Taking your thoughts on Extreme Rules coverage from around the internet, looking for your input on where the best and worst post-show coverage is—anything that sticks out as particularly bad or good from a reaction podcasts/reports standpoint. Send to Les@sheetsandwich.com
We’ve got a fun article up today taking a look at the top awkward phrases from Dave Meltzer’s live coverage of the show last night on F4Wonline.com. Including my personal favorite: “New Day was doing a promo when the car showed up and Amborse and Harper showed back and are brawling backsage. Ambrose was driving as they came back. Harper is back in the arena and Ambrose jumped on him.”
Also on the site today is a big story recapping WONF4W’s late start jumping on Daniel Bryan officially being pulled from Extreme Rules. The site was basically the last to get the story online, and even after they did post the news, their headline mentioned nothing about Bryan, and focused on the Barrett replacement match.
This week’s feature story looks at the timeliness of coverage on major stories like above, and what members of premium pay news sites should be able to expect from their coverage.
We’ll also have a detailed look later this week on the top 10 wrestling news websites, breaking down not just the sites included, but the glaring omissions, too, including a look at why one of the biggest sites you’d think should be included aren’t being tracked.
Monday News Update
** Lots of finger pointing today by some websites regarding the details of WWE’s King of the Ring plans. While most of the bigger sites managed to cover the story fairly accurately, running with the idea that the tournament would kick off tonight on Monday Night Raw and be completed during the WWE Network special Tuesday night, F4Wonline,com continued to focus on the lack of detail… despite running the story. Strange.
** Wade Keller had an interesting look at reformatting the opening formula for Monday Night Raw on his VIP Hotline over the weekend. The idea one reader submitted, and Keller elaborated upon, was that, as one of cable’s #1 programs, it makes it seem sloppy and slapped together to start with people in the ring arguing their way toward a feature match being made later in the night.
** It’s a cogent idea, and one that definitely is not new, but the refreshing thing was to hear a guy who’s audience pays for wrestling analysis actually break down an idea earnestly and forthrightly without a cynical, snarky dismissal typically found from other sources of news.
** If you listened to Wrestling Observer Radio last night with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer, you likely noticed that, despite the impetus for the show being the Extreme Rules post-show analysis, Meltzer dropped in hints of his eagerness to cover the Jon Jones, UFC story while blearily making his way through the Extreme Rules recap. Funny part was, when Alvarez finally kicked off the Jones discussion asking Meltzer what’s going on with Jon Jones, Meltzer started with, “I don’t know” …
** Really decent 200-word preview of tonight’s RAW over on the PW Torch VIP section, which I could imagine being very helpful for their readers who may have skipped the show, framing up what we could reasonably expect to be covered on the show tonight given the outcome from last night.
** As of yet there is no Raw preview on F4Wonline.com. They do have a King of the Ring update, with the first round matches announced for tonight—with the Torch also has.
** PW Torch also has a WWWE PPV Social Media report breaking down Nielsen’s Twitter TV Ratings, which you can fine here. Refreshing to see this update was available to free onlookers as well as VIP members, since it’s not original content.
** Today’s News-to-Plugs report on F4Wonline.com — News: 1572 words. Plugs: 3746
