Source: Gavleston Daily News
By Scott E. Williams
I have wondered why World Wrestling Entertainment often seemed barely to build and promote matches for pay-per-views. I often knew the main events weeks in advance, but undercard matchups were mysteries, sometimes until the week of the show.
A trio of changes suggests that maybe WWE knew something I didn’t, all this time.
During the July 15 “Saturday Night’s Main Event” special on NBC, Mark Henry suffered a knee injury and will miss tonight’s scheduled match against Batista. His replacement will be Mr. Ken Kennedy, a good talker and a young wrestler with a lot of upside, but Batista’s issue with Henry had been building for months.
This past week, two other featured performers were both sidelined with liver problems. Bobby Lashley will miss his chance to regain the U.S. championship, which will now be decided between two British Isles grapplers — William Regal and David “Fit” Finlay. The match was originally scheduled as a three-way.
Lashley’s another guy with a lot of potential, if the liver problems don’t sideline him, but in truth, this match likely improved with his departure. Unless they’re cut short on time, Finlay and Regal are more than capable of putting on a wrestling clinic, the kind of match that makes even grizzled fans go, “Wow, so that’s what this stuff is supposed to look like.”
The Great Khali is also out with liver problems. Taking his place in the “Punjabi prison match” will be ECW champion The Big Show. This substitution is not coming out of left field, as was the case with Kennedy. Big Show and Undertaker did battle on Tuesday’s ECW program, but the match ended inconclusively when Khali interfered.
Show will not be the only ECW performer on tonight’s show. Apparently mindful of the damage the last-minute changes have done to the show, WWE is bringing in some of its ECW roster (WWE’s version of ECW airs Tuesdays on the Sci-Fi Network) to round out tonight’s show.
ECW itself has been something of a mixed blessing. While anyone who saw the original ECW knows that this is nothing but a third WWE brand with different initials, WWE’s ECW has pulled surprisingly good television ratings, except for a predictably miserable showing on July 4.
However, the non-televised live events are another matter. WWE has lost money consistently on these “ECW” shows, and has pulled the plug on this weekend’s events. If you’re holding a ticket for a future ECW show that’s not a TV taping, be aware that all you might get with your ticket is a refund.
And as bad as Henry’s knee injury was, the “Main Event” rating was even worse. In March, they held the first of these new specials, and I wrote that WWE would have been happy with the 6.7 rating that got the WWF (as it was then known) kicked off of NBC in 1991.
Now, I have to conclude that the company would have been happy with the 3.2 rating the first special garnered. The July 15 show posted a pathetic 2.65 rating, putting it dead last among shows on the four major networks airing then, behind even reruns.
