Brandon Howard Thurston

Paige’s Wellness Policy Violation: Potential Consequences and Double Standards

News broke today that Paige has been suspended due to a violation of WWE’s Wellness Policy for the second time since August. Should Paige violate the policy a third time at any point in the future, her contract could be…

WWE Pay-Per-View Buys in the Original Brand-Split Era And What It Means Today

The Raw-only pay-per-view event Clash of Champions is set to take place Sunday. With the recent Backlash being the first brand-specific pay-per-view from WWE since 2007, let’s look back on the old PPV model and consider how effective the previous brand-split…

Exclusive: Are Raw Ratings A Reflection Of WWE Popularity?

Against the first week of Monday Night Football, WWE RAW posted a 1.88 rating for the episode that aired Monday. That’s the program’s lowest non-holiday rating since 1996: a time when RAW was opposed head-to-head by WCW Nitro. The 1.88…

Playing in Brother’s Sandbox: An Account of WWE Summerslam Weekend, Part 2

This is Part 2 of a two-part series on Brandon Howard’s visit to Brooklyn for Summerslam weekend. Part 1 was posted yesterday.   NXT Takeover and WWE Summerslam, on consecutive nights in the same arena, ended on completely different notes.…

Playing in Brother’s Sandbox: An Account of WWE Summerslam Weekend, Part 1

This is Part 1 of a two-part series on Brandon Howard’s visit to Brooklyn for Summerslam weekend. Part 2 is here. Following pro wrestling, especially WWE, can be a frustrating and evermore time-consuming ordeal. Why do we put up with…

Exclusive Analysis: Seth Rollins Return to WWE House Shows Increases Attendance Amid Overall Decline

A few days ago we looked specifically at the house show drawing power of Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose so far in 2016. More interesting than the impact of Reigns and Ambrose is that Seth Rollins’ return to house shows,…

Exclusive Analysis: New Japan Pro Wrestling Attendance Down in Rebuilding Phase

EDIT: It's come to our attention president of New Japan's parent company, Bushiroad, Takaaki Kidani stated the company began reporting its real paid attendance numbers on its website beginning April 29, 2015. Readers should bear in mind the likely differences in the…

Exclusive Analysis: Roman Reigns vs. Dean Ambrose WWE House Show Attendance Comparison

As house show draws, both Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose can be viewed as performing equally so far in 2016. While both have been leaders of the separate house show tours, neither seem to have a significant effect on house…

Exclusive Analysis: WWE House Show Attendance Down, But Overall Attendance Is up

While the average attendance for WWE house shows in North America is down, total attendance and revenue related to live events are up this year, thanks to the fact the company is running more events. Comparing the first half of…