(Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images)
In my last column, I wrote about how I felt the WWE should possible start looking towards the days of the "Attitude Era" for inspiration on how to make the business more interesting once again.
I was met with some positive, and some negative reviews on it, but I figured since last week's episode of Monday Night Raw is what spurred the column, I'd write one continuing my views regarding this "shocker" of a storyline the WWE is going with.
As I stated, the WWE has come to a point where, anytime Vince thinks he has thrown a "surprise" into the mix, it turns out to be easily seen as to where it's going. Last week, Vince hoped that the "selling" of Monday Night Raw's franchise to Donald Trump would be a "shocker."
In a sense, it was. But not in a good way.
Why Vince would see Donald Trump as the catalyst for Raw's so-so numbers, I'm not sure, nor will I pretend I can put myself in that spot where I would understand. Regardless, after this "announcement" the USA Network was forced to send out a press release stating that this was all a storyline anyway.
First off, who actually believed this was legit? Why would Vince McMahon sell his moneymaker to anyone? To whoever actually caused USA to release that, you're an idiot!
Now back to the rant...
Tonight's episode of Raw is, in my opinion, predictable as always. Sure, it has some things that may make it more "unpredictable," like the fact there will be no commercials.
The storyline of this, is that Trump had made this superb decision to run with no commercials, when in fact it was released to the public a few weeks ago. It's an idea USA and WWE have been toying with to see if it'll help keep people from flipping channels during the commercials. I can guarantee that if the ratings don't breach the 4.0 mark, Raw will be back to commercials next week.
IF Monday Night Raw can eclipse the 4.0 mark, it could potentially set a trend for cable television.
What could happen if Raw can set higher marks could mean advertisers would shift commercials from forcing shows to break, to having them placed into the shows themselves, have the announcers perform live reads like in radio, or be like TBS and simply have them appear at the bottom of the screen.
If this proves an effective manner of circumventing the changing of channels during commercials, it could be more widely adopted.
As for the storyline of the show, here's what to most likely expect.
To open the show, expect Trump to come out and make some canned speech about how he's made Raw go commercial free, and going to make it bigger and better than ever.
From there, I'd expect a special entry from none other than Randy Orton to confront his new boss and declare that this was "his show," like he does for everyone who is an authority figure on Raw, and say that Trump better reconsider his little idea of he and HHH fighting tonight.
Already I'm sensing a stellar Raw!
Then you can expect Trump to get cranky with Orton, and announce that he has selected his General Manager for Raw, and it'll be someone who he can guarantee will run Raw with the authority Trump would as well, to which Orton, as usual, makes goofy face, foams at the mouth, and gets in Trump's face.
The suspense is killing me!
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