Neither of those restaurants are controlled by Universal, they're third parties renting space. You guys probably know that already though.
[video=youtube;4zwHCx54mIM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zwHCx54mIM&sns=em[/video]
Neither of those restaurants are controlled by Universal, they're third parties renting space. You guys probably know that already though.
I'm not sure there's any evidence wrestling fans would support this, financially, at all. There's a reason a show like Raw that has dominated cable ratings for over a decade gets fractions of ad revenue that much less successful shows do. All the data points to the fact that wrestling fans are generally low income and only want their wrestling, nothing else. It's frustrating for cable companies because viewers come on to watch RAW, Smackdown and even TNA Impact, but they (as a general rule) don't watch anything else on the channel.
I love wrestling probably more than most people here, and spent a decade writing about it for the PWTorch and Wrestling Observer/F4Wonline sites, but I think putting a physical Hall of Fame in Universal Citywalk, or in any theme park setting, will be a disaster.
All the data points to the fact that wrestling fans are generally low income and only want their wrestling, nothing else.
I'd have to go through issues of the printed Observer, but Dave Meltzer has been tracking this stuff for 20+ years now and nothing has changed. From the low points of the early 90s, to the red hot late 90s/early 2000s, wrestling fans stick with wrestling. It's the reason all the "B" shows (the most recent being for WGN) end up getting cancelled. Stations see these incredible (at least as they can be in today's marketplace) numbers wrestling gets on USA/Spike and think getting a wrestling show will up their entire station. That's not what happens. The wrestling fans come in, watch their wrestling show, and leave. Of course there's going to be exceptions, and a lot of them, but this is one of the reasons pro wrestling shows get one of the lowest, if not the lowest, rate of advertising dollars.
A quck search of Meltzer's tweets reveal this quickie: "Dave Meltzer @davemeltzerWON
@alexdgreenfield Yeah, I've seen studies. Heavy minority and low income. WWE & WNBA lean most left of any sports fan bases."
I googled this and "Last year Meltzer had a a chart showing how many wrestling fans there are in various demographics (in the US). African-Americans are 3 times more likely to be fans than whites, which means they could be 30-40% of the total fanbase. Also, the very poorest households are far more likely to be fans than anyone else, even compared to other below-average households. Thus the low ad revenue per capita. A lot of that has to do with young, single men being a core group, and "young single person" is always by far the poorest group in society."
I can't even explain what an authority on wrestling Dave Meltzer is. I guess the closest person to compare him to in the theme park world would be Jim Hill, but I think a better description would be "Jim Hill combined with the next three top guys you think are the top of the field." The wrestling observer newsletter (and website F4Wonline.com) is a must read if you have even a passing interest in the world of wrestling. It's amazing.
Then there's other areas to consider like, what kind of Hall of Fame are we talking about? This isn't the type of Hall of Fame most people are used to, where people get in on merit. People, even the biggest stars, are left out of WWE Hall of Fame because of things like personal vendettas. The WWE Hall of Fame has Vince McMahon's father's limo driver in it. It's a cartoon version of a real wrestling Hall of Fame.
The reason the "B" shows bomb is because they're "B" shows. They tell the main stuff on Raw, some stuff on SD (which is also part Raw recap), and the B shows feature some jobbers they almost never use on Raw or SD and occasionally a top person people want to see, then spend part of the show recapping Raw as well. They're just not worth watching so they bomb.
This is the reason a real, non wwe run Hall of Fame has been established: http://www.pwhf.org/Then there's other areas to consider like, what kind of Hall of Fame are we talking about? This isn't the type of Hall of Fame most people are used to, where people get in on merit. People, even the biggest stars, are left out of WWE Hall of Fame because of things like personal vendettas. The WWE Hall of Fame has Vince McMahon's father's limo driver in it. It's a cartoon version of a real wrestling Hall of Fame.