Karc

From the first draft in 2002: Raw: Shawn Michaels. Ric Flair. Kane. Trish Stratus. Lita. Smackdown: Hardcore Holly. Scotty 2 Hotty. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> All right, now, for a well-built Raw vs. Smackdown rivalry, is that really going to be much of a draw? Didn't think so.

Test was billed as 280, Albert 350, so they just missed it. That was actually one example I was thinking of, because of Trish. The other was Hurricane and Rosie (with Stacy). Not even having a hoss on your team is safe enough, unless you have two. I think I should add another stip (hey, wrestling does it every five minutes while the match is going on, why can't I) "If said female diva becomes huge star with or without the aid of the tag team, said tag team as a reward will be split, fired, or both."

If Smackdown vs Raw 2 was an Xbox 360 game, it'd be "sponsoring" the PPV. WWE always promotes their wrestling titles on the TV. Especially when they were getting ad revenue for it. As to why the Xbox game sucked, Studio Gigante sucks, period. Yukes probably didn't get the budget to make a decent port. You see, Yukes actually cares about wrestling (they did just buy New Japan). WWE making okay money on a bad game was probably good enough for all sides, I guess.

The Raw vs Smackdown match was only put on the card to promote the Smackdown vs Raw 2006 game. As many have mentioned, nothing long term is really going to come from this, except for DVD sales. Expect to see a LOT of advertising for it tonight on the PPV. The Smackdown games on PS2 always sell well, and this will get the more casual fans hooked in. Look at how many interpromotional matches are actually on the card. At least three. Of course, Trish vs. Melina still annoys the hell out of me, as the WWE still thinks that adding a woman to every over tag team and then burying the team while giving the woman a main event-level push is actually good for business. I think the WWE pitch for new tag teams should have this stip in the contract. "If, at any time, the two male members total combined weight is under 650 pounds, a female diva due for a push larger than the team shall be added to the team. At this time, the team shall also be awarded the tag team titles, not to imply that they are good or anything, but to establish that the female is the real star of the team and it is her vapid looks and suggestive acts in the ring that is the real draw." As for the Invasion, it was advertised as WCW vs. WWF until the very last week. It was the one thing no one thought would happen, and they were curious as hell. Most people who bought that show didn't even know how fucked the whole thing was. They figured it out by Summerslam. We've seen Raw vs. Smackdown ever since the brand extention started 3 and a half years ago (I mean, we are on a second Raw v Smackdown game). It never meant anything then (thanks to HLA and Undertaker v. Kane, AGAIN), and it doesn't mean anything now (since they've given up on Smackdown). They trade people from one show to another on a whim. Name me one wrestler who has only been on one show the entire time, from the start. Then we're getting somewhere with this.

I don't think the PS3 coming in March, or any time in 2006. Blu-ray is not ready, and companies dropping out of supporting it is becoming the scary rumor. They don't even know what the controller is going to look like. There are issues with developers not wanting to buy super expensive dev-kits, which is the big thing because that means no launch titles. Don't know how they plan to top Xbox live without some serious beta testing which would take months. In short, there are too many problems with the PS3 to be ready in 4 months.

Why is Batista still "working" when he's badly injured? The guy ripped a muscle in his back. Do these morons not get it? They just spent the last week and a half crying over a friend of theirs who died too young because his heart gave out on him because of what he did for them. Seriously, what the fuck?

Here's my problem with this policy, and sports by extension. McMahon wants his guys to look like they do. Steroids is the easy way to get there. The problem I have is that the product still sucks. When Chris Masters, Ken Kennedy, Gene Snitsky, Kane, Triple H, and Sylvain Grenier all get big pushes despite the fact the ONLY difference in their look is their face, I get bored. It's bad enough that it's a freakshow of bodybuilders who want to be wrestlers with no talent, but it's worse when it's consistant across the board. Then the smaller guys have to compensate their skill to look half as decent, either by juicing up or doing the extreme moves (Shelton, Jericho, Angle killing himself), and they have to resort to painkillers, because no body can naturally take that kind of abuse. Yeah, I gave up on WWE a couple of years ago because the writing flat-out sucked for me to the point where I couldn't be bothered with it. But I won't jump to TNA either and see a 200-lb guy fall face first over ten feet to a concrete floor. I don't even know who would have done that, but any TNA fan can instantly name me ten guys who would on a PPV. That scares the shit out me. Same with WWE, I'm not going to hear about six skinny guys that have to be put a ladder match where everyone has to take a fall several feet onto/through a hard object. I don't pay to see stuff that requires money for painkillers or steroids when there are safer, better ways to make a great living. I'm using wrestling as the example because everyone knows nothing has been or ever will be done about it, despite "policies" (aka cover from a lawsuit) being discussed. But I'm talking about all sports. Movies was that way for me too, until I found out that they actually take care of stunt doubles. I don't pay to watch people hurt themselves for something I'm not interested.

Well, despite all the sadness, Triple H did manage to book himself in the main event of Smackdown with Eddie's closest wrestling friend, Chris Benoit. I pretty much had the same comments as Rudo, but didn't want to be say them in fear of getting blamed for a flame war. I thought this whole thing was a work until Monday. I mean, the timing was really bad. No one was going to enjoy the TNA PPV, Orton was right in position for another failed title run, and if there was a "tribute show," it was a going to be a ratings spike, which WWE needed. I mean WWE has made it a habit to lie to its fans about ANYTHING, so when they posted the news first, I was sadly suspicious.

The HBK since 2002 has only jobbed to guys that either Vince wants to push or HHH wants to be with in a main event feud (Orton, Batista, Benoit, Goldberg, Cena eventually). He's only there to appease their egos. Everyone else can go hang themselves now. It seems like the real worst excuse to not job is that it makes a wrestler look like a loser. It doesn't seem to be of any use anymore. I mean, here you have all of these rather creative ways to get out of a job, but is seems to me that no one has recently dared to say that jobbing makes them a loser. Funny.

Already did it with Trish and Viscera, which of course was intended to piss off more than the KKK (i.e. the rest of us). I think more people would actually like Shelton and Trish.

I can't believe WWE.com is trying to make itself into ESPN. com. They even have Power Rankings http://www.wwe.com/inside/power102205 Of course, the whole thing is kayfabe and a pile of shit, but it made me laugh.

Explain a second Taboo Tuesday, when the first was one of the lowest drawing PPVs in the modern era. But I don't have a problem with fans caring about buyrates. If they don't buy any PPVs, WWE goes out of business. Simple as that.

The "proper" blow-off would have for Stephanie to backstab Triple H, and then for Angle to go over and win the match. Think about the No Mercy PPV right after that, where Angle won the title. It would have made a LOT more sense, and it would have definately given a larger rise to his career (beating HHH and Rock). As it was, it put the champion, Angle, in the number three or four spot right out of the gate, as the business partner thing with Stephanie didn't even make it to Survivor Series, and Triple /Austin became the focal point. Reason I say all of this was because this was the point where I really began to notice that the focus of the company being put solely on Triple H was starting to HURT it. And it did. Continously. For about five years now. And it's not going to stop. A similar thing (only far worse) happened to Jericho, Benoit, Booker T, and Orton.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see how an employer openly insulting a former employee from 10 years ago for money can be a "win."

I don't know, KingPK's theory about Vince censoring mentions of USA himself to bury Spike makes a lot more sense to me. The sheer number of times that the announcers and Vince mentioned it on air makes me think that they knew it was going to happen. At the same time, I don't think Spike could have reacted quickly enough to censor everything on what was a live show (even on a 30-minute delay), but Vince could have easily done it because they would have had a script. Including a section in the script reminding fans to go to the website to see the "unedited" version of the opening. And I don't buy the last minute agreement happening right before the main event, where everyone goes to great lengths to oversell the big show anyway (as this is pretty much a PPV they are hyping). The aftermath of the beatdown after the main event was over four minutes (where it's usually only one or two), which is perfect if you have to drive it home to the fans that you are moving to another network. For lack of a better word, I view this a total work to hype next week's show.

UFC/TNA will be crushed, hands down. Not because WWE is giving out a good product (they aren't, and the 3.2 is showing it), but because Spike only had one night on top in the cable ratings, and now USA has it. I don't know why Meltzer, McMahon, Spike, or USA would over-react and hype this thing up as the new war, because it won't be a war. Especially with Monday Night Football. If Green Bay wasn't sucking right now, I doubt many people would even watch the USA show.

There's the protection, right there. If Punk tries to do the move, they can bury it by saying he stole an old woman's move.

I'm not going to question that he should be in. HOW he got in saddens me as a werstling fan.

It's called bait and switch. This is not below the 'E' to do this sort of thing. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Not below them, yes. Still wrong as hell, but not below them.

Well, WWE backed themselves into a corner, as usual. If Bret shows, he's welched on his word that he wouldn't show up on TV. If he doesn't show, there will be a lot of pissed off people on Monday who bought the show in hopes of seeing him, since that was basically the point of Shawn's promo (slamming Bret and the Montreal fans was the only way he was going to get heel heat at this point).

I don't visit a site that openly and arrogantly insults my intelligence, then expects me to pay for their product that further insults my intelligence. Now, before the smart ass answers of "why are you on TSM then?" I'm talking about WWE.com. Worked shoots are a horrible idea, unless they feature Bret Hart, because I guess the internet support is wide enough that a newsbit about him can crash their server. Not too worried about it, though. WWE will fail at fooling the smart fans to follow kayfabe again, just like they have for the last eight years. You can always rely on their bad television to do it. How many people are now looking forward to Hardy-Edge? Or seeing Rhodes book WWE? Or seeing Tatanka again? Or hearing the "media" storm about Brock?

The problem with MNM (and why they were doomed from the start) is that the WWE considers Melina the bigger star, not the tag team. They always do this, and it NEVER works for the team, because then they come to the conclusion that the team sucks, when in truth the team is okay, maybe even great, but the marks have been told that the woman is more important, so that's who they root for. I mean, there's a list I can form off the top of my head. Sunny and the Body Donnas, Trish and T&A, Melina and MNM, Stacy and the superheroes. Out of those twelve, the four women are the biggest stars. If people are looking for a reason as to why tag teams don't matter in the WWE, there it is. They are used to get the women over. Everyone else can go hang.

Wow, a wrestler getting in trouble for trying to make a good impression in a sport where the only time you get a break is by making a good impression. WWE logic at its finest. Here are some more examples. Cruiserweights can't use oil on their steroid-riddeled bodies. Then people might actually start to like them as much as the heavyweights. Criserweights can't use generic heavyweight moves. That would mean they are learning the WWE main event style, and cruisers can't be in the main event. Criuserweights aren't allowed to botch their own signiture moves, but the heavyweights can botch everyone's with style. (Batista, Lesnar)

JBL got a 10-month title reign as a reward for offending Germany and getting himself fired from CNBC or whatever he was doing. Hassan is definately getting something for offending the UK and getting himself canned from UPN. Vince's streak for mass publicity at lucky times continues. No way I'm defending anyone, though. Hassan was a fool for taking the angle, though all one of the agents had to say was "Matt Morgan" and Hassan would have been screwed anyway. Seriously, the line must have been "do a shitty and offensive angle that displays none of your talents because you don't have any and be fired in a few months with no hope of a comeback, or defy us and we fire you, then proceeed to bury you on TV so bad you will never draw anywhere ever again." WWE gets most of the blame for their usual shitty booking. UPN could have easily edited the segment, but they didn't because they were curious. And chicken. Bye Smackdown.

Yes, but only if the stockholders find out. Which they probably won't, because WWE still deals like a private business. Remember, the stockholders in the last conference call were pretty made with how WWE was handling money. This is one example. Let's say Viewers' Choice is right, and ONS did 350,000 buys. Taken from the WWE's cliam of 270, that leaves 80,000 buys unaccounted for. Which leads to over half a million unaccounted for. Where's it going? Maybe certain people are helping themselves as rumored... And I'm not even factoring in the creative end of it. Why is the DVD one of the highest-selling ever? Why did it outdraw every WWE Samckdown show? Why did they stack the Vengeance card with only a 2-week build? Way too many questions.