Archive for June 12th, 2008

The Rock rests in peace for Johnson

Thursday, June 12th, 2008

You don’t need an HDMI cable to see clearly that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has left the pro wrestling stage of his career in the past. With “The Rock” nickname now dropped completely from his on-screen billing, Johnson seems set on making a clean break from McMahon and company.

To his credit, Johnson is the best actor the WWE has ever produced. Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea was only passable at best, and never knew how to disappear into a role; he was always “The Hulkster.” Steve “Stone Cold Steve Austin” Williams had an easier time fitting into roles, but his in-ring injuries interrupted his momentum at launching a post-wrestling acting career. And current WWE superstar John Cena is promising, but untested in a total of one film to date.

By comparison, Dwayne Johnson fits into this summer’s Get Smart movie starring Steve Carrel like a glove; he’s no longer a wrestler showing he can do a little acting. He’s now an actor who at one time did a little wrestling.

R.I.P., The Rock. Long live Dwayne Johnson.

Million Dollar Mania doesn’t draw

Thursday, June 12th, 2008

The ratings are in and McMahon’s Million Dollar Mania didn’t evidence any ratings improvement for the WWE. In fact, the numbers slipped to 3.0 after hovering around 3.1 to 3.2 in recent weeks. So, giving away oodles of money isn’t going to make people watch pro wrestling. That’s pretty much settled, right?

So, quick, before Vince McMahon starts hawking anti wrinkle cream on the air, let’s make this clear one more time: wrestling is what makes people want to watch wrestling. As a recent entry from me showed, with about 90 broadcast minutes to work with on Monday, Raw featured about 30 minutes of in-ring time and over 60 minutes of non-wrestling content.

That mix needs to switch polarities. At the very minimum, a two-hour-plus-overrun Raw broadcast should feature 45 minutes in the ring 45 minutes of other stuff; and wrestling was never as popular as when the mix was 60 minutes in-ring, 30 minutes out.

Actual wrestling matches are what boosts ratings, Vince. Learn it, live it, love it.

The last true “holy sh-t” moment I remember on SmackDown was years ago, when Big Show back body-dropped Brock Lesnar and the ring collapsed. Moments like that create buzz and buzz creates an interest in watching, which boosts ratings. As for RAW, it’s been a while, which is surprising since I generally prefer RAW to Smackdown.