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**loopydate** · 01-15-2006, 06:35 PM

Just to try and salvage this thread (why, I know not)...

The title "A New Year, A New Era" actually has some merit, in my opinion. The first two weeks of 2006 have brought a lot of surprises on RAW & SD.

I think that Vince & Co. realized that 2005 was a critical and financial disaster and that what they needed to do in 2006 was, in a sense, start fresh.

Fans loved Batista, and I know that they would have loved to keep the belt on him longer. In fact, Batista probably should have dropped the belt months ago due to his injuries, but he showed a lot of integrity by continuing to work through it, knowing it was for the good of the company.

But, if you're going to get the belt off of him, why not do something completely unexpected? Now, this could have been a disaster if they had done something completely random like putting it on Mark Henry or back on JBL (not a knock on JBL, but 2004 wasn't exactly 1999 in terms of business, either). But to bring Kurt Angle over from RAW and put the belt on him was a stroke of genius, imo.

I was beginning to think that WWE may have forgotten why Edge was carrying a briefcase around. But after nine long months, we finally got a payoff to arguably WM21's best match when Edge came out of nowhere to win the WWE Title at NYR. Granted, in Tipsters, I predicted that would happen, but I was honestly going to say that in every Tipsters thread until 'Mania. The vast majority of the audience was totally blindsided by it.

But look at RAW this past week. The ratings jumped up 16% over the previous week (4.3 from 3.7 each of the last three weeks), and was only the ninth time in almost four years that the rating was at least 4.3 (going back to May 6th, 2002, the last time the show rated higher than 4.5). The change at the top brought in more viewers. Fans were interested in where they were going. The overrun got a 5.2!

Now, I honestly believe that 2006 is off to a very good start for WWE, and if Vince takes his cue from what's happened so far, he has the potential to turn this year into a very good one both financially and critically. Something he hasn't had since the Attitude era ended (unless you count the brief, shining moment at the beginning of the brand extension when we got a ton of fresh storylines that quickly devolved into same old, same old).

01-15-2006, 06:35 PM	#8
loopydate FIT Challenge Slag People Posts: 13,816	Just to try and salvage this thread (why, I know not)... The title "A New Year, A New Era" actually has some merit, in my opinion. The first two weeks of 2006 have brought a lot of surprises on RAW & SD. I think that Vince & Co. realized that 2005 was a critical and financial disaster and that what they needed to do in 2006 was, in a sense, start fresh. Fans loved Batista, and I know that they would have loved to keep the belt on him longer. In fact, Batista probably should have dropped the belt months ago due to his injuries, but he showed a lot of integrity by continuing to work through it, knowing it was for the good of the company. But, if you're going to get the belt off of him, why not do something completely unexpected? Now, this could have been a disaster if they had done something completely random like putting it on Mark Henry or back on JBL (not a knock on JBL, but 2004 wasn't exactly 1999 in terms of business, either). But to bring Kurt Angle over from RAW and put the belt on him was a stroke of genius, imo. I was beginning to think that WWE may have forgotten why Edge was carrying a briefcase around. But after nine long months, we finally got a payoff to arguably WM21's best match when Edge came out of nowhere to win the WWE Title at NYR. Granted, in Tipsters, I predicted that would happen, but I was honestly going to say that in every Tipsters thread until 'Mania. The vast majority of the audience was totally blindsided by it. But look at RAW this past week. The ratings jumped up 16% over the previous week (4.3 from 3.7 each of the last three weeks), and was only the ninth time in almost four years that the rating was at least 4.3 (going back to May 6th, 2002, the last time the show rated higher than 4.5). The change at the top brought in more viewers. Fans were interested in where they were going. The overrun got a 5.2! Now, I honestly believe that 2006 is off to a very good start for WWE, and if Vince takes his cue from what's happened so far, he has the potential to turn this year into a very good one both financially and critically. Something he hasn't had since the Attitude era ended (unless you count the brief, shining moment at the beginning of the brand extension when we got a ton of fresh storylines that quickly devolved into same old, same old).