The Piledriver Report 06.17.09: RAW is Trump
Posted by Ronny Sarnecky on 06.17.2009
The WWE promised its fans a huge announcement during this past Monday Night RAW. They definitely delivered a surprise, as Vince McMahon announced that Donald Trump “purchased” RAW. This week, “The Piledriver Report” takes a look at RAW’s newest addition, and what it means or doesn’t mean for the WWE.
Swerved Again…
The WWE once again swerved the fans. With RAW scheduled to take place in Charlotte, NC, and Vicki Guerrero vacating her role as RAW General Manager last week, most fans expected Vince McMahon to announce that Ric Flair would be taking over the reigns as the RAW General Manager. What we got was something totally unexpected.
Vince McMahon announced that he sold Monday Night RAW. The immediate thought was who would be the person that made this purchase. The WWE needed to keep this storyline realistic. They couldn't have just some random person by the WWE's top property. I immediately counted Ric Flair out. After all, doesn't he owe three former wives alimony? Not to mention, that he probably still owes the Internal Revenue Service some past due tax money.
From a storyline standpoint, who has enough money to purchase RAW that would make an interesting choice. Then, it hit me. What about the "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase? The WWE could have gone in a couple of different directions here. The senior DiBiase could have been disgusted with the actions of Legacy, and the way his son has been taking short cuts in order to get ahead. By having controlling interest in the Monday night brand, the "Million Dollar Man" could make life miserable for the three members of Legacy.
Another storyline that they could have ran with Ted DiBiase Sr. would be for him to purchase RAW under the guise of fighting the good fight. However, once the ink was dry on the deed, DiBiase would revert back to his "everybody's got a price roots." Instead of going to war against Legacy, he would join his son, Cody Rhodes, and Randy Orton in tormenting the faces of Monday Night RAW.
Unfortunately, neither case was meant to be. Instead, we found out that the new "owner" of RAW was Donald Trump. While the angle has just begun, I must admit that I was left dumbfounded by the announcement. While wrestling fans are conditioned to suspend reality, having Trump purchase RAW is a little too hard to believe. First of all, RAW is a television program. Television network purchase television shows, not individual people.
Why Trump?
Why would a business tycoon like Donald Trump realistically purchase a professional wrestling television show? This makes no sense whatsoever. It's not like we are in the year 1998, when RAW was the hottest television show in wrestling history. Right now, RAW draws ratings in the mid-3s. Besides, "Celebrity Apprentice" is over. The 2009 Miss Universe pageant that Trump runs isn't until August 23rd, 2009. "The Donald" has nothing to promote right now.
The only reason why the WWE would insert Donald Trump as "owner" of Monday Night RAW has to be that Vince McMahon is hoping for the WWE to get a ton of publicity out of this. However, even if they do get publicity with this stunt, will it really make much of a difference? After all, this isn't exact Mike Tyson coming to RAW in 1998. In 1998, Mike Tyson was a huge box office/pay per view draw. New fans started to tune into RAW because Mike Tyson peaked their interest. These fans were curious to see how Mike Tyson would be used. Would "Iron Mike" actually battle a professional wrestler? This curiosity brought the casual fans in. However, the fresh faces, wild action, and controversial storylines made these fans tune in every week after Tyson left.
Having Donald Trump on RAW will not accomplish what Mike Tyson's signing did. Sure, Vince's wrestling company will get publicity. Eventually though, the media will grow tired of Trump in the WWE, and they will move on to the next juicy Hollywood story. Plus, I can't see Donald Trump bringing in a huge amount of casual fans to Monday Night RAW. While I don't know the exact demographics, I'm sure the Trump crowd falls under a different demographic that a wrestling audience. Will non-wrestling fans really care that Trump is in the WWE? Probably not. Even if they care a little, it is highly unlikely that these people will tune into RAW to see Donald. The only way you may possibly be able to draw the casual fans, and get the biggest amount of media coverage, would be if Donald Trump wrestled in a match.
If they did have Trump wrestle a match, the media coverage, while strong, would only last until his match ended. The question would then have to be asked, do we really want to see Trump wrestle in a match? I still can't get the image of "The Don's" weak punches towards Mr. McMahon at WrestleMania 23. A match with Trump would be beyond awful. We're talking "worst match ever!"
Besides getting a little extra publicity, what exactly will having Donald Trump on RAW accomplish? I think having Trump on RAW will be used to try to freshen up the product. There is only one problem with this. While the WWE is trying something different next week, with a commercial-free show, the main event is Triple H vs. Randy Orton. This is the same old, same old. How many times over the last year have we saw these two fight? Same goes for John Cena vs. the Big Show.
In Conclusion…
If the WWE truly wants to freshen things up, and make things different with Donald Trump "running the show," they need to elevate new talent to the main event scene. This past Monday night showed just how little depth the WWE has in their main event slots. The WWE World title match featured John Cena, The Big Show, Randy Orton, and Triple H. All four men who were featured in World title bouts at WrestleMania. After the Four-Way match, the WWE scheduled a battle royal to create a new #1 contender. Instead of featuring some new to enter the main event scene, the WWE inserted the three guys that just LOST the WWE World title match, along with seven other guys that never had a shot at winning the match.
This is what is wrong with RAW today. It's the same guys on top every week. The most recent WWE Draft Lottery was supposed to be use to strengthen the brand. Instead, RAW become weaker. One look at the other two brands will show you just that. ECW features several young competitors, like Harry Smith, Tyson Kidd, Jack Swagger, and Evan Bourne in their main storylines, along with veterans like Christian and Tommy Dreamer. SmackDown! is probably the best wrestling show on television today. Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio Jr., John Morrison, Shelton Benjamin, Edge, Jeff Hardy, and CM Punk are all on equal footing with one another. You could put any two of those guys in the main event on SmackDown!, and it will legitimately feel like a real main event. Looking at SmackDown! compared to RAW, and something tells me that Donald Trump purchased the wrong brand.
raw is still a highly rated cable show and makes money for usa network.
Why can't the iwc "pundits" accept the fact that 1998 past 11 years ago and pro wrestling will never be that hot among the adult male punks ever again.
Posted By: Guest#7170 (Guest) on June 17, 2009 at 12:29 PM
this is another summer ratings stunt. i was at raw when vince annnounced trump bought the show. the whole arena was wooing and chanting "we want flair". then it was as if randy orton just punted susan boyle in the head. massive boos.
Posted By: rey (Guest) on June 17, 2009 at 12:50 PM
Why Trump?Because he really needs the money.
And because Vince cares more about getting attention than trying to make Raw as good as SmackDown,ECW,and to a slightly lesser extent,Superstars.
Posted By: Insane Snake (Registered) on June 17, 2009 at 01:07 PM
For the record though Raw is supposed to be a Brand under the WWE empire. Thus it could be viewed as a company in and off itself as far as TV and storylines are concerned. So having Trump by it works that way.
However... Trump? Seriously? I'll wait to see but right now it feels like the WWE just jumped the shark.
Posted By: DeimosMasque (Guest) on June 17, 2009 at 01:26 PM
So... you don't like Trump as Raw owner?
Posted By: Rollz... (Guest) on June 17, 2009 at 01:30 PM
I mean - I don't want to watch this coming Monday in protest to the lousy product. But I probably will tune in just to see the train wreck.
Side comment on the Raw/Smackdown disparity. Smackdown is superior right now because of the wrestlers. You mention the stars of each show (Raw and Smackdown). Think about one of the more common "high impact" moves in wrestling - the Enziguri. It's a great transitional move that shifts the momentum in the match and it looks pretty cool.
Of the Raw Stars - who can (and does) execute this manuever. I would say none.
Of the Smackdown Stars - who can (and does) do this. I would say all of them.
Smackdown's wrestlers can tell in-ring stories subtelty and with surprises. Raw's wrestlers are blunt and obvious.
Posted By: BobbyC (Guest) on June 17, 2009 at 01:52 PM
"Why can't the iwc "pundits" accept the fact that 1998 past 11 years ago and pro wrestling will never be that hot among the adult male punks ever again."
Why should ratings never be that high again? In 1992, there was no reason to believe that wrestling would be as high as it was in 1998 either.
There is nothing innately about wrestling that will prevent it from getting such high ratings, although there may be problems with the individual companies that keep it from happening.
Fads are partially cyclical - the teens of any given time don't latch on to what the teens of five years earlier loved. But five years after that, you have another opportunity.
It isn't all cyclical though. Wrestling's high points have coincided with hot story lines and charismatic top names. The WWE has no story lines that draw viewers in and HHH is the top name in the company, yet they still get ratings in the 3's. This points to a persistent audience that wants a wrestling product, even though the product is weak right now.
Further, at the core, the IWC is clamoring for a better product. The viable solutions wouldn't actually cost the WWE any more money and would probably not hurt with the paying public. This just makes it more maddening to some.
That said, what I really came here to say:
RAW post-draft shows the weaknesses of the WWE mentality. Even without Batista's injury, the RAW roster lacked main event depth. In the thinking of the management (seemingly), the need was for established names. Remember that everybody thought that Smackdown got screwed by the draft because the names were moved to RAW. Instead, it weakened RAW to the point that one injury killed the main event picture. Even without that injury, it was still the same old same old. Because they won't really pull the trigger on upper mid-carders, it will stay that way on RAW.
What about a short MVP feud with Orton? He could be tired of Orton's punk chicken-shit heel ways. MVP doesn't need to win, but that would be fresh. Meanwhile Kofi can fend off two heel challengers, emerging stronger for it.
Posted By: Guest#9881 (Guest) on June 17, 2009 at 02:09 PM
raw is still a highly rated cable show and makes money for usa network.
Why can't the iwc "pundits" accept the fact that 1998 past 11 years ago and pro wrestling will never be that hot among the adult male punks ever again.
Posted By: Guest#7170 (Guest) on June 17, 2009 at 12:29 PM
Are you basing this off of the stupid "Did You Know?" factoids?
Posted By: saiyahog84 (Guest) on June 17, 2009 at 03:18 PM
I am not gonna make a judgement on the Trump thing yet. people call WWE stupid or bringless all the time but seriously...for the most part they are the last man standing of the 170-1998 era of televized wrestling. So, I will give them the benefit of the doubt as they are still in business. As for the main event...MVP is going to be there. After him all the other up and comers who could get here are on TV on Fridays. I will say this beign in the main even doesn't mean you alutomatically get viewed by the audience as a big star. Remember Eddie, Rey, Benoit, Jericho and even the first Angle run , had main event pushes but were never as big with the audience as Cena, HHH, HBK and so on. I just don't see anyone else on raw ready for that. Matt maybe but if they wanted that to fly they should have kept him on Smackdown. Also, MVP needs some new music cuz his intrance isn't exciting at all.
Posted By: THE GET SOME KID (Guest) on June 17, 2009 at 03:31 PM
For cryin out loud it's WWE folks.
Just Sit back and watch it unfold.
The Donald is a perfect advisary for Vince (although it has been done already)Maybe Thi is just the beginning of more celebrities making there way and getting exposure on the 4 shows.
Posted By: Bill (Guest) on June 17, 2009 at 04:36 PM
Seeing Donald Trump on the same channel as Goldust, Hornswoggle, Santino, John Cena, and The Big Show while the american males theme music played in the background, made me cum buckets.
Posted By: Buckets4Butters4Prez (Guest) on June 17, 2009 at 06:48 PM
A match with Trump would be beyond awful. We're talking "worst match ever!"
And with Santina Marella Vs Vickie Guerrero and Mick Foley Vs Cardboard. That's some heavy competition.
Posted By: Guest#5489 (Guest) on June 17, 2009 at 08:17 PM
Trump tried buying Smackdown! but Teddy Long cock blocked him.
Posted By: Guest#6410 (Guest) on June 17, 2009 at 08:19 PM
Vince simply felt like "taking a Trump" on the RAW audience.
Posted By: EZMark (Guest) on June 17, 2009 at 08:54 PM
On a side note, on Raw after the announcement that Raw was sold, VInce got a call from Donald (I suppose). And i presumably heard him ask for the return of someone, cos Vince was muttering "You want him back?". Seeing as next week's Raw is in Greenbay, would this mean the return of Kennedy? Perhaps Orton v HHH Last Man Standing match at Raw would see (somehow) another enforced leave of absence for HHH at the hands of Orton, leaving Donald to announce the No.1 Contender for the Bash as a returning (again) Mr Kennedy?? his release may have been a swerve. I'm just throwing it up into the air. Perhaps its just wishful thinking on my part to have new blood in the main event scene, instead of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse we get week in week out.
Posted By: Bob (Guest) on June 17, 2009 at 11:47 PM
Do people really care about crap like who owns what show? Even the GM thing has gotten pretty stale in the last few years. Sure, you always gotta have a authority figure to make judgments on things. But the whole GM/owner thing is pretty frigging useless. It only adds to the "entertainment" aspect of the show (and usually not very much, and sometimes not at all), which I'm sure most wrestling fans don't give a crap about.
Posted By: Jimmy West (Guest) on June 18, 2009 at 10:27 AM
Overanalyzing a pro wrestling storyline is never a good idea ...
Why Trump? BECAUSE IT'S A FUN IDEA! People LIKE Donald Trump and they buy the angle because he's a powerful person with more money than Vince, and the average person doesn't sit around parsing out the reality of the situation because it's pro wrestling! But most of all ... IT'S FUN. You know? FUN! Relax and enjoy the show. Or, at the very least, watch the show on Monday and THEN criticize the decision.
Posted By: MDK (Guest) on June 18, 2009 at 11:32 AM
Copyright (c) 2011 411mania.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
Click here for our privacy policy. Please help us serve you better, fill out our survey.
Use of this site signifies your agreement to our terms of use.
