RAW vs. SMACKDOWN! Compare them if you will, after all they are both shows that showcase amazing athletes and mega-babes, but I think that the similarities end there. One show is broadcast live, the other is taped live, and benefits from a top notch production and editing crew. So comparing the two is like apples and oranges at best.
When the news first hit about the brand split and who has going to what show, I was One Furious Fan. At the time I was living in a very rural area, and the only t.v. I had access to was my DIRECTV dish, which to my knowledge still does not broadcast U.P.N. So the split meant that I was unable to watch some of my favs like Angle, and Benoit, and the split up of some of the best tag teams that the business has ever seen. I mean what in the cornbread hell was WWE thinking?
Now it’s no secret that a large portion of WWE audience is rural America. And maybe in the long run the company will end up blingin’ major ducketts over the split, but by denying the fans access to all the stars currently on the company payroll, particularly in places where you can’t get U.P.N. or you live in an area where you don’t have enough people in a square mile radius to get cable, it seems to me that WWE is shutting the door on thousands of fans that only have access to one or the other of their shows.
The split for weekly T.V. time is however starting to grow on me. Two different shows, two different products, I get the idea. It helps the wrestlers not have to work such a long week, and now that I am living in a metropolitan area, I can actually watch both shows and feel like that I am not being over exposed to the same wrestlers over and over.
But the problem for me is although the brand extension works for weekly T.V., I feel that as far as the PPV schedule goes it is a big mistake to split the rosters for these events. The bottom line is that regardless of how they market and push the split, we all know that it’s all WWE. And after the split I found myself buying more PPV’s than I usually did, because I wanted to see the wrestlers that I never got the chance to see interact with those that I got to watch on a weekly basis.
Bad Blood looks like it might actually be a pretty good show. The card is solid from top to bottom, and there is the potential for some legendary matches to take place. And I am sure the same can be said for the first ever SMACKDOWN PPV when it does air. But the thing is, is that I see these shows, I see these rosters, on a weekly basis. What I don’t get to see is the stars from these two shows interacting on a monthly basis, which in my opinion is worth paying for.
I am far better at crunching ice-cream cones than I am at crunching numbers, but it seems to this fan that WWE would have a higher buy rate for must-see shows that pit show champion vs. show champion for the ULTIMATE championship, and PPV’s that have once a month feuds that only get to be played out on must-see PPV’s. I mean that’s what I would pay to see!
Yes more wrestlers are getting opportunities to wrestle because of the split, and I think the split is a good idea for free t.v. But when WWE comes calling for my PPV dollars they need to put their best on display for me to watch, because this workin’ fella doesn’t spend his, “Money for Nothing, and your chicks for free.”
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