WWE is proud to announce that they will be continueing their marketing via other sports. Last year saw a huge increase of succsess for the team compared to when it was under French government.
Bret The Hitman Hart, the excellency of execution, the best there was, the best there is and the best there ever will be! This man has been a huge inspiration for the jersey design for the upcoming season. The jersey is made by miggi133 and his creations are among the best in the world.
2010
When the current manager took over this team, it was called Nvidia, and was really going for cobbled races. Nvidia changed manager mid-season, but no reason for this was ever given. The new manager, Christer, couldn't do much before the next transfer season.
2011
As Bbox went in the transfer season, they wanted Voeckler for any price. This was a success, and the offensive French rider is still a part of the team. But the most likely biggest change was the max 500000 (500 thousand) limit per rider in wages is most likely the biggest change in the team. This led to the biggest star's departure, and more youngster to get a chance. But the rule also lead to a pretty weak season. Luckily, the team managed to put it together and do good in the late season. The biggest moment that season was to ride in Le Tour de France.
2012
The first season with Team WWE put manager Christer out of his "rookie" season. While it's his third year with appearances, 2012 was his second year with transfers and race selections. The team got improved, within it's own rules and managed to, after a rough estimate, double the points earned over the season. Team WWE managed to get good results more often this year, and the Swedish Sensation Kessiakoff has been an important part of this.
Seeing the improvement for the team, while still using the limitations put on them by the previous sponsors, Team WWE looks to take another year as sole sponsor. Will they follow up and improve once again, or was the 2012 season simply a fluke? Time will tell.
2013
A new season is in the horizon. This team is not a team that is just about proving that they are the best in the world, but also about proving that you can be the best even if you don't have the best chances to reach the top. This is the goal of the team. Therefore, the 500.000 wage cap is still in place. Vincent K. McMahon really enjoyed watching smaller teams with a certain personality, such as Team WWE and especially Meiji - Fuji, and he has therefore asked Christer to continue with what he has been doing.
Edited by Christer on 14-10-2012 21:37
America Tour Team Standings: Top 5 Stage win(s): Tour de San Luis.
Top 5: Tour of Beijing.
Win: Tour of America.
Points / KoM Jersey: Tour of America
Edited by Christer on 12-02-2013 08:24
David Veilleux is said to have being tracked by new Canadian Pro-Continental outfit Alstom-RBC is there any truth in the rumor the he could be changing his team come next year.
We might have a few problems distinguishing between your jersey and my CSC jersey this year, hopefully that skull on the back is eye catching. And hopefully we don't cross paths in the transfer season again like last year.
Edited by Mresuperstar on 14-10-2012 22:02
I doubt there will be problems between our jerseys:
Regarding Veilleux: He's a talented rider and a good worker, so of course he has been scouted. Especially by Canadian teams, as he's a Canadian himself. As of this writing, Team WWE has not received any offers for any riders and there are no point in commenting on such rumors until the transfer season is starting.
Romour has it that Txurruka wants a move to a team from his home country. He apparently reacted very happy on the news of a new Spanish team joining the continental division and said to some friends that he could see himself leading that team.
Team WWE's Danish climber Chris Anker Sørensen is seemingly a transfer target for ProTour Team, Team B&O. Chris Anker has previously been with the team for three seasons before being released one year ago. Now the team manager is keen to bring back the talented Dane.
"I still follow Chris intently and he has made a lot of the progress I was expecting him to make earlier, this season. He has grown into the rider I though he would, so if the chance presents itself I don't see why we shouldn't bring him back."
According to team manager Christer on Twitter, Team WWE is looking to sign a new rider. People backstage have hinted towards Cunego, but nothing is confirmed yet.
Mr. McMahon said I should sign a rider. Way to be specific, boss!
Team WWE is proud to present their goals for season 2013!
Top 5 in the America Tour team standings
This is a very important goal for Team WWE. We are not the best team in the world, but we can be the best on the continent! This is even more important than keeping the PCT status, but hopefully we will not need to be concerned about that at all.
Stage win(s) in Tour de San Luis
We did this with Greipel previous season, and are confident that he can repeat it this year! The race is also a part of the previous goal.
Top 5 in Tour of Beijing
The Chinese market is a huge and untapped market for WWE. We want to perform well there to bring attention towards our products and aim to do well in this race. We need to strengthen our squad for this.
Win Tour of America
This is the second most important goal for us. We are an American team, and want to win the biggest American race we can participate in. We have the riders to win it, if we are lucky. We want to get riders that can win it without luck.
Point and / or King of the Mountain jersey in Tour of America
In short, ToA is the most important race in the most important part of the world for our team. We have the potential already to complete this, but some margins are neccesary. In short we want two jerseys from ToA. Possibly three.
That is all the goals the sponsor gave us. Some are very challenging, but possible depending on margins. Some will probably be failed.
Nice goals focused around the most important race for your team, if you will bring a strong leader for ToA, they will go nicely all together. Good luck there.
Christer called in to meeting in Titan Tower in Connecticut
Early this morning Team WWE manager Christer was seen entering the Titan Tower, where WWE Inc. have their headquarters. He was in there for about 6 hour. After he exited the building for a press conference together with Mr. McMahon himself, Christer told that the meeting may have made a huge impact on the future of the team. Mr. McMahon informed the press that the terms for the riders have been sorted out, and there will be no more negotiating with current talent. When asked about what decision was made that could have a huge impact on the team, both Mr. McMahon and Christer refused to answer. They simply said that they will let us know what it is when the time comes.
@Avin: Thank you, and I hope you are right. They are within reach with the current squad, but I would feel safer with a even stronger rider in the team to pursue the goals.
Today, Team WWE finished up the contract renewals. The majority of the riders have gotten a new contract, but there are some who did not. This can be due to their services not being needed or a higher demand than the team can pay for their abilities.
As you can see from the table above, Team WWE have reduced the wages for the current contracted riders by a decent amount. This leaves us with room for high quality riders in terms of both wages and contracts. We have also come to agreement to terminate the contract with Leif Hoste and Yuan Wei, and wish them the best in their future endeavors.
While it has been known for quite some time for the people that have too much time and/or patience, some of you might been missing out or purposedly avoiding as much transfer news as possible.
Franco Pellizotti
He was the first rider being signed, after a lot of more known riders had become out of our price range.
Joseph Dombrowski
This guy is probably the biggest climbing talent in the world right now! He's also American, so signing him was important for team owner Vincent K. McMahon. This was the surprise mentioned in an earlier press release. One rider over the 500K wage limit.
Mauricio Ardila
This was probably the most expensive signing for our team. Bauke Mollema and Chris Anker Sørensen both left to the other team as part of this trade. This choice was done to avoid sacking riders, and negotiations dragged out a bit awaiting response from Dombrowski.
In a race where the team was heavily overlooked, Team WWE with Greipel as leader takes our first victory. The team seemed to co-operate very well, and was working like an unit the entire race. At times, it was a hectic race, with two crashes in the last part of the race. Dombrowski went down in one of them but he does not seem to be injured.
Greipel had a good leadout by Veilleux and Vingerling, and that made him beat everybody in a strong fashion that we hope to see in other races too.
Team WWE a key player to make Vuelta al Tachira an exciting race
Vuelta al Tachira is done and it's (argueably) the most entertaining race in January! The battle between Marquez from HTC Nieuwsblad and Team WWE's Pellizotti is a large part of this.
For Team WWE, the first flat stages was quite uneventful, with several top 10 finishes by Damrow and Pineau. It wasn't until stage 5 before the race spiked up for the team, with the first mountain stage. It was foreshadowing to what was about to happen in terms of the general classification. Pellizotti finished behind Marquez.
On stage 7, Pineau got a nice victory, proving to himself and Mr. McMahon that the renewed contract was no mistake. It was not until the 10th stage before Pellizotti and Marquez was spliting up, with the latter taking the upper hand. Stage 11 was a pure disaster for Pellizotti as he was having a bad day. On the other hand, Diniz showed class and did very well on this stage. On the last stage, Pellizotti tried to shake things up, but the effort went without any rewards. Marquez crashed but in true sportsmanship, all teams decided to wait for him.
All in all, this race was decent. Team WWE certainly can't complain about it, even though it was very close at times. Damrow, the team sprinter in this race, might also be the only sprinter to survive the time limit. He became lanterne rouge.
Tour de San Luis, a good race for Team WWE if you look at the history books, is also an important race. Mr. McMahon wanted the team to win a stage here.
The first stage was a little hard for Greipel, but he managed to score some bonus seconds and points on the intermidate sprint. The team did try, but the end result did not make up for the effort.
The second stage was a much better. The team worked hard once again, and Greipel managed to win the stage and complete the first goal of the season. It's uphill from here!
The third stage was hillier than the previous two, and Greipel had the leader jersey. The team worked again, but for different reasons. In the late stage, Pineau attacked, trying to not be outdone by Greipel. Both have had a fantastic start on their season this year. He didn't make it, but the effort is applaudable. A very pleasant surprise when Greipel managed to keep the jersey when he finished in the group with the stage winner.
The time-trial on stage four wasn't much to be proud of, but that was to be expected.
The following stage saw ofensive riding from Team WWE. Astarloza tried to go early, but was reeled in. Later in the stage, Paulinho got away. The break was reeled in again, but it was too late, and he got away again in the uphill sprint. It resulted in a second place and taking some time to the others.
A disaster hits the other teams on stage six, to the gain for our team. The riders feelings on the matter are mixed. Greipel sprinted in to third place on the stage, after yet another nice round of team work.
On the final stage, Kessiakoff showed how great team-player he is, by reeling in the break, like on the stage before. Greipel started a little early, and paid the price, but he did try.
In the end, Paulinho got a nice third place overall, and the stage win makes the goal a reality.
And hopefully we don't cross paths in the transfer season again like last year.
