WWE spoiling returns/big events (NOT A LESNAR THREAD)

[Kong]

Maybe the tweet was designed for the purpose of inciting the crowd to chant "we want Lesnar" or just to get people not watching to tune in so they didnt miss it?

[prestonluv]

Originally Posted by healyz84

If you remember correctly, in the Monday Night Wars, the tide of the battle was shifted when it was announced on Nitro (live) that Mick Foley had won the wwe championship on raw (taped) in an attempt to sabotage the show. What turned out happening is that millions tuned in to watch this take place, thereby giving raw the ratings victory that evening and ending Nitro's dominance, and was the beginning of the end for Nitro.
.

This is a completely false statement in regards to ending Nitro's dominance.

Raw did go live soon after this though and Nitro continued to win the ratings for around 80 weeks or so.

I know its 15 years ago so your memory might be fuzzy...but the announcing of Raw results did not end nitro's dominance in the short run...but it speed up the WWF airing Raw live.

[SomeAreSet]

Let me paint the picture for you. This is why:

Casual WWE fans or people who watch wrestling in general who were not watching Raw tonight. Let's just call them Guy: "Hmm,let's check twitter...'@WWE: THIS MAN has just walked into the building!' *clicks the link* OH MY GOD! *switches to Raw* *texts friends who also watch wrestling 'DUDE,BROCK LESNAR IS COMING BACK!'"

His friends: "What? Really?"

Guy: "YEAH! SWITCH TO RAW RIGHT THE HELL NOW!"

His friends: "Holy shit,okay!" Then they turn on Raw

Guy: "I gotta retweet this! *retweets*"

Someone who follows him on twitter: "FOR REAL?"

Guy: "YEAH!"

Someone who follows him on twitter changes the channel to Raw.

- End scene -

This is how they get ratings and extra PPV buys. If you weren't watching Raw and didn't know Lesnar was going to appear on the show,you wouldn't change the channel. Of course,since you were watching Raw,then all it serves is to build your anticipation,or in your case,ruin the surprise. How is it a surprise anyway? WrestleZone broke the story that Lesnar had signed with WWE the day before WrestleMania,and since he didn't appear on Mania,you would imagine that he would make his return after WrestleMania and probably as soon as possible while the spotlight is still on the company.

[I hate Cena]

Originally Posted by prestonluv

This is a completely false statement in regards to ending Nitro's dominance.

Raw did go live soon after this though and Nitro continued to win the ratings for around 80 weeks or so.

I know its 15 years ago so your memory might be fuzzy...but the announcing of Raw results did not end nitro's dominance in the short run...but it speed up the WWF airing Raw live.

??? The last night that Nitro beat Raw was in November of 1998. Raw won every single week after that. Look it up.

And yes, spoilers are actually good for business. "We want Lesnar!" drowning out Cena was epic. What a great Raw. What a great 2 nights!

[prestonluv]

Originally Posted by I hate Cena

??? The last night that Nitro beat Raw was in November of 1998. Raw won every single week after that. Look it up.

And yes, spoilers are actually good for business. "We want Lesnar!" drowning out Cena was epic. What a great Raw. What a great 2 nights!

sorry..i guess its my memory that has faded..

i was thinking of raw switching to a 2 hours show which happenned in 97. I forgot that one show was live and the next one was taped on tuesday kind of like smackdown.

My bad. I apologoze to poster who originally stated this

[Rainbow Yaz]

I would say about 80% of the spoiled returns and events are simply due to people reading dirt sheets.

In some cases they do it to draw people in though. Like it was said, Raw was up against UK/KU tonight. I don't know the specifics but when I logged onto ESPN.com to join my fantasy baseball draft(around the time Cena came out) the game was a lot closer than it was in the first half. People were probably expecting a generic Cena/Rock huggy kissy promo and would rather watch a close national title game, so they tweet that Brock is in the building to get people to keep watching.

Unless its to see who won on Superstars or NXT I avoid all WWE articles that have *Spoiler* before the article name

[Shotaro]

Originally Posted by SFC

While I'm using Lesnar as an example, this is NOT a Lesnar thread.

Earlier tonight, WWE spoiled the return of Brock Lesnar by posting a tweet announcing that he had walked into the arena. Approximately three to five minutes later, long enough for it to circle the Internet (which takes seconds in today's society), he appeared.

This is not the first time WWE has done this. If one can think back to SummerSlam 2010, they did the same by posting on their website that Daniel Bryan had returned to the company in the main event about a half-hour or so before it actually happened.

We can even think back to more recently when Santino won the battle royal to get into the Elimination Chamber on Smackdown, or to when Kurt Angle won the WHC in a battle royal back around 2006 or so.

My question is, what is the advantage of doing this? Does it not take away the element of surprise? I understand that Smackdown is a little bit of an exception since spoilers are usually posted on dirt sheets, but what harm would it have done to have let Lesnar have been a complete surprise, or in general, let something big occur without having to be posted prior? What is the advantage?

Again, not to say this happens all the time, but to me, it shouldn't happen period.

I think the Daniel Bryan one was a legitimate fuck up, but that aside, I agree. It's difficult though because as fans we do little to show we don't WANT to be spoiled. Look at Jerichos return. He didn't even arrive at the closest airport, but someone spotted him, grabbed a candid and then it was all over the 'net. We ruin more stuff than the WWE ever does.

[Triple Naitch]

Originally Posted by justinept

You really can't figure this one out on your own? Really? Fine. I'll tell you.

Monday Night Raw went head-to-head against the NCAA National Championship game tonight. What good is a surprise return if your target demographic isn't watching the show when it happens? The WWE leaked the Lesnar return so that people would tune into Raw instead of the Kansas/Kentucky game. I would bet my house that the WWE leaked the story of his signing a few days ago to draw up interest throughout the weekend.

In terms of SummerSlam 2010, they did it because they wanted people to purchase the event. Again, what good is a surprise return if people aren't watching? The hope was that the Daniel Bryan tweet would spark up last minute interest for people on the fence to purchase the event.

EDIT:
This is the same logic as to why the WWE ran the 1/2/12 promos earlier this year. The WWE was competing against the Fiesta Bowl that night. The promos gave you a reason to watch ... the Lesnar leak gave people a reason to watch tonight.

This is exactly right.

You could have the best episode of Monday Night Raw of all time, but that wouldn't matter if there wasn't that many viewers. WWE wants as many people to watch their shows as possible, and knowing that they were up against some other big shows that night, took the wise decision of leaking that Lesnar had arrived at the arena.

It made sense to do. Most people who were watching Raw already wouldn't have checked their phone/internet to see the Lesnar news, they would have been concentrating on their TV, and it was done so that someone who was considering watching Raw would have seen it, wanted to see Lesnar and tuned into the last few minutes of Raw, hopefully been impressed and then will watch the show next week to see what happens.

It was just a way of convincing people not to watch the football, but to tune into Raw. I don't think its a big deal to be honest.

[destruct-o-tron]

Originally Posted by The Dragon Saga

All weekend sites like WrestleZone, Lordsofpain.net, F4WOnline, PWTorch etc, etc have been updating through "reliable sources" on the status of Brock Lesnar.

First of all, people who visit those sites are the VAST minority. The overwhelming majority watch it on a much more casual basis. Believe it or not, the people who even subscribe to the Twitter feeds are considered to be on the really "hardcore" side. But that's not as important as my next point...

Originally Posted by The Dragon Saga

WWE ruined nothing, blame the Internet.

No, WWE absolutely dropped the ball. They tweeted the info themselves. Furthermore, even if they hadn't, and all the info came from outside sources, IT'S STILL THEIR FAULT! It's important for a company to be able to protect its trade secrets. Even more so if said company happens to be in the entertainment industry, and if said "trade secrets" are supposed to be big surprises. That's inexcusable.

WWE absolutely dropped the ball. It falls on nobody's shoulders but their own that they were unable to keep a fucking entourage from following Lesnar around and spoiling the surprise (again, ignoring the fact that they fucking did it themselves).

It'd be like if George Lucas put the revelation that Darth Vader is Luke's father in the -previews- for Empire, then angry fans blaming movie theaters for showing the preview.

[destruct-o-tron]

Originally Posted by Triple Naitch

This is exactly right.

You could have the best episode of Monday Night Raw of all time, but that wouldn't matter if there wasn't that many viewers. WWE wants as many people to watch their shows as possible, and knowing that they were up against some other big shows that night, took the wise decision of leaking that Lesnar had arrived at the arena.

It made sense to do. Most people who were watching Raw already wouldn't have checked their phone/internet to see the Lesnar news, they would have been concentrating on their TV, and it was done so that someone who was considering watching Raw would have seen it, wanted to see Lesnar and tuned into the last few minutes of Raw, hopefully been impressed and then will watch the show next week to see what happens.

It was just a way of convincing people not to watch the football, but to tune into Raw. I don't think its a big deal to be honest.

While you make a good point (as does the poster you're responding to), you're still forgetting that... THEY TOTALLY RUINED THE SURPRISE! Why even bother if you're just going to spoil it?

A big perk that having a surprising, unpredictable program (that tweeting spoilers completely negates) is that you have to tune in to see what happens. You don't have to watch the whole show if the WWE is just going to tell you via Twitter when all of the good parts are about to happen. It's just completely counterproductive.