Old school Raw is an interesting idea. The idea in general isn't bad, just the timing of it. One of the four biggest PPV’s of the year is looming. The card is severely lacking right now. There are only three matches officially set. While there are many potential matches to be created still (those can all be seen in my previous post), none of them are official. This Raw needs to really push Survivor Series to help gets buys up. I’m not sure if this can be accomplished with the focus on “old-school” topics.
This Raw has two very important things going for it. The first is that it is a three hour show. This gives the WWE 50% more show which is desperately needed. The question though is what will that hour be filled with? Will we see matches leading to Survivor Series matches? I certainly hope so! The biggest waste would be to use an hour or more on matches involving legends. Obviously one or two is acceptable, maybe even a “Legends Survivor Series” match. Anything more and I fear there won’t be enough hype for Survivor Series. Use this hour wisely!
The second big boost for this show is that there is lots of hype. WWE has promised us a product many people miss. Combine that with the unknown of what will happen tonight, and ratings should be lifted. This assumes multiple things. How old school will it go? Old school can mean different things to people of various ages. I would recommend it doesn’t go any more old school than the first episode of Raw, especially because the younger crowd wouldn’t understand.
How edgy will the show go? Lots of old school Raw was during the attitude era. I don’t think anyone expects anything close to the Edge/Lita in ring fiasco, but could we see Stone Cold having a beer? The million dollar man making a kid cry? DX telling the crowd to suck it? A cut in ring go unhealed? This will be tough to pull off, but WWE should definitely push the envelope here. Make sure to get anything sanctioned so we don’t have a Daniel Bryan choking incident.
Third, this could be really helpful to the current roster’s mic skills. With the potential to bring back anyone, we can see the return of some of the greatest promoters ever. Give them a short interaction with a current star and let them see how to do it. WWE could let the current superstars wrestle and put on great matches while the legends are in the back cutting promos.
Now onto the potential cons. This is a big special being produced. It will likely be a draw regardless of which day it aired. Raw is also a send-off show to a big PPV, another big draw. It might be hard to tell what causes an increase in ratings. If ratings DECREASE…then a whole bag of worms is open. It could be a lot of wasted money since people will likely tune in to see the build for Survivor Series regardless.
An issue with a legend wrestling tonight is that they SHOULDN’T lose to any wrestler with a match at Survivor Series. This ties back to hurting the Survivor Series card. If say a Survivor Series team is formed of the Nexus members, and all the Nexus members lose to legends tonight, how credible can we see their team at the PPV? It will make the Survivor Series matches lose importance and thus kill buys.
Lastly, we still have only three matches for Survivor Series. Three. A pay per view where you can pretty easily throw together teams still has none set. It would be like having no hell in a cell matches at Hell in a Cell. This show needs to make matches, make feuds, open options for current stars. WWE must remember that. Even though this is an old school Raw, it needs to remember Sunday is a PPV. Give us reasons to buy it. Give us reasons to care. An old school show will be entertaining, but will it bring WWE the PPV buys it wants? Well that’s up to them. If I were on creative, you all know what I would do J
No comments:
Post a Comment