Here is a post I saw on 1wrestling.com this morning and it would make sense if Vince was this smart but I don't think he is. If this is true then there will be a bittersweet moment if it plays out:
Got a pretty good nose for sarcasm and Bill, your score was reeking of it. That crowd was deader than Elvis, and you know it. You could've gotten more electricity out of a year old AAA Duracel than that crowd. Of course, it WAS a Smackdown! audience and their spirits have been completely snuffed for a while now, so to that end, it's understandable. What I can't get over is all the negativity this has generated. For supposed "smarts" a lot of ECW diehards sure haven't been sounding very bright. Maybe Pillman was had the "smart marks" pegged.(Man do I ever miss pointed, unscripted promos...) Anywhooo, as bad as last night's show was, I'm going to throw out a few predictions here, to perhaps raise some expectations: 1. Next week, an alien is going to get pulped by Sandman. The week after that, a mummy. The week after that, a yeti, or maybe a cyborg. Point is, it's Heyman (or maybe even Vince's) way of telling Sci-Fi what they can do with their "Sci-Fi Themed" wrestlers. It's all a big joke, and I for one laughed my butt off the minute the zombie emerged from the back.[ Note to Sci-Fi: you're probably not going to get a whole hell of a lot of ECW viewers to watch your endless parade of B-grade rip-off movies and hackneyed "original" series. The wrestling fans are only tuning you in to see wrestling, and that's it. So you can do this the easy way and not get pushy with what YOU want on this show, let the show do it's thing and reap the benefits of a ratings bump every Tuesday night (like say ad revenues?) or you can do this the wrong way, pushing for YOUR crap to be on the show, there by driving off the target audience, and creating a sucking chest wound in your Tuesday night 10pm time slot that even LOCAL buisnesses won't pay fifty cents for a thirty second spot on.] 2. Anyone else thinking Francine's going to come out and bitchslap the stripper sometime within the next two weeks, and if so, how big are you going to mark out for the Queen of Extreme if and when she does? I was actually anticipating just that last night, but if they want us to wait a bit, s'okay by me...as long as there's a payoff. Who knows, maybe this is how they plan to set up Jazz. This ain't Divaland after all. 3. The whole ECW/WWE rivalry will inevitably lead to some huge "Extreme Declaration of Independence" culminating in a killer Paul Heyman promo that's as close to a shoot as possible. What I'm trying to say is this: you have to look at the big picture here. Vince wants to make dough off this. Vince also would probably like to avoid a second comming of The XFL. Factor in Heyman having a (reportedly) greater deal of autonomy over ECW than the RAW or Smackdown! creative teams, chances are, his fingerprints are all over last night's stinker. Ever occur to anyone else that he made this a stinker on purpose? Maybe it's part of a larger storyline? Maybe it's the set up for #3 above?(And do I ever hope it is, or this thing's cooked...) One last prediction: The ECW roster is thiner than Paul's hairline. It's got to be filled out, and Heyman, as I recall, did say that there was an open invitation to ANY and ALL RAW and Smackdown! talent to jump to ECW if they wanted. Angle's gone to ECW. Rey was being "courted" publicly by Heyman. Orton's gone to RAW. Nitro and Melina have gone to RAW. Benoit's on the shelf. JBL's done. Smackdown! just seems to keep losing talent, yet you don't see anyone being sent from RAW to Smackdown! to fill in the gaps. Last night's debacle showed that you really can't, really even shouldn't, tape ECW in front of a Smackdown! audience and it also showed that a brand extension can't work with only one hour to do it's thing. Do the math. By September, WWE will only have two shows on TV...and Smackdown! isn't going to be one of them. Remember folks: Vince Macmahon and Paul Heyman are running this thing and if the last twelve years of watching both men's products has taught me nothing else it's this: NOBODY pays off bigger than these two when it really counts. (And don't even bring up the WCW invasion because that was a mercy killing. What did you want? WWE top guys fueding with the WCW midcarders and enhancement talents? THAT would have been entertaining HOW?) Just a feeling, but I think Vince and Paul just might be working the "smartest fans in the buisness".
Got a pretty good nose for sarcasm and Bill, your score was reeking of it. That crowd was deader than Elvis, and you know it. You could've gotten more electricity out of a year old AAA Duracel than that crowd. Of course, it WAS a Smackdown! audience and their spirits have been completely snuffed for a while now, so to that end, it's understandable. What I can't get over is all the negativity this has generated. For supposed "smarts" a lot of ECW diehards sure haven't been sounding very bright. Maybe Pillman was had the "smart marks" pegged.(Man do I ever miss pointed, unscripted promos...) Anywhooo, as bad as last night's show was, I'm going to throw out a few predictions here, to perhaps raise some expectations: 1. Next week, an alien is going to get pulped by Sandman. The week after that, a mummy. The week after that, a yeti, or maybe a cyborg. Point is, it's Heyman (or maybe even Vince's) way of telling Sci-Fi what they can do with their "Sci-Fi Themed" wrestlers. It's all a big joke, and I for one laughed my butt off the minute the zombie emerged from the back.[ Note to Sci-Fi: you're probably not going to get a whole hell of a lot of ECW viewers to watch your endless parade of B-grade rip-off movies and hackneyed "original" series. The wrestling fans are only tuning you in to see wrestling, and that's it. So you can do this the easy way and not get pushy with what YOU want on this show, let the show do it's thing and reap the benefits of a ratings bump every Tuesday night (like say ad revenues?) or you can do this the wrong way, pushing for YOUR crap to be on the show, there by driving off the target audience, and creating a sucking chest wound in your Tuesday night 10pm time slot that even LOCAL buisnesses won't pay fifty cents for a thirty second spot on.] 2. Anyone else thinking Francine's going to come out and bitchslap the stripper sometime within the next two weeks, and if so, how big are you going to mark out for the Queen of Extreme if and when she does? I was actually anticipating just that last night, but if they want us to wait a bit, s'okay by me...as long as there's a payoff. Who knows, maybe this is how they plan to set up Jazz. This ain't Divaland after all. 3. The whole ECW/WWE rivalry will inevitably lead to some huge "Extreme Declaration of Independence" culminating in a killer Paul Heyman promo that's as close to a shoot as possible. What I'm trying to say is this: you have to look at the big picture here. Vince wants to make dough off this. Vince also would probably like to avoid a second comming of The XFL. Factor in Heyman having a (reportedly) greater deal of autonomy over ECW than the RAW or Smackdown! creative teams, chances are, his fingerprints are all over last night's stinker. Ever occur to anyone else that he made this a stinker on purpose? Maybe it's part of a larger storyline? Maybe it's the set up for #3 above?(And do I ever hope it is, or this thing's cooked...) One last prediction: The ECW roster is thiner than Paul's hairline. It's got to be filled out, and Heyman, as I recall, did say that there was an open invitation to ANY and ALL RAW and Smackdown! talent to jump to ECW if they wanted. Angle's gone to ECW. Rey was being "courted" publicly by Heyman. Orton's gone to RAW. Nitro and Melina have gone to RAW. Benoit's on the shelf. JBL's done. Smackdown! just seems to keep losing talent, yet you don't see anyone being sent from RAW to Smackdown! to fill in the gaps. Last night's debacle showed that you really can't, really even shouldn't, tape ECW in front of a Smackdown! audience and it also showed that a brand extension can't work with only one hour to do it's thing. Do the math. By September, WWE will only have two shows on TV...and Smackdown! isn't going to be one of them. Remember folks: Vince Macmahon and Paul Heyman are running this thing and if the last twelve years of watching both men's products has taught me nothing else it's this: NOBODY pays off bigger than these two when it really counts. (And don't even bring up the WCW invasion because that was a mercy killing. What did you want? WWE top guys fueding with the WCW midcarders and enhancement talents? THAT would have been entertaining HOW?) Just a feeling, but I think Vince and Paul just might be working the "smartest fans in the buisness".