PART 2 - Do you agree or disagree with the following Smackdown/TNA paragraph?

[Heyman]

Hmmmm,

After RE-READING the thread that I created, I can honestly say that I was a bit..............high at the time.


All in all however, I still think I *DO* have a point.


Is Smackdown inevitably destined to "fail?" (based on the way management itself perceives and treats Smackdown?).

If Smackdown is still making money (due to advertisers, etc.), yet still have a sub-par product (to which attendance, PPV buyrates, etc. start going WAY down), then I guess its not a big deal...........because they're still making a profit.

I admittedly don't know much about the "business" side of things (which is why my initial post came across as........ridiculous ), but it just hurts me personally (as a fan) to see that MANAGEMENT itself has limited respect for Smackdown.


I also think what REALLY hurts Smackdown right now, is that there are no real intense rivalries going on right now (or atleast the ones that the fans can care about).


I'll post more on this later.

[The CyNick]

To me, I still find SD entertaining. Because of HHH, I totally hate RAW, I just cant get into a show that's sole purpose is to pretend HHH is a "legend". SD at least has some new faces, and seems like a more entertaining product to me.

In terms of business, RAW isn't doing much better than SD, if at all. Excluding last night, SD has been doing doing higher ratings than RAW for the better part of 2 months. The last RAW PPV did worse than the last SD PPV, and attendance is about the same for the two groups. Where RAW beats out SD consistantly is in TV tapings, but I think that has a lot to do with Monday being a better night to do live events than Tuesdays. Even in the WWE's heyday, SD tapings always drew slightly less.

to LC's point:

Yeah comeptition is great for consumers, but Vince is not a consumer of wrestling. So its in his best interest to ensure nothing else gets off the ground and forms any kind of threat.

In terms of Vince turning things around, I'm not so confident. In the past he's always used ideas and stolen talent from other places in order to make his own product more successful. He took Hogan, who was already a mainstream star from AWA and built the company around him. Then he drove him into the ground and didn't turn things around until he copied Bischoff's formula for doing TV and stole Paul Heyman's concept of Attitude. Got lucky with a couple of r4eally talented guys, and bam everything was roses.

This time around, there is nothing out there that is similar to wrestling or wrestling itself that is doing well. The only thing Vince manages to do well is making money off old footage. To make matters worse there are few, if any promotions around the world that are really successful doing pro wrestling.

When you combine that with the fact that Vince seemingly has a blind spot for HHH and Steph and their inability to create an entertaining product. So they will be a major part of the company from now until forever. That also scares me.

People like to say, "oh the product was done before, but its just a matter of time before it comes back up". I am far less optimistic, almost cynical if you will. What I can see being more likely is that Vince will be able to keep the WWE so long as they can stay on TV to sell PPVs. But I dont think there's a guarantee that Vince has the creative ability to create the next big thing. And judging by what they let on TV I dont think Hunter and Steph have their finger on the pulse of what the average young male wants to see.

[Heyman]

Originally Posted by The CyNick To me, I still find SD entertaining. Because of HHH, I totally hate RAW, I just cant get into a show that's sole purpose is to pretend HHH is a "legend". SD at least has some new faces, and seems like a more entertaining product to me.

SD's definitely got some great faces, but they're short on heels (especially if Angle is hurt). I'm sorry, but there's no WAY that JBL should still be champ. Originally - the idea had SOME merit to it (if JBL's long title reign slowly made him more credible amongst the fans), but it doesn't now. JBL is still a fucking jobber!

Smackdown would be soooooo much better if they had a heel Lesnar on that show. .

In terms of business, RAW isn't doing much better than SD, if at all. Excluding last night, SD has been doing doing higher ratings than RAW for the better part of 2 months. The last RAW PPV did worse than the last SD PPV, and attendance is about the same for the two groups. Where RAW beats out SD consistantly is in TV tapings, but I think that has a lot to do with Monday being a better night to do live events than Tuesdays. Even in the WWE's heyday, SD tapings always drew slightly less.

The Last RAW PPV was Taboo Tuesday......a time in which the Red Sox/Yankees game was on.

I REALLY can't explain the TV ratings. Either UPN simply gets more viewers than TNN, or I'm COMPLETELY OFF MARK when I say that RAW looks like a far superior and developed product (and most other wrestling fans simply disagree with me).

As far as I'm concerned, I'd be interested to see what Smackdown would draw if the RAW show were in that time slot.


[QUOTE]to LC's point:

Yeah comeptition is great for consumers, but Vince is not a consumer of wrestling. So its in his best interest to ensure nothing else gets off the ground and forms any kind of threat.

In terms of Vince turning things around, I'm not so confident. In the past he's always used ideas and stolen talent from other places in order to make his own product more successful. He took Hogan, who was already a mainstream star from AWA and built the company around him. Then he drove him into the ground and didn't turn things around until he copied Bischoff's formula for doing TV and stole Paul Heyman's concept of Attitude. Got lucky with a couple of r4eally talented guys, and bam everything was roses.


This time around, there is nothing out there that is similar to wrestling or wrestling itself that is doing well. The only thing Vince manages to do well is making money off old footage. To make matters worse there are few, if any promotions around the world that are really successful doing pro wrestling.

When you combine that with the fact that Vince seemingly has a blind spot for HHH and Steph and their inability to create an entertaining product. So they will be a major part of the company from now until forever. That also scares me.

People like to say, "oh the product was done before, but its just a matter of time before it comes back up". I am far less optimistic, almost cynical if you will. What I can see being more likely is that Vince will be able to keep the WWE so long as they can stay on TV to sell PPVs. But I dont think there's a guarantee that Vince has the creative ability to create the next big thing. And judging by what they let on TV I dont think Hunter and Steph have their finger on the pulse of what the average young male wants to see.



I think those are very valid points. I wish I could comment on them, but I don't know what to say.

u stumped me.