Just two days after Vince McMahon made the "biggest announcement in the history of television", I will bet "cash money" on the fact that there are about 300 employees running around Titan Tower and the whole of Greenwich, Connecticut after hearing the news that WWE Monday Night RAW officially dropped below the 3.0 mark in the ratings.
Vince McMahon, meanwhile, will sit at his desk and scratch his head and wonder "what could this possibly mean? Surely there is nothing wrong with my product!"
Eventually he will come to the conclusion that intriguing new programming on other networks has lured away his audience. He will tell you it was Memorial Day weekend and the extensive travel by many of his viewers means they didn't have the chance to tune in to see his incredible lineup of programming. He will do everything in his power to convince you that there is absolutely nothing wrong with World Wrestling Entertainment and Monday Night Raw.
It never occurs to Vince that maybe the reason Triple H doesn't fly as a 12-time World Champion is because the fans don't want a 12-time world champion. They want a champion they've never seen before. They want something fresh. It's ironic that Vince himself touched upon this in his infamous monologue Monday night and promised that would indeed be granted our wish in just a few short weeks with the return of the WWE Draft. Surely this will solve the problem of monotony in World Wrestling Entertainment.
But seriously, is Great Khali going to suck any less on RAW than he does on Smackdown? My guess is no.
Ted Dibiase's son debuted as a singles competitor this week. He's a heel, too! He even went so far as to challenge Rhodes and Holly for the World Tag Team Championship in his debut!
Wow. A singles wrestler challenging for tag team gold. Guess it would really put a cramp on the style of creative if they had to actually come up with a TAG TEAM to challenge for the titles. Y'know, like Cryme Tyme. Creative is too busy breaking up teams like Cade and Murdoch to worry about who will partner wtih DiBiase in his quest for the titles.
Chris Jericho is an 8-time Intercontinental Champion. That's a record, ladies and gentlemen. No one has held that title more times than Y2J.
But what does it really mean when your claim to fame is being the guy that held the "mid-card title" in wrestling more times than anyone else? We all know that Jericho is more than worthy of a World Championship run that WWE will continue to refuse him, instead appeasing him with subsequent runs as the WWE's upper-midcard champion. Becasue we all know as long as there is Triple H, there is only room for one "real" world title contender at a time.
The biggest problem in WWE right now is the terrible methods being used to bring up new stars. This is where WWE shot itself in the foot. In the course of a few years they lost their biggest names: Austin, Rock, Foley, Hogan, Lesnar, etc. Never once did they stop to think who would take their place once they were gone. Now they are pretending they can still pick and choose who gets to stand in a vaccant spotlight. Men like Kennedy, Punk, Carlito, Benjamin, MVP, the Hardys, Jericho, and countless others have been working for years to become main eventers, and instead WWE continues to hand the ball to our almighty "King of Kings", the 12-time World Champion.
I'm sure Triple H has Flair's blessing to "break the record" of 16 world championships. The only problem is, Flair's record was legit. He was a World Champion because a board of directors who had actual money riding on his reign chose HIM out of a locker room of hundreds of men to be the poster-boy for their organization. It was unanimous, because it wasn't just the NWA. It was every organization Flair ever wrestled for from NWA to WWF, to WCW, and so on.
The problem with today's system is that it is so easy for Triple H to monopolize the industry simply because of the lack of competition and his connections with the McMahon family. So rather than a board of directors, all Triple H has to do is go to his father-in-law and request a world title match...and there's really nothing anyone can do about it.
Jeff Hardy is begging to be WWE Champion. The fans are begging for Hardy to be WWE Champion. The WWE had the perfect opportunity to make Jeff Champion at the Royal Rumble...and they let it go in favor of a more Triple H condoned route of allowing Orton to keep his title.
Want to know why Orton kept his title? Because they didn't want Triple H to get booed when he came back and won it from someone like Jeff Hardy. They knew long before "The Game" returned that he would be WWE Champion come Summerslam, and they wanted to make sure he was as close to a fan-favorite as possible when it happened.
Meanwhile, the mediocrity and monotony of another Triple H title run has fans changing the channel quicker than a Bra and Panties match on ECW. Yes, travel and alternative programming have a lot to do with ratings on a holiday weekend, but let's face it: if you're programming was THAT good, people would make a point to watch it or at least record it so they could catch up on it later. There is really no excuse for a 2.9 rating for a show that is deemed the "flagship broadcast" of the WWE.
USA Network is not the least bit happy about any of it and have told Vince so on several occasions. It will be interesting to see if they choose to renew RAW another season and what happens to Vince and Co. when their outlet for national exposure suddenly closes.
Now Vince thinks giving away money on TV will help draw ratings. I really don't care if it does or not, and that is for several reasons.
Firstly, this is a tactic previously pitched by Eric Bischoff for WCW. All respect to Eric Bischoff, what does it say about Vince McMahon when he's using the tactic of a dead company to draw in his audience?
Secondly, this is clearly a stunt simply to pull the audience in. I'm not questioning it's integrity so much as I am it's intention.
Which leads me to my third point: Giving away money has nothing to do with wrestling.
Vince McMahon can pretend all he wants that he is some sort of entertainment jauggernaut, but the fact of the matter is that most of the people who know his name know him simply as a wrestling promoter and nothing else. Most people cannot tell you that he has been the executive producer of full length motion pictures. Most people cannot tell you that he is the co-founder of a failed football league. Most people cannot tell you anything about Vince McMahon that does not pertain to wrestling. But Vince McMahon, insomuch as he coined the phrase "sports-entertainment" has convinced himself that he is something more than a simple promoter of professional wrestling.
He opened up WWE Films and now he's got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Meanwhile the films produced by his company continue to disappoint at the box office despite the incredible appeal of the stars he casts in them...the stars HE created.
With the $250,000 Diva Search (you know it's on the way...) Vince turned his wrestling shows into game shows. There was no more attempt at keeping the curtain tightly closed on the reality behind the scenes of pro wrestling. We're openly showing how we get women into our business: pie eating contests and 30-second boot camp relays. And bikini contests...don't forget the bikini contests.
Heaven forbid we actually see how well these women can...y'know...WRESTLE! As long as they can dance with Kelly Kelly they really don't need to learn how to do much else.
This trend now continues with the promise of cash prizes to the viewers of Monday Night RAW.
Because why put on a good wrestling match when we can give away money? Why develop characters when we can spend more time in a Vince McMahon monologue? Why actually write a story when we've got the perfect filler in the guise of "fan appreciation"?
Genius, Vince. Pure genius.
I'm just glad Ric Flair retired when he did so he wouldn't have to be subjected to the debasement of his life's work at this level.
