If you were in charge of the Sy-Fy network and were told that the ECW was going to be turned into a farm system wrestling league called NXT, would you sign the WWF/E to that deal or would you let them go since ECW was supposed to be a huge name in wrestling?
If I were in charge of Sy Fy, I would have already asked how the show could go from doing ratings in the twos when it started, down to around a one. I would have told the company that what initially drew viewers was phased out and the audience left, so lets try doing that again and bring them back. But, Sy Fy didn't do that so they are left with a show that does around a 1 rating every week. At this point, there isn't much to lose by trying a new concept as they are already pretty much at rock bottom where viewership goes. If the show is done in a manner similar to The Ultimate Fighter, I could see it drawing a better number than ECW does now. If they were to decide to make it a pure developmental show it will be canceled in no time.
Since Vince McMahon has gotten rid of the ECW name and is going with NXT, on ECW's final show, do you see Vince reliving history by having either Christian or whoever the ECW champion is at the time do the same thing that Shane Douglas did to the NWA by throwing down the ECW title and calling it a dead and worthless promotion and announcing that NXT is the future of pro wrestling?
No I sure don't, for a number of reasons. Vince has already made it obvious that he won't ever build a non-WWE product up to be an equal of WWE, even if he owns it. And more importantly, given the concept of the NXT show, it wouldn't make any sense to do that since it's not even established yet, let alone ready to be the next big thing.
Sting said that Starrcade 1997 was the biggest PPV in terms of buy-rate in wrestling history. Is that true?
I can think of a number of PPVs that both drew a higher buyrate (the percentage of people with the ability to buy the show that actually do) and a higher number of actually buys than Starrcade 1997. I believe that show, headlined by Hulk Hogan vs. Sting, was the most purchased show in WCW history, but WWE had a lot of shows that outdid that.
I haven't been following WWE in a few weeks, and see that ECW is almost dead. Wondering why they couldn't have kept Tommy around a little longer and let him close out ECW as champion. Seems he knew the end was coming and maybe he wasn't offered - I imagine they'll let Christian close it out on top. I do think Tommy's sendoff was classy, but if it were me and I knew both that Tommy had enough and that ECW was shutting down completely, I'd have sent them both off in style, together, with Tommy as the last ECW champion closing up shop with the title.
Dreamer knew ECW was going to be put to rest. Mike Johnson reported it on the site months ago. But even then Dreamer was not being used so there wasn't much hope that WWE was going to give him a push at the end. They clearly didn't want to put him over and I think they dropped the ball there in a big way as he had a loyal following that WWE could have made money from.
If this Hogan experiment doesn't work or TNA is put on idle ratings with bad reviews, do you see Dixie Carter pulling the plug on TNA?
Not at all. The product was making solid strides before Hogan came in so if the experiment with him and Eric Bischoff goes south, I see the sides parting ways and Carter going back to doing things as she did before. She is committed to TNA and has done a solid job of making the company viable. I don't see her walking away from it.
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