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Post by Mayonnaise on Dec 2, 2009 20:57:15 GMT -5
NBC and Fox will never, never air a weekly wrestling program. Sure, NBC may air a WWE specal once in a while but they have no interest in becomeing the wrestling network. On the other hand, NBC and Fox already show NASCAR, don't they? Nothing is worse than NASCAR in my book. NBC doesn't, Fox does and, NASCAR draws a) way better ratings than wrestling and b) way more and "better" adverting dollars than wrestling.
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Post by Threadkiller [Classic] on Dec 2, 2009 20:58:27 GMT -5
Source: PWinsider It's been reported this week that major changes are coming to WWE in the early months of 2010, with the ECW brand likely being shut down. According to a sources, WWE also has big changes in store for the SmackDown brand. The feeling is that RAW has enhanced its identity with the Guest Host concept and SmackDown needs something of its own to stand out. While nothing official has been decided on yet, it's believed that any big changes will take place after year ends. Also as noted earlier here on the website, WWE is working on a deal that could change the current landscape of the company. WWE and SyFy have had preliminary meetings regarding the rebranding of the ECW series, which would include dropping name and brand "ECW". SyFy has noticed the dropping ratings since the debut of the show, and with the current TV deal ending in December, WWE is looking to improve ratings and freshen up the product. There was talk of a "magazine style" show, which was shot down, and the most recent pitch is an hour long show focusing exclusively on brand new talents. SyFy was very behind the brand when it debuted with a rating of over 2.0, but with the rating now averaging around a 1.0, the appeal has been lost. The only time it was getting a 2.0 was when it could still be considered as resembling the ECW of old. The minute Lashley was brought in, it just went down the shitter and never recovered (even though it's arguably the best straight-up wrestling show on television today). Trying to re-brand their two best shows? Dammit, it's like they're ashamed to be a wrestling company now. This is nothing new. Vince has always been ashamed of being a wrestling promoter. At least it seems that way to me. He's desperate for mainstream media legitimacy. Between the XFL and WWE films, along with the possibility for a separate television network for WWE, it seems Vince is trying to create a hybrid product that is less "pro wrestling" -- hell, a product that's hardly even "sports entertainment" -- and more "action entertainment." RAW, at least, has basically become a strange hybrid between an action series and a live sketch comedy show, and it's horribly off-putting. That mentality is even sneaking its way into the other shows, like last night's ECW where footage was spliced in to Vance Archer's promo like some cheesy action movie. They even did this with Zack Ryder's "live fantasies" about Rosa Mendes. I still remember earlier this year during a HHH/Randy Orton promo on Smackdown where Orton was taunting HHH and they not only cut in footage/flashbacks of what Randy was talking about, but added an "ominous score" to the background. It was so ridiculous. I just wish WWE would go back to presenting professional wrestling as professional wrestling. If you can do that well, the fans WILL come back. People are looking for a legitimate sports-like product, with the rise of MMA to mainstream popularity. Just do like with the Attitude era. Present it as a legitimate competition (even though everybody knows it isn't), then once you get the fans back, start giving us real storylines we can care about. Don't just throw out soap opera storylines hoping it catches on. You need to build up these men and women as athletes that we should care about. THEN give us the stories that get everyone, even casual viewers, up off their seats (like Austin/McMahon). And if they're going to keep this guest host thing going on indefinitely, they desperately need to change up the template that they seem to be following for every host. This past week was a start, but it's still not as good of a balance as, say, when Shaq hosted.
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Post by derrtaysouth95 on Dec 2, 2009 21:02:04 GMT -5
WWE really doesn't get it do they?
They want to fix the 2 shows with the least problems!
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Post by Kevin Hamilton on Dec 2, 2009 21:20:15 GMT -5
They seem to be determined to keep me and fans like me either not watching entirely, or only tuning in for a few minutes per week before quickly tuning out again.
If that's the plan, it's certainly working
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Post by Slingshot Suplay on Dec 2, 2009 21:22:10 GMT -5
Source: PWinsider It's been reported this week that major changes are coming to WWE in the early months of 2010, with the ECW brand likely being shut down. According to a sources, WWE also has big changes in store for the SmackDown brand. The feeling is that RAW has enhanced its identity with the Guest Host concept and SmackDown needs something of its own to stand out. While nothing official has been decided on yet, it's believed that any big changes will take place after year ends. Also as noted earlier here on the website, WWE is working on a deal that could change the current landscape of the company. WWE and SyFy have had preliminary meetings regarding the rebranding of the ECW series, which would include dropping name and brand "ECW". SyFy has noticed the dropping ratings since the debut of the show, and with the current TV deal ending in December, WWE is looking to improve ratings and freshen up the product. There was talk of a "magazine style" show, which was shot down, and the most recent pitch is an hour long show focusing exclusively on brand new talents. SyFy was very behind the brand when it debuted with a rating of over 2.0, but with the rating now averaging around a 1.0, the appeal has been lost. The only time it was getting a 2.0 was when it could still be considered as resembling the ECW of old. The minute Lashley was brought in, it just went down the s***ter and never recovered (even though it's arguably the best straight-up wrestling show on television today). Trying to re-brand their two best shows? Dammit, it's like they're ashamed to be a wrestling company now. This is nothing new. Vince has always been ashamed of being a wrestling promoter. At least it seems that way to me. He's desperate for mainstream media legitimacy. Between the XFL and WWE films, along with the possibility for a separate television network for WWE, it seems Vince is trying to create a hybrid product that is less "pro wrestling" -- hell, a product that's hardly even "sports entertainment" -- and more "action entertainment." RAW, at least, has basically become a strange hybrid between an action series and a live sketch comedy show, and it's horribly off-putting. That mentality is even sneaking its way into the other shows, like last night's ECW where footage was spliced in to Vance Archer's promo like some cheesy action movie. They even did this with Zack Ryder's "live fantasies" about Rosa Mendes. I still remember earlier this year during a HHH/Randy Orton promo on Smackdown where Orton was taunting HHH and they not only cut in footage/flashbacks of what Randy was talking about, but added an "ominous score" to the background. It was so ridiculous. I just wish WWE would go back to presenting professional wrestling as professional wrestling. If you can do that well, the fans WILL come back. People are looking for a legitimate sports-like product, with the rise of MMA to mainstream popularity. Just do like with the Attitude era. Present it as a legitimate competition (even though everybody knows it isn't), then once you get the fans back, start giving us real storylines we can care about. Don't just throw out soap opera storylines hoping it catches on. You need to build up these men and women as athletes that we should care about. THEN give us the stories that get everyone, even casual viewers, up off their seats (like Austin/McMahon). And if they're going to keep this guest host thing going on indefinitely, they desperately need to change up the template that they seem to be following for every host. This past week was a start, but it's still not as good of a balance as, say, when Shaq hosted. I remember when they did those flashbacks and ominous music during Matt Hardy's promo where he was explaining his attack on Jeff.
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Dr. T is an alien
Patti Mayonnaise
Knows when to hold them, knows when to fold them
I've been found out!
Posts: 31,371
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Post by Dr. T is an alien on Dec 2, 2009 21:28:12 GMT -5
The only time it was getting a 2.0 was when it could still be considered as resembling the ECW of old. The minute Lashley was brought in, it just went down the s***ter and never recovered (even though it's arguably the best straight-up wrestling show on television today). This is nothing new. Vince has always been ashamed of being a wrestling promoter. At least it seems that way to me. He's desperate for mainstream media legitimacy. Between the XFL and WWE films, along with the possibility for a separate television network for WWE, it seems Vince is trying to create a hybrid product that is less "pro wrestling" -- hell, a product that's hardly even "sports entertainment" -- and more "action entertainment." RAW, at least, has basically become a strange hybrid between an action series and a live sketch comedy show, and it's horribly off-putting. That mentality is even sneaking its way into the other shows, like last night's ECW where footage was spliced in to Vance Archer's promo like some cheesy action movie. They even did this with Zack Ryder's "live fantasies" about Rosa Mendes. I still remember earlier this year during a HHH/Randy Orton promo on Smackdown where Orton was taunting HHH and they not only cut in footage/flashbacks of what Randy was talking about, but added an "ominous score" to the background. It was so ridiculous. I just wish WWE would go back to presenting professional wrestling as professional wrestling. If you can do that well, the fans WILL come back. People are looking for a legitimate sports-like product, with the rise of MMA to mainstream popularity. Just do like with the Attitude era. Present it as a legitimate competition (even though everybody knows it isn't), then once you get the fans back, start giving us real storylines we can care about. Don't just throw out soap opera storylines hoping it catches on. You need to build up these men and women as athletes that we should care about. THEN give us the stories that get everyone, even casual viewers, up off their seats (like Austin/McMahon). And if they're going to keep this guest host thing going on indefinitely, they desperately need to change up the template that they seem to be following for every host. This past week was a start, but it's still not as good of a balance as, say, when Shaq hosted. I remember when they did those flashbacks and ominous music during Matt Hardy's promo where he was explaining his attack on Jeff. That was so weird to see, especially since I saw the promo live and it was pretty effective without all of that. I wonder why they don't let him right more of his own stuff, like when he was V1. He does not struggle nearly as much.
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Allie Kitsune
Crow T. Robot
Always Feelin' Foxy.
HaHa U FaLL 4 LaVa TriK
Posts: 46,169
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Post by Allie Kitsune on Dec 2, 2009 21:30:33 GMT -5
I remember when they did those flashbacks and ominous music during Matt Hardy's promo where he was explaining his attack on Jeff. That was so weird to see, especially since I saw the promo live and it was pretty effective without all of that. I wonder why they don't let him right more of his own stuff, like when he was V1. He does not struggle nearly as much. Because he wasn't chosen by management to be a main eventer, so they can't risk him doing anything interesting and getting over.
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Dr. T is an alien
Patti Mayonnaise
Knows when to hold them, knows when to fold them
I've been found out!
Posts: 31,371
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Post by Dr. T is an alien on Dec 2, 2009 21:36:49 GMT -5
That was so weird to see, especially since I saw the promo live and it was pretty effective without all of that. I wonder why they don't let him right more of his own stuff, like when he was V1. He does not struggle nearly as much. Because he wasn't chosen by management to be a main eventer, so they can't risk him doing anything interesting and getting over. Hell, the whole V1 thing went down because they did not care at all about him. They gave him nothing, he asked if it was okay if he threw something together, and they waved him off and said, "Sure, whatever."
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Post by Rorschach on Dec 2, 2009 21:42:34 GMT -5
Man....if EVER the time seemed right for TNA to do something to kick themselves off like a rocket, and Vince in the balls simultaneously, 2010 seems to be it.
If the WWE continues to morph itself into some crap-ass hybrid of sitcom/wrestling/drama series....and Bischoff somehow convinces Dixie to amp up the WRESTLING aspect of TNA and tune down the cartoonish crap...and TNA moves to Mondays opposite RAW....Vince might actually have some serious competition on his hands.
Plus, if the younger talent continues to be held back and minimized in favor of bloated/unfunny skits and angles featuring the older guys...and they jump ship to TNA.....I'm not going to say Vince would ever be in TROUBLE...but that would be seriously BAD for the WWE. Right now, see...they're in a state of grace. They f*** up, no one is there to kick them in the ass and take their spot, like WCW used to be. Now they get all the free passes they want to continue to make crap-ass shows/PPVs. But if TNA were to get goddamn serious about being competition...
Look, all I'm saying is, they're driving away a lot of their fans as it is. How much longer are they going to be able to get away with this? You can only be horrible for so long before the loyal consumers have enough of your crap and take their money elsewhere.
/ two cents.
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Post by HMARK Center on Dec 2, 2009 21:47:28 GMT -5
Man....if EVER the time seemed right for TNA to do something to kick themselves off like a rocket, and Vince in the balls simultaneously, 2010 seems to be it. If the WWE continues to morph itself into some crap-ass hybrid of sitcom/wrestling/drama series....and Bischoff somehow convinces Dixie to amp up the WRESTLING aspect of TNA and tune down the cartoonish crap...and TNA moves to Mondays opposite RAW....Vince might actually have some serious competition on his hands. Plus, if the younger talent continues to be held back and minimized in favor of bloated/unfunny skits and angles featuring the older guys...and they jump ship to TNA.....I'm not going to say Vince would ever be in TROUBLE...but that would be seriously BAD for the WWE. Right now, see...they're in a state of grace. They f*** up, no one is there to kick them in the ass and take their spot, like WCW used to be. Now they get all the free passes they want to continue to make crap-ass shows/PPVs. But if TNA were to get goddamn serious about being competition... Look, all I'm saying is, they're driving away a lot of their fans as it is. How much longer are they going to be able to get away with this? You can only be horrible for so long before the loyal consumers have enough of your crap and take their money elsewhere. / two cents. Actually, word in the last couple of months has been that Carter herself passed down the edict to amp up the amount of actual wrestling on all TNA programming. She's also the one who made it clear that TNA would start pushing their younger stars as the faces of the company, even if it meant sacrificing some ratings numbers in the short run. TNA has too much ground to cover to come near scratching WWE, but 2010 can certainly be a year, if they stay on the track they're on now and tweak a couple little things, where they take advantage of WWE looking kind of lethargic and at least boost themselves up a little bit.
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Hanzo
Dennis Stamp
"You want Cena to go to ECW?!"
Posts: 4,666
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Post by Hanzo on Dec 2, 2009 21:56:40 GMT -5
As far as ECW goes..
For all the peeps
And for all the fools
Say it loud
Christian Rules!
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Post by Andrew is Good on Dec 2, 2009 21:57:31 GMT -5
That's insanely frustrating.
The reason the ratings are down so much is because they didn't let it be ECW like it used to be. No, it didn't have to be exactly like the old ECW, as obviously some new stars needed to be made, but they killed the concept entirely by letting go of Heyman and changing it to something completely different.
Episodes numbers 2 through 4 were awesome shows. The stuff people wanted to see.
According to Heyman (and we all know Heyman's history with the truth, so take it as it is), Vince's whole idea was to get the crowd to stop chanting ECW at certain things.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2009 22:01:46 GMT -5
While I will certainly miss the current incarnation of ECW, I can see nothing but good in overhauling SmackDown. As it is now I'm totally incapable of watching it.
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SAJ Forth
Wade Wilson
Jamaican WCF Crazy!
Half Man-Half Amazing
Posts: 27,214
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Post by SAJ Forth on Dec 2, 2009 22:21:20 GMT -5
So, it seems they are trying to fix "problems" on the two shows that don't have many IMO. While the crappiest of them all is apparently fine and dandy? I'd be more worried about pulling RAW out of the abyss that has been the last 9-10 months, then trying to mess with shows that are doing OK. But the Guest Host gives RAW identity apparently. SmackDown does stand out. It's the show with good wrestling and interesting characters. Something RAW does NOT have. Well you expected somebody that thinks with logic.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Dec 2, 2009 22:42:48 GMT -5
WWE: The first "W" stands for "World," and the "E" stands for "Entertainment"; but we can't for the life of us remember what the other "W" stands for!
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Post by Rorschach on Dec 2, 2009 22:44:17 GMT -5
WWE: The first "W" stands for "World," and the "E" stands for "Entertainment"; but we can't for the life of us remember what the other "W" stands for! Wasn't that one of the things that used to set Russo off in WCW? When someone passed around a note that said never to ask him what the second "W" stood for?
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Dec 2, 2009 23:02:32 GMT -5
WWE: The first "W" stands for "World," and the "E" stands for "Entertainment"; but we can't for the life of us remember what the other "W" stands for! Wasn't that one of the things that used to set Russo off in WCW? When someone passed around a note that said never to ask him what the second "W" stood for? Yes, it was.
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greeby
Hank Scorpio
Posts: 7,088
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Post by greeby on Dec 2, 2009 23:07:07 GMT -5
It's the changes that have happened in the last couple of months that I'm unhappy with. You had a roster on Smackdown that was younger, physically smaller and better workers and they're getting great reviews. Then Punk is kicked out of the main event in favour of Taker who can't go more than 10 minutes anymore. Then Batista is brought in and Smackdown starts to look like the land of the giants again. It just reeks of Vince interfering with a show that was gaining success and starting to bring the ratings up with some *gasp* actual wrestling.
I've come to the conclusion that the two remaining McMahons are the albatross around this company's collective neck
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Post by Tyfo on Dec 2, 2009 23:13:49 GMT -5
The Raw guest host thing adds UNIQUENESS AND DEPTH?!!?!?!?
THEY BOOK THE SAME GOD DAMN THING FOR THEM EVERY f***ING WEEK!!!!!!!!
Segment with Jericho and Show.
Segment with Hornswoggle.
Segment with Santino and random divas.
Segment with DX.
Segment plugging some stupid s*** their doing.
Segment booking some form of a Cena/DX vs. Orton/Legacy match, sometimes also involving Jerishow.
MAYBE IF SOMEBODY WHO HAD A FUNCTIONING BRAIN IN THEIR HEAD BOOKED RAW THE GUEST HOST THING COULD BE UNIQUE.
Instead, it drags the show down, makes it boring, predictable, and overall just painful to watch.
In other words, 99% of the time, it hasn't added jack s*** other then WWE saying, look at us, we can get irrelevant celebs to come fumble names and talk uncomfortably while they plug their latest useless project.
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Post by triplealbert on Dec 2, 2009 23:26:52 GMT -5
I don't know how many of the people reacting actually read the second paragraph, but WWE does not want to change ECW. Sy Fi does. And since their contract is up soon, WWE has no choice or lose the timeslot.
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