Email This Article - Contact Us - VIP Sign-Up - Back to Home Page

|

-- I don't know too much about the "Jon & Kate plus 8" show, but I keep hearing about it everywhere. Potential separation. Did they divorce? Are they keeping it together for the cameras? Even Brooke Hogan weighed in this past week, as she talked about reality TV killing the family dynamic. (Read the latest ramblings from Linda Hogan's spokesman ripping Brooke and Hulk to see what I mean. U.K. Sun report.)

But, the relevance to this here wrestling blog is that the season five premiere of J&K+8 on Monday night against WWE Raw scored nearly 10 million viewers on cable TV. Yes, ten million. The show scored a 9.1 rating among women 18-34, meaning the John Cena female audience probably wasn't tuning in for Raw, especially since Cena wasn't a focal point on the show until he was mixed into the Starting Five in the main event.

We haven't received TV ratings yet from Monday night's Raw Regurgitation focusing on the Denver Debacle, but combine Game Four of the Lakers-Nuggets series on ESPN and 10 million viewers on TLC and it's not promising for WWE's attempt to turn controversy and mainstream media attention into ratings. We'll see when the numbers come in.

The good folks over at Tvbythenumbers.com have the report on J&K+8.

-- In my last blog, I asked for reader thoughts on the ECW brand at three years. New reader Andrew Bosak checked in with his opinion...

I really like the ECW brand and what they are doing. Lots of action compared to Raw. If I were change anything, it would be the name, as it has little in common with the original, obviously, and tarnishes ECW's legacy. I also think that the top belt on the brand should be the IC title or something similar. I just don't think the WWECW champ should be considered a World Champ. We don't consider the FCW champ as such. The ECW title is a stepping stone.

Considering WWE is all about changing the names of PPVs right now, it might be time to re-name the ECW brand as it approaches Year Four. ECW's signature PPV of the year is June 7, yet the brand will probably only have the one ECW Title match on the show. Whatever the PPV is called - One Night Stand, Extreme Rules, Judgment Day + Weapons - it's no longer about the ECW brand.

I don't have another name in mind to re-name the brand, but if Tommy Dreamer leaves WWE after the Extreme Rules PPV, then the last remaining fixture from the Original ECW will be gone. No one else on the ECW brand roster has any legit ties to "ECW."

Sci-Fi will soon be changing to Sy Fy or something similarly silly, so it wouldn't be a stretch to completely overhaul the ECW TV show on Tuesday nights, give it a new name, and retire the "ECW" brand name after squeezing the life out of it for three years.

Perhaps WWE could sell the name on the cheap to TNA, which would find much more use for it with a roster consisting of Mick Foley, Team 3D, Shane Douglas, Raven, Rhino, Dr. Stevie, and the soon-to-be-debuting Taz.

Torch Readers, what should the ECW brand be re-named if WWE were to re-name it? Emails containing the words Legacy, Vintage, or Dynasty will be deleted. Basically, anything Michael Cole could be heard saying. Send your thoughts to pwtorch@gmail.com

-- I read Larry Sweeney's latest blog/ramblings of a madman on MySpace this morning. I almost feel guilty calling it a train wreck because it sounds like the man needs help dealing with depression, people chasing after him, and living on the streets after he parted ways with ROH. Sweeney blog.

I'm picturing Sweeney either kicking back in a luxurious living environment making up wild road stories or he's being completely legit about working the streets of Downtown Houston like a carnival vendor for $70 to buy a ticket to Raw after WrestleMania. You make the call.

-- I thought the May 23 episode of ROH on HDNet was a very strong offering. It was the first episode from the fourth overall set of TV tapings and some changes were definitely made in-studio to enhance the product.

First, Mike Hogewood was taken down a notch. The first nine weeks, he had a tendency to over-do it. There's the new-school basketball saying that some guys "fake hustle" to make it seem like they're really trying hard on the court. Hogewood was "faking enthusiasm" for the product to mask his lack of knowledge. But, Hog has reportedly been spotted at ROH events taking notes and trying to learn more about the product. He's improved since the first set of tapings and taking him down a notch so he's not accused of "fake hustle" helped improve the show's presentation.

Second, they made the show feel more episodic. Stand-alone TV wrestling can work on a small scale and with superb wrestling talent having stand-alone great matches, but wrestling on national TV in 2009 is expected to flow with storylines and angles to go with the matches. I think ROH figured that out, as there was a look back to the previous week's TV main event and a look forward to the TV main event in one week and two weeks.

Overall, good improvements on the broadcast. Hopefully the changes will be permanent going forward, especially when ROH runs two more TV tapings with six more TV main events in Philadelphia this weekend.

As for the current ROH on HDNet broadcasts, following is a sharp preview of next week's HDNet main event with Kevin Steen & El Generico defending the ROH tag titles against the American Wolves in a tables match. Yes, it seems like this title match happened two years ago in real-time, but ROH has also improved on making TV viewers forget about "real-time happenings" and suspend disbelief for the "HDNet time" storylines on each week's broadcasts.



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.

For more BREAKING NEWS on WWE, TNA!
VISIT OUR AFFILIATE - PROWRESTLING.NET

For UFC & MMA NEWS & BLOGS:
VISIT OUR SISTER SITE - MMATORCH.COM

Upgrade to PWTORCH VIP: DETAILS & SIGN-UP INFO

(c) 1999-2009 TDH Communications Inc. - All rights reserved.