Updated throughout the day from the corner cubicle, Torch columnist James Caldwell's weekday blog focuses on hot topic current events and other items of interest from around wrestling.
Updated Tuesday, February 5
6:45 p.m. Watching a wrestling show in the arena setting, it's an inexact science trying to determine how a TV wrestling show connects with potential PPV-buying viewers at home, especially without access to Ross and Lawler's commentary. Nevertheless, I thought last night's show was a good show. They built up Orton-Cena well, while the Elimination Chamber build-up was strong even without Triple H's presence.
Live in the building, the Cena FU on Mark Henry looked like a huge deal. Without having watched the show on the DVR to get the announcer commentary, I had no idea why Henry was on Raw to begin with, but his presence made for a classic Cena monster-conquering moment.
The angle is about Cena showing he's fully recovered from surgery, which is a fine storyline thread with only three weeks of TV in between the Rumble and No Way Out. It's simple, gets across the point, and really can't be stretched out that long. Otherwise, we'd be looking at Cena and Henry having a truck pulling contest in the parking lot by Week 6.
As for the Elimination Chamber build-up, the main players effectively built up the match sans Triple H. No one in the arena seemed to notice his absence until the second TV taping, when there were some DX chants. In his absence, Snitsky was good fodder to HBK and co. with his yellow teeth on full display. Sometimes it's the simplest thing - the "brush your teeth" chant - that catches on, whereas punting a baby and losing handicap matches to Triple H just couldn't put Snitsky over the top.
As for the babyfaces, Shawn Michaels had a good, entertaining promo, while Chris Jericho is still in that ultra-serious, low-voiced promo mode, as if he's intentionally trying not to scream instead of talking in a natural tone. Jeff Hardy wasn't given much to work with, but the audience was quite forgiving.
I'm sure Mr. McMahon dropping his pants and going 15-20 minutes with Hornswoggle didn't play well on TV, but the live audience ate it up with a spoon. The promo on the kids and their irresponsible parents was especially heated. Of note, McMahon gave our side of the arena the unenviable privilege of seeing the full moon and his thong, so all of the kids were screaming and covering their eyes in sheer horror while laughing at the spectacle of it.
The angle itself seems like one of those TNA angles where it just goes on forever without any resolution. They seemingly up the ante every week, but remain in the same position of Vince continuing to offer up "tough love" with nothing to show for it at the end of the day. It's like the never-ending Spirit Squad & McMahons vs. DX program in 2006 where DX beat them upside-down, inside-out, and right-side-up forever.
In any event, a good show to build on for the Jan. 11 final show before the PPV. One thing to look forward to next week in the PPV-selling category is Ric Flair's promo on Mr. Kennedy. A classic Flair promo with the emotion, energy, and conflict to deliver the goods. It was probably the highpoint of the taping, next to Jeff Hardy's Swanton bomb in the six-man tag match on last night's Raw.
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11:30 a.m.After four hours of wrestling last night after a college Super Bowl party on Sunday night, there's a certain level of exhaustion that's inevitable. Don't forget the two-hour-plus drive home across a completely empty Texas highway. And if you've driven any stretch of a Texas "highway" away from the city, you know what I'm talking about.
So, to keep myself awake in the car, I did a lot of thinking about wrestling. What sells tickets? What do fans generally expect from a wrestling show? What gets them excited? Why do they watch? What's the demographic of the ticket-buying customer? These aren't profound conclusions, just conclusions that we need to be reminded of.
Being part of a live experience in a big arena setting is a refresher course on understanding what drives the other 95 percent of the wrestling audience to spend money on wrestling. Sitting in the "ivory tower", we often forget why the vast majority of people spend money on tickets, t-shirts, and foam fingers.
Waiting in line last night to get inside in the Erwin Center, I had a chance to survey the demographics of the audience. Lots of kids. Lots of working-class parents who were probably nagged into buying tickets by their kids. (Wait, didn't Vince cut a promo on parents for spoiling their kids? Doesn't he want their business?)
I didn't see many of the anti-Cena young adult male fans, and it was obvious in the arena when there were hardly any boos for Cena. If there's one piece of evidence for WWE to say they have a different audience than MMA, specifically UFC, it's that there are a ton of kids at WWE shows and the number of young adult males at wrestling shows is stagnant, if not declining.
WWE's marketing is obviously geared towards kids, while UFC has grabbed the adult males from WWE. It's like twenty years ago when WWF grabbed the kids with Hulk Hogan headlining, while WCW presented its product as a "sport" that appealed to an older demographic.
Looking at the lead characters on the TV show, John Cena obviously appeals to kids and females. (There were a ton of young girls in the audience, I should note.) Jeff Hardy appeals to everyone in the younger demo. Hornswoggle, a full-grown male who is presented as a small child, appeals to all the kids when he's placed in perilous situations on a weekly basis and puts on that I'm-so-scared face. And, of course, Vince McMahon dropping his pants got all the kids laughing.
Shawn Michaels epitomized the WWE in-ring style of over-exaggerated, simple movements that play to the top row of the arena. Snitsky is the most-over-heel in wrestling now with the "brush your teeth" chant. All the kids were imitating Mr. Kennedy's sayings. The kids weren't even born when Ric Flair was the top star in wrestling, but they all know the whoo.
The point of the matter is that WWE presents a very simple product. The characters are basically doing the same thing every week, in every town, on every stop on the circus tour. And that's what fans pay to see. WWE isn't running the same town three times a month, so they don't have to deviate from the formula when they come to a place like Austin once-every-Presidential election year.
So, when looking at what sells tickets for WWE, it's not necessarily how good or bad the TV shows are. I listened to a lot of conversations waiting outside of the arena and inside the arena, and so many questions were flying around on what the current storylines are. For that "other 95 percent" of the audience, they see WWE on the marquee and they'll buy a ticket. When WWE has the entire globe as its marketplace, it's pretty easy to sell tickets when the show doesn't deviate from the formula.
Fans come to see the characters, their catchphrases, and see the heroes standing tall in the end. It's the Disney formula applied to wrestling that drives ticket and merchandise sales. As for PPV, well, that's a different story of trying to get people to care enough about the current storylines to spend $40 without a live experience in the arena.
WWE does a fine job of catering to the ticket-buying audience with a basic outline of the characters on display at every live event. In a character-driven wrestling business, the success or failure of the PPV business is filling in the outline with a lot of color on a weekly basis.
WWE did that with Jeff Hardy leading to the Rumble. On next week's Raw, the color is vibrant with John Cena and Ric Flair. Whether that's enough to sell the "bridge PPV" before Mania is another story. As for the live event, everyone went home happy after being told simple, easy-to-understand wrestling stories for four hours.
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LATEST PRO WRESTLING TORCH NEWSLETTER #1045 (20 PAGES)
This issue begins with a cover story by Wade Keller on Jake Roberts's indy show meltdown... Keller's BBL looks at WWE's decision to put all three World Champs in a Triple Threat on the MyNetwork debut of Smackdown... Page 2 Buzz with Jason Powell features tons of insider news items from WWE and TNA... Part three of the "Torch Talk" with Lanny Poffo... Pat McNeill's "At the Bar for Unforgiven" column... In-depth coverage of the TNA No Surrender PPV including the newsletter-exclusive Roundtable Reviews from Keller, Mitchell, and McNeill... Plus WWE Newswire, TNA Newswire, and ROH Newswire, Keller's reports on Raw, Smackdown, and Impact, the Top 5 Stories of the Week... PDF EXCLUSIVE features include the Greg Parks's review of the new Mr. Perfect DVD and Brian Hoops looks at pro wrestlers with Olympic backgrounds........
