WWE Unforgiven
September 21, 2003
Live from the American West Arena in Pheonix, AZ
About one week ago, the RAW brand presented their sophomore PPV as a single brand PPV-producing entity. The first two months of the doomed concept gave us surprises in the more focused build and Mick Foley-saved Bad Blood, the first RAW offering, which drew almost 325,000 buys according to WWE-furnished PPV numbers. The next month, Vengeance, drawing just under 287,500 buys, according to the same source, was an extreme disappointment, the result of poor buildup and sacrifice of a strong PPV card to a Zach Gowen-Vince McMahon feud that dominated television, drew very good ratings, but due to fundamentals of promotion, did not equal money or long-term credibility.
This month, the booking of the Raw brand of World Wrestling Entertainment, reaching levels of thinly-veiled political maneuvers, desperation, and, of course, the inescapable glass-ceiling, like few times in history, led to an average PPV that many decided to skip. My official buyrate prediction is 245,000 buys but that is tenuous for a number of reasons.
Shawn Michaels carried Randy Orton to his best match of anything I’ve seen. Long term that will mean much more that it seems, based on plans as they are. Orton is in line for a push so this wasn’t much less than obligatory. Whether you agree with the Orton push is a different thing entirely. Most people I talk to are underwhelmed by him, and a few genuinely abhor his push. WWE is behind him because he’s third-generation in a family with a Maivia-type relationship with the company. He has the favor of the talent recruiters and the writers, a good physique, and stature, which in WWE always helps. His delivery is also good. The main argument against him is probably that with WWE’s glass ceiling, few people are getting meaningful pushes, partly because of preferential booking. The two people that are getting pushes are John Cena, who has a tremendous amount of charisma and average wrestling skills, and Orton, who’s good but with so many options, he’s nowhere near the top of that list. That’s especially true considering that this is the same company who has squandered opportunities with just about everyone from Bill Goldberg to Chris Benoit to even Tazz.
Goldberg going over Triple H in 15 minutes was to be expected. It was actually surprising to see Triple H do the job, it’s one of those things you have to see to believe. What’s not surprising is this is the same game that’s been played all along. If WWE wanted to do what was best for business with Goldberg, they would’ve done it months ago, but as you can see, that didn’t coincide with Triple H’s schedule. Now it does.
The other main bets by WWE for the card were the commentators feud, reputedly stale and uninteresting, and it was that and more, and the gimmick of Shane McMahon vs. Kane, with which I disagree profusely with Eddie. First things first. Al Snow and Jonathan Coachman over Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. This is so stupid and it’s purely reflective of Vince McMahon not knowing what to do with his announcers. He wants Coach because he young but there’s one problem, Jim Ross is really good and Coach sucks because he doesn’t know how to call wrestling. Vince personally considers JR old and ugly. That’s insulting but it’s also a non-issue. The idea is to sell matches with emotion. Coach can’t sell matches and he his emotion is forced. Lawler is passé but with Jim Ross he’s passable. Al Snow on Heat was OK but the times on RAW, especially on last Monday’s show, he was worse than Lawler. As for the match, it was bad and made worse by the fact there was no announcing, but that’s to be expected. So the dilemma they’ve allowed themselves to get stuck in, is sacrificing the product because the announcers can’t sell the matches and play their characters at the same time and awkward combinations just don’t work. This Monday they changed the announcers back so it was just a waste of time.
The Shane McMahon/Kane deal has defied logic since the beginning and it’s made for horrible TV, and I’m sure, negatively affected this buyrate as well as fan’s trust in this company which has to be all but completely obliterated. But at least Shane took a big bump right? Ugh.
Raw still doesn’t have a clue. Every good show is what they call a coincidence. That’s about all can be said about this show. SmackDown presents No Mercy next month.
{5/10 (5/10 for work; 5 for entertainment; 4 for booking)}
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