Audio or Video (But not Both)

The last two television shows have been strange to say the least. For those that didn't see the shows, on Monday night, the main event featured Triple H defending the WWE Championship against the man he won it from the night before at Backlash, Randy Orton. The televised action of this match ended due to the actions of RAW GM King William Regal. He physically accosted someone in the production truck causing the screen to go black while the audio of the commentators stayed on for a few more seconds before Law and Order went on. Last night's main event on ECW featured Kane vs. Chavo Guerrero and Bam Neely in a match that had no commentators.

Monday's Abrupt Ending
The emails I have received from readers about this show have all been angry ones. I didn't see it live because I was in Atlantic City (that fact will be relevant in a few minutes). Watching it this morning, I have to say that I was having some flash backs to the old Mid-South/UWF days. Long-time fans will remember that seemingly every week the show ended with JR commentating on a main event match that ran out of television time.

As far as my thoughts on the ending, it was a great way to build up the hatred for William Regal. In the matter of two weeks, William Regal's character has been totally transformed from a figurehead that no one respected to a serious main event caliber heel. While I'm not a huge fan of Monday's actions, it gave RAW that feeling of anything can happen that has been missing for quite some time.

ECW Commentators Walk Out
I saw last night's event in person while in Atlantic City. From my seat, I saw some things happen that weren't televised that made it very clear to me that last night's walk outs were planned. Security and event staff had cleared a little walk-way for both Tazz and Mike Adamle on the fan's side of the barricade right before they walked off. Tazz had left his seat but a producer brought him back to the commentator position and gave him an index card to read. When I watched the replay, the card he read from was information about the upcoming PPV Judgment Day. Obviously if Tazz was walking away from the company in some form of protest, he wasn't going to read an ad for the company immediately after putting his head set down.

I like what the WWE is doing here. They are getting people to wonder what is going on. Commentary has been a recent news item for the company with Mike Adamle and Mick Foley replacing Joey Styles and Jonathan Coachman respectively in the past few weeks. And when you add in Adamle's so bad it is entertaining style of commentary that has been the buzz of the Internet, I have never been more interested in what is going on behind the microphone as I am today.

What Does This All Mean?
The WWE has been firing on all cylinders on their business end. Things have been going so well for the company that the New York Times recently ran a story praising the WWE business model in their business section (note: About.com is a part of The New York Times Co.).
Unfortunately, the creative end of the company has not been able to deliver things to make the fans wonder what is going on. The company has succeeded with that this week. On Sunday night, many fans (myself included) were left wondering if Shawn Michaels was really hurt. In real life he is fine but from a storyline perspective everyone is wondering if he is or isn't injured. Did he suffer a wrestling injury on Sunday night or is this all a ruse? I know that I will be tuning into both RAW and SmackDown to find out the answer to that question.
Since I was at the TV taping for SmackDown, I can guarantee you that the trend of getting people talking will continue Friday night. Since this site is non-spoiler, I won't mention what happens (if you know what happens please don't post a comment about it until SmackDown airs) but I guarantee you that you will be shocked by how the show ends, and not that it has both audio and video.

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