F4WOnline.com provided some backstage updates ahead of tonight’s WWE Bragging Rights pay-per-view.
— There is legitimate concern about the likely buyrate for Sunday’s show. In addition to the fact that the Bragging Rights concept has not really proven itself as a draw and the fact that even heavily-anticipated WWE PPVs have been underwhelming buyrate-wise is the fact that the show was saddled with some of the most intense competition of the year.
Going head-to-head with Bragging Rights will be the marquee Vikings vs. Packers game on NBC. More importantly, UFC ran its heavily-anticipated UFC 121 show, featuring a Brock Lesnar fight, Saturday night. The presence of a UFC show on the same weekend has consistently hurt WWE’s PPV performance, and the fact that this particular show featured Brock Lesnar likely means that more dual wrestling and MMA fans than usual already parted with their PPV allowance for the weekend.
— The situation surrounding the Kane vs. Undertaker match has made for intriguing industry dialogue. Given the fact that Kane has been getting the better of Undertaker in the feud, booking logic would presumably call for an Undertaker victory at the show. The one potential holdup is the fact that Undertaker, who is banged up, might require an extremely light schedule over the next few months. If that proves true, it could be hard to justify the Taker title win.
— The plan is obviously for John Cena to get involved in the Wade Barrett-Randy Orton match. The most obvious scenarios either call for Cena’s interference to help Barrett win the title or for Cena’s intereference, perhaps on purpose, to “backfire” and lead to Barrett’s demise.