Monday night, during the commercial free RAW, Edge and Christian wrestled against each other for the first time since Christian came back to WWE after his stay (exile?) in TNA. When Christian was announced as Edge's "Pick your poison" opponent, I marked out a little on my couch. Two guys with history and chemistry with each other in a match that they gave quite a bit of time to, a match that delivered on the hype. It was one of the brightest spots of RAW, but apparently, not everyone held that opinion. The main criticism of the match wasn't that the match was bad or that Edge or Christian turned in a bad performance or even that the wrong person won or that the finish was too wonky. It was that "OMGWTFBBQ they gave away that match on free TV!!1"Now, I don't know about you, but I don't own stock in the company. I don't make money if they make money. I sit back and take entertaining television and great matches no matter what the situation, whether they're free of charge to me on My Network TV (until October at least), included in the cost of my basic cable bill or whether I pay extra to watch them on pay-per-view. If the WWE wants to give me a match like that, or like that John Cena/CM Punk match from the Ventura RAW or any number of the Jericho/Mysterio matches from Smackdown last year or even (and this is going back a few years) that epic Michaels/Benjamin match for less than the cost of a PPV, then why am I going to complain?
I'm not the kind of guy who has the disposable income to buy every single PPV. I want to see good wrestling whenever I tune into a wrestling program because I'm a fan. Yeah, as a blogger, I kinda have that tendency to criticize business moves from time to time, but the thing is, I'm a fan at heart, and my unspoken New Year's resolution has been to be a wrestling fan first and a business critic second. Why would I complain as a fan that they're giving the match away on free TV when I don't have to pay extra for it? How does that make sense?
Yes, it is kind of a stupid move in theory to give away a money match on free TV before building to it on PPV, but in practice, it's a load of horsecrap, ESPECIALLY if the first meeting is booked smartly. The assumption is that people only want to see a match between any given two wrestlers once and never want to see it again after it happens. Yeah, if that were the case, the WWE would be getting minimal (read, TNA-level) buys for the PPVs where they run the same main events for three or four times consecutively.
The thing to keep in mind is that PPV matches need to be built in a way that the consumer wants to buy them. It doesn't matter if the match happens for the first time or the thirty-first time. A strong build will bring in viewers. Especially after the precedent set with the Monday Night Wars, live or flagship wrestling programs that feature nothing but squashes or unappetizing matchups are going to end up tanking ratings and then buyrates suffer because no one's watching the shows anymore.
And don't feed me crap about the "good ol' days" having fresh matchups all the time. Guys would wrestle each other a million times in a row on the house show circuit. Yeah, depending on the territory, that might translate to once a year for a unique matchup, but do you think that once they had a house-show run with X vs. Y that they'd toss that matchup out never to use it again? Fuck and no, especially if that matchup drew like gangbusters.
Honestly, people want quality, and they'll pay for quality. Giving a crowd something good for free is not a bad thing. Having a Christian vs. Edge matchup on RAW as a treat to the people who tune in every week but don't necessarily buy every PPV is not a bad thing, and to me, complaining about seeing good wrestling, PPV caliber wrestling every week is tantamount to bitching about getting free money or free sex. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, because if you do, well let's just say this. Be careful what you wish for, because if it comes true, you've lost the right to bitch about seeing nothing but 3 minute squashes, promos and nothing noteworthy on free TV anymore.
Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!
