ANALYSIS: Good opener. The right length and pace for a non-main event grudge match between these two... Lots of talk from Cole early about Jericho's losing streak earlier this year, noting that he was distracted by his band. They played up that Jericho was trying to prove he can win "the big one," and he did so here... Vickie was good selling the agony of defeat afterward...[CONTINUE READING]
A.W.'s rant after being released from WWE confirms, without any doubt, that WWE made the right decision. He exhibits no awareness of the fact that his job wasn't to "break the mold" but rather play a role on WWE TV shows, which are strategically rated PG in order to accommodate sponsors and a major cable network which generate the money that paid his salary...[CONTINUE READING]
The atmosphere with a full looking big arena is so different from the Impact Zone. It really does send a message to fans that this company is going places and the wrestlers in the ring are stars. It's not about "this week's TV ratings going up," because how would they or why would they? What it's about is taking the usual audience and convincing them to watch every week not just every two or three or four weeks because these TNA wrestlers are big stars playing in front of big crowds...... [CONTINUE READING]
Interesting decision by TNA to go with a pretty long women's three-way to start the show (after the backstage brawl, that is). It'll be interesting to see if Q2 ratings rise because of it. It takes away a big draw later in the show. TNA could employ a strategy of, during the Knockouts matches, really pushing one other thing coming up later on the show so those who tune in just for the women and tend to flee afterward might be tempted to stick around. It would take a compelling hard sell by the commentators during the match that really make the main event or big interview later seem "can't miss." Heck, just plug strongly including on-screen graphics that Winter & Angelina Love were wrestling ODB & EY later...[CONTINUE READING]
C.M. Punk saying it's hard to referee with two broken arms reminds me of what a few angry wrestlers have said to me over the last 25 years regarding typing with broken fingers, but anyway… Good promo from Punk. There is a trend that WWE might want to pull back on, though, which is babyfaces downplaying heels as non-threats who just get ahead through cheating and favoritism. While that's part of being a heel, there should be an ounce of respect paid toward how tough they are. Punk comes from the school of tearing down everyone around him, and he's especially skilled at it, but in the long run he'll draw more money showing a little tinge of concern or fear that the heel he's against isn't a complete inept loser getting by exclusively by cheating. It fits Dolph Ziggler's character to take the approach Punk did, but it wouldn't hurt anything to make him seem a level above total incompetence...[CONTINUE READING]
The key lines from today's story at the Sports Business Daily is this:
"The planned channel’s marquee programming would come from most of, if not all of, WWE’s current pay-per-view events. The company generally produces 13 PPV events per year. Most will migrate to the channel. It’s not known how many would remain PPV."
This is further indication that WWE sees the PPV model as dying. The hefty 45-55 dollar price tag has driven away customers by the hundreds of thousands, accelerated by the ability to see pirate feeds on the Internet. The frequency of PPVs, once two per months during the brand-exclusive experiment a few years ago, also made it a budget-buster for many people, watered down the line-ups, and broke viewers' habits. Also, the drive to maximize TV ratings on USA and SyFy has led to more and more big matches on their...[CONTINUE READING]
Tonight is huge for WWE. What happens tonight at Survivor Series sets the tone for WrestleMania hype. There are a lot of things to look for tonight, not the least of which is how do fans react to The Rock at Madison Square Garden. Has endorsing John Cena like he did after WrestleMania last year affect how the anti-Cena fans embrace him. He came in as the anti-Cena, which many adult male fans loved. Then he got all palsy with him and lost his edge. C.M. Punk has since taken over the anti-Cena hero in WWE... [CONTINUE READING]
TNA Impact ratings most often follow a pattern of a strong Q1 (Quarter 1, i.e. the first 15 minutes), then a drop off as the hour progresses, then a rebound at the start of hour two, then they turn off more viewers as the show progresses, and depending on the quality of hype for the main event and how many commercial breaks there are in Q8, the rating may peak at the end. All too often - and almost unheard of in TV - Impact turns away more viewers than it attracts as the show progresses, a consistent damning statistic when it comes to the booking philosophy and execution of the show.
Last Thursday's Impact, though, was more alarming than usual.
The show opened with a 1.26 in Q1 and held strong with a 1.27 in Q2. The strong Q2 is due to the Knockouts match in that quarter and there only being one commercial break in Q2 instead of there often being two...[CONTINUE READING]
I've been against WWE combining the rosters anytime it's been brought up in recent years. I'm softening that stance tonight.
What jumped out as me as a benefit of the Raw Supershow format is that the choices of opponents for the top Raw stars expand with the Smackdown wrestlers becoming available. The downside is it takes away from building up future novel "Dream Matches." That was one of the original reasons to do the brand split. Only problem is WWE wasn't very good about keeping top stars apart and building up those matches. So they're not really losing much since they weren't disciplined enough to take advantage of that benefit of the brand split.
The other benefit is they can tie Raw and Smackdown together on Monday and Tuesday night. This feels like a trial run for what might be permanent come fall - Raw and Smackdown live both nights, with the top storyline carrying over as a cliffhanger...[CONTINUE READING]
Should WWE and SyFy move Smackdown to Tuesdays and go live every week? PWTorch readers, by a huge margin, support the move. In fact, 76 percent of poll respondents said they'd watch Smackdown more often if it were live on Tuesdays. All but 8 percent said being live was a plus, and the majority said the day of week was a plus for them (Tuesday instead of Friday).
I like this idea. Yes, it would mean back-to-back nights of WWE wrestling instead of spreading them out during the week. But that doesn't seem to hurt the NFL, which has Sunday afternoon football, Sunday night football, and Monday night football. Then fans reflect and recharge for the next weekend games (with the new NFL Network Thursday games and late-season Saturday games being added to the mix)... [CONTINUE READING]
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