How could they have f'd up WWE New York?

[Guest justcoz]

It's kind of irrelevant to the product but didn't the concept behind WWF New York seem like a "sure thing"? A WWF/E themed restaurant right in Time's Square in the heart of the city where the company has had it's greatest notoriety? And just like other "sure things" to come to the company within the past few years - they f'd it up!!!

 

Couldn't they have just run it as a restaurant during the day where one could go and sit to watch anything from Bruno Sammartino to Hulk Hogan to Ric Flair, The Rock and Mick Foley? Some cute sandwhiches named after the wrestler's or their moves. Capt. Lou Albano guest waiter days. They should have always been running footage from all eras on the screens. Hall of Fame placques on the walls but apparently they abandoned that hall of fame idea too.

 

Perhaps they could have done a Shotgun Saturday Night type show (back when that show's original concept was wrestling from nightclubs) to feed off the smaller more intimate crowd where there would have been a TON of heat. This would have been the type of show that would have worked on MTV. Reminiscent of the Manhatten Studio Raw's and ECW Arena shows (although I know the place probably wasn't the size of those venues).

 

The facility could have been used so much better. I never did get to attend so I'm only know the interior from what I saw on television. Would it have been large enough for a television taping with a ring, etc.?

 

It just never ceases to amaze me how pro wrestling has made Vince McMahon and his family very very rich yet they continuously look to expand the company on money losing outside projects rather than stay within their own niche.

 

Instead of looking at the facility in Times Square as a center to celebrate their successes in the city and pop culture in general with pro wrestling... they looked at it as a nightclub, concert venue, etc. And it failed. Seems to me that they should've concentrated on wrestling and they did little of it. They had prime time television slots to make this thing a true tourist attraction but all they said to the television viewers was that injured guys on the roster or guys with no storylines hung out there during Smackdown and Raw.

 

PITTSBURGH NET RADIO

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

*looks at WCW Grill in LV*

 

Sure thing?

[Guest justcoz]

but that was WCW... this is the publicly traded company which is supposed to sell shareholders on the concept that they know their target audience and niche - when they obviously don't. This was a building in Times Square and they did nothing with it but lose money...

 

PITTSBURGH NET RADIO

[Guest Askewniverse]

The Invasion seemed like a "sure thing" too, and look how that turned out.

[Guest Steviekick]

I went to the World, and these were my problems with it from the two visits at it...

 

1...The prices were expensive but without a "special"ness to them. If I'm going to pay $20 for a cheesesteak dinner, it better be special. At the world, nothing was special. You would think that they're menu/food presentation would have been unique. The only thing on the menu with a wrestling name was a drink called the King of the Ring. That was it. All I wanted was a Rock-burger.

 

2...I didn't find this too bad, but my friend was furious that they added their gratuity into the bill. Not that he's a bad tipper, bu that's just ridiculous.

 

3...The product depth in the store sucked. My younger brother wanted a Hardy Boys shirt, and I wanted a Jericho one...however, all they had were the Austin, DX, and Rock shirts. You would think that at THE ONLY WWF STORE IN THE FREAKING WORLD they would have more than the big ones. That was really dissappointing.

 

4...Service sucked there. I was there when it was both busy and dead, and they took forever both ways.

 

5...Remember when it first opened and they were like "Oh, stop by the World and watch Raw...etc.?" I went there for Smackdown, and when they weren't having a good wait staff...they were freaking rushing us...ridiculous.

 

My impressions as the World as a restaurant/tourist attraction were that it was decent, but not special. I wouldn't have gone out of my way to go there.

 

As for a concert venue, it seemed like it would be a decent small sized club. There would have been enough room to do a Shotgun like show, but oh well.

[Guest LatinoHeat]

^

 

I've been there once.

 

The graditude thing on the bill also annoyed me.

 

I went on a Wednesday IIRC but I heard that the service was only good on Mondays and during ppv's.

[LivingLegendGaryColeman 0]

I liked the Nitro Grill a lot back in the day. It was a cool place. I even went with some non-wrestling fans who liked it. The food was good and not that expensive. However, in the land of the $1.99 buffet called Las Vegas, plus the wrestling theme, people might not always be into it. Also, it was a little tricky to get to. It was in the Excalibur hotel, tucked away on the upstairs in between a steak house and toward the end, Kripsy Kreme doughnuts.

[Guest Choken One]

Umm...RRR running an Fucking resturant is pretty hard business...

 

Tons of Multi-Millionaires open and close or sell resturants in Matter of Weeks...

[Lil' Bitch 0]

*looks at WCW Grill in LV*

 

I live in LV and despite me being a big WCW fan at the time, I still never went to the Nitro Grill. I heard from a lot of my fellow wrestling fan friends that it wasn't great so I took their advice. Apparantly, I didn't miss anything.

[Guest Nater]

You missed the whole period where managers were being fired because money was being traced back to WWE New York?

 

There were corrupt people leaking money, and by the time it was plugged the whole project was already a sinking ship.

 

(it got WCW'ed)

[LooseCannon25 0]

I went to The World a few times, The store, the restaurant, and the club all at least twice.

 

The Restaurant ---- As was said before, terribly overpriced items with nothing special about them. You would think it would be wrestling themed, but there was barely anythin about wrestling except a TV screen that played corny WWE commercial videos that can be seen on Confidential. The restaurant itself looked like a basement with white walls and a pretty low ceiling. Terrible setup, terrible pricing, terrible service, terrible RESULT.

 

The Store -- Another dissapointment. Basically the store had some shirts, videos, toys and dolls, and a few replica belts. The T-shirts werent a very large variety. Some old ones too. The videos section was ridiculous, as you would see less than 10 videos at any given time, and they were all very recent videos. At least have some of the older stuff from a few years back or something. Besides that all they had was corny keychains, plush dolls, shot glasses, and figures. Not a lot of stuff and not very impressive at all. Very overpriced as well.

 

The Club - This is the only part of WWE NY that was good to me. A good sized club with a nice layout. Good entertainment and guests, and good music. It was pretty expensive to get into sometimes, but it was worth it for the music, the guests and the atmosphere. The club was always pretty packed and seemed to be doing very well. It was probably the only money maker there and they should have kept it open by itself as they would have continied the revenue. It would have been better than a big WWE marquee on the corner with just an empty space inside. I don't know if they're planning to do something else or just rent out the space, but they still have yet to take the scrolling marquee out.

 

On top of that you got crooked store managers, not much commitment to the place by WWE and you got yet another failure.

[Guest razazteca]

Well WWE is not a wrestling company and this business model carrys over to the WWE New York, as it is not a restaurant. It was a poor excuse at trying to be like the Hard Rock theme franchise but fell apart because of bad management.

 

Just like Planet Hollywood if you will.