Scott,
I just rewatched Extreme Rules for the first time since April, having been disgusted with the way the main event ended. After the show, the blog was littered with people's disgust at the way the WWE DESTROYED Lesner, and how it would be IMPOSSIBLE to take him seriously as a true monster after that booking decision. Yet of course, come Summerslam, everyone was back in Lesner's corner. While I still despise the typical 30-second Cena comeback, both men came out of that night looking strong.
All this brings me to my point about how us smarks bitch endlessly about the decisions made by the WWE. Do you think our self-awareness leads to unfair criticism? Your rants are littered with "Wrestler Y jobs to Wrestler Z.... how can he ever be taken seriously now?" and "He goes over clean on free TV, and they expect me to pay $55 to watch later?", yet those same wrestlers proceed to grab your money and time come PPV night. Whether it's scripted movies, real sports, or sports entertainment: no one wins every fight they're supposed to win.
I just rewatched Extreme Rules for the first time since April, having been disgusted with the way the main event ended. After the show, the blog was littered with people's disgust at the way the WWE DESTROYED Lesner, and how it would be IMPOSSIBLE to take him seriously as a true monster after that booking decision. Yet of course, come Summerslam, everyone was back in Lesner's corner. While I still despise the typical 30-second Cena comeback, both men came out of that night looking strong.
All this brings me to my point about how us smarks bitch endlessly about the decisions made by the WWE. Do you think our self-awareness leads to unfair criticism? Your rants are littered with "Wrestler Y jobs to Wrestler Z.... how can he ever be taken seriously now?" and "He goes over clean on free TV, and they expect me to pay $55 to watch later?", yet those same wrestlers proceed to grab your money and time come PPV night. Whether it's scripted movies, real sports, or sports entertainment: no one wins every fight they're supposed to win.
No one was saying it would be IMPOSSIBLE to take him seriously (at least not the reasonable people). We were saying that they were leaving money on the table by doing it that way, and could have made far more than they did by building to a rematch. Not to mention that Brock only ended up having two matches for all of 2012, which makes it all the more bizarre that one of them was a loss to John Cena, the one guy in the entire promotion, outside of MAYBE Undertaker, who needed that win the least.
And yeah, ratings are down, and buyrates are WAAAAY down from even a few years ago. So I'd hardly say they're grabbing too much money from people right now. I watch because it's my thing and always will be, but they even managed to drive me away for about 4 years. So perhaps they should listen to that audience who they expect to buy their network.