Earlier this week Forbes & Bleacher Report wrestling columnist Alfred Konuwa was on WrestleZone Daily. Alfred was back with the latest installment of his weekly segment for the Daily called What’s Best For Business? which airs every Tuesday on WrestleZone Daily. In this installment Alfred speaks candidly with Nick about:
- Reigns’ big WWE World Heavyweight Championship win
- Dean Ambrose as the new IC Champion
- Dewey Foley’s WWE hiring
- Whether the WWE will remove Donald Trump from the WWE Hall of Fame
- And more…
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You can listen to Alfred’s appearance starting at the one hour and three minute mark in the embedded audio player below. Some of his quotes have been transcribed below it:
On whether or not Roman Reigns as the WWE World Heavyweight Champion is best for business:
AK: 100% it is. From here on out WWE is going to be can’t miss TV. We have heard all of these lame open letters and whatnot. People are upset with the product. WWE has really handled this well by staying the course, sticking with a young roster and now the heir apparent has the title. WWE is in a good position. They bottomed out. The ratings have been terrible. However, the NFL is coming to the end of their season. WWE is beginning WrestleMania season. Royal Rumble is coming up. John Cena is on the Royal Rumble poster so he is coming back. We are getting Brock Lesnar back. I believe this is the point with WWE where all of their fans are going to go, “Woah! There’s a new champion?! Roman Reigns won the title!” They are going to tune in out of curiosity. From then on WWE is just going to build it’s audience. I can see the ratings trending upwards.
On what he thinks about the fact the WWE World Heavyweight Championship changed hands on Monday Night RAW and not on a WWE Network special when, at the moment, the Network subscriber count is so important:
AK: The thing is RAW has had record low ratings and RAW is still a very big part of WWE’s business model. TV viewership, it’s hundreds of millions of dollars that we are talking about. Their deal with USA… they still have to take care of that. Given the fact that the WWE Network just had this dynamite quarter and is on it’s way to being profitable WWE still has to take care of the USA Network. They still have to show commitment to their partner. This is USA Network. They are going to start Smackdown on there and it’s going to be a new Smackdown product with Mauro Ranallo there. This is more of WWE saying, “Hey, we are still on with USA, RAW still matters.” It’s good to do this on a show that had been seeing record lows and now it’s destination programming.
On whether or not Dean Ambrose as IC Champion is best for business:
AK: It’s always better to get the chase. Kevin Owens has been doing a good job as the Intercontinental Champion, as a heel champion. Cuts a great promo. I felt like if the move was to put the title on Dean Ambrose you have Kevin Owens hold it for longer. Maybe even up until the Royal Rumble. Have a legitimate feud and chase. Now we are in the position where the heel is chasing the babyface. That’s never best for business.
Alfred was also the featured co-host on this week’s edition of RAW Reaction. You can listen to Alfred’s appearance on RAW Reaction as well as the full archives for WrestleZone Daily in the embedded players below:
