A FEW NUGGETS OF TRUTH
I was shocked by how few Internet “experts” saw through Vince McMahon’s “feud” with Denver Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke.
Vince wasn’t mad that he was forced to move Raw from Denver to Los Angeles. He was THRILLED.
It gave him a chance for his name to be equated with that of Kroenke, a businessman of much greater wealth and repute. It got WWE lots of mainstream publicity and enabled McMahon to further his unholy alliance with ESPN, which – mark my words – will culminate in ESPN televising a major WWE TV show, probably Smackdown.
It gave McMahon a concept for RAW, albeit a crappy one but, hey – aren’t they all crappy lately?
Vince, like most who are chemically imbalanced, doesn’t think stuff like this all the way through. To wit:
*By making the Nuggets heels, he risked alienating Nuggets fans. WWE is losing customers and leaking revenue. Insulting a successful basketball team’s fan base just isn’t good business.
*By hastily switching to a big arena in a big city, McMahon exposed his product’s current lack of popularity by drawing two lousy gates. Using a small building in a wrestling-starved city would have been better for the bottom line and for appearance’s sake.
*By making his main event “Lakers vs. Nuggets” at the exact same time the actual Lakers vs. Nuggets playoff game was airing on another station, McMahon might as well have been urging viewers to switch channels. It was a plug for the competition. By way of proof, Raw’s rating dipped to 3.2 (from 3.6 the week before).
*The opening skit (fake Kroenke, fake Jack Nicholson, fake NBA commish David Stern, etc.) was silly and unwatchable, did nothing to further the product and was a real channel-changer. By way of proof, Raw’s rating dipped to 3.2 (from 3.6 the week before).
That’s McMahon at this point in his life/career. Getting even and/or elevating his mainstream profile is much more important than what’s right for business. It’s one reason WWE sucks right now. Kroenke has businesses bigger than McMahon could ever dream of. Why? Because Kroenke doesn’t sabotage his own product on a whim.
By the way, here’s a little fact that’s gone largely ignored by the “journalists” who pretend to “cover” wrestling but too often fawn over it by way of self-preservation: Kroenke was within his rights to pull Raw if the NBA playoff schedule dictated. It was right there in the contract that McMahon or one of his representatives signed.
Did you actually believe that real basketball should make way for fake rasslin’? Get a grip.
TNA HIRES THE WRONG T ‘n’ A
TNA hired Lisa Marie Varon. She was known as Victoria in WWE. She will be called Tara in TNA.
Why?
Why on earth would TNA hire Varon after letting Gail Kim go? Gail Kim was a legitimate attraction in TNA, one of the few. Why would they make a ridiculously low offer to Kim, thereby chasing her to WWE, then bring in Varon, paying her (I’m sure) much more?
Is it because Varon was a star in WWE, and TNA still believes that recycling WWE stars is the route to success? Makes sense, until you consider that Varon wasn’t really a very big star in WWE. During her first WWE run, Kim enjoyed roughly the same level of success as Varon, maybe slightly less.
So why did TNA hire Varon?
I don’t know. I bet they don’t, either.
