Randy Orton on ESPN

[Thriller Ant]

http://sports.espn.go.com/videogames/news/story?id=3855511

I just found this article on espn.com and thought it was pretty interesting. First and most obviously, it's wrestling on ESPN! I'm assuming that this is clearly WWE trying to get publicity for the Rumble, due to the leadoff, and Smackdown! vs Raw 2009 since it is in the video game section. The most shocking part to me, is that the link to the story was on the bottom of the home page. So, what do you guys think about wrestling on ESPN? Would you like to see it there more? Finally, is this good publicity for the WWE? I can't wait to see what everyone thinks about this story.

 

[Mr. TM]

Well since this is just an article, I don't think much about it. But if they actually get ESPN to have WWE programming on the show, that is a great step for them. Even if it is just on ESPN 2 for the most part, WWE would be able to capitalize on a huge market. The thing that pisses me off if that did happen, and this is a little off topic, but I would hate if the WWE got airtime, and the NHL did not.

 

[Thriller Ant]

I agree that the NHL should before WWE, but even if ESPN had some coverage it would help. Just think if on SportsCenter's Top 10 there was the winner of the Royal Rumble, or the main event at WrestleMania. I'm sure that many fans of "real sports" would rip on both ESPN and WWE, but as the saying goes: Any publicity is good publicity. I personally wouldn't mind seeing at least a little coverage of pay-per-views on ESPN, especially with the natural bond with Coach being with ESPN now. Plus, one of the anchors (sorry I can't remember which, Robert Flores maybe?) always makes wrestling references.

 

[mauihaole69]

I think WWE's best chance to get any airtime on ESPN would be to let them air old PPVs, RAWs, and Smackdowns on ESPN Classic. ESPN has done this with really old wrestling promotions and I think if they did older WWE and WCW (since WWE owns the rights) it could be successful. Of course having any positive mention of WWE on their website is good for WWE as the espn.com traffic is huge.

 

[Shocky]

Wow, I'm semi-stunned by this. The WWE getting mention on ESPN and it's not in a derogatory fashion. It's also a good choice by ESPN to go after the tweener guy that speaks more to the older crowd as opposed to a Cena that appeals to a younger crowd that doen't fit the ESPN demo.

I wouldn't read too much into this, but you never know. Since the WWE has cleaned up it's image, this is exactly the end game they probably wanted. Sure the Attitude Era elft shock and awe in it's wake, but ultimately in alienated the WWE onto its own island, because no one wanted to be associated with it. Now that the WWE has cleaned it's image up, you'll see more respectable companies come to associate themselves with the WWE. ESPN isn't stupid, they realize that MMA is a growing sport, and too much of the anger of some, they decided to cover the "glorfied human dog fighting" on their programming. Likewise with WWE. WWE is routinely the #1 programming on their networks, why wouldn't ESPN decide to test the waters with the WWE, especially since the NFL is now done and we head into a dead period of sports before baseball starts?

The only problem that I see with this, ESPN, as evident by the article, is going to peel back the curtain and let us see the man behind Wizard, apparantely a big no no from Vince McMahon. The Article mentions the WWE as a sport, not as an Entertainment crap or all that stupid shit McMahon is wanting to use now. Will Vince McMahon ultimately drop his agenda and vision of what the WWE and Sports Entertainment and Entertainers are to get face time on ESPN?

 

[Thriller Ant]

The only problem that I see with this, ESPN, as evident by the article, is going to peel back the curtain and let us see the man behind Wizard, apparantely a big no no from Vince McMahon. The Article mentions the WWE as a sport, not as an Entertainment crap or all that stupid shit McMahon is wanting to use now. Will Vince McMahon ultimately drop his agenda and vision of what the WWE and Sports Entertainment and Entertainers are to get face time on ESPN?

I was thinking that. Vince is using this "Entertainment" tag to save money by getting out of special taxes, from what I've heard. I personally would go with the "Sports Entertainment" tag and try and get promoted by ESPN. First, there is the ability to reach an untapped audience. Being someone who is addicted to ESPN, I know that whatever they advertise on SportsCenter and their other shows gets huge amounts of viewers. Just look at MMA: once it started getting more exposure on ESPN, viewership picked up. On the flipside is the NHL: now that they no longer have an ESPN contract, their national audiences are smaller than the number of people at the arenas. Even though it will cost the WWE some money, I say there is way too much potential there for them to pass up.

 

[Kurt]

This is just a small series of steps in Vince's way to building WWE up to Wrestlemania. It would be nice to see more pro-wrestling on the actual ESPN, rather than it be on OTL or talking about Brock Lesnar's upcoming fight and how he started from the WWE.

 

[Jane]

I like it. I don't see why WWE isn't on ESPN, other than Vince trying to lean towards the entertainment aspect of things. That article was very well written, and I think that more stuff like that would be great for publicity. Orton did well, and I thought it was pretty funny as well as entertaining. The only real WWE interviews we get are from the company, and they are normally boring and a waste of time. This is the real stuff, the stuff we want to know. The questions the WWE ask are like, "why did you kick him?" because it's obviously just to further the angle. Things like this are good for getting the realistic side of things.

 

[CCS]

I wasnt really suprised by the article. I've watched ESPN before and seen Edge there promoting SummerSlam. It's obviously good publicity. Anytime a sports network features the WWE it's a good thing. When the WWE is shown along with the NFL, MLB, and NBA it gives them credability. That's something the WWE is really lacking right now. The only time it's not good is when the hosts try to be smartasses about wrestling being "fake" but most of the time the wrestlers put them in there place pretty fast.