Raw rolled out a three-hour special last Monday to present it's 2008 Draft of all the stars from Raw, Smackdown, and ECW.
Mr. McMahon also continued his Million Dollar Mania giveaway as he bestowed his money upon several lucky viewers.
Since most of the show remained unchanged, I will concentrate mainly on the picks themselves.
For those who didn't get to see the show the formula was as such: all the matches for the night were interpromotional bouts (meaning each brand faced opponents from a different brand) with the winner(s) giving their brand the next draft pick, meaning that whichever Superstar was randomly selected would be drafted to the brand that won the match.
This was a nice formula that put together some intriguing matchups and also gave the matches themselves some real consequences. The other nice thing about this is that for every draft pick, there MUST be a match, and therefore, the quantity of matches for the night was increased from the average of four to about ten. Granted, this was with an extra hour, but that still boils down to three or four matches an HOUR rather than four or five matches over two hours.
So let's take these matches (and draft picks) in order, shall we?
RAW VS. SMACKDOWN
WWE Champion Triple H vs. "The World's Strongest Man" Mark Henry
I thought this was a very intriguing matchup, though I wondered just how much Triple H would give to make Henry look good. It was a descent match, but of course, no one expected Henry to win. The crowd was firmly behind Triple H the whole time, and in the end, despite Henry's VERY impressive counter to the Pedigree (he actually picked The Game up to reverse it...) Triple gets the win and thus secures the first draft pick for Raw.
DRAFT PICK 1: Rey Mysterio is drafted to Monday Night Raw
I think this is a good choice, though it would not have been my first. Rey has been working very hard over at Smackdown and his popularity continues to rise with each year, especially following his reign as World Champion. He definitely deserves a spot on the flagship broadcast, but I wonder how far he will get with so many stars cluttering up the main event.
RAW VS. SMACKDOWN
TAG TEAM MATCH
Finlay & Hornswoggle vs. Carlito & Santino Marella
Finlay and Hornswoggle pull out the win here in a fun little match. Santino's charisma and ridiculous temper made this more entertaining than it should've been. It was nice to see Smackdown go over Raw for a change, lending some credibility to a struggling brand. So Smackdown gets the next draft pick.
DRAFT PICK 2: Jeff Hardy is drafted to Friday Night Smackdown
I am infuriated by this decision.
Jeff Hardy has worked so hard on Raw, and has only grown more popular despite being suspended for his Wellness Program violation. Even after missing Wrestlemania 24 due to this suspension, he comes back with more crowd support than ever, and it's clear they want to see him in the main event vying for the top title. Then WWE buries him in a 1 Contender's match with John Cena, and suddenly his hope of being an even bigger star in this business is dashed.
My original theory was that he was drafted to Smackdown because they knew if he stayed on Raw they would eventually have to put him over Triple H, which would be blasphemy at this point, so they threw him onto the B-show where he would be able to thrive without any Triple H-sized roadblocks. Justify it however you will, Hardy belongs on Raw.
RAW VS. ECW
TAG TEAM MATCH
World Tag Team Champions Bob Holly & Cody Rhodes vs. Bam Neeley and Chavo Guerrero
At last ECW gets a chance to claim some new stars of it's own.
But they won't. They're up against guys from Raw. The Tag Champs, no less.
Never mind then.
ECW gets buried, of course, giving Raw it's second draft pick.
DRAFT PICK 3: C.M. Punk is drafted to Monday Night Raw
This was pretty much a given, but it's nice to see WWE doing something smart. Punk has been a great hand on ECW, and though his reign as Champion on that brand never quite brought him the stardom it should have, there is little more he can accomplish there. He belongs on Raw where his popularity can continue to rise. Being Mr. Money-in-the-Bank for 2008, it's clear he will be slotted against the Champion at some point, but I would rather see him work up to it, maybe feuding with Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental Championship first. That would be a great program with some terrific wrestling for fans to enjoy. In any case, Punk is where he should've been a long time ago: he's now on the A-show of WWE.
ECW VS. SMACKDOWN
TAG TEAM MATCH
WWE Tag Team Champions The Miz & John Morrison vs. The Hardys
I'm not exactly sure what Vickie Guerrero's purpose here was. Usually she comes out to announce something that will piss the fans off, but today she actually grants them a gift. She told the WWE Tag Champs that it was originally scheduled to be Miz & Morrison vs. Hawkins & Ryder, but that she has changed that and selected new opponents. Matt Hardy's music hits, and the crowd goes crazy, and when Jeff emerges from behind the TitanTron, the roof comes off.
Anyway, I guess they figured since the brothers are on the same brand now (Jeff having been drafted to Smackdown two matches earlier) they can reform their infamous tag team relationship. Unfortunately it's to no avail. A good tag match sees the WWE Tag Team Champions go over the brothers of extreme, granting ECW it's first draft pick of the night.
DRAFT PICK 4: Matt Hardy is drafted to ECW
I'm not exactly sure what the big deal is here. In the first place, Smackdown and ECW share talent anyway, so drafting men between the two shows doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense.
What this DOES establish is that champions drafted to other brands also bring their titles with them. So the United States Championship is now property of ECW. I'm still not sure what the big deal is. I suspect Smackdown wrestlers will still be able to compete for the title thanks to the sharing of talent.
This seems to be a direct contradiction in the philosophy behind Jeff Hardy's drafting to Smackdown. Whereas Jeff needed Smackdown to get out from under other stars' shadows (specifically Triple H), Matt was already flourishing on Smackdown and had gotten infinitely more popular thanks to the long-awaited defeated of his arch-rival, MVP for the United States Championship. Throwing Matt to ECW won't really change anything because the same stars appear on either show. The only place that really would've reshaped Matt's future is Raw, where of course, he would've suffered the same fate as his brother no matter how good he was.
RAW VS. SMACKDOWN-ANNOUNCERS ONLY DRAFTED
TAG TEAM MATCH
Women's Champion Mickie James & Melina vs. Victoria & Natalya
This match means that ONLY the announcers would be drafted between brands. The match itself was cut short when Melina was knocked off the ring apron and seriously sprained her ankle taking the fall. It is a genuine injury, as you could hear Mickie ask Melina if she was hurt, to wich the latter replied "Yes". The match fell apart as Mickie sought to attend to Melina rather than get back into the ring. You could hear Melina say "I'm sorry" several times to her tag team partner. Eventually Mickie was ambushed by Victoria and Natalya, resulting in, of all things, a double disqualification. While I'm sure the result was inentional, the match itself clearly fell apart. Melina, in tears, was carried from ringside by two men after the conclusion of the match.
As a result of the Double-DQ (I'm still not exactly sure what anyone did WRONG...a double countout may have been better suited here...) both brands were granted a draft pick.
DRAFT PICK 5: "Good Ol' J.R." Jim Ross is drafted to Friday Night Smackdown
DRAFT PICK 6: Michael Cole is drafted to Monday Night Raw
No one is happy with this arrangement. Jerry "The King" Lawler looked absolutely astounded, and J.R. was visibly upset as he took his place over at the Smackdown announce table. Meanwhile, Michael Cole reluctantly took his place next to "The King", who continued to look across the floor to his longtime partner as if waiting for someone to jump out and say, "Gotcha!"
This is the most ridiculous decision of the night.
Even Mick Foley later acknowledged that Jim Ross was "an institution" on Monday Night Raw.
So why the hell is he being drafted to Smackdown?
Michael Cole stated that while he was honored to be a part of Raw (a statement that did more harm to Smackdown than anything...) he felt awkward taking J.R.'s place.
This is a ludicrous decision that will eventually be reversed. While I don't think moving J.R. will impact anyone's ratings, fans will cry out at the sheer blasphemy of moving him to Smackdown. All due respect to Michael Cole (who certainly deserves a spot on Raw), his promotion should not have come at the expense of Raw's legendary annouce team being split up.
RAW VS. SMACKDOWN
John Cena vs. World Heavyweight Champion Edge
This is the "main event", but presented 2/3 of the way through the program. Vince announced this match prior to one of his giveaways.
It was certainly a very entertaining match that saw solid spots by both men. Eventually, John Cena picked up the win, giving Raw yet another draft pick.
DRAFT PICK 7: Batista is drafted to Monday Night Raw
Again, I'm not sure what good this does for Batista. He has become something of an institution himself over on Smackdown and done a great job of holding the main event picture together. Drafting him to Raw will only further confound their main event canvas. Still, it's a nice change of pace. It's been three years since Batista was a full-time member of the Raw roster, but what good is his arrival if he only seeks to run through everyone in the locker room?
SMACKDOWN VS. ECW
Montel Vontavious Porter vs. Tommy Deamer
By now, Tazz has made it very clear that he's frustrated by the fact that ECW has had only one draft pick the whole night. This is the seventh match of the night, and only the third featuring ECW. Meanwhile, Raw has had five mathces resulting in four draft picks. This is Smackdown's sixth match, and they have won themselves two draft picks. Tazz banks on Dreamer to win a second draft pick (and some respect) for ECW, but is sorely disappointed when MVP picks up the win and Smackdown's third draft pick.
DRAFT PICK 8: Umaga is drafted to Friday Night Smackdown
This is another smart move. Umaga is a real force in WWE, but has suffered a few too many losses on Raw. Putting him on Smackdown will help revamp his character and give him fresh opponents. Great decision here.
RAW VS. ECW
John "Bradshaw" Layfield vs. Kofi Kingston
Again, Tazz's frustration with his brand shines through in this match. Despite an excellent showing by Kofi Kingston, he is of course buried when JBL hits the Clothesline from Hell out of nowhere to pick up the win, giving Raw it's fifth draft pick.
DRAFT PICK 9: Kane is drafted to Monday Night Raw
This is in the same vein as the Matt Hardy draft. Kane was only recently drafted to ECW, and then only recently crowned with their Championship just three months ago. Assuming that he will drop the ECW World Championship (which until Sunday is property of Raw) at Night of Champions, Kane is already very familiar with most of the men in the Raw locker room. Kane is a good worker that was becoming a staple of ECW. Now all that will be for nothing as he is once again lost in the crowded Raw roster.
RAW VS. SMACKDOWN VS. ECW
15-MAN TRI-BRAND BATTLE ROYAL
(WINNING BRAND RECEIVES TWO DRAFT PICKS)
Team Raw: ECW World Champion Kane, WWE Champion Triple H, Batista, John Cena, and C.M. Punk
vs.
Team Smackdown: World Heavyweight Champion Edge, The Big Show, The Great Khali, Montel Vontavious Porter, and Jeff Hardy
vs.
Team ECW: WWE Tag Team Champions The Miz & John Morrison, United States Champion Matt Hardy, Chavo Guerrero, and Shelton Benjamin
So the rules are that whichever team wins gets two draft picks. This is, of course, Tazz's dream come true as ECW has a chance to play catch up to Raw and Smackdown. Smackdown's team is the most formidable with both Big Show and Khali there. ECW looked small by comparisson. Raw had the most star power, which was unfortunate to see so bluntly presented.
The match had some interesting moments; particularly when the Hardys stared each other down in the middle of the ring before Jeff began to beat on his brother. Khali was eliminated almost instantly by all the members of Raw and ECW. Big Show then proceeded to beat down those men single-handedly. Similarly, Edge speared almost everyone in the ring at one point.
Tazz's frustration peaked here as Matt Hardy was left to stand for ECW in a sea of Raw and Smackdown stars. After his elimination, Tazz said,
"I guess I'll let you guys call this match now, I'm done."
Another injury occured when both Edge and Batista attempted to spear each other. This seemed to be a matter of miscommunication as Batista and Edge both have the same finisher. They ended up cracking skulls in the middle of the ring. Batista was left alone in the corner while he started to bleed profusely. He looked dazed, as though he wasn't quite sure what had happened. When he stood he was wobbly, and it was clear that he probably had some sort of concussion. He ended up being eliminated shortly after.
The last three men in the ring were Cena, HHH, and Edge. After eliminating Big Show, Cena and HHH were standing by each other when Edge knocked Cena, who pushed HHH over the top rope. Edge then threw Cena over the rope to win his brand two draft picks.
DRAFT PICK 10: Mr. Kennedy is drafted to Friday Night Smackdown
DRAFT PICK 11: Triple H is drafted to Friday Night Smackdown
I'll start with Kennedy.
This man has already spent plenty of time in Smackdown territory. There's no reason for him to go back. He should be the WWE Champion, and moving him to Smackdown will do nothing for his momentum.
The biggest bombshell, of course, is Triple H being drafted to Smackdown.
This throws everything I said about the Jeff Hardy draft and most of the others out the window. I think this is a great move for Smackdown and gives them a chance to regain some of the prestige they had when men like Kurt Angle, The Rock, and the Undertaker were fixtures of that show. Triple H lends the brand some real star power, and that should help tremendously while also freeing up the Raw roster to bring us some new championship blood.
Other highlights of the night include a promo by Chris Jericho that was answered by Shawn Michaels. When he came down to the ring, Y2J attacked HBK and they spilled outside the ring. Jericho gave HBK a drop toehold and HBK took a nasty dive on the corner of an announce table. It appeared the corner of the table went directly into HBK's eye. It was hard to tell if it was a work or a shoot, as the action quickly halted and EMT's rushed to ringside. Jericho only looked on and headed up the ramp.
And finally, Vince McMahon, of course, had the last laugh. After giving away a grand prize of $500,000, there was an explosion on the stage. After getting to the floor, a pice of the set (the sign with the giant McMahon dollar bill) "blew up" and "collapsed" onto Vince, who was under the stage. The wrestlers in the ring (who had just finished their battle royal) rushed to the scene and tried to move the sign off of McMahon. EMT's and staff came out and tried to move Vince out from under the sign. Triple H could be heard conferring with the staff as to what to do and that he was afraid more of the stage would break if they tried to move the sign any more. McMahon was eventually recovered from under the stage using a stretchboard and a neckbrace.
Moments later, WWE.com reported that due to the night's "tragic incident", McMahon's Million Dollar Mania has been suspended indefinitely.
Of course, who cares about the Chairman of the Board's condition?
And with that, what should've been one of the best Raw's in recent memory came to an agonizing close.
Overall, I think the moves of the draft were smart. Triple H going to Smackdown is going to help both shows tremendously. Smackdown got the best of night, and I think they will be a better product as a result.
ECW of course, was buried. With only one victory in the night (resulting in one draft pick) they looked weak and out of place with Raw and Smackdown. Moving Kane is not going to do anything for either show, but losing their championship will mean the show lacks purpose.
The other result is that one can almost guess what will happen at Night of Champions.
The Intercontinental Championship has not been announced to be defended at that PPV.
However, Smackdown now has posession of both titles, so we know one of them must move to Raw. That means that Edge will most likely lose the World Heavyweight Championship to Batista. Big Show will beat Kane and bring the ECW title back to the ECW brand. None of the other matches present much consequence for the company, but the fact that they chose to have this brand draft before the PPV will not necessarily help buy rates.
But I did enjoy Raw thoroughly this week, even if I am outraged at the absence of Jim Ross from now until WWE realizes what a mistake they've made.
I give it a 7/10. One point is deducted for J.R.'s draft, another for the Million Dollar Giveaway (which I was able to fast forward through thanks to the magic of DVR) and yet another for the terrible angle they've created as an excuse to put Vince back in the spotlight and stop giving away money (which was a mistake to begin with).
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
McMahon's Million-Dollar Mediocrity
So this is it: after two weeks of hype that warranted even an entire press conference, the Million Dollar Mania giveaway on Monday Night Raw has finally arrived!
Before I get into the show itself, it should be made clear why Vince decided to do this in the first place.
Apparently the ratings on Monday Night Raw have been slipping for the past several weeks/months/years from the glorious days of the Monday Night Wars in which pro wrestling (WWF and WCW) were pulling numbers like 6.0's and 7.0's. A couple of weeks ago, Monday Night Raw, which has long been the highest rated wrestling product on television, pulled a 2.9.
I covered the issues surrounding this ratings slip in my last blog, so I won't go into detail here. Suffice to say Triple H as champion, a circular and monotonous main event picture, and the utter lack of creative storytelling are crippling the product.
Now, in an effort to draw (buy) back fan allegiance, Vince McMahon has solemnly pledged to bestow up to $1,000,000 every week on his beloved fans. It is part of what McMahon has dubbed "fan appreciation".
Now I know that there are people out there who actually believe this IS simple fan appreciation, and to them I present the following thoughts.
Despite the slip in ratings, WWE's quarterly earnings continue to increase. McMahon continues to pull in hundreds of millions of dollars every year thanks to the patronage of the fans he has. The problem? The ratings have been stagnant for the past quarter at least. That means, that while the ratings haven't changed on Monday Night Raw, money is still being put into Vince McMahon's wallet. So why has it taken McMahon so long to show the fans his "appreciation"? Simple.
Because McMahon could care less about ratings.
Back in 1999-2001 ratings meant something to the wrestling industry. It was the only real way to tell how well you were doing against your competition every week. If Bishcoff pulled a 6.7 and you drew a 5.5, then you lost. Great ratings, and as yet unmatched in wrestling today, but you lost the night to Bischoff. Nowadays, without any real competition to speak of (TNA can't seem to get its product past the 1.0 mark) Vince can sit complacently atop his mountain of McMillions and doesn't have to keep looking over his shoulder to make sure he's still the top dog in the industry.
So why bother to buy ratings with a McMillion Dollar Giveaway?
Because unlike Vince McMahon, the folks at USA STILL depend on the ratings garnered from Monday Night Raw. Raw moved back to USA after a brief tenure on SpikeTV because USA and WWE have a history of great business together from their inception up through the infamous glory days of the "Attitude Era". USA was convinced that bringing Vince back would help their network (which was struggling since WWE left for Spike) to get back on its feet.
In short, USA expected Vince to bring them the 4.5's, 5.0's that he'd brought them before.
With the 2.9 from just a few weeks ago, it is clear that this is not happening, and USA is less than thrilled.
"So, what?" you may ask. "Vince can always find another network."
This is sadly not the case.
It was recently announced that WWE Smackdown! would move from UPN to MyNetworkTV. But it was a long time between the announcement of the end of Smackdown's tenure on UPN and the announcement that it would show up on MyNetworkTV. WWE spun the story to tell us that there was such a race to grab Smackdown! that they were in heavy negotiations with several networks and hadn't made a decision.
The truth is, Smackdown's ratings have been doing even worse than Raw, pulling in 2.4's and such on a regular basis. It's not like in 2001 when Smackdown was almost as hot as Monday Night Raw. Now Smackdown is universaly labeled as "the second-rate wrestling show" or the "watered-down, network television version of Raw". It's not a bad show, but it's not the best, and no one wants a second-rate show on their network.
Unless things take an upswing for Raw, that show will suffer the same fate. No one will want a show that pulls in a meager 2.9; at least no MAJOR network. And without his national exposure on a major network, Vince will lose his audience, and his product will ultimately get lost in a sea of reruns and mediocre broadcasts. He does not want the Paul Heyman treatment, with a 3:00 a.m. timeslot and no investment in his company by the network for such things as promotional materials and advertising.
So McMahon thinks that giving away millions of dollars every week will help spike his ratings. This may be true, and it may not.
Certainly the announcement has caused a decent amount of hype in the mainstream media. It's nothing compared to the "McMahon vs. Trump" hype or even the "Tyson/Austin" hype that he's enjoyed from previous adventures, but it's enough to let everyone know what's going on.
Now one would assume that the simple intrigue of the event would cause viewers to tune in out of curiosity if nothing else.
Everyone did a good job in hyping this event. Even now, two full days after the initial giveaway, the WWE.com page is still headlined by the announcement that another $1,000,000 will be given away next week. My brother watches Law and Order on USA and on more than one occasion I saw ads for upcoming Raw giveaway. The cross-promotion on Sci-Fi with ECW has produced the same results. So it's clear that this is something both the network and Vince are "banking" on (no pun-intended, but I guess it is anyway...).
"So what?" you're still asking, because you're stuborn and refuse to read between the lines. "So what if he wants to giveaway money to grow his company?"
I'm all for the "spend money to make money" philosophy. But giving it away never solved anyone's problems.
And what's the catch to winning the million dollars?
You have to register on WWE.com.
Okay, I registered. Whew, glad that's out of the way.
That's standard procedure.
Step 2?
You MUST tune in to Monday Night Raw to receive the special password you will need when Vince McMahon calls your house.
Really? I MUST tune in to Monday Night Raw?
See, here's the thing.
The good, young, smart, tech-savy folks who run WWE.com would find it simple enough to bestow upon the registrants the secret password they would need immediately after registering. This is often done with online orders and contests. In fact, it is not uncommon for each registrant to have their own UNIQUE password or key to win the contest. So it is not out of the realm of possibility in the case of WWE. But they INSIST that you watch Monday Night Raw and receive the same password that everyone else receives. The same password for the one night.
WWE has now gotten you to visit their website, register for the contest, and watch their product.
Now, when I visited WWE.com to register for the contest last week, they had announced that over 600,000 people had registered for this contest. I guess that's impressive, but when you constantly brag about the millions of fans you have around the world, 600,000 doesn't seem all that great and may account for your low ratings (go figure?). I actually considered the idea that this was WWE's way of performing a census to see who is watching their product. But they could just as easily do that with their Cyber Sunday PPV in which fans log on to WWE.com and vote for the match stipulations and such.
So why the low turnout?
Well, I just realized that fans outside of the continental U.S. are NOT eligible for this contest.
Now, if you're like me, a big flashing red light and a blaring siren much like the "AOOOOOOOGA" sound for a Bugs Bunny cartoon has gone off in your head because you realize that much of, if not the MAJORITY of McMahon's fanbase are outside of the U.S. As central as the U.S. to WWE's operations, think of all the fans they have around the world in places as far off as Japan and as close to home as Canada.
All of these people are not eligible for the contest.
And this is supposed to help ratings.
But the thing is, if I'm not eligible for your McMillion Dollars, why should I be tuning in to your product? On the contrary, why would I even bother to tune in at all, since this ban on overseas exports of your money are a blatant slap in the face to the fans around the world who may only get to attend a single WWE event every year or two and who STILL tune in to watch your product (or had, up until now).
So here comes the show itself.
It was disheartening to see Vince McMahon put on his best "Bob Barker hat" and attempt to turn his beloved product into a prime time gameshow.
Slipping on his grandfather glasses that rather reminded me of my own father whenever he tries to read something off a computer screen, he fumbled around with a modern telephone (the kind with buttons, not a dial) for several long moments before the phone began to ring. Then came the awkward conversation he would have with person on the other end as he cut them off in mid-sentence and was clearly attempting to get straight down to business.
Now I have tuned in to radio stations and television programs that have allowed their audience to call in for either a contest, or simply input.
The conversation usually starts with the host welcoming the guest to the show, upon which the guest will spout off how much they love the product and the host, and the host's girlfriend, and the host's children, and the co-host, and how hot that girl that does the weather really is. After this, when they hosed down their loyal fan, they will ask the question, or for the password/key, whatever. Then they will announce whether the fan has won the contest or not. When they've won, the fan will scream and probably jump up and down without us knowing, because of course, we can't see them. They will then say thank you a hundred times before finally holding on the line to receive their prize.
Now, on Monday Night Raw, for his Million Dollar giveaway, McMahon simply called up his audience, asked if they were watching Monday Night Raw, and then asked for the password. They would give him the password, and then Vince would announce they've won, but there would be no reaction from the fan, presumably, because the guys in the truck have already cut the mic on the phone. So it is hard for those in attendance (who are clearly not eligble to win) or those of us at home (who are cursing because he didn't call us) or those watching overseas or out of the country who know they have no chance of winning, to enjoy the excitement of someone winning a million dollars when they themselves do not appear to be enjoying it.
Why do you think shows like "Deal or no Deal" and "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" are so successful? Because there is suspense, and when the suspense is over, we get to experience the elation of winning by watching the contestants' reactions. That is what drives their product.
For Vince, the experience is:
"Hello? Who am I speaking to? Dan? Dan, this is Vince McMahon from the WWE. Are you watching Monday Night Raw? You are, good. Then you can tell me the secret password. WWE UNIVERSE is correct! Dan, you've just won $200,000! And don't forget ladies and gentlemen, that we will be giving away $250,000 after the break!"
There's no reaction, there's no elation, there's no excitement, it's simply us sitting there watching other people get handed six figures.
This entire process repeats several times throughout the show. In all, I would guess that each givewaway took about five to seven minutes. Which means about 1/4 of the show was spent giving away $1,000,000. Now if I'm in Canada, or the U.K., or Japan, or anywhere that's not the 50 states, that's a half hour of boredome. A half hour bathroom break.
Why did I tune in in the first place?
On a personal note, the entire process reaked of something I'd see on paid programming. It felt so contrived and out of place.
To WWE, the sting would come the next day, when they realized that their ratings had indeed increased.
"Why is that a bad thing?" you ask. "Isn't that what the contest was supposed to do?"
Indeed it was, my friend. Indeed it was.
So a toast to you, Vince McMahon. Your ratings have indeed risen.
Your 2.9 from the week before, is now a 3.0.
Yep. That's not even a joke, or a guess. The official rating for the inaugrual McMillion Dollar giveaway edition of Monday Night Raw is a 3.0.
For those of you keeping score at home, that is a .1 increase over the week before.
For the folks at USA, it means this entire process did nothing.
NOTHING.
The sad part is this falls right in line with the $250,000 Diva Search from years past. Of course, if those women had known that they could've saved their soul from Vince McMahon and simply sat at home and watched Raw for that kind of money, I'm sure we'd have less models and more wrestlers.
Which brings me to next complaint. A half hour is precious time that could be used to put on a more than decent match and even squeeze out a nice promo for, y'know, character development. If you're from WWE creative and don't know that means, it means taking cookie cutter wrestlers like Cody Rhodes and making them into someone that we CARE about.
Vince held a press conference in Times Square for this event.
Why?
Did the whole world really need to know about this? Did the whole world really care?
No.
Because, as I've stated before, Vince McMahon, however many figures are in his bank account, is still just a WRESTLING PROMOTER to general public, and that is not something they will get up and walk to. You have to fight for their attention. Tyson vs. Austin was hot because Tyson and Austin were the hottest things going in their respective sports at the time. Trump vs. McMahon was fairly hot moreso because of Trump's legacy than Vince's. EVERYONE knows who Donald Trump is from "The Apprentice". That's a show on mainstream network television that people are familiar even if they don't watch it. Monday Night Raw is a show on cable television that people are familiar with, but don't want to be. Even if they are familiar with it, they are more familiar with men like Austin, Rock, HHH, and Cena, than they are with McMahon himself.
Vince tried to put out a gameshow, and a bad one at that.
He plans to give away another $1,000,000 this week.
I will be optimistic and assume that Vince's plans simply need time to develop before people tune in on a more regular basis, but alienating much of your audience is not going to do you any favors.
With any luck, this week's Raw may draw a 3.1.
Before I get into the show itself, it should be made clear why Vince decided to do this in the first place.
Apparently the ratings on Monday Night Raw have been slipping for the past several weeks/months/years from the glorious days of the Monday Night Wars in which pro wrestling (WWF and WCW) were pulling numbers like 6.0's and 7.0's. A couple of weeks ago, Monday Night Raw, which has long been the highest rated wrestling product on television, pulled a 2.9.
I covered the issues surrounding this ratings slip in my last blog, so I won't go into detail here. Suffice to say Triple H as champion, a circular and monotonous main event picture, and the utter lack of creative storytelling are crippling the product.
Now, in an effort to draw (buy) back fan allegiance, Vince McMahon has solemnly pledged to bestow up to $1,000,000 every week on his beloved fans. It is part of what McMahon has dubbed "fan appreciation".
Now I know that there are people out there who actually believe this IS simple fan appreciation, and to them I present the following thoughts.
Despite the slip in ratings, WWE's quarterly earnings continue to increase. McMahon continues to pull in hundreds of millions of dollars every year thanks to the patronage of the fans he has. The problem? The ratings have been stagnant for the past quarter at least. That means, that while the ratings haven't changed on Monday Night Raw, money is still being put into Vince McMahon's wallet. So why has it taken McMahon so long to show the fans his "appreciation"? Simple.
Because McMahon could care less about ratings.
Back in 1999-2001 ratings meant something to the wrestling industry. It was the only real way to tell how well you were doing against your competition every week. If Bishcoff pulled a 6.7 and you drew a 5.5, then you lost. Great ratings, and as yet unmatched in wrestling today, but you lost the night to Bischoff. Nowadays, without any real competition to speak of (TNA can't seem to get its product past the 1.0 mark) Vince can sit complacently atop his mountain of McMillions and doesn't have to keep looking over his shoulder to make sure he's still the top dog in the industry.
So why bother to buy ratings with a McMillion Dollar Giveaway?
Because unlike Vince McMahon, the folks at USA STILL depend on the ratings garnered from Monday Night Raw. Raw moved back to USA after a brief tenure on SpikeTV because USA and WWE have a history of great business together from their inception up through the infamous glory days of the "Attitude Era". USA was convinced that bringing Vince back would help their network (which was struggling since WWE left for Spike) to get back on its feet.
In short, USA expected Vince to bring them the 4.5's, 5.0's that he'd brought them before.
With the 2.9 from just a few weeks ago, it is clear that this is not happening, and USA is less than thrilled.
"So, what?" you may ask. "Vince can always find another network."
This is sadly not the case.
It was recently announced that WWE Smackdown! would move from UPN to MyNetworkTV. But it was a long time between the announcement of the end of Smackdown's tenure on UPN and the announcement that it would show up on MyNetworkTV. WWE spun the story to tell us that there was such a race to grab Smackdown! that they were in heavy negotiations with several networks and hadn't made a decision.
The truth is, Smackdown's ratings have been doing even worse than Raw, pulling in 2.4's and such on a regular basis. It's not like in 2001 when Smackdown was almost as hot as Monday Night Raw. Now Smackdown is universaly labeled as "the second-rate wrestling show" or the "watered-down, network television version of Raw". It's not a bad show, but it's not the best, and no one wants a second-rate show on their network.
Unless things take an upswing for Raw, that show will suffer the same fate. No one will want a show that pulls in a meager 2.9; at least no MAJOR network. And without his national exposure on a major network, Vince will lose his audience, and his product will ultimately get lost in a sea of reruns and mediocre broadcasts. He does not want the Paul Heyman treatment, with a 3:00 a.m. timeslot and no investment in his company by the network for such things as promotional materials and advertising.
So McMahon thinks that giving away millions of dollars every week will help spike his ratings. This may be true, and it may not.
Certainly the announcement has caused a decent amount of hype in the mainstream media. It's nothing compared to the "McMahon vs. Trump" hype or even the "Tyson/Austin" hype that he's enjoyed from previous adventures, but it's enough to let everyone know what's going on.
Now one would assume that the simple intrigue of the event would cause viewers to tune in out of curiosity if nothing else.
Everyone did a good job in hyping this event. Even now, two full days after the initial giveaway, the WWE.com page is still headlined by the announcement that another $1,000,000 will be given away next week. My brother watches Law and Order on USA and on more than one occasion I saw ads for upcoming Raw giveaway. The cross-promotion on Sci-Fi with ECW has produced the same results. So it's clear that this is something both the network and Vince are "banking" on (no pun-intended, but I guess it is anyway...).
"So what?" you're still asking, because you're stuborn and refuse to read between the lines. "So what if he wants to giveaway money to grow his company?"
I'm all for the "spend money to make money" philosophy. But giving it away never solved anyone's problems.
And what's the catch to winning the million dollars?
You have to register on WWE.com.
Okay, I registered. Whew, glad that's out of the way.
That's standard procedure.
Step 2?
You MUST tune in to Monday Night Raw to receive the special password you will need when Vince McMahon calls your house.
Really? I MUST tune in to Monday Night Raw?
See, here's the thing.
The good, young, smart, tech-savy folks who run WWE.com would find it simple enough to bestow upon the registrants the secret password they would need immediately after registering. This is often done with online orders and contests. In fact, it is not uncommon for each registrant to have their own UNIQUE password or key to win the contest. So it is not out of the realm of possibility in the case of WWE. But they INSIST that you watch Monday Night Raw and receive the same password that everyone else receives. The same password for the one night.
WWE has now gotten you to visit their website, register for the contest, and watch their product.
Now, when I visited WWE.com to register for the contest last week, they had announced that over 600,000 people had registered for this contest. I guess that's impressive, but when you constantly brag about the millions of fans you have around the world, 600,000 doesn't seem all that great and may account for your low ratings (go figure?). I actually considered the idea that this was WWE's way of performing a census to see who is watching their product. But they could just as easily do that with their Cyber Sunday PPV in which fans log on to WWE.com and vote for the match stipulations and such.
So why the low turnout?
Well, I just realized that fans outside of the continental U.S. are NOT eligible for this contest.
Now, if you're like me, a big flashing red light and a blaring siren much like the "AOOOOOOOGA" sound for a Bugs Bunny cartoon has gone off in your head because you realize that much of, if not the MAJORITY of McMahon's fanbase are outside of the U.S. As central as the U.S. to WWE's operations, think of all the fans they have around the world in places as far off as Japan and as close to home as Canada.
All of these people are not eligible for the contest.
And this is supposed to help ratings.
But the thing is, if I'm not eligible for your McMillion Dollars, why should I be tuning in to your product? On the contrary, why would I even bother to tune in at all, since this ban on overseas exports of your money are a blatant slap in the face to the fans around the world who may only get to attend a single WWE event every year or two and who STILL tune in to watch your product (or had, up until now).
So here comes the show itself.
It was disheartening to see Vince McMahon put on his best "Bob Barker hat" and attempt to turn his beloved product into a prime time gameshow.
Slipping on his grandfather glasses that rather reminded me of my own father whenever he tries to read something off a computer screen, he fumbled around with a modern telephone (the kind with buttons, not a dial) for several long moments before the phone began to ring. Then came the awkward conversation he would have with person on the other end as he cut them off in mid-sentence and was clearly attempting to get straight down to business.
Now I have tuned in to radio stations and television programs that have allowed their audience to call in for either a contest, or simply input.
The conversation usually starts with the host welcoming the guest to the show, upon which the guest will spout off how much they love the product and the host, and the host's girlfriend, and the host's children, and the co-host, and how hot that girl that does the weather really is. After this, when they hosed down their loyal fan, they will ask the question, or for the password/key, whatever. Then they will announce whether the fan has won the contest or not. When they've won, the fan will scream and probably jump up and down without us knowing, because of course, we can't see them. They will then say thank you a hundred times before finally holding on the line to receive their prize.
Now, on Monday Night Raw, for his Million Dollar giveaway, McMahon simply called up his audience, asked if they were watching Monday Night Raw, and then asked for the password. They would give him the password, and then Vince would announce they've won, but there would be no reaction from the fan, presumably, because the guys in the truck have already cut the mic on the phone. So it is hard for those in attendance (who are clearly not eligble to win) or those of us at home (who are cursing because he didn't call us) or those watching overseas or out of the country who know they have no chance of winning, to enjoy the excitement of someone winning a million dollars when they themselves do not appear to be enjoying it.
Why do you think shows like "Deal or no Deal" and "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" are so successful? Because there is suspense, and when the suspense is over, we get to experience the elation of winning by watching the contestants' reactions. That is what drives their product.
For Vince, the experience is:
"Hello? Who am I speaking to? Dan? Dan, this is Vince McMahon from the WWE. Are you watching Monday Night Raw? You are, good. Then you can tell me the secret password. WWE UNIVERSE is correct! Dan, you've just won $200,000! And don't forget ladies and gentlemen, that we will be giving away $250,000 after the break!"
There's no reaction, there's no elation, there's no excitement, it's simply us sitting there watching other people get handed six figures.
This entire process repeats several times throughout the show. In all, I would guess that each givewaway took about five to seven minutes. Which means about 1/4 of the show was spent giving away $1,000,000. Now if I'm in Canada, or the U.K., or Japan, or anywhere that's not the 50 states, that's a half hour of boredome. A half hour bathroom break.
Why did I tune in in the first place?
On a personal note, the entire process reaked of something I'd see on paid programming. It felt so contrived and out of place.
To WWE, the sting would come the next day, when they realized that their ratings had indeed increased.
"Why is that a bad thing?" you ask. "Isn't that what the contest was supposed to do?"
Indeed it was, my friend. Indeed it was.
So a toast to you, Vince McMahon. Your ratings have indeed risen.
Your 2.9 from the week before, is now a 3.0.
Yep. That's not even a joke, or a guess. The official rating for the inaugrual McMillion Dollar giveaway edition of Monday Night Raw is a 3.0.
For those of you keeping score at home, that is a .1 increase over the week before.
For the folks at USA, it means this entire process did nothing.
NOTHING.
The sad part is this falls right in line with the $250,000 Diva Search from years past. Of course, if those women had known that they could've saved their soul from Vince McMahon and simply sat at home and watched Raw for that kind of money, I'm sure we'd have less models and more wrestlers.
Which brings me to next complaint. A half hour is precious time that could be used to put on a more than decent match and even squeeze out a nice promo for, y'know, character development. If you're from WWE creative and don't know that means, it means taking cookie cutter wrestlers like Cody Rhodes and making them into someone that we CARE about.
Vince held a press conference in Times Square for this event.
Why?
Did the whole world really need to know about this? Did the whole world really care?
No.
Because, as I've stated before, Vince McMahon, however many figures are in his bank account, is still just a WRESTLING PROMOTER to general public, and that is not something they will get up and walk to. You have to fight for their attention. Tyson vs. Austin was hot because Tyson and Austin were the hottest things going in their respective sports at the time. Trump vs. McMahon was fairly hot moreso because of Trump's legacy than Vince's. EVERYONE knows who Donald Trump is from "The Apprentice". That's a show on mainstream network television that people are familiar even if they don't watch it. Monday Night Raw is a show on cable television that people are familiar with, but don't want to be. Even if they are familiar with it, they are more familiar with men like Austin, Rock, HHH, and Cena, than they are with McMahon himself.
Vince tried to put out a gameshow, and a bad one at that.
He plans to give away another $1,000,000 this week.
I will be optimistic and assume that Vince's plans simply need time to develop before people tune in on a more regular basis, but alienating much of your audience is not going to do you any favors.
With any luck, this week's Raw may draw a 3.1.
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