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CALDWELL'S TAKE
CALDWELL: Week in Review 4/18 - ROH PPV, Draft, Superstars, Impact, Lockdown, Whatever else comes to mind Apr 18, 2009 - 5:35:49 PM
I have 15 minutes until going to a family function tonight, so I'm just going to write about a very busy week in wrestling until 15 minutes is up.
What comes to mind first? WWE Superstars. Followed by Ring of Honor on PPV. Followed by the Draft. Followed by TNA Lockdown.
First, Superstars. I liked the show. You have to know what you're expecting when you tune in for the show. Torch readers seemed to have fair expectations for the show. Asked what they thought of the debut episode, 37 percent of Torch readers voted in Friday's Morning Poll that the show was "Good - Useful show that could enhance storylines."
I don't think it was an excellent show, which grabbed 14 percent, nor do I believe it was completely useless, which took second-place with 23 percent, but I believe it was a decent show that will need to establish a track record of good match-ups and star power to be relevant during the week.
WWE isn't trying to blow anyone away with Superstars or re-invent pro wrestling TV - although they could have - but simply enhance the main storylines on Raw. Everything centers on Raw. Even Smackdown last night centered on Raw and they just did a Draft to eliminate WWE Brand Confusion. Give it a few weeks, apparently.
Superstars will be relevant as a storyline-enhancement show with a rotation of top stars on the show each week. We'll see how long WWE keeps it up, but the debut show was just fine in its role.
Where are we next? Ring of Honor on PPV. Here's the thing about ROH's PPVs. The action will be good-to-great, but the storylines will be irrelevant.
Perhaps it's because I just saw ROH in real-time at live events in Houston two weekends ago, but these PPV storylines seem "so two months ago." Bison Smith? I haven't heard his name pop up in about a month. Bobby Dempsey with Sweet 'n Sour? I just saw him leading the babyface "students" in some pre-show action in Houston.
I understand ROH is trying to cater to several different audiences with a wide-sweeping product that is more about action than storyline drama, but imagine a fan who attends ROH in Montreal or Toronto this weekend.
Friday - See ROH live in real-time. Come home and watch PPV with storylines from two months ago.
Saturday - Watch ROH DVD with storylines from a month ago. Watch ROH on HDNet with storylines from six weeks ago.
My head would be spinning trying to keep up with these developments. And, at the end of the day, ROH is faced with a situation where they don't want to water down the product by not having a consistent "voice" the product.
For better or worse, the voice of the WWE product is McMahon Family vs. Randy Orton's Legacy with under-card themes of brother vs. brother, young lions on ECW, and Draft Fall-out.
With Nigel McGuinness losing the ROH Title two weekends ago, there isn't a central theme or "voice" to the product. Jerry Lynn is - or acknowledged as - the ROH champion on some content, but not others.
ROH needs to find a central theme to their product that everyone can follow whether they're watching a PPV from two months ago or a live event happening real-time. Otherwise, the product is going to frustrate viewers rather than encourage them to follow the product in various channels.
How am I on time? Good, a few minutes. The Draft. WWE already made the Draft seem obsolete on Smackdown last night when Raw invaded the program. But, as I touched on above, Raw is the center of the WWE Universe (haha) and everything runs through it. Now that WWE champion Triple H is back on the Raw brand, it will be even more obvious until Hunter "finishes up business" on Smackdown.
Perhaps the Draft will begin to take shape after Backlash next Sunday. Otherwise, Smackdown won't be able to form its own identity with Taker, Rey, Jericho, and Edge being the headline stars.
How about TNA? The company offers its second-most-important PPV of the year on Sunday with Lockdown from Philly. Should be a good card based on the build-up, but the key will be the folks on the mid-card finding a way to be interesting, but not killing the audience before the triple main event.
TNA's PPVs in 2009 have suffered from horrible-to-horrendous undercard matches and slow, old, broken-down veterans trying to have main event-caliber matches in 2009. Put those two together and it's been a recipe for disaster.
Fortunately, TNA stuck Joe, Styles, and Daniels in the semi-main event to create movement and "work around" the likes of Kevin Nash, who made no bones about admitting he can be a roadblock for the younger stars in the ring.
The main event of Sting vs. Foley will be interesting to watch. Will Foley put too much pressure on himself to follow seven cage matches and decide he needs to try something he knows he shouldn't at his age and considering how many career bumps he's taken in his career? Can Sting's knees hold up for a PPV main event-caliber match?
The match with the best build going into Lockdown, though, had to be Beer Money vs. Team 3D...until Thursday night on Impact when the whole angle was shot to heck. The "respect angle" between Beer Money and 3D was an excellent piece of TV theater and really created a unique angle.
TNA then bringing out the blood-and-guts former ECW wrestlers to take chair shots to the head and bleed like crazy for another payday took away from the tone of the match build-up. TNA was just fine keeping it about respect, even though Team 3D and Beer Money still didn't touch before the PPV.
Looks like my time is up. We'll have plenty more TNA Lockdown coverage on the site tonight and Sunday before the PPV. I'll also have an ROH on HDNet TV recap on Sunday afternoon. Keep it locked to PWTorch.com this weekend.
Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.
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