Thursday, May 17, 2012

#SummerOfWrestling


WWE RAW goes three hours and TNA Impact Wrestling will be LIVE throughout the summer… and people say that pro wrestling isn’t a draw anymore. 

Moments after Dixie Carter made the announcement that Impact would be live every week this summer, the WWE Corporate offices had all WWE talent tweet out that RAW would be going three hours permanently. Now everybody asks… Is this good for business??

First let’s start with TNA Impact.  I think this will be a huge step for them.  To go live keeps everything fresh and the talent will elevate their game. They will not be the opportunity to re-tape a blown match or segment. This is the real deal. 

Guys like Hogan, Flair, Sting, The Dudleys, Anderson, Hardy, and RVD will need to show the younger talent how to do business and what it takes to have a successful LIVE show. This is where they earn those paychecks.  They understand the “Going LIVE” process. They know how to get the stuff in and how it should look.  Talent like Aries, Robbie E, Bobby Roode, Crimson, and the others that have not had the opportunity to go LIVE every week will all be forced to raise their game. My only concern with TNA going LIVE is the studio audience. If the group of people is predominately non wrestling fan tourists, that have no investment into the show could be a nightmare for the production crew.  This is a bold and expensive move by TNA but I am confident that with the people they have in place to run the show now, that they will do well and be successful.  I wish TNA Impact the best of luck and I believe the have the horses for this race.

Monday Night RAW is now going to be THREE hours…. Hmmm. Not too sure how I feel about this. I personally think three hours is too much, imagine a PPV week. That is over 10 hours of WWE programming.  

I am hoping the WWE uses the extra hour to build new stars, to re-boot the tag team division, and to give the audience more than just three minute matches. I do not want to see multiple segments of Johnny Ace, CM Punk, Brock Lesnar, and John Cena.  Use this time to further Dolph Ziggler, Wade Barrett, and the other hungry young lions. Strengthen the Divas division, build tag teams, and even bring back a Piper’s Pit type segment. 

I am amazed by the amount of product that the WWE produces each week.  RAW, Smackdown, NXT, the various YouTube shows, WWE movies, and weekend magazine style shows. What a machine.  The WWE truly is an entertainment company and nobody does it better.

At the end of the day the wrestling fans win and both companies hope to have strong ratings.  But my question is….. Do people really want to stay inside during the summer months to watch TV???  The wrestling Gods seem to think so. I guess we will all find out sooner than later. Don’t forget to tune into PWR PrimeTime every week for more info and analysis regarding the #SummerOfWrestling. God Bless the DVR.

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1 comment:

  1. Very valid points. I was talking about this when I found out the news and was curious who revealed what first. TNA has a better shot at being successful each week than WWE Raw. Let's talk WWE for a moment. They are asking fans, even diehard to sit through 10 hours of WWE programming. that's a lot, even for the die hard fan! Personally I would have more faith in WWE if the writing was consistent with excellence. This will only work if WWE regroups and bring in extra writers lead by Triple H if he's ready or Stephanie. Let those writers be Team Raw and work on writing Raw for the whole week while finalizing it over the weekend. Smackdown can be Vince with his set of writers. Let Dusty Rhodes & Michael Hayes get WWE NXT and Superstars. Stick to the script and yeah WWE Raw has a great shot! Too many times we hear Raw being re-written 5-6 times the day of and that's silly.

    TNA...exactly what you said! Great piece my friend, great piece!

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