Scott,
Here in America, pre- and postgame roundtable discussions are very popular during sporting events. "NFL Today" on CBS, "Monday Night Football" on ESPN, "Sunday Night Football" on NBC, "MLB on Fox", "NBA Thursday" on TNT...these various shows feature a bunch of ex-players hyping the day's games and providing analysis. Every major sport in America has this; it's become a necessity for a broadcast. My question: how awesome would this be for WWE? You take the old Saturday morning recap format of something like "Live Wire" but have guys like Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley, Roddy Piper, Edge, JR, Stone Cold, etc. breaking down the previous or upcoming events.
They could do interviews with wrestlers and add to the feud. Maybe JR asks Randy Orton why he decided to randomly attack Kane in the middle of "Raw." Then we're not left with inexplicable run-ins and feuds would actually make sense!
I think it'd really add something to the product and those guys could actually -- gasp! -- get guys over! Yeah, imagine how much more acceptable Miz would Miz have been if someone like HBK was talking him up?
I haven't figured out the logistics to something like this and I'm not sure when it would air, but I guarantee it would get eyeballs. Hell, just replace that dumbass "NXT" show. Who wouldn't want to watch a half-hour or hour of guys we love doing analysis???
Thanks!
"Here in America"? It's not like I live in Kazakhstan or something.
Anyway, they actually have a pre-game show before RAW up here on the Score, because their broadcasting license prohibits them from showing more than (x) hours of live events per week and they're basically forced to show RAW on a 15-minute tape delay to get around that. There's also a post-game show after Smackdown called Aftermath, where they break down the show and referee Jimmy Korderas answers questions and gives opinions and stuff. It's a neat idea, actually, although there doesn't tend to be actual WWE talent involved in the show and it doesn't stray far from kayfabe. Considering that WWE actually owns a pretty good chunk of the channel you'd think they would send more guys who aren't doing anything.
I believe a studio show along the lines of SportsCenter was proposed as part of the WWE Network, which of course is never going to happen.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of pre- and post-game shows for PPVs. Although I guess they position Raw as the post-game show but the pregame show before a PPV would be cool & may even get them some last-minute buys like how they used to position Heat.
TNA had this already. It was called Reaction. So did WWE, it was called Livewire.
ReplyDeleteI thought TNA cancelling Reaction was one of worse ideas of the past couple of years for them. I have no idea how much money it cost them, but I thought it allowed a bunch of the talent to practice working short promos and such. WWE basically already does this as well, but instead of a separate TV show, they use their youtube channel to pimp stuff like that.
What's funny is that a lot of these suggestions are being done, on a much smaller scale, on WWE's YouTube page. Their Backstage Fallout show (which is really more TMZ-like than sports analysis) shows backstage interviews with the Superstars after they do something in the ring. A lot of those shows are pretty fun and interesting, actually.
ReplyDeleteLIke How they did the Free for all like 30 minutes before a PPV to get last minute buys. IN essence this has been done for years, just never really called a pre/postgame show. Everything the other posters said are in fact what you are trying to explain.
ReplyDeleteIt just never sticks.
It's a good idea, and cheap, provided you use guys already under contract. Jim Ross seems an obvious candidate for pundit, then an old face and heel to take sides. Perhaps Josh Matthews as host, since he won't ever get the nod for PPV/Raw.
ReplyDelete'Are You Serious?' is a great. I know it's basically Wrestlecrap/Botchamania, but still, a fine use of otherwise irredeemable library footage.
ReplyDeleteWhile I think it would be cool to incorporate retired stars into the mix, a part of me doesn't want more wrestling on TV, especially since the majority of these analysis shows would probably be filled with relentless video packages of what the top stars are doing.
ReplyDeleteDoes WWE actually own part of The Score? It used to be my favorite of the Canadian sports channels but it really went down here over the years.
ReplyDeleteGreg Sansone is the modern day Billy Red Lyons. And Aftermath is also on after the Tuesday replay.
ReplyDelete"I thought this was Americaaaa" - Randy Marsh getting dragged out in tighty whiteys.
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