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

|

Updated daily 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 Monday, May 26, 2008

So, Vince McMahon decided the best way to spice up the flagship show on Monday night was to commit to a long-term investment in building up a solid mid-card, develop some new personalities to rotate into main event PPV matches, and deliver quality wrestling content featuring the younger stars who hope to be at the level of Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho one day.

What's that? You're saying I was watching the wrong show? Oops.

As it turns out, WWE announced to the world they have reached a desperation point where not only will they have a Draft Lottery in four weeks to muddy the brand split even more, but they'll also give away money with an idea they haven't even thought through yet. As Vince said, he needs to think through the logistics of how to buy ratings.

I'm picturing the In Your House PPV house giveaway meets Wheel of Fortune's wheel watchers program. Maybe during each week's throwaway tag team match, there will be a secret code revealed on the screen and the first person to log-on to WWE.com, sit through a 30-second ad for Jack in the Box, and enter the secret code will win an opportunity to enter a raffle for said sum of money.

Hopefully WWE has given preliminary thought as to how the weekly giveaway to encourage more consistent viewership will trickle down into increasing revenue for their business segments. How will the giveaway sell a PPV? How will it sell house show tickets? How will it sell merchandise on WWE's website?

Based on how this week's Raw ended, WWE hasn't thought through the sell-a-PPV part. Fewer people watch the opening segment of Raw than the final segment of Raw, and the opening segment contained the best hard-sell of the entire show.

The rest of the show was TV storyline-heavy with WWE booking a PPV re-match from just eight days ago to remind potential customers that whatever they pay $40 for this coming Sunday will probably be repeated on free TV shortly thereafter.

And the final segment had nothing to do with selling a PPV. After the announcers ran down a PPV card with matches based on how much these men hate each other, all of the wrestlers appeared on stage to send a not-to-subtle message to viewers that these people really don't hate each other that much.

At the end of the day, McMahon's announcement was a classic case of desperation. When the wrestling business has pulled out every trick in the book to pop ratings and drum up interest in the product, the only hope is to over-promise and hope the audience doesn't mind or quickly forgets when you under deliver.

McMahon's announcement was best accentuated by Sign Guy, who simply looked befuddled and bewildered. For the viewing audience, there was probably a significant amount of eye-rolling at yet another "first-time-ever" announcement that was more sizzle than steak.

We'll see how this plays out, but this reeks of yet another example of WWE unwilling to stay patient with an underdeveloped mid-card to fill in those important third and sixth quarter hour slots to keep viewers tuned into the show.

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.