Steve Austin Provides An Update On His Surgically Repaired Knee

I think they might save him for a WM30 mega-card which will feature the final matches of such stars as Undertaker, Triple H, Mick Foley, Steve Austin, The Rock, Batista, Brock Lesnar, Big Show, Rey Mysterio, Mark Henry – and at this rate Ric Flair and John Cena. Fink as ring announcer and JR and Jerry Lawler involved on commentary with one or both retiring at the card. At the end of the card – Vince passes full control of the company to Triple H. Vince could even have his last match ever – against Triple H, for control of the company.

Whilst a dream card like that might sound like an appealing idea – WWE knows it would be a terrible idea. First of all, you leave with the feeling that the card can never be topped – plus, what’s the point in watching (for some people) if its unlikely to ever be as good again. Also, with so many big names retiring on one night you leave a massive talent gap at the top of the card and many feeling that all the good wrestlers have gone. Even when Goldberg and Brock left on one night people felt like there was a huge void – retirements need to be staggered so that the audience doesn’t get the jitters.

Of course, they could try to make a ‘passing of the torch’ card where they had a bunch of old vs young wrestlers and the whole card was retirement matches and the wrestlers that went under retired and passed the torch whilst others didn’t go under and didn’t retire so fans that had been worrying about that star retiring realised they had nothing to worry about. Still, it’s very unlikely to happen – but the one part that would work really well would be the Triple H/Vince part – except for the part he has stated he will never retire. It’s a well known fact he is a truly obsessive complete and utter workaholic – but we can already see that he’s now got a very short-term outlook on things.

Maybe he plans on leaving the company if Linda gets into Senate. They may have a deal whereby he’s had his way for so many years that now it’s her time to shine and he will support her in her now role whist also distancing themselves from the product. Either way, increasing advertising revenue whilst losing fans/viewers is a terrible long-term strategy because you need as many fans as possible.

I’d have thought with him trying to get network clearance that ratings would be essential for leverage – unless Vince is so much of a genius that he’s trying to show how many hardcore fans the WWE has who will keep watching no matter what – whether the product goes PG, the show is too long, the writing is terrible, the biggest stars aren’t on TV, the stars assault fans, random wrestlers are put at the top of the card, the show is mainly recaps etc etc – maybe he is really a genius and by showing that millions of fans will watch ‘no matter what’ he is showing that the network is viable because fans won’t let a monthly subscription get in the way of them watching WWE shows.

That would never be my strategy as I’d want the biggest available audience and main-stream exposure rather than be a niche premium-priced product. That’s a far more difficult way to gain fans/subscribers and on the long-term people will want value for money. Plus, that relies on adults being prepared to pay a subscription for something that their kids want – in some cases.