Straight Shooting

Completely true. I understand that Vince wanted tonight's show to be "ultra" special because moving to a new network supposedly merits some huge accomplishment.

 

When the truth was, they basically got kicked out of their house in Spike and USA scooped them up at a much lower rate then WWE wanted.

 

The return of Triple H and maybe the legends apperences would have been more then enough to make the show "special". It didn't require the need for Hogan (Whom already did his yearly run just 2 months ago), Austin (Who was on Raw just a few months ago) and Mick Foley (whom hasn't appeared as a character in quite some time).

 

Simply announcing HBK/Angle III was fine enough but it added the masturbatory Ironman gimmick despite it's history of being ratings death. Where was the reasoning for this? It was supposed to be the rubber match right? Why did it require a needless gimmick like this when another singles match or even 2/3 falls would have served the job well, and kept the crowd into it and then do the draw and THEN do Michaels/Angle IV with the Ironman gimmick for NYR's.

 

The Ladder Match could've easily been saved for Taboo Tuesday. Was there a rush to getting Matt jobbing time on Smackdown?

 

You set up the "Loser Leaves Raw" gimmick for TT, with 3 gimmicks for the fans to choose

 

"Ladder Match"

"Strap Match"

"First Blood Match"

 

Obviously they fans will select Ladder, you draw in an little added revenue for the PPV, instead you blow it off on free tv on a night where it was already over shadowed before it began.

 

They likely drew a good rating for tonight's show, Maybe even high 4's but I wouldn't go that far....but then what? They made no money off those ratings, made no improvements (not even cosmetically) and nothing changed from It's SpikeTV days, except they might show more skin and coarser language.

 

That Foley return coupled by a Ladder match and an Iron-man match could have made nice coin for Vince. Instead, it'll rely on the hopes that Angle-Cena III (of this round) is enough to draw people in, which it won't.

This is yet another parallel between WWE and and WCW around the time of their collapse. Giving away PPV-level stuff on free TV just to pop a rating, shitting away millions in possible PPV revenue. Just another phase in the long, slow death of WWE. Not that I think they'll ever die, but I expect their profit margin to fall to a point where they have to seriously downsize their business. And quite frankly, I can't wait for that day, because as a wrestling promotion and a business organization, the WWE completely sucks.

I wouldn't really compare Homecoming to a PPV. It had two matches that even approach PPV importance, two Russo-style TV matches, one typical post-attitude big TV match, and a whole lot of talking. Foley's return and the ladder match are the only things that could have significantly tributed to a buyrate, as I expect there will be another Angle/HBK match on PPV in the future.

Foley's return and the ladder match are the only things that could have significantly tributed to a buyrate

What about Austin or Hogan coming back? Hogan draws best in his comebacks when they are months apart, not weeks apart.

I wouldn't really compare Homecoming to a PPV.  It had two matches that even approach PPV importance, two Russo-style TV matches, one typical post-attitude big TV match, and a whole lot of talking.  Foley's return and the ladder match are the only things that could have significantly tributed to a buyrate, as I expect there will be another Angle/HBK match on PPV in the future.

 

You had two gimmick matches that were booked as blowoffs (Edge/Matt and Angle/HBK, because they kept calling it "the rubber match" which usually signifies a deciding contest), the returns of three of the biggest superstars in the company's history, and they extended it to three hours. They even gave it a special name (Homecoming).

 

I'd say they were treating it like a psuedo-PPV