Fro 0 Report post Posted May 3, 2003 WWE Creative Change Petition & June 9th Raw Boycott http://www.petitiononline.com/rawwwe/ Firstly, I’d like to thank everyone who has already signed this petition, now well over one thousand (1160 to be exact), and in particular everyone from the Smart Marks I’d like to give all our signees an update on our progress. Some said “it’ll be a miracle if we reach 100”. We sure proved them wrong already. I’m confident that I’ll be writing you another update in a week or two talking about our 10,000th. Let me give a quick summary for those who haven’t heard about our petition… WWE sucks right now (and more particularly Raw), so we’ve decided to boycott Raw’s June 9th showing (which airs on June 13th for those of you in the UK). The company has been on a slow decline and is not making decisions in its long-term interests… it’s practically WCW all over again. The petition documents our qualms with the current product and many of the bad creative decisions and directions the WWE is taking. These are the reasons the boycott is taking place. The petition/boycott serves multiple functions because it is calling for creative change, contains user comments, and is a signup sheet for boycotting Raw. The users are also signing up not only to boycott the June 9th showing of Raw, but also to boycott other house shows that day, and to boycott buying WWE merchandise that day.. It’s been decided that the petition will be sent to WWE, TNN, TSN, and the WWE’s various sponsors. The WWE will get it via snail mail. The date is so far out so we can slowly ramp up our promotion for the petition. This petition is not intended to run the WWE out of business, but to help it turn business around. Those of you who have talked to me personally know that the plan is to slowly increase exposure for this petition as we get more and more signatures. So far our only promotion has been several message boards and an appearance I made on WrestleThis! Radio, but we’ve reached a critical mass of signatures where more people will take the petition seriously. At this point, we’re moving to our second phase of promotion. Now I’d like to encourage you to e-mail columnists about the petition, and some of the smaller websites. Please hold off on notifying the larger sites for another couple weeks, again unless you run one. We have a Yahoo Group set up at http://groups.yahoo.com/rawboycott to discuss the petition and promotion efforts for it. The URL is buried in the petition, so I don’t think many people know about it. We’d like to see a lot more of you guys join us there and give your thoughts on this effort. If you’ve been thinking about signing when you saw the first message and dismissed this as something doomed to failure, think again. Not just myself, but several others are in this for the next month or so and we’re not going to accept failure. To close, here’s sort of a FAQ listing reasons given why people have not signed and giving my replies. Reason: This petition won’t work; WWE won’t listen to its fans! Response: If the WWE doesn’t listen to its fans, why did it put online surveys up (surveys.wwe.com)? Do they feel like running some surveys and analyzing them just to lose money? I think the surveys are a positive step forward, but they present fans with a very limited number of choices (mostly ambiguous yes/no questions). They are not sufficient tools to get our entire message across, but I encourage you to fill them out. Reason: This petition won’t work, online petitions never work, and people don’t take them seriously! Response: http://www.petitiononline.com/BAMMO49/peti...n_response.html & http://www.petitiononline.com/CNN1214/peti...n_response.html are two examples of online petitions getting tangible results. Both have *only* just over 6000 signatures. Both AOL/TW and Microsoft are also larger companies by a couple orders of magnitude (at the least), than the WWE. Both AOL and Microsoft also had many more revenue streams… they wouldn’t be hurt by Talkback Live! going off the air or a few thousand WebTV users leaving their service. Don’t forget that the WWE has shareholders to answer to like those two companies above. They’re not private. Reason: You’ll never get enough signatures Response: So far we’ve achieved 1100 signatures after several message board posts. Large sites get tens of thousands of unique visitors every day and we haven’t even targeted them yet. Tens of thousands of signatures is very achievable, and it’s already been documented that only 6000 signatures is enough to get a response from a larger company than WWE. Reason: Boycotting Raw isn’t going to make a difference; I don’t have a Nielsen box! Response: Firstly, a cable television ratings point is only 780,000 people. I’ve scouted out a lot of message boards, and believe it or not, there’s a couple with other 30,000 registered users, one with 26,000, and one with 15,000. That’s over 0.1 in the ratings right there. I feel at the least there’s at the very least 400,000 in the Internet “smark” fanbase. That’s half of a cable ratings point. There are more newsboards than you can believe and many more places where wrestling is being discussed. All those people are reading news ripped from the Torch and the Observer like the rest of us. Now it’s impossible for all of them to sign, but a good portion will if they know about it. Many of the online fans also have friends and family who don’t read the Internet sites who might not watch the show. Even if we don’t make a difference in the ratings, the petition is being sent to the WWE, its sponsors, and TNN and TSN. All of these groups have an interest in keeping Raw successful. Finally, Internet fans spend a disproportionate amount of money than the “casual” fans on wrestling. We buy merchandise, tapes, DVDs, video games, action figures, tickets to house shows, and PPVs. A casual fan might get a pay-per-view or two a year. The WWE would be seriously hurt financially by a large portion of online fans not buying a PPV in the future. For instance, Backlash was estimated at 425,000 to 500,000 buys (wrestlingobserver.com). The WWE doesn’t want to alienate that much of their audience, but at this point they figure us “hardcore” fans will buy their stuff and watch no matter what they shovel out. This petition and boycott intends to change that. Reason: You’re stupid for starting this petition and you’re wasting your time. Response: Funny, people start petitions to keep sports coaches or to get them fired all the time. This is just as important. For me, the experience of meeting with other fans online is worth my time invested alone, and the humor value from some of the comments others have made on WWE’s situation. Reason: Stephanie McMahon, Lou Thesz, and the Iraqi Information Minister obviously didn’t sign the petition; it’s going to get laughed at once people see those or someone cussing at Triple H. Response: Currently, I can’t edit the petition until it closes, but once it does I can edit the bogus names and comments out of the petition. This will be done before it is submitted to the various companies. Trust me, all the “jokers” will get edited out. Jeff Wahlman Petition Author WWE Creative Change Petition & June 9th Raw Boycott http://www.petitiononline.com/rawwwe/ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Jobber of the Week Report post Posted May 3, 2003 NEVER DOUBT THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ONLINE PETITIONS! Remember when they... Uh....... Hm.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Jobber of the Week Report post Posted May 3, 2003 Some choice entries on the petition... [As always, my commentary is in square brackets.] Push Kane he deserves the world title! [Wha?] 1129. Jeff Jarrett I think Triple H is doing a great job on RAW, controlling the talent and all. If he can just keep it going until we get a TV deal I'll be a happy man. The Triple H Effect Rules!! [Nice to see they're paying attention to what people post here.] 1093. Voice of Reason You know, I just realized you don't care about the real, "non smart" fans. You guys just want to make the WWE as unwatchable to the casual fan as possible. Just cause you guys nitpick at things like "workrate" doesn't mean the majority of us do. We love T&A, cheer Nash and boo Triple H cause they're ENTERTAINING. So go watch some other show and leave the non-smarts alone. [Anyone noticing a trend here?] Biaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttttttccccchhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11 [....... o_O] Bleeeha!!!fasdfsdafs I HATE WWE!! BLEE!!! HAA!! [Ohhhkay] Although the idea isn't really THAT bad as I made it sound above, you could improve things 10x if you just got rid of that little Comments box. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest papacita Report post Posted May 3, 2003 Have they saved Tazz yet? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest geniusMoment Report post Posted May 3, 2003 Is this about the Blue Meanie again? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fro 0 Report post Posted May 3, 2003 All of the stupid comments and/or bogus names will be deleted once the petition closes, as I said in my post. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest razazteca Report post Posted May 3, 2003 What happen to the May 5 boycott? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Jobber of the Week Report post Posted May 3, 2003 All of the stupid comments and/or bogus names will be deleted once the petition closes, as I said in my post. Aye. I only looked through four pages of that and couldn't take any more. As it is, I don't think McMahon/Gewirtz/Patterson/whoever reads it could even bother to finish page two. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest CoreyLazarus416 Report post Posted May 3, 2003 The May 5th boycott is for North Americans, while I believe the May 9th boycott is for those in the UK. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Downhome Report post Posted May 4, 2003 I LOVE this, woohoo! No, I don't think it'll work, I just love some of the sigs. Here is my favortie so far... Dr. Claude Martin, General Director of the World Wildlife Fund --- Mwahahahahaaaaa! First I stole your 'F' Vince, and pretty soon your empire will fall to the might of the World Wildlife Fund! Your fans are leaving in droves, and adopting Pandas instead of paying for pay-per-view! Your company will crumble! Viva le Panda! Viva le France! ...yes, VIVA LE PANDA INDEED! Oh my God, and the 1,000 signature is... Baghdad Bob --- IM AM 1,000TH SIGNER. YOUR ARE ALL INFIDEL LYING DOGS. YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR LOUSY TREATMENT OF COL.ADNON. A CURSE ON YOUR DAUGHTERS MOUSTACHE. I WILL BEAT YOUR FAMILY WITH MY SHOE. BABBA BOOEY Y'ALL ...OMG~! Then we have four signatures by Bazooko... 996. Bazooko --- I ALSO WOULD LIKE TO ADD THAT........................................dramitic pause................................I LIKE POTATOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 995. Bazooko --- I LIKE POTATOS!!!!!!!!!!!!! 994. Bazooko --- WE WANT DOINK THE CLOWN, FAILURE TO DO SO WILL RESULT IN ME TAKING DIRTY DIRTY PHOTOS OF YOUR PET MONKEY AND HAVING THEM PUBLISH IN THE NEW YORK TIMES. 993. Bazooko --- I FEEL YOUR PAIN. THOSE COMMIE PINKOS HAVE DEPRIVED US OF OUR FREEDOM FOR FAR TOO LONG WE WILL OVER THROW THE GOVERMENT OF NEW ZELAND WHILE WE RIVERDANCE TO OOPS I DID IT AGAIN. OH YEAH BIG SHOW ATE MY CAT TINKLES!!!! ...wow. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest NoSelfWorth Report post Posted May 4, 2003 This petition will not work. End of story. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Downhome Report post Posted May 4, 2003 This petition will not work. End of story. Oh hush, with signatures by people like Baghdad Bob, Clit Commander, and Jeff "I'm a homo" Wahlman, I'd say this just might work! Seeing how people can sign as many times as they want, this isn't worth the paper it's written on. Oh, wait, it's not on paper. If you took these 1,180 "signatures" and took away ALL of the joke sigs, ALL of the sigs that people posted more than once, and then took away (even though you can't tell, all of the sigs that people signed under different names, I am sure you wouldn't be left with even close to 1,180. Untill something is done professionally, and I hate to break it to you this is NOT professional in the least, they will not listen to anyone. If you really want to do something for your cause, then get people to TOTALLY 100% boycott WWE. It's products, PPV's, and TV and all, then something might get done. Oh yeah, you need to reach the CASUAL viewers, not the net fans. This is fun however, so I'll give you that. Live on Baghdad Bob, Clit Commander, and Jeff "I'm a homo" Wahlman as you have work to do! Yes, I'm sure ANYONE worth anything with any sort of power would take this serious. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest NoSelfWorth Report post Posted May 4, 2003 I believe an old friend of Pat just signed, Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Downhome Report post Posted May 4, 2003 I believe an old friend of Pat just signed, This is getting funny as hell, I love looking through this. I just found at least 40-50 sigs by the same guy saying "I'm a homo" over and over. Yes, the same guy I mentioned above. VIVA LE PANDA! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Astro7x 0 Report post Posted May 4, 2003 The petition just sounds like a bunch of whining. You cant just tell them to fix those problems. If they knew, they would already do it Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest NoSelfWorth Report post Posted May 4, 2003 I think deep down they do know what's wrong. They just don't want to face up to, or admit to, that it's their fault, and that they don't know how to correct their mistakes. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Basswitch Report post Posted May 4, 2003 With my luck that raw will be the one raw that blows every other raw away. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
