The Wrath of Tito - More mocking of ECW, why SNME failed, Spirit Squad, more
Submitted by Mr. Tito on Thursday, July 20, 2006 at 9:23 PM EST
Welcome, one and all, to the Wrath of Tito, the second of this week. That's right, old man Tito has written twice this week... SHOCK!
On Tuesday night, I heard this gigantic THUD. I wondered to myself, "what could this be?". I checked the newswire and saw "multiple longtime ECW fans drop dead after the Sandman jobbed to Mike Knox". Good lord! If you thought that Rob Van Dam getting suspended for smoking dope was a nail in the old ECW coffin, the Sandman's defeat was just as bad. After weeks of building the Sandman up, he's immediately jobbed out to a guy whom the fans aren't even caring about: Mike Knox. That's not to knock Mike Knox as a talent, for his time might come. But if you're going to call this product "ECW", the last thing you want to is to piss away the dedicated audience that helped make the brand.
As I predicted, ECW was going to become a McMahon tool. McMahon was high on Mike Knox, so his push will take precedent over everybody in the fed. He puts her with a very inexperienced Kelly (who does look fantastic), whom Vince likes, and knocks out the guy who IS ECW, the Sandman. Additionally, look what was the main event of this week's Smackdown? The Big Show vs. the Undertaker, with Great Khali interfering. Is THAT ECW? ECW has become more of a tool for Vince McMahon to have an additional hour to hype Pay Per Views instead of pushing Paul Heyman's vision. And tell me, folks, which "newcomer" is getting the most attention to ECW? It's Test! ECW is about pushing WWE guys and not what the product once was.
It's time for the WWE to call ECW by a different name. How about WWE-lite? How about WWE-clusterf*ck? WWECW? It's NOT ECW, even though it's hyped as such. Additionally, the "new breed unleashed" is incorrect. Where is this new breed? Mike Knox? I guess, though the WWE likes him more than the fans. CM Punk? How long will he honestly last before the WWE gets tired of his independent wrestling style? I guarantee that his wrestling style rubs the WWE the wrong way, and once they try to "correct" it, Punk's response will rub the WWE the wrong way.
What a mess if this show is to be called "ECW". However, I will admit that the show is a guilty pleasure... I actually tune in to see how badly they'll screw up the product each week. For a while, the goofy gimmicks attracted me to the product, as I want to see the Zombie wrestling AGAIN. The show is an unorganized trainwreck, outside of the WWE stuff that hypes Pay Per Views.
Even with the show going downhill as an "ECW" product, there is still ONE remaining draw on the show that even the WWE can't take away: Sabu. Sabu is a draw to me, as he's wrestling better than ever, in my opinion. He's older, wiser, and I believe that he knows that this is the last opportunity to make it big on a national scale. He's wrestling the most crisp I've ever seen and that should be commended. He's a unique talent and doesn't rely on the same old trademark moves, like one Rob Van Dam. I hope Kurt Angle comes back soon... I'd kill to see Sabu vs. Angle at this point...
The show got a 2.2 rating this week, and better yet, at a later timeslot... That was quite a big WWE match-up hyped hard on Saturday Night's Main Event and RAW to explain the good number at that later timeslot. Still, it's solid and the WWE/Sci Fi should party. We'll see how well the show does over time, because as I've insisted before, once the show goes below 2.0, the show will officially be in red alert.
Pretty funny, though, how ECW is outdrawing the NWA-TNA show. TNA is on a cable outlet (Spike TV) that's watched by more viewers on a weekly basis than Sci-Fi, given Sci-Fi's availability in the cable market. Yet, the watered down WWE project is still outdrawing TNA. TNA has done NOTHING in the ratings since their move and that backs up what I've said about TNA for a long time: the suck.
And speaking of ratings, there appears to be an internal "panic" about the low Saturday Night's Main Event rating of 2.6... As an economist who follows trends, allow me to assess the reasons WHY Saturday Night's Main Event got a horrible rating:
It was a Saturday.
Better yet, it was a Saturday night.
Even better, it was a Saturday night during the summer time.
GREAT weather in the Northeast, the biggest WWE fanbase. One could suggest that the hotter weather during the day kept people inside by their air conditioners, but at night, people went outside when it was a tad cooler.
4th WWE wrestling show on that week! Between Monday Night RAW, ECW on Sci-Fi, and Smackdown... already FIVE hours of wrestling watched that week, why spend additional time on a Saturday night? Too much time spent on wrestling, not good.
NBC = Poorly promoted network. There's a reason why NBC can't find lightning in a bottle again, ever since the likes of Seinfeld and Friends have left. The show was poorly promoted by NBC/Universal, outside of RAW/ECW/Smackdown's hype.
Rob Van Dam getting busted for drugs.The match was supposed to be Rob Van Dam vs. John Cena vs. Edge with a potential title change. Instead, the WWE gave it away on RAW two weeks in advance. They had 2 weeks to suddenly hype a new main event for the show.
Who still watches Smackdown and who draws for that product? Ratings on UPN are down, meaning interest in seeing additional Smackdown matches was down the NIGHT BEFORE Saturday Night's Main Event. Hard to convince wrestling fans to watch wrestling on back to back nights, let alone on the best "going out" nights of the week. I openly root for some guys on the roster, but the show, as a whole, isn't appealing to viewers. Who wants to see a Great Khali vs. Undertaker feud?
It's no longer the 1980's. The draw of having a special on network television is gone. Remember how wonderful the old SNME were? They were pivotal in setting up Wrestlemanias...
There you go... SNME won't draw here in 2006, especially with 5 hours of wrestling to endure.
~Apple Dumplings~
-I don't know how tired I'm getting of the Mixed Martial Arts crowd harassing me. I DON'T LIKE THE UFC PRODUCT, nor will I ever. I'm a professional wrestling fan... Believe me, I've tried UFC multiple times... I watched during the 1990's when Shamrock, Grace, and Severn were fighting... it was good stuff but got immediately old. I've tried Ultimate Fighter and recent UFC matches, as well as some Pride events. If I had a stabbing device at the times I watched these, I'd jam them into my eye socket. Just repetitive... if you've seen one UFC fight, you've seen them all, in MY opinion.
UFC should NOT be compared to the WWE and I'm growing tired of the arrogance that the MMA crowd keeps feeding me. If anything, UFC fans should brag about destroying interest in professional boxing. Boxing was once the cat's meow in terms of legit fighting violence, but now UFC has replaced that and is basically promoted with money that boxing once got. The WWE, however, hasn't declined in business lately, but has actually increased since 2004. If UFC takes away WWE business, then fine. However, it hasn't and the WWE's numbers are good this year. In fact, if there was ever an indicator of who affects who, just look at the Ultimate Fighter's ratings as the WWE moved to UFC: they dropped!
In fact, to play the role of Kurt Angle making a challenge to the other side, I challenge writers from big MMA webpages for a debate that I'll gladly post in this very column, unedited. What I would plan to do is to trade emails, back and forth, with one paragraph responses to what the other person said. Simple format and we'll see if MMA guys show me why I should care about UFC and why it's superior than the WWE. I'll even plug the website that you write at! It could be a win-win situation... wrathoftito@yahoo.com.
-Some noise has been made about Gunner Scott getting demoted to Ohio Valley Wrestling. I guess he rubbed fellow wrestlers down there the wrong way, and let's just say that they are laughing to the bank that he got demoted. I don't know... I've seen Scott wrestle a handful of times, and even in person... To say that he's the "apprentice" of Chris Benoit is overestimating Scott and how he was pushed. However, I've seen worse, especially from Ohio Valley Wrestling. There's a lot of jealousy in pro wrestling, however, so I wonder how much his fellow wrestlers really hate him. Best of luck to him...
-Mark Henry... out 8 months. Boy did he screw up his knee, as he ripped his patella tendon and broke his knee cap with a compound fracture. Ouch. That's a bad injury and an uncommon one unless someone forces the injury on you or from laziness. I vote for the latter, given that while Henry has a lot of muscle, he's a lot heavier than when the WWE signed him 10 years ago. I still want to know... how can you NOT learn how to wrestle within a 10 year time period?
-I am AGAINST breaking up the Spirit Squad... at least for now. Granted, I cannot deny that these guys will be future superstars. I think Mitch and Kenny could be great someday, while the rest have a little more to go. But the Squad is a perfect way to continue seasoning the wrestlers. It was like Team Angle for Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin, as they were wildly over in 2002-2003 and well respected as singles wreslters during that period of time because of their well groomed team. Keeping them as McMahon thugs is entertaining...
THEN AGAIN, the WWE could break off a few wrestlers and just bring up more wrestlers into the Squad. After all, isn't there a large amount of male cheerleaders who want to wrestle? No?
-With a vacation coming up, I'll find more time to finally put my Wrestlemania tapes, books, and whatnot on Ebay for reasonable prices. Be on the lookout...
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