Would Vince move Smackdown to Wednesday's/Live

[Guest justcoz]

I just thought of this tonight.  I liked tonight's Smackdown but feel the show suffers from not being live like Raw.  In reality though going live more than likely wouldn't increase ratings.  I hate the Thursday night timeslot and can't figure out why WWE and UPN have stuck with this.

 

Which made me think of this.  Seeing as how Vince would routinely screw Crockett Promotions back in the day by creating the Survivor Series - a Thanksgiving night tradition - at a time when Crockett had Starcade on Thanksgiving night for years, would you put it past Vince to convince UPN to move the show to Wednesday nights for a live broadcast just to ensure that the NWA/TNA ppv's don't get buyrates if they start off with any kind of success?

 

Or are the people in WWE looking forward to some competition and secretly hoping that this show gets a tv deal?

[Guest Cataclysm911]

Well, it appears as if the NWA fanbase is pretty much just the internet community, and it's obvious that Vince don't care what we think..

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

I hope not, but thats just me.  I get to watch it on Wednesday nights as it is anyway.

[Guest The Vanilla Midget]

i couldnt see him doing it either.  smackdown is a thursday night tradition as far as im concerned, and i think vince can see that a fortnightly (?) ppv system will kill jarrett off in the very near future anyway.

[Guest converge241]

Its an interesting idea.  I could see Vince maybe having "special smackdowns" on a few wednesdays to kill it right out of the gate. Another factor could be the competition on Thursdays (personally i think they are seperate audiences watching Friends and Survivor for the most part, but network executives may think differently). UPN could like the idea of a wednesday show, to see if the ratings improve.

[Guest buffybeast]

I doubt if Vince would move SD to Wednesday night as it would creat a difficult travel situation for the staff.  They of course work weekends and the SD group works Monday night house shows.  A Wednesday night show would probably cause fatigue and crankiness amoungst the SD crew.

 

Besides, like someone mentioned, the NWA-TNA has only been marketing itself amoungst the net community and not the greater wrestling population.  If they continue to do this, they probably will fail.

[Guest converge241]

it wouldnt have to be live permanently on wednesday.

they could still tape it on tuesday and then air it on weds.

i should have stated that more clearly. I would have it live like 2 times to try and kill NWA (if i was Vince and I wanted to do such a thing). but just in general they could move the airing of the show to wednesday, its not like UPN has a set in stone untouchable wednesday night

[Guest buffybeast]

Ok, I see your point.  But let me ask you this:  Really, what differenced does it make if the show is aired on Wednesday night versus Thursday night, except for crushing NWA?  I just doesn't make a difference to me.

 

Yet I do not think sees NWA as a threat at all.  Supposedly NWA has only sold like 500 tickets to their premiere show.

[Guest converge241]

I dont think it is (im going to watch and all) but i dont think its "real" competition. Just if i were Vince and if Vince wanted to crush it, thats how i would start. Just the idea of free wrestling vs. pay wrestling. I dont think UPN cares about crushing NWA but they might think they would see a slight increase from the few that choose a friends or a survivor over wwe. and again i dont think personally there would be an ratings increase, im just trying to wear differnent hats while looking at the discussion.

[Guest Hogan Made Wrestling]

About the best they could get out of it would not be hurting NWA:TNA (who are doing just fine sinking themselves), but getting away from the Thursday night TV lineup.

[Guest Choken One]

The WWE would have more ratings success being on Wednesday instead of Thursday...on that day they have to contend with the 4 biggest shows on TV...CSI, Survivor, Friends, Willl and Grace. On wednesday, there is nothing major on that day, so take advantage. Perhaps, CBS would like to add help to the horrible Saturday ratings by moving Smackdown to Saturdays (it can't do worse then District)

[Guest oldschoolwrestling]

About the best they could get out of it would not be hurting NWA:TNA (who are doing just fine sinking themselves), but getting away from the Thursday night TV lineup.

Not that I see them succeeding or anything, but what do you feel they have done to sink themselves?

[Guest]

kinda a moot point to discuss if Vince would move Smackdown to Weds basically because NWA TNA isn't even on a tv station yet, their organization isn't even developed for TV. And their little PPV ploy is only novel for about a week how many times you want to pay for a weekly show PPV ? and they are using this as a cheap way to speed up the process in amassing the fortune needed to take a wrestling fed onto TV. Outside of Indi feds that might be able to get on Local TV... Name any Fed that got Nation Wide exposure that was either NOT a Major Federation  like the WWF or a Offshoot Warped Mutated offspring of NWA like WCW and ECW?

[Guest]

Vince doesn't have to worry about the NWA:TNA fed being competition. They will kill themselves and be dead by August. I had high hopes for this fed when it was first announced and the first few names were announced, but since then they have announced horrible wrestlers like Buff Bagwell, Rick Steiner, and the Harris twins. Also, it seems like they are focusing on stupid shit like hardcore midgets and women lingerie battle royales. Just today they've announced a tag team named "The Johnsons" that will come out to the ring dressed up like dicks. This fed is going to suck shit. It is like they are taking the worst parts of WWA and WCW and putting them together on 1 show.

[Guest]

It all depends on how much success ( if any) NWA-TNA can achieve. If they do become a success, Vince might move a show to Wednesday night. I doubt that it would be Smackdown though. Velocity could be moved or maybe one of the thousands of recap shows that Vince has.

 

Personally, I think that Vince fears the awesome ratings power that the Harris Brothers bring!

[Guest notJames]

...a fortnightly (?) ppv system...

I have nothing new to add that hasn't been said before except this...

 

... a fortnight is 2 weeks.

 

(just thought you'd like to know for further reference)

 

And just for the record, I might order that ppv on a lark. Hell, I ordered that god-awful Japanese HC Wrestling II ppv, and I got one match that justified buying it. Who knows...

 

[Guest]

I think what was meant by a "fortnight PPV system" was that NWA: TNA will run on a two-week schedule.  That is, they will have a live PPV one Wednesday, followed by a taped one the next Wednesday.

 

I don't know for a fact, but would have to assume that they'll tape the next week's PPV right after the live show goes off the air or tape it the next night (that would be comparable to what the Fed did with Raw did before Smackdown came along).

 

Either way, that would make for a live PPV every two weeks, hence the "fortnight PPV system."