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Updated daily from the corner cubicle, Torch columnist James Caldwell's weekday blog focuses on hot topic current events and other items of interest from around wrestling.

Updated Thursday, June 26, 2008

WWE delivered another round of draft picks yesterday, bolstering the line-up for Raw and Smackdown, while continuing the theme of ECW as their national minor league show. The formula for ECW seems simple: stack up heels to feud against Matt Hardy, who should probably start icing his knees to prepare for the inevitable work-the-body-part every Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, Raw and Smackdown grabbed talent that seems half-way encouraging for bolstering the mid-card. The "headline" moves of Kofi Kingston to Raw and Shelton Benjamin to Smackdown will give each brand a dose of athleticism to create more intriguing TV. Kofi has arrived as a star, while Shelton has yet another fresh start to work with.

Now for the supplemental picks that stood out to some degree and are worthy of comment. Most of the picks are of the wait-and-see variety to see where the writers plug new talent into the respective shows.

Good picks. Trevor Murdoch to Smackdown gives him a chance to play the babyface blues in front of a younger demographic. I'm picturing Heidenreich with Hershey's chocolate. Murdoch has intangibles that maybe Michael Hayes can tap into. ... Jamie Noble to Raw is interesting because Smackdown's writing crew couldn't figure out what to do with him. He was a poor man's Santino for a while before Chuck P. started taking out his passive aggressive feelings towards Michelle McCool on him.

Carlito moving to Smackdown will give him a fresh start and allow Santino to return his funny ways on Raw without Carlito dragging down the mood. Remains to be seen if Carlito is any more motivated with a change of scenery. ... Super Crazy to ECW will give him a fresh start on a brand he's familiar with after being completely lost in the shuffle on Raw. That may not have been worthy of comment, but neither is D.H. Smith to Smackdown...

Not-so-good picks. Chuck Palumbo and Deuce to anywhere. ... At first blush, Finlay moving to ECW sounds like a demotion to further push Finlay out of the spotlight when he could be more valuable to the company. It could work, however, with Finlay as a player/coach working with some of the younger talent that will inevitably get a chance to grab TV time considering the lack of talent remaining on the brand.

Matt Striker to Raw just doesn't sound right. He seems like more of a Smackdown/ECW player who can stretch out a five-minute segment into ten minutes by talking forever to fill several gaps in the TV show. Like Simon Dean, his act could quickly wear thin on a Raw audience that expects a faster pace.

***

Updated Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Last night's Smackdown and ECW taping was pretty much standard fare for WWE. Audience was kids and their parents. Brand split was non-existent. Wrestling matches were inconsequential or standard fare, except for the stand-out Edge vs. Matt Hardy match on the Smackdown taping.

The biggest takeaway from the actual show was the lack of brand separation, just one night after a giant Draft. Mark Henry was on ECW and Smackdown. Kane, a new Raw superstar, was on the ECW and Smackdown shows. Matt Hardy, who is ECW's only singles champion, was on both shows. And with even more wrestlers moving from brand to brand in the (unnecessary) supplemental draft, it's made for an even more convoluted period of time.

One of things I noticed, however, is that the fans in the arena simply didn't care about brand splits, up-to-the-second storylines, and the majority of match outcomes. They came to see the WWE-brand stars that they see on TV each week. This isn't anything new, but it's a reminder that the paying customer is paying to see stars live and in-person.

The fall-out from that is the pro wrestling style slipping into little or no consequence. Certainly, a stand-out match or a memorable title change draws the audience into the wrestling action, but it's essentially the Ultimate Warrior syndrome. During his heyday 20 years ago, Warrior's music hit, he did the giant entrance to the cool music that everyone came to see, he wrestled a meaningless squash match, and that was that.

WWE's style of product is derived from the Warrior presentation. Ring music hits, flashy lighting ensues, wrestler comes out, fans snap photos, a basic five-minute TV match ensues, the good guy comes out on top in the end, and then fans cheer for the star. WWE can book this way for the live audience when they only run a market two times at most during the year. I'm completely setting aside trying to sell PPVs here, which is a whole different story.

As a prime example of the mindset of the casual fans in the live audience, the teenage girl sitting next to me in the arena turned to her brother and said she wanted to see The Undertaker. She wasn't concerned about his "retirement" storyline, but simply seeing her favorite star live and in-person.

Whereas we've been trained to complain about storylines, casual fans that make up 95 percent of the viewing audience and live event customers simply want to see the larger-than-life characters. They're not concerned about continuity in the storytelling or whether a Raw star appeared on ECW and Smackdown.

It's easy to complain about the lack of brand split protection or competency in storytelling, but it's not affecting the live audience. Attendance last night was right in line with past televised and non-televised shows with over 10,000 in the building. They came to see the stars, not necessarily competent wrestling.

***

Updated Tuesday, June 24, 2008

After three hours of Drafting, inconsequential wrestling matches, and week 3 of the money give-away, WWE closed out last's night Raw with another attempt at shock-and-awe to apparently write off the giveaway.

After all that time spent reshuffling the deck and (not doing a very good job of) hyping a PPV on Sunday, was it really necessary for another McMahon limo explosion-type angle?

In WWE's mind, the answer is yes. Ratings have been hovering around 3.0. Interest in McMoney has been just O.K. WWE is still one of top-rated shows on cable - and they'll tell you all about that in a press release - but it apparently hasn't been good enough to satisfy top management. Otherwise, a Draft to hit the re-start button would have sufficed.

The Draft hoopla and intrigue from new match-ups should have led into Sunday night's PPV with the possibility of several title belts moving brands. Think about the ECW Title situation. A Raw brand wrestler will be defending against a Smackdown brand wrestler for ECW's Title. Essentially, Matt Hardy - if he retains the U.S. Title on Sunday - will be asked to carry the entire ECW brand going forward as the only singles champion.

There are many possibilities for fresh feuds on each of the two brands that actually gained people last night. (ECW was presented as a complete joke last night, so I'm putting them at the kiddy table.) But, will WWE have the discipline to hold off on Edge vs. Hardy or Batista vs. Cena until a program has been well-established?

WWE's track record is about short-term. They gave away a relatively fresh Triple H vs. Chris Jericho match last week with little hype as an example of WWE giving away PPV-caliber matches on free TV. The key going forward will be protecting the match-ups created by the Draft.

But at the end of the day, WWE showed the priority wasn't on selling a PPV or giving the Draft center stage. It was about another shock-and-awe segment involving Vince McMahon. As much as the Draft was about change, some things really never do change.

One year ago, the McMahon limo explosion angle back-fired on WWE when news of the Chris Benoit tragedy came into play. One year later, we seem to be looking at the same situation with McMahon putting the focus of his flagship show strictly on him rather than the wrestlers trying to make money for the company.

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