Caliban

Bischoff was about to strip Cena of the title, but he got the FU.

It's been announced on WWE.com and the ads ran on Unforgiven, yes. That's still only about 10% of the Raw audience, tops.

It will be the move to USA. Taboo Tuesday will only get a fleeting mention, it's a month and a half away, the WWE hype machine will be firmly behind No Mercy now.

When was the last time Rock appeared on WWE TV? Wrestlemania 20? I'm thinking that a lot of new fans, the Cena generation, won't even know who Rock even is anymore. He's been out of the game too long.

Yeah, I heard the usual 500 or so older male fans trying to drown out the 7000 or so mainly female or children Cena fans... and giving up as the match went on. It happens every week and people take it as a sign of Cena's falling popularity. However, that's not the reality of the situation.

A few backstage skits, and it's the main focus of the show?

Let's focus on the positives of last night. - The cage match. It surpassed my expectations as a match, it was ****, easily. Hardy was mega over by the end of the match... and HE WENT OVER. Hardy is being buried huh? - The crowd. Hot all night, which always makes the average matches seem that bit better. - Flair. Limo. Viagra. Steam. - The "We're Moving (to USA) ad. Best thing they've done since the Wrestlemania ads. They remind me of the Titan Towers Superbowl '99 ads. Quality. For me, only the finish to the main event tarnished what was a really entertaining PPV. 7 out of 10.

One more PPV a year won't make too much difference. WWE were talking about doing WEEKLY PPVs in 1996. Be grateful that the idea was forgotten!

WWE has updated it's Key Performance Indicators on it's Corp Biz website, showing the early estimate for Summerslam this year to be 525,000 buys. This is well up from the 425,000 or so of last year, and the final figure is usually higher than the estimate. http://corporate.wwe.com/investors/documen...Drivers_032.pdf Good for WWE, they've had a good year on PPV.

Hogan vs Cena wouldn't make a whole lot of sense. Nor would it really create a spike in the PPV buys, IMO. (Certainly not like for No Way Out 2003, Rock/Hogan II, 450,000 buys.. compared to 240,000 for previous Feb shows) Nah. Hogan/Austin at WM 22 is the way to go. This, combined with well built matches like we saw at WM 21 will ensure the WWE gets closer to a million buys than WM 19's crappy buyrate (almost the same as Summerslam '05!) Meh. I've been looking at that pdf too long.

So the rating drops 0.6 from last week. The rating dropped exactly the same amount this time last year. It's not exactly unheard of.

http://www.100megsfree4.com/wiawrestling/p.../wwf/wwfraw.htm August 18, 2003 4.0 August 25, 2003 4.2 September 1, 2003 4.3 September 6, 2004 3.7 September 13, 2004 3.6 September 20, 2004 3.7 September 27, 2004 3.5 October 4, 2004 3.4 October 11, 2004 3.4 October 18, 2004 3.0 October 25, 2004 3.7 The October 18 rating is the previous non-holiday low.

"3.3 eh? Ouchies."

Smackdown Rebound, and a chance to say that SD is vastly improved in the last two weeks, I hope they keep it up. KENNEDY!

Ah yes. It looks pretty shitty. Masters looks like he's having the time of his life in there.

I have noticed with some of his expressions in this match, he looks like he's about to say "Oh, please don't EVEN go there" in an incredibly gay voice.

Is that a broken heart on the back of Masters' tights?

JR is confusing Ric Flair for Kane. "He will just set you on fire!"

Hey, this guy has SPARKLERS in his entrance. He's gotta be the best! To be fair, at least he is showiing some personality.

Trish is looking hotter than ever.

Trish better return now. I missed Trish.

I think Dusty Rhodes' influences are starting to show possibly? McMahon got the best out of Russo and kept the crap to a minimum, he may do the same with Rhodes.

Kerwin needs an interference running golf caddy to complete the gimmick. He looks like he's been taking his "vitamins"

It's the commentary too though. Lots of shilling Raw to new viewers (hopeful at best, I know). Shelton vs Kerwin on Raw?

Wow, have WWE got their hands on a new brand of coffee or something? Raw just seems so much more energetic tonight. So far.