Wow ... Slow News Week.

So ... I know. We screwed up last week. Part of that was illness - we have all had the worst cold this side of cold and flu season, as I explained in my last blog. Some changed-around plans for the long weekend (Thanksgiving here in Canada) were also responsible. But to a certain degree, the wrestling product has also been uninspired, and honestly somewhat awful the last few weeks.

First of all, hard to build up excitement about a pay-per-view with two weeks' opportunity to create interest. When, two weeks on the heels of the last PPV, the company needed to build up Hell in a Cell, it resulted in a lot of rush jobs. We actually didn't see the PPV - we chose to see Moneyball instead. And while it sounds like it had some cool moments - the Miz and R Truth's beatdown at the end of the show for example - I don't especially feel like it was a poor decision for our time and money. And again, with only three weeks separating HIAC from the next PPV - Vengeance -  the risk of hotshotting storylines in order to prep them for PPV is very real. This is always a rough time of year for the WWE. With the return of Monday Night Football, as well as the MLB playoffs, the fall is always a loss-leader for them. Add that to the fact we're heading into a somewhat quiet time PPV-wise (there isn't usually a PPV over the Holidays, Royal Rumble is in late January and there's one one PPV between it and April's Wrestlemania), October/November are always kind of loaded with PPVs at 3 week intervals. It's a big risk ... and one that hasn't been paying off of late.

There was some promies to the walkout storyline that ended Raw last week - Triple H has let things get out of control, and WWE employees no longer feel safe in that environment. There are a few kinks, some minor (this is largely a heel-led issue - how would we redeem the faces who walked out also, from seeming cowardly in the rough and tumble world of pro wrestling?), some larger (WWE is inherently an 'unsafe work environment' ... do you REALLY want to highlight that? And isn't Triple H supposed to be an authority figure for the entirety of WWE? In which case ... why is the walkout Raw exclusive, instead of affecting both programs?). But it was interesting and I was willing to see where it went.

Through Smackdown and the first 15-20 minutes of this week's Raw, there was some promise. They awkwardly tried to explain Triple H's presence on Raw being that SD had a General Manager, Raw didn't - and when ultimately he was relieved of his duties (onscreen), it was as showrunner for Raw, not as COO/overall authority figure.