It’s hard to underestimate the lengths Vince McMahon will go to in order to capture, however briefly, the attention of the general public, but this as-yet-unspecified million dollar Raw viewer contest thing, smacks of desperation even for him. Why is Vince so suddenly insecure about his product that he’s willing to resort to bribery to keep people watching? Information like first-quarter profits (while slightly below projections) being up from last year, over a million buys for WrestleMania, and financial analysts touting the company’s stock left and right probably don’t mean much to your average Cena fan, but they clearly indicate stability for the near future. It seems unlikely that the sudden suspension of William Regal would cause such a knee-jerk reaction, but considering the fact that Vince (or was that Mr. McMahon?) admitted point-blank that he needs time to work out the details of this “historic” concept would indicate otherwise. No doubt there are many who feel like they deserve some sort of compensation from WWE for watching certain nights, but if the company is serious about putting money into the pockets of its viewers, how about lowering the price of these increasingly irrelevant B-level pay-per-views.Take for example WWE’s version of a TNA show, the all-gimmick match One Night Stand PPV coming this weekend. Granted, there are some potentially entertaining match-ups like the Singapore Cane match or the HBK/Batista Stretcher match but are they enough to encourage fans to buy a PPV only two weeks after the last one and with both TNA and ROH presenting shows in the upcoming weeks? Think about it, if someone really wants to watch a clusterf**k of a PPV, they’re probably already planning to get Slammiversary (if the nurses at the home will let them use the remote, that is). Ring of Honor’s Take No Prisoners, which starts airing on the May 30th, is unequivocally the best value of the available choices not just because it is by all accounts an excellent show, but also because it’s only $9.95 in some markets.
It’s curious that the announcement of the upcoming draft was practically an afterthought, considering how pivotal it could be for rejuvenating the stagnant nature of the cards on all three shows. Smackdown specifically has been treading water well before Michael Hayes’ suspension, and it is long overdue for someone other than Edge, Undertaker or Batista to move up to main-event level. The often-rumored move of Umaga to Fridays sounds like a good place to start. The crux of these issues is that a majority of fans appear eager to see older stars like JBL and Kane step aside in favor of young talent such as D. H Smith, Ted Dibiase Jr. and Natalya Neidhart. If given reasonable opportunities to prove themselves, these athletes and others stuck in developmental purgatory like Colt Cabana and Matt Sydal could prove to be the spark many feel is currently lacking. If Vince doesn’t see the need for a wholehearted effort to utilize these young men and women to take the product in a different direction, then he should use the million dollars he plans to give away and buy himself a clue.