Wow. I have to admit I was disappointed to not see CM Punk last night, but I must commend the way that the WWE and in particular Paul Heyman worked the crowd to minimize the damage.
I wouldn't be surprised if WWE execs just went to Paul and said "this may very well be a disaster...what do we do?" and Paul came up with this. It didn't shy away from the CM Punk situation, which I was terribly afraid they would do, and it cleverly segued the frustration into another, real program. Granted, a lot of the audience saw right through it, but enough of the Chicago crowd was behind what Paul Heyman was saying that they completely bought into the seamless way he associated Punk with Lesnar and Taker. It was promo psychology at it's best, and a prime example of how a good talker can work even a hostile crowd, provided the crowd is invested in the product as a whole.
Again, I am disappointed to not see Punk, just because I am a fan of his. That being said, if he is indeed not coming back immediately, I now see him not returning until after WM30. What would be the point of a surprise return at Wrestlemania? You would want to advertise a draw like that.
I was very impressed with Raw last night. I am still not sure if I am completely sold on the emerging card of Wrestlemania, but of course I will watch it regardless. That leads me to another topic I want to briefly tackle today: the success of the WWE Network.
I have seen a lot of people online saying that the network will fail because of the number of subscribers presumably needed to break even. I think I am a good example of why it will ultimately succeed. I have not purchased a WWE ppv since Wrestlemania 18, and only them because I hosted a party for my employees at the time. I consider myself a pretty devoted fan of wrestling, I have been watching ever since I saw WCCW on my grandmother's tv when I would visit her on the weekends. As a kid, I only had three channels and would watch the WWF every weekend. I followed the entirety of the Monday Night Wars, and I am a wrestling trivia buff (perhaps not to the extent of someone like William R. Washington but I pride myself on my personal database). My point is, the WWE Network has convinced me to subscribe, because $9.99 a month is much easier to swallow and the value is so much greater than buying inflated ppv prices each month. I wonder how many other wrestling fans are of the same mindset. Even if I had pirated ppv's, which I didn't, but if I had, $9.99 would be low enough to make me go legit. Those are my two cents.
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