I know this may be a stretch in the logic Ryback uses, but I am taking his argument and applying it to the fictional situation where I am the booking agent for a music festival. Should I pay the 8 bands I'm going to book the same, meaning the very first band that plays should be paid the same as the headliner. Uh, no. Never. Look at this fictional dream lineup of a day-long music festival I would love to book at Kinnick Stadium. Here's the schedule:
12:00 Doors Open
02:10-02:45 From Ashes to New
03:00-03:40 We As Human
04:05-04:45 In This Moment
05:15-06:00 Pop Evil
06:30-07:15 Breaking Benjamin
07:45-09:00 Shinedown
09:30-11:00 Metallica
Editor's Note: Schedule was revised on 5/13/2016 to use the Rock'n Derby main stage schedule as a template. See below the link to Ryback's post for the bands that are playing at that festival.
Regardless of the amount of time a specific band was playing, there is a higher demand for Metallica than From Ashes to New, the same as there is more demand for Cena or The Rock than for Golddust or R Truth. That's the way it is. The only way a band like From Ashes to New or We As Human can move into the Metallica slot is to keep churning away, playing gigs upon gigs until, eventually, they headline their own tour. A great example is Shinedown. They were not in a good slot the first time I saw them at Memphis in May in 2003. While their single "45" was starting to run up the charts, they still played around 2 PM, which is not the best slot. When I saw them in 2008, Shinedown were sandwiched between Buck Cherry & Saving Abel. When I saw them twice in 2013, Shinedown was headlining their own tour with Three Days Grace & POD opening in February and then headlining the "Carnival of Madness" tour with Skillet & Papa Roach & In This Moment & We As Human opening.
So when Ryback says, "Why not pay the talent equally? The winners have more MERCH as it is or are supposed to anyways so they get that extra perk," he has answered his own question. MERCH is not a perk - it's a clear, tangible, & measurable way to determine whether the talent should be headlining a PPV or in the pre-show. Is it fair? Of course not. The WWE Universe is finnicky. It's hard to imagine this, but there was a time when The Rock was booed and was unpopular. Sometimes things work slowly. For example, The New Day started out as heels and the stable looked like it was going to be a bust. They were unpopular and booed often. Since their debut, they have found a way to connect with the crowd to the extent that on the May 2, 2016, episode of Monday Night Raw, they were faces and teamed up with Cass, another face. Sometimes things don't work at all. The League of Nations (Rusev, Alberto Del Rio, Sheamus, and Wade Barrett) never caught on as a stable. When they turned on each other a couple of weeks ago, I certainly didn't shed a tear.
Read Ryback's post here
SATURDAY, MAY 21
A DAY TO REMEMBER 9:30 --- 11:00PM
HALESTORM 7:45 --- 9:00PM
HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD 6:30 ---
7:15PM
STATE CHAMPS 5:15 ---
6:00PM
WE CAME AS ROMANS 4:05 --- 4:45PM
MEMPHIS MAY FIRE 3:00 ---
3:40PM
MISS MAY I 2:10 ---
2:45PM
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