Wow, good old ECW on TNN almost defeated Saturday Night, and they came pretty damn close to the twin WWF shows. Now if ECW were to put on a show like they did last Friday, damn, they could finally get the ratings victory over all of the lower-end shows. If ECW on TNN were to become successful, defeating these little wrestling or highlight shows are a big start. Heat is down bigtime this week, but that can be blamed on many WWF fans purchasing the Pay Per View, and watching the highlights of past Wresltemanias.
Well there you have it. Many people have claimed to me that Russo was the man in the first hour. Oh darn, I could impress people at an unopposed hour with something that's watchable for those kind of ratings. Besides, they were never over 4.0, which many Russo skeptics kept claiming when they were arguing with me about how well Russo did. How about looking at head to head numbers? Look at from 11/09 to 12/28. They go from high to low vs. Monday Night RAW. Yes, RUSSO did start off pretty good for his run as the booker, but look at him up there slowly diminishing against RAW. He couldn't handle the competition then, and that's a reason why he was fired as head booker. Do you see what I'm talking about now?
The only thing that bothered me about "giving Russo a chance" is that he only had 2 weeks to work with the new 2 hour format. In that sense, yes, I agree that Russo should have been on a little longer to prove himself within 2 hours instead of the long 3 which he failed to produce on besides a strong first hour. As for the first hour, it was always beefed up in my opinion, and the rest of the show was just there, or at least that's what I felt then when I was reading through the PDC archives the other day.
The main reason that I did this ratings digging up is to prove one thing: Russo didn't make a big impact against head to head ratings in the 3 and a half months he was given. But I guess I'm now forced to give him a chance, right? I suppose that's so, and I will be very critical of everything Russo books. If this is the second coming like WCW keeps hyping, I want them to prove to ME, a disgruntled WCW fan for the past 2 years, that they are a legitimate federation. They can do it. There's no doubting that. If they do accomplish that, I'm wondering how much time they will take to get there.
-Shawn Micheals returned to the ring last night, and if you read Boyd's post already, he didn't take any hard bumps which is what I figured would happen. See, he won't be able to return to the ring full time. He has his spine fused along with a metal rod, which I also have. When you have this condition, you can't take any shots at all to your back. If someone slams you hard, the impact could shake up the metal rod in your back, which has small hooks grabbing onto your spinal cord, and BAM, you're paralyzed. Therefore, Shawn just did this little match for the good of his company, and he wrestled smart in it as well. He took a good one to the head, I hear, with a Kendo stick, but again, not his back.
If he were to return to the WWF someday to wrestle, could wrestlers avoid back impacting moves like how they avoid any moves that associate the neck of Stone Cold? I doubt it with the back, as a regular bodyslam could do lots of damage. Many slam type moves are intended for a wrestler to take a shot in the back, which would limit Shawn greatly. I'm just hoping that the WWF one day considers his return as commissioner or whatnot. Their relationship has gone completely bad, and it shouldn't be that way. They had years of great partnership, and it all crumbled because HBK spoke his mind about Stone Cold not willing to lose to Triple H at Summerslam. If that's the price of sticking up for a friend, then so be it.
@That's it for today. I'll be back with more Phat Daily Column tomorrow, as I hope for some ratings analysis. See you tomorrow!
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