Raw Has Lost a Viewer

It's Tuesday night, around 11:20pm, here in Britain as I write this. I haven't watched No Mercy yet, because I didn't have the stamina to stay up until four in the morning, having partied the night away with my World Association of Wrestling buddies.

I've just taken one of my antidepressants. The pill takes a little while to kick in. I normally get a little sad this time of the evening, but tonight, I'm sad because I feel like I've lost an old friend, something that has been with me, through good times and bad, since 1989.

I haven't seen Raw yet. Us Brits don't have that honour until the Friday after it airs in the US But this Friday, I probably won't be making the effort to gather together some heavily-salted snacks, a few soft drinks (I'm not allowed my beloved beer at the moment), and a couple of chocolate bars, in anticipation of two hours of top notch entertainment.

I've read the reviews, and the condemnation. It's all over the Internet. Triple H gets dressed up as Kane, and, well, you know the rest.

I've watched the WWF/E every week for thirteen years now. From my first Wrestlemania at the Trump Plaza, I've stuck with the product. When business started to take a downturn around the mid-nineties, when Vince McMahon finally realised that plumbers wrestling clowns wouldn't cut it anymore, I stuck with the product, because I believed in it.

Even when Eric Bischoff was kicking the WWF's backside with talent that McMahon had made famous, I stuck by the product. Sure, it was pretty bad at times, but I still watched, preferring to watch a video on whatever show WCW broadcast at the same time as any WWF show.

I watched the WWF push the envelope out, inspired by Paul Heyman's Extreme product. I tuned into ECW, liked what I saw, but still preferred to drink McMahon's kool aid. McMahon fought back in the ratings war in America, before finally emerging on top, kicking WCW's ass so much, the company eventually folded and was absorbed into the WWF.

I watched the failed Invasion angle, an angle that only really had three good nights, the last one being when the angle was finally put to rest. I watched the return of the New World Order, wanting more than ever to relive their glory days, feeling sad when  the angle bombed.

I've continued to watch over the past few months, sometimes alone, sometimes with a few WAW friends after attending a WAW show. Despite the poor skits and the like, I continued to watch. I watched the Billy and Chuck angle with interest. What was wrong with that? McMahon had come up with far worse a few years previously, hadn't he? We all remember the angle where Goldust gave Ahmed Johnson the "kiss of life", don't we? Through all this, I stuck with the product, because I believed in the product. I wanted it to get better, and I wanted to be there, in front of the television, when the product got better.

But this Friday, I won't be. I've seen this angle begin. I hoped that Sky, in their infinite wisdom, would perhaps edit Hunter's comments this past Friday in the way they edited out Rosey and Jamal's attack on Moolah and Mae Young a short time ago.

Having read all the reports on the Internet, I find myself asking what the hell is Vince McMahon thinking? Has he really lost the plot this time? I have no children of my own, but I have nephews who are mad on wrestling. I would advise my brothers not to let their kids watch Raw this Friday.

I hope that Sky don't show this part of Raw on Friday. However, I won't be watching to find out if they have. I'll continue to watch Smackdown on Saturday, but Raw may have lost a die-hard fan in the long run.

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm losing faith in Vince McMahon, and his ability to even put something out that closely resembles the wrestling product that I would ever consider watching.

A friend of mine recently wrote about how the Internet is slowly killing the wrestling industry. Perhaps she was wrong. Vince McMahon is doing a pretty good job of that by himself.