Wow, that was a disaster.
As bad an idea as I thought the whole $1 million giveaway was, I went into tonight's show with an open mind, thinking that, while this certainly could not be the answer to WWE's slipping ratings, maybe it could be an entertaining diversion.
But this wasn't harmless entertainment. It was a clumsy, awkward, boring, time consuming, colossal flop that was poorly conceived and even more poorly executed.
So, no, I didn't like it.
I didn't sit down with a stop watch, but I imagine all those terrible skits must have eaten up at least a half hour of the show. You can't tell me that those 30 minutes couldn't have been spent better trying to get over WWE's actual product. After weeks of build up, the Mr. Kennedy - Paul Burchill "feud" culminated in a 3 minute match. Eliminate just one of McMahon's awful segments, and that match could have meant so much more.
And ending Raw with another boring giveaway in the over run was just idiotic. The reality is that even if as many as 20 percent of Raw' viewers registered for the giveaway (and I'm sure it wasn't that much), then there was no reason for 80 percent of its viewers to watch the final segment.
WWE's defenders said the giveaway would just be a tool to lure in fans and then wallop them with sports entertainment as only WWE could deliver. But this Raw was no different than most I've seen in the last several months - but for McMahon's phone dialing troubles.
Unfortunately, McMahon would sooner sacrifice quality programming than admit he was wrong (See Mike Adamle) so I fear that we are in for this garbage for several more weeks.
Comments (31)
The WWE made a concentrated effort to make tonight's show as classy, old school, and upbeat as a show about violence can be.
The fun skits with Vince and the various Superstars during the actual giveaway.
The "Did you know" factoids after the breaks.
Triple H being the stoic company representative champion, when he came down for commentary. Not to mention the over-the-top ass kissing of Cena AND JBL.
Same thing with Cena when he was on commentary. He was worse than Triple H by a long shot. JR had to cut him off and refocus everything back on the match at hand, which happened to be the MAIN EVENT!!! Cena was rambling that much.
JR was not innocent of such acts either. He too, hyped almost every Superstar's accolades, as if the audience might not know the importance of each match or segment or athlete.
The "Make A Wish" video package
All of this was done with the hope that the "Million Dollar Mania" would draw fans that are not familiar with the company, either anymore or at all. They wanted to present the company in a very good light tonight, knowing that more people than usual would be tuned in. A very good try by the WWE, just maybe a little (or very) obvious. Come on, why do you think Michaels didn't bleed after the being smashed through the tv?
The WWE made a concentrated effort to make tonight's show as classy, old school, and upbeat as a show about violence can be.
The fun skits with Vince and the various Superstars during the actual giveaway.
The "Did you know" factoids after the breaks.
Triple H being the stoic company representative champion, when he came down for commentary. Not to mention the over-the-top ass kissing of Cena AND JBL.
Same thing with Cena when he was on commentary. He was worse than Triple H by a long shot. JR had to cut him off and refocus everything back on the match at hand, which happened to be the MAIN EVENT!!! Cena was rambling that much.
JR was not innocent of such acts either. He too, hyped almost every Superstar's accolades, as if the audience might not know the importance of each match or segment or athlete.
The "Make A Wish" video package
All of this was done with the hope that the "Million Dollar Mania" would draw fans that are not familiar with the company, either anymore or at all. They wanted to present the company in a very good light tonight, knowing that more people than usual would be tuned in. A very good try by the WWE, just maybe a little (or very) obvious. Come on, why do you think Michaels didn't bleed after the being smashed through the tv?
I CAME HOME FROM A NIGHT CLASS AND SAW VINCE GIVE AWAY THE 2 DOLLARS AND THEN GIVE AWAY 200K....AND I GOT BORED AND LEFT.
I WAS UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT IT WAS GOING TO BE A 4-5 WEEK CONTEST. I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS GOING TO BE ALL TONIGHT. THAT'S IDIOTIC.
AND HOW WOULD IT HAVE WORKED FOR SOMEONE ON THE WEST COAST?
I concur with all-caps guy's last sentence.
However, the way that segment concluded, I doubt the Kennedy-Burchill feud has been blown off just yet.
I concur with all-caps guy's last sentence.
However, the way that segment concluded, I doubt the Kennedy-Burchill feud has been blown off just yet.
Delete my last post and this one. Stupid screwy internet connection and slow connection in general and ipsfo h,oagdo;hxtlitjhiszfdr
I'm sure if you had registered and won a bunch of money you wouldn't be complaining
Yeah, it pretty much did feel slow. Raw hasn't been great for me since Regal left. There's no bigger picture anymore. We get these groups of weeks every so often, where everything is maintained, everyone is kept in their spot until the next big story can happen. It happened after Benoit died. It happened for a couple of weeks after Flair left, where it seemed like nothing much was going on.
I don't think the answer is just needlessly hotshotting anything though. Keeping everyone in their spot is important, and you can't start one big story after another week after week.
It wasn't the greatest Raw. Jericho turning and Hardy getting the upper hand were plus points, as was Vince getting rickrolled...and I love Vince. They are actually using the giveaway segments with wrestlers which is also a plus point. Charlia Haas wouldn't have got screen time otherwise, and people actually cared enough to boo him. The Kennedy feud isn't over also.
There's no really big heel anymore. Regal was doing things that were so outlandishly evil and different that it made the show exciting. With Orton gone, it's all about 'I respect you, but I want the title' and while that's decent, it isn't terribly exciting, and it's pretty standard stuff storyline wise. I'd like to see Jericho move further up the card, at least while Orton's gone.
That's just what would make it more entertaining for me though. Starting and ending with two big giveaways was somewhat logical, because people are going to wait to see if they've won the big prize. There was a cool turn also.
It wasn't terrible, it's just everything is being maintained for something big to start again, and you can't start something big without everyone being established in their roles to allow them to do it. There's still a few more weeks of this giveaway to go, so they can still do something big to keep the viewers after it stops.
WWE really tried last night to put on a show that would appeal to a broad audience, not just wrestling fans. I think they did a good job with what Raw has, Roster-wise.
JBL is not a top caliber heel, not in his current state. His mic skills make him great on the midcard, but the way he's constantly buried in matches mean he can't be considered a serious threat. And he's being booked as the top heel on the top show in WWE right now.
That just doesn't make sense.
You can't put on a good wrestling show without heels. Jericho's turn was the best thing of the night. Why? Because non-wrestling fans who were still tuned in (I guess the ratings will tell us how many new fans stayed tuned in) knew exactly who to cheer and who to boo.
I agree that the million dollar skits all seemed awkward. I've never seen Vince flub up so many times. However, Vince getting RickRoll'd AND not knowing what a callback tone was made it ALMOST all worthwhile. The Lillian Garcia thing was ridiculous (I've never been a fan of her anyway) and the Idol competition was awful. Jillian Hall offers NOTHING to WWE and Trevor Murdoch's good, funny gimmick was effectively killed.
Kennedy/Burchill is far from over, I look forward to a better match between the two later when their feud won't be eclipsed by a $200,000 giveaway.
Take out the give-a-way segments and RAW was excellent last night.
I would be interested to see what Vinnie does next week to "fix" the give-a-way segment.
I think if they had JBL win a few matches there'd be no problems buying him as a credible heel. The only reasons he is 'booked as the top heel' is because with Orton and Regal gone in rapid succession, he's the only one there. Hopefully Jericho will change that.
I really liked the HBK-Y2J angle last night. I think Jericho's best option right now is to become that smarmy and now evil heel. He is better on the mic then Orton and better in the ring then JBL. Jericho should get a title run for a few months and see where he can go with it. Jericho-HHH and Jericho-Cena have happened before, but neither of these feuds have been overkilled like Orton/HHH and Cena/HHH.
The Million $ Mania contest started out strong for me...and then it went on...and on...and on...and zzzzz...oh wow who saw Mae Young coming out...yeah everybody. I also think that while Haas did get air time, did it even help his character in anyway? No, it made him look lame. Why not have him so pissed off about that kiss that he gets into a ring and takes it out on someone. Nah not enough time, we have to give another segment to grandpa.
Too much time wasted on giving away cash to underwhelmed individuals. The only good one was the guy who was bleeped for saying holy sh!t.
I did not like Kennedy-Burchill being given away so quickly. There feud was getting enjoyable and I actually was looking forward to maybe a big ppv match (GAB or SummerSlam). But a 3 minute squash of Burchill and they blow up an angle. I understand its going to continue since they had an attack after the match, but even wweisright has to admit (ok maybe not) that they should have waited on this match.
It was mediocre Raw that is truly missing Regal.
I couldn't believe that they weren't better prepared for things like ringbacks and busy signals. I also can't believe that McMahon, who seems to be very aware of ratings and viewing habits, would put what amounts to "dead air" on during his show.
I imagine USA wasn't that thrilled with it, either.
To watch last night's episode of RAW as someone who had only watched WWE sparingly since 2002 and not at all in the past 12 months, then the evening would have justified the reasons (s)he had to stop watching in the first place.
Sooooo, maybe this whole idea was NOT a ratings ploy at all, but rather, just the eccentric actions of Mr. McMahon. His spending $1-million on each episode of RAW is not as big of a waste of money as the fans' buying front row tickets to these shows!
That once-in-a-lifetime front-row seat on WWE-TV did not even get them an hour on-air time.
I really enjoyed RAW last night.
Nice squash by HHH in the main event. Bury Jeff throughout the match and then lose on a fluky countout.
"Nice squash by HHH in the main event. Bury Jeff throughout the match and then lose on a fluky countout."
.......and then Jeff took both HHH and Cena out at the same time with a dive. The segment then ended with the ref raising Jeff's hand while HHH and Cena were still laying on the floor.
This show was AWESOME!
Best moment of the night: Vince McMahon getting Rick Rolled.
I watch Raw every week and I probably will til I die because I watched it as a kid and got hooked. Anyway, Raw, for me and only me, was horrible. The Highlight Reel was real good but the rest was horrible. For a long time fan, I have seen all this before. If I could look at this with WWE virgin eyes, I think I would think it's ok but still, real generic. The attitude era had original stuff going on, and now, it just seem generic. The giveaway was unwatchable for me, I left the room. I don't really care why they are doing this but it was just boring and kind of uncomfortable. I didn't like what it does to Mr. McMahon's character because it makes him goofy and seem old.
Dave Meltzer reports that last night's rating came back at a 3.0.
To WWE loyalists telling us we should all give the Million Dollar Mania idea a chance: Can we call it a flop yet?
May 26 Raw: 2.9
June 2 Raw: 3.1
June 9 Raw: 3.0
ouch
Yeah, pretty much call it a flop and move on. I didn't enjoy the show. The rickrolling, the Mae Young segment, the Jericho turn and the Jeff Hardy dive at the end entertained me the most, and Santino was his usual funny self, but the show just didn't have the right flow. Since KOTR, I could honestly say I felt after every one I'd be entertained by most if not all of the stuff on the show. Not so much last night. I think the lack of a big heel is hurting them.
Still, it was never guarenteed to work, and in theory the idea to create mainstream attention was a good one. However if by the end of this giveaway, if ratings haven't increased, it has to be called a failure.
They'll move on and try something else though. It's not as if they put on a bad product on purpose, it just didn't work, not everything does. Hell, some people are even saying they enjoyed last night's show.
My point has always been that you should have given it a chance, not that it would be a guarenteed success. It does look like failing though and I don't have a problem admitting that.
Wow I do not know who hacked wweisright's account and posted that but I agree. It was a failure...but if you think it is over then you obviously do not know Vince McMahon. This will continue for weeks and hopefully they can retool this horrid idea they had last night and make next week a little more watchable. Some good ideas (and yes here I go again giving my 2 cents) would be to inject these cash awards in matches. Not all of them, but maybe in lower mid card matches and it may a) help out guys with no programs and b) help increase interest in who wins $.
Say for example you have Vince McMahon call two people...he has them on the line...and says ok since caller A was called first you pick who you think will win between Charlie Haas and Val Venis. Caller A picks Haas...so Caller B gets Val. Now we have a match that even though normally would mean nothing to the fans can mean something now since $ is on the line. Haas wins...Caller A gets $200,000 and Caller B gets $2. I know that is not the most original idea, but at least wrestling is going on instead of Vince yapping away about nothing.
Who actually takes the time to complain about the possibility of winning money for a watching a show almost everyone here was going to watch anyway?
Raw has been horrible for YEARS now. The only difference between last night and every other night since the Attitude era is that a horrible match or backstage skit was replaced with the possibility of being compensated for wasting two hours of your life. Why would anyone think the giveaway would play out into a great angle? Why would anyone think it would be "entertaining"? It played out exactly like I thought: Vince calls someone, winner. Done. The extra crap like Haas kissing Mae Young lasted two minutes.
The only thing watchable last night was the Y2J-HBK angle. Seeing Chris take Shawn's big fat head and level it into the TV screen was SWEET. If Bret Hart had done it himself it would have been the best TV I had ever seen
I think that if you're not entertained by Mike Adamle, you're missing the point. Yes, his initial outings were bad, but he has drastically improved. In fact, he was the standout highlight in his appearance on The Dirt Sheet, and was equally hilarious at One Night Stand. He has morphed into a competent announcer and his foibles are now intentional.
There are many things wrong with the WWE product, but Mike Adamle is not one of them. In fact, ECW might be the most consistently enjoyable show of WWE's lineup right now. If you're not watching it, I strongly suggest you start.
The phone segments completely killed any emotion carried over from several of the matches. Here's a thought, why not build the money giveaway like any other angle. Have a few winners selected each Raw by different Superstars, award them a small cash prize, then have those winners entered into a bigger draw at Night of Champions where THAT person wins a million dollars.
I'd compliment the action of the actual matches but frankly, who can remember them through all the lame dial tones?
I also wonder how some of the talent feels watching so much cash fly out of the building, and wondering who is the next wrestler to be released for cost-cutting.
The June 2 RAW (which did a 3.1) was #2 (10-11:05 p.m. ET) and #6 (9-10 p.m. ET) in the top 10 most watched cable shows for the week of June 2 - June 8. This is typical for RAW even with lower ratings as the May 19 RAW (3.2) tooks spots 7 and 8 for May 19 -May 25. NBA playoff games took numbers 1-6.
Shouldn't people be saying "bad ratings by WWE's standards" rather than just "bad ratings"?
They should be saying bad ratings by WWE's standards, that's exactly right. Still, considering their promotional scheme didn't even manage an increase, it so far has to be considered bad full stop.
To be fair, they should be given until the week after the giveaway stops. Then you'll know how much good this scheme really did. If they are worse off than they did before, it will have been an epic fail. If they maintain, it wouldn't have been neither here nor there. Now there are some actual winners, it could make more people tune in because they know it's real, and average people like them could be the winners.
Unquestionably it killed the flow of the night though. Going back to one character in between matches isn't bad at all, if it builds up to a pay off in the main event. Having dead air did kill the flow though. They even used the segments with some of the wrestlers, but the segments themselves didn't progress a storyline with said wrestlers, they just maintained characters. Maintaining characters is important, but if they go too long with using these segments in place of actually progressing storylines then it really would harm them I'd say.
I do feel sorry for them with the lower rating. When someone like me who will defend them 99% of the time didn't enjoy the show, you know something was up.
I smell a 2008 Gooker Award contender.
Last night was a bad show. Only really highlights were Vince being Rickrolled, Jericho beating on HBK (great booking there) and Hardy winning the main event, albeit via count out (its amazing that they'd put him back so soon in main-event level matches...Orton must *really* be hurt).
I didn't even get a Santino promo. Don't they know by now that his greatest asset is on the mic and not in the ring?
If you blinked you probably missed Ron Simmons cashing his check.
pls tellme is cena was killed by jbl or not
pls tellme is cena was killed by jbl or not