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http://www.charleston.net/stories/060604/moo_06wrestle.shtml

Sunday, June 6, 2004 
 
Raw current king of pro wrestling 

BY MIKE MOONEYHAM 
Of The Post and Courier Staff 

With World Wrestling Entertainment rolling into town in just a couple
of weeks, now's a good time to look at the company's two divisions and
how the brand extension is working.

First off, I haven't talked to one fan locally who's sorry that the
June 19 show at the North Charleston Coliseum isn't a Smackdown brand
event. But that's pretty much the consensus of the WWE audience
nationwide. Raw is clearly the preferred brand, and will be for the
foreseeable future.

While the non-televised event isn't expected to approach sellout
status, Coliseum marketing director Alan Coker expects a healthy
turnout on June 19.

"There are still tickets available, but we're happy with sales so
far," Coker said Thursday. "There are a number of shows on our list
that would be very happy to be selling the number of tickets Raw is."

Most of the top stars on the Raw roster, with the exception of Triple
H and Shawn Michaels, are scheduled to appear at the Coliseum.

Raw traditionally has been perceived as the brand with the greater
star power, although at one time Smackdown boasted the superior
in-ring product. That division, though, has taken major hits over the
past few months with injuries to top-tier talent such as Kurt Angle
and Big Show, along with the sudden departure of ex-champion Brock
Lesnar following Wrestlemania XX. The lottery draft also didn't help
matters. While Smackdown gained the likes of Booker T, Rob Van Dam,
Rene Dupree and The Dudleys, it lost blue-chipper Shelton Benjamin,
whose career has skyrocketed since making the switch to Raw.

WWE faces a critical period over the next six weeks as it offers an
unprecedented string of three pay-per-views, beginning with Raw's Bad
Blood show June 13, followed by Smackdown's Great American Bash on
June 27 and Raw's Vengeance on July 11. Of the three, the Smackdown
offering looks to be the weakest.

The tentative lineup for that show isn't exactly earth-shattering. A
rematch between Eddie Guerrero and John Bradshaw Layfield -- with a
bull-rope stipulation added -- headlines the event. The supporting
cast isn't much more appealing. The aging but resilient Undertaker
meets The Dudleys in a handicap match. Booker T, whose persistent back
problems increasingly point to his retirement sooner rather than
later, challenges U.S. champion John Cena, a one-time can't-miss
prospect whose passÈ gimmick has lost much of its zing. Add to that
your usual Smackdown assortment of divas, a style clash with Rey
Mysterio against Mark Jindrak, a flag match pitting Rob Van Dam
against Rene Dupree, and a tag-team bout with The Guerreros (Chavo Jr.
and Chavo Classic) vs. Rico and Charlie Haas.

Judgment Day, the last Smackdown pay-per-view, delivered the lowest
buyrate of a WWE PPV event in three years. The Great American Bash,
whose title is taken from a once grand NWA/WCW tradition, should give
it a run for the money.

Even the Raw brand, whose Monday night rating dropped to 3.2 last
week, appears to be headed for a cooling-off period. Chances are that
neither Triple H, with movie commitments, nor Shawn Michaels, with
family commitments, will make the Raw pay-per-view in July.

That could mean that Edge's heel turn, which subtly began last Monday
night on Raw, will be put on a fast track, along with the continued
mega-push of Orangeburg native Benjamin.

Raw still leads the way in ratings, house show attendance and overall
fan interest. Although the lack of star power on the Smackdown roster
has created opportunities for a mid-carders to "take the ball and run
with it," as WWE brass is wont to say, it also has created a sense
that the brand is inferior to its counterpart. Smaller houses and
lower ratings and pay-per-view buyrates mean smaller payoffs to the
talent, and that doesn't translate to healthy locker-room morale.

Vince McMahon, of course, remains the staunchest advocate of the
two-roster set-up. The WWE impresario points to more polished
production for the Smackdown show on UPN (it's taped and edited) and
more divergent styles of wrestling on that show, noting Rey Mysterio
and Kurt Angle, whose exposure on Smackdown has been relegated to a
non-wrestling figurehead general manager.

A number of the top stars in WWE have been wary of the brand
extension. Steve Austin, prior to leaving the company, remarked in an
interview earlier this year that he wished the brands were still
together, "but Vince is a different man."

McMahon, however, is committed to stay the course. He is confident
that over time, new superstars will emerge on the Smackdown side and
new gimmicks and new characters will take hold. With the company
overall in good financial shape, he feels there's plenty of time to
strengthen the weaknesses.

There's too much at stake and not enough evidence to ditch the brand
extension now. McMahon has enough aces in the hole to shore up
Smackdown if things continue to go south.

-- Last week's edition of Smackdown posted a 3.3 rating, up from the
previous week's 2.9, and better than the 2.5 the Stanley Cup finals
did Thursday night on ABC.

-- NWA-TNA took a major step with its national cable debut Friday on
Fox Sports Net. The group will tape its weekly hour-long Impact shows
at Universal Studios in Orlando in addition to airing its weekly
Wednesday night pay-per-views from Nashville.

The two-year-old company has strived in recent months to produce a
family-friendly product without the risquÈ elements of WWE
programming. NWA-TNA banned swearing and heavy sexual content on its
pay-per-view telecasts late last year.

-- NWA-TNA founder and longtime wrestling promoter Jerry Jarrett,
father of Jeff Jarrett, recently underwent triple bypass heart surgery
in Nashville.

-- Kenzo Suzuki is scheduled to make his WWE debut at the Great
American Bash pay-per-view. Company officials scrapped plans to bring
Suzuki in as a descendant of the late Japanese Emperor Hirohito,
fearing that their planned portrayal of Suzuki might jeopardize their
ties to Japanese wrestling promotions.

The initial plan was to have Suzuki challenge Chris Benoit in the main
event of a Raw pay-per-view, but due to controversy over his Hirohito
gimmick, the Japanese grappler was moved to Smackdown.


--- Internet Rex 2.29