Raw rating

[razazteca 0]

He's on his last legs though. Its not like he has a mask around to do an unmasking angle. How can they explained a renewed motivation for a Kane push?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Have Kane steal the "Money-in-the-Bank" briefcase when the whole Edge/Hardy feud ends.

[Guest fanofcoils]

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.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The rating dropped 0.3 from last week since last week's rating was a predictable 3.6. This rating was harder to predict because of MNF which caused most Raw fans to switch between it and Raw, so it is harder to predict the rating if you don't fully watch the show.

[justcoz 0]

Matt Hardy's perfect role was as Version 1. A funny heel who's a midcarder and has a bit of a cult following. Just had to throw a couple of one-liners, didn't have to do "intense" promos, and wrestled smaller guys so his bigger size style he has looked good.

 

I don't see how he could ever have been a number 1 face, ever. Even with this angle, I still don't see it. He would have lost a part of his cult following because he "sold out". He would have had younger males cheering for Edge because he banged Lita under Matt's nose, and that's funny. His promo skills just aren't good for a serious promo, and as a face? At least as a heel, he can fall back on being pompous.

 

The angle was ruined before the bad promo from the moment Vince McMahon introduced him, Hardy exited a limo and shook Vince's hand. Hardy's delivery was very poor but the whole promo was bad and it wasn't the type of promo he should've cut. It should have been laced with references to internet smarks, indie promotions like ROH, his best friend, girlfriend and company wronging him.

 

Okay, I think everyone agrees he should have not shook Vince's hand. That was stupid. But I'd like to focus on the bolded part.

 

Reference to internet smarks....why? The internet smarks KNOW the situation (well, Matt's POV, and that's all that counts). In this case, there is no reason to single them out. If he said something like his MFers supporting him on the internet, that's cool. But to be overly smarky? Sure, we'd smile because he's talking about us, but it would do nothing for the marks, and he wants them behind him.

 

Indy promotions? A quick reference maybe, to show he wasn't going to let Edge/Lita ruin his career, but again, catering to the indy fans is not need, because they know the situation.

 

They did say Edge, Lita and WWE screwed him. But he even screwed this up. He wanted for Edge (oh, I'm sorry, "Adam") to die in a car crash. That's just awkward., and no one is going to cheer for him with that line.

 

Bottom line is yes, they could have made this angle better. But being overly smarky and making references to things that a percentage of people know isn't a good idea. I actually liked how they left the really internet things on just that: the internet. The Byte This crap was good, because cyber geeks such as ourselves are watching that, and we get a kick out of it. If they aired those promos on TV, the crowd wouldn't be quite responsive because of confusion, in my opinion.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

The whole premise of the Edge vs. Matt Hardy feud was blown up on the internet. You may say that it's pointless to cut a promo targeting smarks or the "smart audience" but this entire storyline wouldn't have happened if the internet people didn't have an influence on WWE live crowds. That percentage of smart fans in audiences, were the ones that were chanting "We Want Matt", "Your Screwed Matt" and "Whore" directed at Lita. They had to turn Lita heel because they couldn't throw her in front of any audience without a negative reaction. They put her with Edge and tried to inject Kane into Matt Hardy's role as the jilted lover and people were still chanting for Matt.

 

The only reason that Matt Hardy was re-hired was because of the buzz on the Internet. There was money to be made, right? Of course, there could be conflicts once Matt Hardy was re-hired. Now us smarts know that this is all a worked program or feud and that Matt Hardy was once again working for WWE. Would the smarts sour on him for returning to the company that fired him? Perhaps. Would the flaws that WWE saw in Matt Hardy before they fired him be evident? Perhaps. This is why you book to someone's stong points and the one thing that Matt had going for him was a buzz on the Internet, so yes, we were the people to play to in this case.

 

Part of that support was due to many disagreeing with his termination and feeling like he was wronged by WWE. So creative chooses to overlook that and introduce him by shaking Vince McMahon's hand and not even mentioning any bitterness towards the company that fired him?

 

Only weeks after he was jumping the barriers, getting handcuffed out of the arena and telling Johnny Ace to go to hell? Only weeks after he was appearing on Byte This telling people to catch him in Ring of Honor and trying to get himself included on a TNA PPV to further the angle along? This was Pillman 2005. That was exciting stuff and it should have been prolonged. He should have had more indie dates. He should have damned WWE, had "friends" in WWE production that would put up Matt Facts when Edge was wrestling, telling people where to see Matt Hardy on the indie circuit. Causing Bischoff and McMahon to freak out. Jumping Edge in the parking lot, at autograph sessions with fan cams taping everything. And yes he should have thanked the smarks and those on the Internet for supporting him and proving to be more intelligent than WWE wanted them to be. They can blame the bad promo but you know what, his promo wasn't necessary nor was rushing the angle so we could have a 3:00 Summerslam match. Targeting comments towards smart fans would have been more sensible than just going out there and saying the whole Kane thing was pretend wrestling stuff and this is real. That was supposed to get marks behind him? You're telling me that anything else would have been more confusing to a mark than that?

[Guest Fishyswa]

I still say a Twist of Fate to McMahon, as cliche as it would be, would fixed the damage done by the situation.

 

Instead of the "I thank the fans...and you", it should of been "What the fuck did you do, you fired me over some bullshit and then only brought me back when you knew you could make money...." or something or other, than have him hit a twist of fate, then a leg drop, say McMahon is out with a neck injury for a while. Have him be a total tweener, have him take out people backstage because he thinks they said something, make him on edge, have JR talk about how much of a loose cannon and how dangerous he is.

 

It's simple stuff but it would of been a lot better than "thank you for firing and rehiring me....but the fans are cool too!".

 

Oh and the car crash shit, yeah, that was a bit much.

[humongous2002 0]

Cena's overness is still a mystery to me, his character is of a White thug wannabe rapper, mixed with a little bit of Stone Cold and the Rock. But as much as I dislike Cena's championship reign, I don't blame him for Raw's low ratings. The show was unwatchable plain and simple, Master's push is this year's waste of TV time (Orton's push was last year's waste of TV time), Edge/Hardy feud has turned into a joke, HBK is back to being the boring face that he was and Angle went from being Booker T's bitch into a mouthpiece wearing psycho in less than a year.

[Dangerous A 0]

The sad part about Angle being Booker T's bitch was they didn't even capitalize on it and have now saddled Booker in a losing streak type storyline with his wife.

[cabbageboy 0]

Oh for the life of me I don't understand the handling of Booker once Angle was traded. I thought that feud was meant to put Booker over strongly and give him a renewed push....and now he's jobbing to a rookie like Ken Kennedy? I like Kennedy but this is curious treatment for poor Booker.

 

The Masters and Orton pushes aren't really comparable since Masters hasn't really gone over much of anyone notable in a match yet and I think even they realize pushing him is a filler thing to do until they get back to USA.

 

As far as Matt goes, I think I brought up all these inconsistencies before they even hired him back. It was bound to be a car wreck that wrecked 6 months of storylines. It would have been better for those involved if they hadn't hired Matt back. He wouldn't be getting buried like this, storylines would have remained intact, and after some point the whole Lita/Edge thing would blow over.

[The Czech Republic 0]

This thread isn't just real, it's meticulously real.