When you look back through the great RAWs in recent history, there is no doubt that this past Monday’s RAW is near the top of the list. What a great show! From Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff in Vince McMahon’s ring to Shelton Benjamin being the best pure athlete in wrestling today to the completely awesome main event – Monday’s RAW was packed!
But I couldn’t tell you how it ended.
I feel that my viewing habits as a twenty-four year old wrestling fan are emblematic of others my age. I turned RAW on a few minutes late because I got home late from work (long meeting that was eventually cancelled – sucked). I watched the entire show and really thought that they did a good job up until his music hit at the end of the show.
Let’s be very clear here, folks. Last week there was no Jean Paul Levesque on RAW and they broke their ratings slump. Ok, let’s say that last week was a fluke and they picked up some random viewers – that accounts for about a half a point. They still broke their slump by hundreds of thousands of viewers.
I was one of those hundreds of thousands of viewers who helped bring RAW to a 4.3 overall rating on the non-Jean Paul Levesque edition of RAW. I watched RAW because after reading the online reports of the previous RAW, it seemed as though Jean Paul Levesque was not going to be there. The reports and my intuitions were correct!
I got a Jean Paul Levesque-free RAW. Simply fantastic. By far one of the better RAWs that I’ve seen in a while, though I haven’t really been a big RAW watcher since that glory hog-legend in his own mind took control of the World Title a few years back. I guess that I stopped watching because I knew that while this asshole was a good wrestler, he certainly wasn’t as great as the men who came before him – I mean he can’t hold a candle to Shawn Michaels’ ass…and I never really liked Michaels until he returned from his back injury.
But all of this blabbering aside, I do feel as though my viewing habits are in sync with the habits of others in my age group. I’m a busy guy just as you probably are. I read internet wrestling websites like my beloved TBL when I am at work and a I have a few minutes to kill in between meetings (which is extremely rare). If I’m really looking for some information on an event or a wrestler, I might do a search on Google later on that night. That’s as far as I go when it comes to the online stuff.
I don’t watch Smackdown because it’s on at a time that doesn’t allow me to watch it; I have the ability to watch RAW because it’s broadcast during a time where I have some free time. I have chosen, however, to not watch RAW and instead watch FOX News, CNN, HBO, or even the Cartoon Network because I refuse to watch sports entertainment – my favorite form of entertainment since I was a little kid – be shit on by Jean Paul Levesque. I don’t give a fuck that he bangs the Boss’ daughter and I could give two shits that he has WWE’s executives fooled into thinking that he “is” the wrestling industry.
The fact is that Jean Paul Levesque has pissed on this industry. He has pissed on a legacy that was once one of the most respected in all of wrestling history – the legacy of the World Title. From the NWA Championship to the WCW Championship to the World Championship, that title has been the trophy of wrestlers who are the icons of professional wrestling. These are men that didn’t politick their way into that strap of leather. These are men who, for the vast majority of that title’s history, had to be approved to become the next champion by a Board of Directors that each had a different set of championship values in mind and, more importantly, who each had to believe that the new champion could bring in asses to seats (money).
In the days of one corporate wrestling conglomerate, Jean Paul Levesque is able to piss on that history. He has been able to piss on the two things that made a champion in these men’s eyes. He is not a long-term championship caliber wrestler. Yeah, he is definitely able to wear the World Title, but by no means should he have the amount of title reigns that he’s had and by no means should he be given another run with the title. He’s proven this by failing to meet the second criteria for a good champion – he doesn’t put asses in seats. Jean Paul Levesque brings in no money – none. Jean Paul Levesque costs WWE money whenever he wears the belt…just ask any internet wrestling webmaster how the hits are on their website when Jean Paul Levesque is champion.
With this guy as champ, PPV buy rates have gone down, house show attendance has plummeted, and ratings are in the crapper. And don’t give me this “the wrestling business is cyclical” bullshit. Wrestling was riding its biggest wave ever (bigger than the 80’s) in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. WWE allowed The Rock to become a cross-over star, WWE allowed Stone Cold to get out of control, and WWE allowed Jean Paul Levesque to dominate the title scene. But at what expense?
Well, The Rock and Austin aside, the cost of having Jean Paul Levesque dominate the main event scene on RAW yields the same expense that it always has…
Once I see or hear Jean Paul Levesque’s music this Monday night, RAW gets turned off. Again.
Sure, I might flip back to see Viscera and I might flip over if I see Hurricane on, but why should I continue to watch a show that has the same guy in the main event picture that I – and literally millions of other wrestling fans – haven’t been watching for the past four years?
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