Hello everybody and welcome back to the there is somebody drunk somewhere edition of the Big TimBoski Show! As always I am your host, the man who has never went to bed with an ugly chick but woken up next to a few that you can call Tim Sampsell. First let me apologize to all of you about my absence. I was taking summer classes all June so I never had time to write. Don’t worry the classes are done so now I should be back on a regular schedule.
This week is a big column for me because I have a lot to get off my chest as we discuss Ring Of Honor financials, the WWE’s laziness to make SmackDown the number one show oh yeah don’t forget about the trivia so here we go.
The Time Is NOW!
Back on June the 4th I was in Buffalo, New York for Ring Of Honor’s debut and it was in all honesty the best wrestling show I have ever been to. The $25 was well worth it as on the nine match card I can honestly say they seven great matches and a match of the year candidate. I would estimate that there were around 500 to 525 fans in attendance which for ROH is decent but let’s be honest here; it is much too low for the hottest product in wrestling.
As people know Ring Of Honor have blazed a revolutionary trail and a cult like fan base over the past three years with their biggest attendance being 1800 in New Jersey the night before WrestleManiaXX. They have popularized the “Strong Style” and when the WWE went to its restrictive style it was because of the revolutionary, non hardcore style that ROH pioneered. So if Ring Of Honor has done all of this then why the low numbers at every show? They drew 900 in New Jersey for CM Punk’s farewell match and Punk is arguably their biggest star and draw and New Jersey in an ROH hotbed so what is the problem?
The problem is flat out bad marketing and advertising. Now ROH will tell you that they can’t afford it but folks they have been able to afford Mic Foley, Rickey Steamboat, Jim Cornette, Bobby Heenan, and Tommy Dreamer to all do non wrestling appearances so they have the money. I’m not talking about a television deal yet but I am talking about radio commercials, TV ad’s and newspapers spots that are all are affordable. They make a profit off of their ticket sales and DVD sales especially so why not put that money back into your product and put more butts into the seats? What worries me is that I am currently the play by play man for Roc City Wrestling (RCW www.roccitywrestling.com) out of Rochester and we just drew around 400 for our last show and that is a local show with no advertising and no named stars so there is definitely a problem here.
Another big problem I think ROH is having is they are hitting the same markets too often and therefore the aura of seeing the product wears off because it’s almost like a neighbor. Take a look at the ROH schedule and you will notice that they are in the midst of hitting the same area for four shows in a month. Back on June the 12th they were in Manhattan, the next week they were in New Jersey and then in the next two weeks they hit Long Island and then back to Manhattan so all they do is get basically the same fans and what’s worse is now you are stretching their entertainment dollars. This means you could draw less and besides why would I worry about going the June show when I know they will be back in July? I can save my money.
This is much too good of a product to only slowly move up. Now I understand that they don’t want to end up like ECW and TNA and I don’t think they will but they are going too slow for how good their product and buzz is. I think the commercials and ad’s are an absolute must and I think Cary Silkin (Owner of ROH) should look into some investors and minor partners, people who are going to put money into his product. ROH is hitting new markets in Cleveland and Detroit and while it is a start they need to keep expanding and that is where the investors come in. Offices in St. Louis and Los Angeles I think would be nothing but beneficial to Ring Of Honor because then they can afford to do the shows out there to expand the fan base and get onto television. The investors can help pump in more money for better marketing, hell marketing in general, as well as more markets and more shows. I think ideally ROH should try and do two shows a week within the next year but the only way they’re going to be able to do that is to expand and advertise and until then all of us ROH fans are going to have to watch the hottest product in wrestling be nothing more then a regional product that will never make the impact that it was destined to make.
Talk about Lazy:
Over the past two weeks the WWE has done what they call the “Supershow” where on a Monday night RAW and SmackDown are done in one venue and thus we get SmackDown spoilers a day early and with the draft ending last week it was pure laziness to confuse the fans in the arena by having trades happen on SmackDown and then they were magically back on RAW in a couple of hours for that show. What this shows is that the WWE cares more about RAW then SmackDown. If they did RAW first and then SmackDown it would make more sense but because it is so vital for them to go live they sacrifice the integrity of their other show’s programming? Please somebody tell me where that makes sense? It flat out doesn’t and what’s even worse is the fans can tell they are using the same arena. They got the RAW set and they have Michael Cole announce where they are when everybody already knows that RAW was there.
It is time for SmackDown to go live. I don’t care what the WWE says it is just like ROH saying they can’t afford advertising because everybody knows that the WWE can indeed afford to go live! The WWE knows that we know it’s taped but still has the gall to put commercials in the matches? It is nothing but laziness and for the guys traded to SmackDown it almost has to seem more like a demotion because they go from the A show to the B show and if they are lucky they get to wrestle live once a month at a PPV.
I think you can even here it in Michael Cole’s voice that he feels like the WWE doesn’t really care a lot about SmackDown because you can just hear when he announces where they are that he’s like “Why do they make me do this, they know were taped.” For me personally this is a big month for SmackDown because the Great American Bash is coming to Buffalo and it will be my first Pay Per View and I want my money’s worth.
It was very odd seeing SmackDown’s signature stars all go to RAW but they did alright in the draft themselves but its obvious they have some building to do. My biggest fear though is that the WWE will skip over great SmackDown storylines when it comes to gimmick matches and big shows in favor of RAW because they feel it is the flagship. Case and point the Eddie/Rey storyline clearly warranted the Hell In A Cell match much more then HHH/Batista but of course RAW gets the top billing just like they do during the supershow’s.
The SmackDown superstars and the WWE fans do not deserve to be treated this way. The WWE went to two rosters but instead they portray it like a major league vs. a minor league and these supershows are proof of that. SmackDown being moved to Friday’s doesn’t really help the situation either. However a live Friday may be better then a taped Tuesday show but the WWE needs to be careful because they have already shown us that SmackDown is the B show so the quality can not go down when the audience does in October.
Trivia:
Well after a month off I have a feeling you guys are ready for trivia!!! Well before we get to this week’s question here is our last question, the answer and our Medium TimBoski’s for the week!
As we all know the Undertaker is a perfect 13 and 0 at WrestleMania, who did he beat for lucky win #7?
Answer: Kane!
Our Medium TimBoski’s are: Barry Boice, Ryan Bergman, Chris Fothergill-Brown, Daniel Nelson, Romeo Pace, Jazmen Brown, Jeff Sadler, Timothy Kudgis, Michael Fitzgerald, Mike Golesteanu, Mongrel Cake, Nic Car Bel, Rockbowski, Sabas Garza, Shawn Schaeffer, Sk84Life, Sean Shady, StylingGentleman, Vampire Kain, W.K., and Zach Edwards. Congratulations to all of you!!!
There have been a lot of requests for tougher questions so here is a good one for all of you and remember if you think you know the answer please send it with your feedback to [email protected] and as always Good Luck!
Who sang the National Anthem at the very 1st WrestleMania?
Well that does it for this week’s column again I apologize for the layover but I will now be back on a regular schedule. Please remember to send all feedback and trivia answers to [email protected] and until next time LATER!
