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Why does WWE change advertised matches?

Scott,

I wasted another Wednesday night watching Main Event. I was looking forward to Langston/Barrett vs. Miz/Del Rio only to find out that they changed the Main Event AGAIN! Do they just not care about The Main Event or do they figure that people will watch anyways? This is the third of fourth time that they've done this in a couple of months. Also, why do they keep changing stipulations that are added already to PPV matches? i.e. Cena vs. Ryback - Ambulance --> Three Stages of Hell, Survivor Series having Team Punk vs. Team Foley --> Cena vs. Ryback vs. Punk, HHH vs. Lesnar at WrestleMania --> No Holds Barred + HHH's career on the line,. 

Is it just writers' indecisiveness or just laziness?

Thanks

I know this will come as a shock to the readership of my blog, but WWE's tendency to bait-and-switch their matches is a bit of a pet peeve of mine.  I understand injuries or whatever, but it's WAY too frequent now where, as you noted, they'll advertise something for Main Event on RAW and then just tape a totally different match instead.  Or even the Fandango-Jericho dance contest, where they advertised THAT for a week and then didn't even deliver it!  

It's all Vince, basically.  He's apparently getting more indecisive as he gets older, and the writers just have to go along with what he wants, even if it's changing every two hours.  As it is, RAW these days is getting perilously close to the halcyon days of 1999 where Vince Russo would literally book the shows on a napkin the day of.  Vince frantically rewriting everything for no reason all the time is frighteningly similar.  

Comments

  1. It's easier on your frame of mind if you just accept that little "Card subject the change" blurb they put during some advertisements.

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  2. Scream09_HartKillerMay 30, 2013 at 11:14 AM

    I don't know the bait-and-switch if that's the part of the story - like Foley walking out on the Orton match, or when a guy gets taken out before the match, and his buddy fills in for him, and it turns out his buddy took him out to get the match - but changing shit around just because they changed their mind is irritating.

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  3. Sometimes I wonder if anyone has considered taking the OCD therapist approach with Vince. Take, for instance, his decision last week to have Miz vs. Wade Barrett for the IC title on Smackdown when it was initially going to be Wade Barrett defending against Sin Cara.


    Seriously, Vince, HOW IS THE WORLD AFFECTED if you leave Miz vs. Wade Barrett for Monday and just deliver the match you promised? The world isn't going to burn. Business isn't going to plummet. Just give the people what you told them you'd give them, insignificant though it might be! And if you're incapable of doing that, then stop fucking announcing matches ahead of time. And don't even bother holding booking meetings in advance, to boot. We all know you're still writing this shit on a napkin twenty minutes into hour one.

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  4. Apparently the reason for the switch given to the upcoming Cena/Ryback match is because Vince wanted it to feel "epic" and be a "milestone match" in Cena's career.


    You know, cause he hasent headlined 90% of the ppv's since 05...

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  5. I had a thought that if Vince goes truly senile one day, he'll want to burn the WWE to the ground rather than have it carry on without him

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  6. IF ANYONE IS GONNA KILL HIS CREATION ITS GONNA BE HIM! HE WILL INJECT THE WWE WITH A LETHAL DOSE OF POISON!!!

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  7. If not for the fact that TNA would then become #1 without earning it (They've not gotten THAT far yet, although some would say basic survival qualifies), and that it would remove a company that, good or bad, is still a "wrestling" company at heart, I wouldn't be too sad to see that happen.

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  8. A Conversation between HHH & Steph in bed at night

    HHH: Babe, I know I keep saying this, but your dad...

    Steph: I know babe, i know. What do you want me to do? He's my dad!!

    HHH: He's my dad too but c'mon, changing the Main Event tag match at the last minute? Not delivering on the Fandango/Y2J dance contest? Booking Wrestlemania on a napkin? What next?

    Steph: *sigh*...

    HHH: Uh oh. What?

    Steph: He was talking earlier... about bringing back Charlie.

    HHH: Charlie?... Haas?

    Steph: Worse... Wright.

    HHH: Charlie Wright?? The friggin Godfather?? C'mon!

    Steph: That's not all.

    HHH: Please don't say Gobbledy Gooker, please dont say Gobbledy Gooker

    Steph: No.. he wants to make Charles WWE champion by Wrestlemania

    HHH: WHAT?!?!?!? As The Godfather?

    Steph: No, as Papa Shango.

    HHH: Motherfucker! I knew when he brought Charles back for the Rumble it wasn't just a one time deal, I KNEW IT

    Steph: Baby please, your concussion... relax

    HHH: That wasn't fucking real Steph! It was a fucking angle. Another one of your dad's fucked up ideas!!!

    Steph: Oh baby :( it was so well acted

    HHH: I know, and all I wanted to do was to put that kid over and Vince has me out there slapping him around and faking concussions. And the IWC calls ME the asshole

    Steph: I know what'll make you feel better... assume the position babe. I'll go get your sledgehammer

    HHH: Giggity

    The end

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  9. I smell a blurry-lined angle

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  10. Scream nailed it above... we can accept that when there's "plausible" circumstances... Someone missed a flight, storyline caused the change, etc...


    But the person in charge of everything deciding "YEP, WE'RE CHANGING HALF THE SHOW!" 15 minutes before bell, with NO explanation or reason behind the changes, other than in his mind... no, that's not "card subject to change" acceptable, and I'd potentially want a refund. Especially if he had gotten me to buy a ticket for a specific match that was changed that way.

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  11. Vince says the absolute WORST thing a performer can do is to not show up to an event because the audience has paid to see him/her perform. He made a big fuss about that on the Warrior DVD and after Austin walked. But I don't see how changing an advertised match is any different unless, as mentioned above, it's important to a storyline (like Orton-Foley).

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  12. Believe me, I get that. And unless there are circumstances beyond their control (like missed flights or, you know, death), cards should remain the same.


    The problem is, people go along with whatever. It doesn't bother me b/c I look at their booking process as little more than a game of darts. Let's be fair - Vince has been insulting the intelligence of the paying customer for decades. Changing Brokeback/Cena to a 3 Stages match makes little sense given how they've been booking Ryback, but it's what they do.


    I'm not advocating it or saying it's the best thing since turning off the lights during Undertaker's entrance - just that, until people get together and show their displeasure, and VINCE TAKES IT SERIOUSLY, it's not gonna change.

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  13. "Milestone" and "Lumberjack match" should NEVER be placed in close proximity to each other.

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  14. Exactly. Bait and switch can be done well - if it's used to raise the stakes of the story line. For example, I was watching a random SD! from '00 and E&C were set to fight Rock with Rock's title on the line. Rock beats up Edge part way through the show so Foley adds Kane to the match. Edge's interference leads to a Rock pin and Kane getting pissed about the outcome and chokeslamming Rock to hell. Overbooked, sure, but the stakes were raised and at the end of the day a story (Kane being pissed and wanting the title) was progressed. There's also the classic heel "I'm [fake] hurt so I'm sending jobber X out to fight for me" bait and switch. Again, story progresses, more heat on the heel. The problem is that many of the bait and switches of current WWE do nothing to progress a story or raise the stakes of a future confrontation.

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  15. Hmmmm...where have I seen this before? WCW Monday Nitro And I still LOVED Nitro!

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  16. Yeah, but think of all those ***** ambulance matches we've seen over the years...

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  17. Come on now guys. It was a whole lot more important that Sheamus get another non-title win over a secondary champion than delivering what was advertised.

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  18. You're not getting anything above *** with Ryberg......might as well hide his limitations with some mindless violence rather than risk blowing him up early in a match.


    I predict the first two matches will last about 2 minutes, then the final a while longer, making everyone wonder why they bothered in the first place. The setup is way too easy.

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  19. Vince McMahon should have bigger things to worry about than to tinker with the top match of Main Event for two weeks in a row... just sayin.

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  20. To borrow two of the best lines from Wreck-It Ralph:

    "Looks like Vince has gone cuckoo....like my nana."



    "It might time to put old Vince out to pasture....like my nana."

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  21. I really wish Ryback had not accepted the 3 stages of Hell match. "You've agreed to my match. Let's just do that one"

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  22. Except he'll absolutely do it. He has two shows in Main Event and Superstars that SHOULD be booked in the old-timey way and Saturday Morning Slam, a show that Jimmy Hart could book via e-mail in 15 minutes, a job he'd probably do for a song because it would be fun.

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  23. Well they'll still get to see the performer that they paid for, just not in the match that was advertised...

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  24. I think the answer to this is pretty clear: Vince really wants you to stop watching wrestling and focus more on his awful movies.

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  25. I don't think Russo ever actually booked a show on a napkin the day of...I thought he just said he could do that. Which, honestly, I can write my name in piss on the sidewalk....doesn't mean I should try. Didn't stop Russo, apparently....

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  26. I saw the Seamus-Barrett match live in Edmonton, at the same event as where they taped this week's Smackdown. It was the best match of the night, really. Nothing on the Smackdown side was particularly interesting or got cheers from the audience, aside from the appearance of Seamus or Daniel Bryan.

    It was the first live event I'd been to since the show in Saskatoon where Bret Hart beat Flair for his first title. I was actually astonished by how much advertising they pumped into the arena on the big screen between matches, and how each advertisement killed the energy of the crowd. For a show that likes to talk the talk about gaining momentum and what not, they managed to exhaust and bore the crowd every time business was starting to pick up.

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  27. *slow clap*

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  28. I'd take napkin booking over the shit they serve up these days. '99 was a great time to be a fan.

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  29. Scream09_HartKillerMay 30, 2013 at 3:45 PM

    Yeah, I enjoyed the "shit happens on the show" approach, where you watch it, shit happens, and the next week you have to watch to see what shit happens next.

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  30. Summerslam 1999.


    Went from the "we're trying hard to promote this as a dream match" in Triple H vs. Austin, to Chyna vs. Austin, to Foley vs. Austin, to the Triple Threat between Austin/Triple H/Foley that we ended up with.


    Just to note, the last two changes happened on the go home show to Summerslam.

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  31. I wonder if Russo ever combined those two things...

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  32. I would have liked to have seen what kind of train wreck a 20 minute Austin vs Chyna match would have been like.

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  33. Somebody completely no-selling a Cena promo would be hilarious and yet entirely counter-productive.


    Hell...I think Punk said "No." to Cena a couple times when the latter was asking for title shots. Of course...he still got them.

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  34. I love shoot promos that aren't supposed to be shoot promos.

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  35. Would Vince have the balls to end this match in two straight falls?

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  36. It's too bad that they didn't make it a two out of three ambulances match.

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  37. Well, then you should be excited for the next PPV, where Chris Jericho takes on Curtis McAxelcuddy.

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  38. I've said this before but things are also WAY too formulaic. When's the last time something significant happened at 8:36? Or 9:27? Or 10:23? IF something big happens -- and that's a big "if" -- it'll always happen right at, right before, or right after the top of the hour. You want people to watch your show? Make them think that anything can happen at any time. Make them afraid to miss a second of the show.

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  39. Vince will change his mind on The Wyatt Family and just make them part of 6MB. Then have them all get squashed by the pack mentality of The Shield who will use the numbers game to their advantage on the WWE App.

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  40. How about this? The lumberjack ends in a double-DQ when all the lumberjacks spill into the ring. Ryback falls through a table to lose the Table Match, then Cena falls into the ambulance to lose the Amulance Match. We have a Draw! THIS FEUD MUST CONTINUE! Next month it will have to be a Best-of-7 match where each fall MUST HAVE A WINNER. The real advantage to this is that by putting Cena in 7 matches on one PPV, they won't even have to book any other matches, just fill the time between falls with wacky comedy skits and in-ring interview segments, not to mention commercials, promoting the APP, and of course movie trailers.

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  41. I definitely echo the second part of your response. I went to a house show last year and got really tired of listening to the shilling of Twitter, Tout, etc.

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  42. That'd be a great trade. I miss some of the old Jimmy Hart theme music.

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  43. Is that anything like a blurry-eyed Angle doing lines?

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  44. And Jericho will be the one guy to actually take the fall to him.

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  45. It wasn't that Austin refused to job to HHH. Then-Governor of MN; Jesse Ventura was the guest ref, and supposedly he didn't want to raise the hand of a heel. So they had Foley win instead.

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  46. It had funniness and truthiness.

    Question: Do you think Steph eats Paul's ass? I would if I was a chick.

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  47. Sorry, but I never bought the "Austin didn't want to job the title to Triple H" story. Ventura was getting a lot of heat from the press and his own party for even agreeing to referee a wrestling match, and Austin was injured at the time, which is why it was turned into a triple threat.


    That way, they could get the belt off Austin, onto Foley, and have Ventura raise the hand of a good guy.

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