...buying viewers?
My oh my...You know it's been a bad Raw when the highlight is either a man from southern USA saying the phrase 'hooouwwley sheeeiit' live on television, or Vince McMahon getting telephone Rick Roll'd. Laugh-out-loud television.
Yes, the first night of "Mr. McMahon's Million Dollar Mania" left me feeling a little uneasy. Not only due to the (strangely funny) practical dead-air time from watching Vinnie Mac desperately struggle to use the common telephone, not only the fact that directionless skits (Haas??!! v. Mae Young/Jillian Hall v. Trevor Murdoch) were thrown in only to advance the sweepstakes, but mainly due to the fact that I sat and watched the head of the most successful wrestling company of all time stoop to a brand new low. For the first time in my life, I watched Vincent K. McMahon, the man and not the character, look...pathetic...
Let's take a realistic look at what's going on here. Vinnie is giving away a million dollars "of his oooowwn money" in a bid to bring back fans to the WWE. New fans, jaded fans and TNA backsliders. Reading between the lines, he is effectively saying 'okay, so...I can't draw you people with wrestling any more, so i'll pimp myself, my dignity and my company out in a desperate bit to spike ratings. Take this money! YEAH! ....monaaaay...USA network don't like it when no-one watches us...did I mention the money?' I've never seen a more fundamentally flawed sports-entertainment idea before in my life. Of course, it's not the first time WWE has done this. My long-term memory has frozen images of an early 90's summerslam in which a young Michael Cole and ex-diva Sunny played with padlocks and keys with live callers...presumably for money. Thank goodness for The Attitude Era then, when the WWE didn't need a cheap telephone competition in order to captivate fans into comsuming its product. So what now, have we come full circle?
What's most frustrating about this is that it's a simple formula which Vince can't seem to understand. Perhaps its his stubborn attitude, perhaps it's the fact that he's somewhat out of touch with what works in wrestling today, most likely it's a mixture of both, but if he would stop putting over the great big beefcakes who cannot wrestle for their lives and give a fundamental, slow push to the athletes. The clean, non-ripped and gassed guys who can tell a thrilling story and take the belief of the audience from the lowest of lows to the dizzying heights. Guys who dwell on the undercard like CM Punk, Jimmy Yang (who was sadly suspended for his first violation of wellness this week), Chavo Guerrero, Shelton Benjamin, Vladimir Kozlov (I love this man), Y2J and Jeff Hardy. Vince needs to focus on the pure wrestling over the gimmick laden soap operas that Raw and Smackdown have become.
He needs to realise what has become stale and stop rehashing old storylines on a monthly basis. The fact that he was interrupting the immediate end of matches in a desperate bid to throw more money at potential viewers was sad indication of where he places the actual art of wrestling within a 'wrestling show'. If ROH were to produce an episode of Raw for one night, I believe we could see the difference and know what we're missing on a massive scale. Bryan Danielson v. Jeff Hardy in the main event? I'd pay...If Vince would put a little bit more effort into the show and get rid of tired old writers like the ever-bigoted Michael Hayes he would see the results that he desires in a long term capacity, as opposed to this quick-fix giveaway.
the american dragon...Wrestlemania headliner?
Perhaps the most stunning aspect of all of this is that WWE isn't even in dire-straits. It's making as much money as ever...but I think Vince knows that kids are fickle. They'll buy your John Cena shirts for a while, but deep down he knows that he needs to get back in touch with the hardcore wrestling fans. The ones who will follow regardless of age. I just fear that he has no idea how...
$ is certainly not how.
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