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Maybe I am just not remembering things right. I swear I remember VKM giving SD to Shane, and Raw to Stephanie, because he wanted to see them fight it out. And they did. For a while. But then SD commercials began appearing on Raw, and vice versa, and the announcers from both shows hype up the other show. And now AJ will be appearing on a Raw PPV. So I guess the fight is over...but who won? :)
We, the fans, won because of all of the great booking we received! Seriously, yep, it’s lame. They do it every time when they do a brand split, always forgetting the split part. It’s a shame more attention to detail is paid to the booking process.
I think WWE suffers from too much content and we all know that too much of one thing can be bad. I know how important TV is for them, but would you agree with the idea that WWE could benefit from actual seasons? It wouldn't have to be as limited as Lucha Underground, but I think less would really be more.
No, I wouldn’t. TV revenue is by far their highest source of OIBDA. Producing less TV means less money to the company. In theory, what you are saying could make the product better, but then you have to consider that it will be the same booking process in place and there is no guarantee that they will change from what they are doing now to something more interesting (in fact I think it’s just the opposite). Most TV shows see their viewership go down season to season, so that is another thing working against taking breaks in WWE programming. So I agree that they have too much programming, but I don’t see it changing any time soon.
Is anyone more poorly booked/wasted (and sometimes forgotten) than Gallows and Anderson? I get that Vince doesn’t want to recreate anything that wasn’t originally a WWE stable. But, you’ve got a big guy who can dominate, a smaller guy who can wrestle, and both should be just killer heels. Certainly not comedy singers.
They are awesome workers and Vince had them singing the Honky Tonk Man song and saying nerds. Ugh. They are so, so much better than that and should be booked as such so yes, they have been wasted, I couldn’t agree more.
Could the WWE Network eat at their own ratings? It sounds stupid because every PPV is built up from the previous TV shows so you should want to watch the shows to understand the rivalry, but if you catch highlights of the good stuff on YouTube and the video package before each match, that may be enough. And if you pay $9.99 for the Network, you may want to get your money’s worth and watch 205 Live and NXT, the tournaments, WWE documentaries and old school shows. If you do so, you may become fatigued and stop caring about the free stuff you can update yourself on by reading recaps and deciding which clips to search for. Does that sound possible, and if so, how does the WWE deal with that?
I think that the booking is the main problem. If the booking is good and tight, like it was 15 years ago, people want to watch Raw and Smackdown, and also the PPVs. When it isn’t, YouTube clips are enough. Also, keep in mind that WWE has about one million subscribers to the Network in the US. They usually do around three million viewers for Raw. So your theory would only affect about a third of the people. I think it’s more booking related than anything else.
I have long thought that a Shield reunion would be just the thing to get the fans cheering for Roman Reigns again. Once the novelty of the Shield reunion runs its course, do you think his haters will go back to mercilessly booing him all the time, or do you think that the reunion will serve to win him over with the fans once and for all?
My gut feeling is that they will go back to booing him. Obviously, it will depend on how WWE books him, but my hunch is that the booking won’t do him any favors as it hasn’t done him any for years now.
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