network—he looked outside the wrestling world and sought to fill the senior levels of his organization with more traditional television experience.

In 2012, Vince hired Eric Pankowski, a former executive at Reveille and Warner Bros., to work with Paul Levesque and Stephanie McMahon as senior vice-president of creative and development, and Perkins Miller, former COO of Universal Sports, as executive vice-president of digital media. The following year saw the hirings of Emmy Award-winning television producer Eddie Feldmann, and Matthew Singerman, a former consultant for the NFL Network, was brought on as EVP of programming, a role created for the launch of WWE Network. David Kreizman, who previously wrote award-winning scripts for General Hospital, All My Children, and As the World Turns, joined the creative team, as did writer Adam Rudman, who previously worked on children's cartoons. In 2014, Lou Schwartz, a former technology entrepreneur, became the Chief Digital Officer.

None of these new hires lasted more than 18 months. (One exception to this trend was Will Staeger, a former executive at ESPN and Dick Clark Productions, who lasted nearly three years as WWE's EVP of TV production, where he worked with Kevin Dunn, from February 2012 to November 2014.)

"Outside people will get killed unless they totally conform to what Vince wants—it's impossible to do that," said one former senior-level executive. "Vince, Paul, and Stephanie will blame everyone else for their own missteps. That's why no creative executive can last there. You are treated like a commodity—just a barrel of corn. You are only a piece of talent, cultivated and developed, until they need to blame you and fire you and bring someone else in. They like the appearance of hiring people from outside the wrestling industry, but it in the end it's still Vince making all the decisions."

Even veteran WWE employees were shown no mercy during this tumultuous run. A lot was at stake. No one was safe. "I came into work one day and my services were no longer needed," Sally Presutto, the former senior director of events, told me. "Vince, Stephanie—they never spoke to me directly. I was very hurt. After 23 years, with no explanation—that's the end of that. People that have proven to be loyal and dedicated seem to be let go. That's how they do things around there sometimes."

[...]

To many employees, it all simply comes down to Vince's leadership style. "First, you're the second coming of Christ and Vince loves you," a former senior-level executive with nearly a decade of experience at the company told me. "Then, over time, he decides you are a moron and he can't get wait to get rid of you. It's a slow, painful death. I don't know if he's so smart and savvy and he just enjoys the sport of doing that, or if that is unconscious, but it has happened so many times. It really damages people, what they experience there."

Meltzer ha collegato questo pezzo anche al recente licenziamento di Tom Casiello, ex-supervisore dei due team di writer di Raw e Smackdown, uno dei fautori del grosso push recente delle donne in WWE. Meltzer ha detto che questo licenziamento è stato fatto per motivi di budget: Casiello è stato colui che ha convinto Vince a mettere Sasha e Charlotte nel main event di Hell in a Cell, non crede che sia questo il motivo del suo licenziamento, visto che poi Sasha e Charlotte hanno fatto il main event di Raw recentemente (ottenendo un numero di spettatori inferiore solo alla puntata del ritorno di Goldberg, ma ottenendo però un rating addirittura superiore). Alvarez non crede alla motivazione del taglio al budget, nel caso ci dovrebbero essere altri casi nei prossimi giorni, ma Meltzer non ha sentito di tagli in arrivo, per il momento hanno solo voluto eliminare la posizione dirigenziale; ora i lead writer risponderanno direttamente a HHH e a Vince.

L'articolo prosegue analizzando i dati economici del network, non riporto tutto, però invito ad andare a leggere l'articolo: in sintesi parla di un nervosismo da parte degli investitore sulle promesse non mantenute dalla dirigenza sulle aspettative sul network e sui contratti televisivi (che sono molto remunerativi ma prima del rinnovo Vince aveva promesso un raddoppio degli introiti a livello contrattuale cosa non avvenuta).

Per quanto riguarda il network l'articolo nota che nonostante il successo economico e del numero di sottoscrizione che ha raggiungo 1,5 milioni, gli account che si sono iscritti alla piattaforma dal 2014 sono 4,587,000 di cui 3,076,000 hanno lasciato il servizio (la differenza è appunto il 1,5 milioni degli iscritti paganti attuali). Posso immaginare che gran parte di questi sono quelli che si fanno l'account con il mese gratis e poi si cancella, per crearsene un altro.

In ogni caso, l'articolo riserva molti spunti di discussione.

[Joy Black]

Riporto anche questo pezzo che si occupa del processo creativo, di come Vince ragioni in quel senso e di come funziona il tutto.

Vince McMahon exerts controls over just about every aspect of WWE. "It is an insular company run by Vince McMahon," a former executive told me. Multiple sources echoed this sentiment, saying that it was common for Vince to change his mind about show scripts and storylines on a dime, and to run the company with an unpredictable iron fist, using fear and intimidation to keep executives in line. "He takes great lip service to wanting new ideas, but he doesn't value or respect outside opinion," the source said. "It's his way or no way. Vince's philosophy, which is hysterical, is 'Every day is your first day on the job.' That's not a philosophy to run a company, but a rationalization for Vince to change his mind whenever he wants."

"You can't commit anything to paper there because with Vince it can change so fast," a former senior-level executive told me. "There's no overriding strategic vision—just put it in there and see what happens. It's frustrating for the writing staff."

A normal week for the writing team at WWE goes like this: The writers, let's say for Monday Night Raw, come up with ideas and lay out the upcoming week's show, which includes 16 segments over three hours. It's pitched to Vince on Thursday or Friday. He gives his feedback, adjustments are made over the weekend (writers are known to stay in the office until at least midnight), and then, during a meeting on Monday, he gives the final sign-off—or changes his mind. "Sometimes a script will change in production meetings the day of the show," said David Kreizman, a former head writer who resigned in 2013 after just four months at WWE. "Vince gets in there and reads the script aloud and sometimes will change his mind in that moment. Big-picture discussions don't really happen."

It's unwise to battle Vince about script changes. "It can get you in trouble if you take a fight to Vince," said Brian Gewirtz. "You need to be careful in how you speak your mind and not to get carried away. He urges people to say their opinions but ultimately he makes the decision."

In many respects, Vince still operates his billion-dollar company as if he were still promoting a regional wrestling circuit, which is certainly uncommon for an organization of WWE's size. "All Vince cares about is that night's show—not 15 weeks later, like how all other television shows work," a former senior-level executive said. "That's why you see astute followers pulling their hair out. There's no guiding principle other than that Vince is a carnival barker—a promoter of a live event product."

Paul Levesque told me that this is just the nature of the business. "The amount of variables that exist in producing live shows are endless and one change can impact the entire show or a story arc," he said. "Storylines change because it is live, 52 weeks a year. Hollywood studios can stop film production if an actor goes down. We adjust storylines as the show must go on."

[Mystogan]

Più leggo gli inside&out della WWE e più mi chiedo come facciano a tirare avanti (e molto bene anche).

[Galois27]

L'articolo dice tutte cose arcinote eccezion fatta per il "blitz" di Shane nel 2012.

[Joy Black]

L'articolo dice tutte cose arcinote eccezion fatta per il "blitz" di Shane nel 2012.

Di, l'ho scritto che molte cose sono risapute se si seguono i vari siti come l'observer. Però comunque è un interessante approfondimento.

[RobLP]

È sicuramente un interessante approfondimento. Più che altro non capisco ora come stiano convivendo tutti i McMahon, Triple H compreso, sotto la stessa compagnia. Tra l'altro Shane ora dovrebbe essere sotto contratto come performer, non come dirigente, quindi non dovrebbe avere alcuna voce in capitolo. Per il resto io credo che questa compagnia potrà cambiare sensibilmente solo quando Vince McMahon sarà morto, cosa che ovviamente gli si augura il più tardi possibile. E lì sarà interessante vedere chi ne prenderà il controllo e in che modo porterà avanti la compagnia.

[Joy Black]

Per chi non ha la sottoscrizione all'observer, questo è il commento all'articolo nella newsletter settimanale.

Vice Media published a tremendous story on WWE behind the scenes, written by Ian Frisch on 12/9. The story included the first revelation that in 2012, Shane McMahon made a major pitch to head creative and was rebuffed.

The story was that in March 2012, leading up to that year’s WrestleMania, Vince McMahon called a surprise meeting at the WWE Production Office, and Shane McMahon was there with James Frey, the author of “A Million Little Pieces” and CEO of Full Fathom Five, a content creation company.

“When Stephanie found out Shane was going to be there, she went white in the face” the story quoted a source as saying. “And Paul (Levesque) freaked out.” Shane had set up the meeting through Kevin Dunn, WWE’s Executive Vice President of Production (Dunn was the same person who was the conduit to John Gaburick when TNA attempted to sell the company, largely for the value of the videotape library as the company wouldn’t have continued to operate). “Kevin Dunn is very close to Shane. And there’s tremendous tension between Kevin and Paul and Stephanie. They feel like the company is theirs, but they don’t have the power to control Kevin.”

It’s been talked about for years that if Vince McMahon is no longer running the company that Dunn would be gone very quickly and replaced by someone of the Levesque’s choosing. But as long as Vince McMahon is there, Dunn is considered untouchable, although given McMahon’s track record of getting tired of people closest to him in business, it’s an anomaly that Dunn has lasted as long as he has and is considered in that category. But as much as people running the network or in creative come and go, Dunn, George Barrios and Michelle Wilson remain the longest lasting and most powerful people in the company not named McMahon.

The article was not without some issues. It described the period from 2002 to 2010 as an upswing for the company, even though popularity fell greatly. Attendance did pick up from a bottoming out period in the middle of the decade when John Cena turned into a legitimate drawing card and for the most part business has been steady for years. But at no point has the company come close to its 1998-2001 popularity levels, and while there have been ups and downs, it has been at best staying even or a slow decline.

It also stated that Stephanie McMahon was moved from creative to Chief Brand Office in 2013, which is correct, but it stated she worked in creative for two years before that, when it was more like13 years. Brian Gewirtz made it clear that Stephanie did no writing while on creative and her role was really organizing meetings and hiring the writing staff.

It described a normal week of Raw as that the 16 segments are pitched to Vince McMahon on Thursday or Friday. Vince gives his feedback and the scripts are changed over the weekend, with the writers often staying in the office past midnight. Then they meet again on Monday, where Vince either signs off, or makes more changes.

Gewirtz noted it’s not smart to fight Vince over late script changes.

“It can get you in trouble if you take a fight to Vince,” he said. “You need to be careful in how you speak your mind and not get carried away. He urges people to say their opinions but ultimately he makes the decision.”

There was an unnamed former top executive who said that, “All Vince cares about is that night’s show–not 15 weeks later, like how all other television shows work. That’s why you see astute followers pulling their hair out. There’s no guiding principle other than Vince is carnival barker–a promoter of a live event product.”

The story also noted the rapid turnaround in the people both in creative and of those show that work the closest with Vince McMahon.

“Outside people will get killed unless they totally conform to what Vince wants–it’s impossible to do that,” said the former top executive. “Vince, Paul and Stephanie will blame everyone else for their own missteps. That’s why no creative executive can last there. You are treated like a commodity-just a barrel of corn. You are only apiece of talent, cultivated and developed, until they need to blame you and fire you and bring someone else in. They like the appearance of hiring people from outside the wrestling industry, but in the end, it’s still Vince making all the decisions.”

It was almost an amazing coincidence that the story came out the day after Tom Casiello, who was No. 3 on the creative end under Vince and Levesque, was let go. While the timing has made people speculate the two were related, we can’t find any indication of that at all.

Casiello, who was the Managing Lead Writer, essentially the person who oversaw both the Raw and Smackdown writing team and worked directly under Vince and Paul Levesque.

He, Vince and Levesque were in charge of the big picture creative, although obviously Vince was the key guy of both Raw and Smackdown, while Levesque is in charge of NXT.

Casiello had been in the position for about a year, and had started with WWE in 2011.

He had written soap operas such as Another World, As the World Turns, Days of our Lives, One Life to Live and The Young and the Restless from 1998 to 2006. In 2001 and 2002, he won Daytime Emmy awards for best writing for As The World Turns and was nominated for the same award in 2006 when writing for One Life to live.

The way it was explained to the writing team, and to him as well, is that the position of Managing Lead Writer had been eliminated. The lead writer on Raw (Ed Koskey) and Smackdown (Ryan Ward and Brian James, the latter who is being groomed for a bigger role since he’s close to Levesque) will now report directly to Levesque, who reports to Vince. Dave Kapoor, a former head writer (who was once Ranjin Singh as a TV character, as the supposed brother of the Great Khali) is currently an assignment editor for both brands, deciding which writer or writers works on which promos or segments.

Casiello was described as very strong as far as pushing the women in particular. He pushed hard for them to be featured more prominently and was the key person who got Vince McMahon to change his mind late and put Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks last at the Hell in a Cell show. He was also the key writer of a lot of the women’s segments.

The firing was described as a big surprise since the women’s division, which he championed, now has to be deemed as a success based on the rating for the 11/28 Raw show. He was well respected among the women performers in particular and worked with them a lot on ideas for Total Divas as well.

He was described to me as a good writer but not as influential as the title sounds, although he did have influence. Several company wrestlers said that he was highly regarded by them. He was told it was simply the elimination of the position and part of budget cuts, but that doesn’t hold water, since, as a few pointed out, he could have been given a new role within the writing team if they were eliminating that specific position, and if it was budget cuts, why was nobody else let go nor any other budget cuts made at the same time, past the elimination of the pre-game show on the network and dropping of Jerry Lawler and Amy Dumas’ deals last week. Plus, this comes at a time the company is financially healthy.

As of the end of September, there have been 4,975,000 different accounts that have signed up for the WWE Network, and of those, at one point or another, 3,531,000 have canceled. Keep in mind that a great number of people are likely counted twice or three times or more in this, as these stats would be the number of total times people have signed up and canceled, whether it be letting it go and coming back later, or changing the account to sign up in a different country before it was available and changing after, or canceling to take advantage of a gimmick offer and using a new account.

The article took a more balanced approach to the network, noting things we’ve written about. While it is profitable on its own, that it has yet to be as effective in generating profits as the old system because of the costs involved and the profit margin on the network is much lower than that of a PPV. The network will pay off in the long run. If you want to figure it out by the number and profits, right now in a month that would generate 264,000 worldwide PPVs (which the big three shows were beating handily but the other shows were not), that’s the line where the network is either more or less effective than PPV. Now keep in mind when you have a two-show month, that goes down to 132,000 buys per show, but I can’t imagine they’d be doing two traditional PPVs per month if they didn’t have the network, so that makes a direct comparison even more difficult.

The company has done extensive market research in recent weeks and months to find out why people are buying it and why subscribers let their subscriptions go.

Some feel the network could be more profitable without the first-run non-in-ring programming. The feeling is they don’t increase subscribers, since the ebbs and flows are clearly based around the PPV shows each month. But there is the feeling there is long-term value in creating content and that the network needs to be far more than just in-ring action.

With the exception of the PPV shows and NXT Takeover shows, it is that new programming along with the weekly NXT and 205 Live shows, as well as the Talking Smack show that seem to be the most-watched things. But that programming is also the most expensive to produce and some will argue that WWE doesn’t promote its archival footage but promotes the new shows the heaviest, so it’s a chicken-and-egg proposition regarding what gets the most viewership other than the PPVs, NXT and now cruiserweight shows. Main Event doesn’t do anywhere near as well as the other shows, since that’s a more lifeless although up to date show that features main roster talent.

The idea we had talked about when the network started, regarding having a set time each week and uploading one episode each week in order from all the different old libraries, in order, so newer fans can follow the old storylines is one that has never been tried. Some of the libraries aren’t complete and in other cases, because of the musical content on so many of the shows in the 80s, the costs of getting it network ready and getting rid of the old music is rather expensive. The focus when it comes to the old programming seems to be of the late 90s boom period, of WWF, WCW and ECW.

The only time the old programming shows up as significantly watched is when something unique happens currently, such as Bill Goldberg’s return leading to a lot of Goldberg WCW footage being watched as well as the match with Brock Lesnar leading to WrestleMania XX getting a lot of views.

The article gave the impression, without outright saying it, that the big picture problem is the one thing that can’t change, which is Vince McMahon in charge. The reality is that WWE is a successful business that dominates its genre and that isn’t going to change. They are healthy. Of course they could be hotter and stronger. The way the business is set up, they are also set up to be healthy as long as they don’t collapse into extreme WCW-level stupidity, which won’t happen as long as Vince or Levesque are in charge, or unless the TV economics change, which is something nobody can predict and is out of everyone’s control.

There are issues that are the same with many sports, in the sense that the key profit driver is television and due to that, because their shows still are among the highest rated on cable, and they are producing too many hours. That is the history of television with anything popular and one of the reasons many things burn out on television.

But even with the lowest ratings in history and so-so arena business, the television revenue is fixed and continues to rise, and as long as it does, the company will remain healthy.

One of the themes of the article is that Paul Levesque, who will almost surely be in charge of creative if and when Vince is no longer in that position, is an old school wrestling guy with the idea from Gewirtz, that such a philosophy limits growth. The idea is that the company is doing, from an athletic standpoint, its best matches ever on a consistent basis, but doesn’t have the widespread appeal as shown by ratings and attendance of the peak periods.

It’s a weird situation because the wrestling audience is constantly changing. The current audience is more into wrestling and will spend more on it than any audience before, but it’s also smaller and has a mind of its own.

It’s harder to control, hence the multi-year failure of making Roman Reigns into the face of the company.

The problem is, that is the only audience left. If it didn’t require so much time to keep up with wrestling, would there be more of a casual audience? Who knows, but they aren’t cutting back on the hours of programming. Would there be more fans if they concentrated more on the old vision of good looking larger-than-life stars as opposed to guys who grew up as Bret Hart, Mick Foley and Shawn Michaels fans and whose goal is to put on great matches or get over taking big bumps? There isn’t a Dwayne Johnson or a Steve Austin, but John Cena is becoming a crossover star and Brock Lesnar comes across as a legitimate tough guy as much as any wrestler from any time period, and the company pushed the two as its biggest stars. These are the flaws that get talked about regularly.

And things do vary, which tells us that stuff matters. House shows have gone down with John Cena out of the mix. Ratings were at rock bottom and this fall season was looking to be a disaster from that standpoint in September, but once Bill Goldberg came back and other things fell into place, things did improve. But even if that hadn’t have happened, the way the business is structured, things are still healthy, and will remain healthy as long as they can continually increase television revenue.

If streaming services get aggressive in wanting to compete with television years from now, WWE has a large enough and loyal enough fan base that if there becomes competition for their rights that business will only boom. If that doesn’t happen, and television stations have less revenue, who knows how WWE will fit into the picture.

In the end, it is these outside market forces that will tell the future of the WWE business, not short-term creative, and not Vince McMahon. As people like to point out, the WWE brand that gets the most consistently positive reaction is NXT, which has the fewest viewers and draws the least. Smackdown is more widely praised as a television show than Raw, but Raw does more viewers and draws more fans on the road. In the end, it’s not the creative or the television show quality but the perception of what is important, which is why nobody can compete with WWE, even if they were on national television and put on a better product, because even so, the perception would be it’s not as important.

Shane McMahon, is generally considered a nice guy and when he was with the company, he was very popular among those who worked for him. His lone outside business venture, trying to navigate in the tough Chinese market with video-on-demand, has thus far been a financial disaster and the article pointed that out. The article noted that because of his non-compete deal with You on Demand, he actually can’t work for WWE in going into the Chinese market. Even though he hasn’t been a success in that market, he would have more experience with it than anyone in the current upper management structure.

Shane has always wanted to prove he can run a business, both when he figured this business would be his at one point, and after, when it became clear it would be Paul & Stephanie’s.

Over the years, he’s had opportunities to purchase the UFC, Pride, Strikeforce, wanted to be in charge of the rebranded ECW the way Levesque is with NXT, and even wanted to buy a soccer team.

But, in almost all cases, due to decisions by Vince, none of those deals transpired. Right now he is solely a television character, a good face for Smackdown because he is popular with the audience. Yet even so, Raw is still the “A” show and the “A” touring brand. That was the case even when Cena was appearing regularly. Shane is also appearing less-and-less on the Smackdown shows, with Daniel Bryan more-and-more coming across as the authority face of the brand.

Fonte Wrestling Observer Newsletter