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PWINSIDER Q&A: THE SCRAMBLE MATCH, WWE PUSHING FRESH FACES, MOVING SMACKDOWN TO MYNETWORKTV AND MORE

In regards to your answer today in a question about Victoria, you stated  that WWE likes to push the fresh faces in the women's division. Can't they see that, at least to some extent, that would be a good idea in the men's division as well?

WWE's response to that would be that CM Punk, Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes, among others have been in pushed positions while names like Shelton Benjamin and The Brian Kendrick have received renewed pushes of late.  So, in their mind, they have been utilizing and pushing fresh faces already.

Question about the Championship Scramble match concept....Had WWE given the match any kind of tryout prior to the Unforgiven pay-per-view?  Looking back, I know they used King of the Ring and the Royal Rumble concepts at non-televised shows before going to pay-per-view, and I'm wondering if they did the same for the Scramble concept.  From the reports of Unforgiven, it seemed like the three Scramble matches weren't uniform in quality and it might have helped to experiment with the format beforehand.

No, the match concept hadn't been utilized prior to this year's Unforgiven PPV, unless you count the Hardcore bouts from the 2000 era that were similar, such as the Wrestlemania 2000 13 Man Battle Royal.

I hate to dump even more on the guy, but honestly, can't the WWE's ratings issues be tracked back to the naming of Mike Adamle as GM of RAW?  Up until then, they had been on a ratings high, and even had a nice "Who will be the GM?" mystery going on. But during the "reveal show," the "New GM" was a big player, making all sort of unusual decisions (putting Michael Cole in a match, etc).  And when it was revealed that it was Adamle, we were all waiting for the big promo that would fire up the audience and make us care about him as GM.  And what was the promo?  After an entire show built around the new GM and his decisions, Adamle walked to the ring and basically said, in that monotone of his, "Thank you.  I am proud to announce that at SummerSlam it will be John Cena versus Batista."  And that was it.  Nothing else... no reason for the decisions, no speech.... nothing.  Heck, I'm *still* not sure if he's supposed to be a face or heel!  And since then, the ratings have taken
a dive.  It just can't be a coincidence!

It's possible you are right on the money with that theory, but my belief is that no matter how bad Adamle is, he's not important enough to warrant that type of response from the viewers.  Cutting off the pushes of the younger talents after they seemed to get a response from viewers was the mistake, in my opinion.  Continuing to recycle concepts like handicap matches and other similar things were a close second.

Is it just me or is WWE shooting itself in the foot by moving Smackdown to MyNetwork tv?  I've got Directtv, and have talked with them a few times over the last few months and they are not carrying it at all.  Wouldn't they have been smarter to broker a deal with NBC/ Universal to have it on one of their channels such as Bravo, USA, Sci-fi etc..?

WWE wanted Smackdown to remain on broadcast TV and that was the only real bidder.

With WWE doing the Honk-A-Meter with Santino's Intecontinental Title reign, and Charlie Haas being the WWE chameleon, do you think that their paths could cross. At this point I think it's obvious that Honky Tonk Man isn't going to be on WWE TV, but do you think one Raw Santino's in the ring, and suddenly Honky Tonk's music plays, and out comes Charlie Haas in the Elvis attire. I know they've faced in some recent house shows, and I think that the whole senario could be pretty funny.

It's possible.  It all depends on what WWE creative (read: Vince McMahon) wants out of the two characters.

 

 

 

 

 

In regards to your answer today in a question about Victoria, you stated  that WWE likes to push the fresh faces in the women's division. Can't they see that, at least to some extent, that would be a good idea in the men's division as well?

WWE's response to that would be that CM Punk, Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes, among others have been in pushed positions while names like Shelton Benjamin and The Brian Kendrick have received renewed pushes of late.  So, in their mind, they have been utilizing and pushing fresh faces already.

Question about the Championship Scramble match concept....Had WWE given the match any kind of tryout prior to the Unforgiven pay-per-view?  Looking back, I know they used King of the Ring and the Royal Rumble concepts at non-televised shows before going to pay-per-view, and I'm wondering if they did the same for the Scramble concept.  From the reports of Unforgiven, it seemed like the three Scramble matches weren't uniform in quality and it might have helped to experiment with the format beforehand.

No, the match concept hadn't been utilized prior to this year's Unforgiven PPV, unless you count the Hardcore bouts from the 2000 era that were similar, such as the Wrestlemania 2000 13 Man Battle Royal.

I hate to dump even more on the guy, but honestly, can't the WWE's ratings issues be tracked back to the naming of Mike Adamle as GM of RAW?  Up until then, they had been on a ratings high, and even had a nice "Who will be the GM?" mystery going on. But during the "reveal show," the "New GM" was a big player, making all sort of unusual decisions (putting Michael Cole in a match, etc).  And when it was revealed that it was Adamle, we were all waiting for the big promo that would fire up the audience and make us care about him as GM.  And what was the promo?  After an entire show built around the new GM and his decisions, Adamle walked to the ring and basically said, in that monotone of his, "Thank you.  I am proud to announce that at SummerSlam it will be John Cena versus Batista."  And that was it.  Nothing else... no reason for the decisions, no speech.... nothing.  Heck, I'm *still* not sure if he's supposed to be a face or heel!  And since then, the ratings have taken
a dive.  It just can't be a coincidence!

It's possible you are right on the money with that theory, but my belief is that no matter how bad Adamle is, he's not important enough to warrant that type of response from the viewers.  Cutting off the pushes of the younger talents after they seemed to get a response from viewers was the mistake, in my opinion.  Continuing to recycle concepts like handicap matches and other similar things were a close second.

Is it just me or is WWE shooting itself in the foot by moving Smackdown to MyNetwork tv?  I've got Directtv, and have talked with them a few times over the last few months and they are not carrying it at all.  Wouldn't they have been smarter to broker a deal with NBC/ Universal to have it on one of their channels such as Bravo, USA, Sci-fi etc..?

WWE wanted Smackdown to remain on broadcast TV and that was the only real bidder.

With WWE doing the Honk-A-Meter with Santino's Intecontinental Title reign, and Charlie Haas being the WWE chameleon, do you think that their paths could cross. At this point I think it's obvious that Honky Tonk Man isn't going to be on WWE TV, but do you think one Raw Santino's in the ring, and suddenly Honky Tonk's music plays, and out comes Charlie Haas in the Elvis attire. I know they've faced in some recent house shows, and I think that the whole senario could be pretty funny.

It's possible.  It all depends on what WWE creative (read: Vince McMahon) wants out of the two characters.

 

 

 

 

 

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