Black Widow
10-14-2008, 02:58 PM
WORST SEGMENT OF 2008
by Mike Johnson
I am going to try and make this short, because the Raw Johnny Knoxville segment was so worthless that it's hardly worth spending the time I will waste writing about it, but the segment featured on tonight's episode of Monday Night Raw was the epitome of exactly why professional wrestling is trapped in the lull it is currently in.
During a time period where fans are giving up in droves and the industry continues to run itself in circles while other entities like UFC market themselves as the cool, fad sports-entertainment product for the most prized demographic in the world, Males 18-34, WWE books one of the most ridiculous, embarrassing segments in recent history.
Seriously, if this was the best they could have come up with, why in the world would they even bother running this dreck? I cannot envision a creative team meeting where the team was in total agreement that this was a tremendous idea that would bring the company ratings, accolades and turn viewers into paying customers. If so, how?
Vince and Linda McMahon love to comment that Wall Street doesn't understand their company. They will make snide remarks when the next WWE Studios film isn't met with a warm critical response. The reality is that it's not that no one understands the company. It's that the average person outside the pro wrestling bubble looks down on the industry because of antics like this that don't even shoot for the lowest common denominator, but for something worse.
WWE loves to compare themselves to every major entertainment series on TV. Well, name one series, anywhere, that would have written such a segment and aired it?
Anyone?
I thought not.
All WWE accomplished tonight was to give a fresh set of footage for the next time a news entity or talk show wants to poke fun at professional wrestling with the images of Knoxville vs. the cavalcade of "change the channel" characters, i.e. Boogey Man, Hornswoggle, Big Dick Johnson, and Great Khali.
Professional wrestling used to be about telling compelling stories that made you want to purchase a ticket or a DVD. What in the world was this segment supposed to entice you to want to do? Seriously, I would love anyone who is currently employed by World Wrestling Entertainment who isn't a McMahon family member to admit publicly that they loved this segment and thought it was great business, because they'd be lying.
The reality is the majority of those working for the company can't stand the current product, but like so many other businesses, they don't want to speak up because their job security would be at risk in the feudal system that is World Wrestling Entertainment. I have no such fears.
I will say what everyone working for the company wishes they could say to Vince and Stephanie McMahon - that segment was so bad, that the only thing it really accomplished was giving former fans ammunition to point to when explaining why they no longer care about professional wrestling, because for every great thing WWE does (like the top three matches at the No Mercy PPV or Ric Flair's farewell a few months back), they do another dozen things that are completely inane and frustrating for their fan base...and it makes that fan base give up and run off to other forms of entertainment. This is not news to anyone reading this, since so many of you have told us you follow the business primarily via this website now. It's 2008 and the WWE audience has been dwindling since 2001, so none of this is news to their executives, either.
It is continually amazing and sad to me all at once that for all the talk by WWE executives and performers that WWE doesn't get the respect it deserves as the entertainment force the company has evolved into, that they themselves provide the most obvious reasons as to why that is, and fail to see the forest from the trees.
Two things are certain. Things won't change within WWE, not anytime soon. Neither will my embarrassment for those involved in the segment, for those who work for the company and for the fans who want and deserve far better than Wrestlecrap on parade.
by Mike Johnson
I am going to try and make this short, because the Raw Johnny Knoxville segment was so worthless that it's hardly worth spending the time I will waste writing about it, but the segment featured on tonight's episode of Monday Night Raw was the epitome of exactly why professional wrestling is trapped in the lull it is currently in.
During a time period where fans are giving up in droves and the industry continues to run itself in circles while other entities like UFC market themselves as the cool, fad sports-entertainment product for the most prized demographic in the world, Males 18-34, WWE books one of the most ridiculous, embarrassing segments in recent history.
Seriously, if this was the best they could have come up with, why in the world would they even bother running this dreck? I cannot envision a creative team meeting where the team was in total agreement that this was a tremendous idea that would bring the company ratings, accolades and turn viewers into paying customers. If so, how?
Vince and Linda McMahon love to comment that Wall Street doesn't understand their company. They will make snide remarks when the next WWE Studios film isn't met with a warm critical response. The reality is that it's not that no one understands the company. It's that the average person outside the pro wrestling bubble looks down on the industry because of antics like this that don't even shoot for the lowest common denominator, but for something worse.
WWE loves to compare themselves to every major entertainment series on TV. Well, name one series, anywhere, that would have written such a segment and aired it?
Anyone?
I thought not.
All WWE accomplished tonight was to give a fresh set of footage for the next time a news entity or talk show wants to poke fun at professional wrestling with the images of Knoxville vs. the cavalcade of "change the channel" characters, i.e. Boogey Man, Hornswoggle, Big Dick Johnson, and Great Khali.
Professional wrestling used to be about telling compelling stories that made you want to purchase a ticket or a DVD. What in the world was this segment supposed to entice you to want to do? Seriously, I would love anyone who is currently employed by World Wrestling Entertainment who isn't a McMahon family member to admit publicly that they loved this segment and thought it was great business, because they'd be lying.
The reality is the majority of those working for the company can't stand the current product, but like so many other businesses, they don't want to speak up because their job security would be at risk in the feudal system that is World Wrestling Entertainment. I have no such fears.
I will say what everyone working for the company wishes they could say to Vince and Stephanie McMahon - that segment was so bad, that the only thing it really accomplished was giving former fans ammunition to point to when explaining why they no longer care about professional wrestling, because for every great thing WWE does (like the top three matches at the No Mercy PPV or Ric Flair's farewell a few months back), they do another dozen things that are completely inane and frustrating for their fan base...and it makes that fan base give up and run off to other forms of entertainment. This is not news to anyone reading this, since so many of you have told us you follow the business primarily via this website now. It's 2008 and the WWE audience has been dwindling since 2001, so none of this is news to their executives, either.
It is continually amazing and sad to me all at once that for all the talk by WWE executives and performers that WWE doesn't get the respect it deserves as the entertainment force the company has evolved into, that they themselves provide the most obvious reasons as to why that is, and fail to see the forest from the trees.
Two things are certain. Things won't change within WWE, not anytime soon. Neither will my embarrassment for those involved in the segment, for those who work for the company and for the fans who want and deserve far better than Wrestlecrap on parade.