Why didn't Cyber Sunday/ Taboo Tuesday work?

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

Pro Wrestling has always worked well whenever it has come as close to the mainstream culture as possible. For example in the 1980's rock and roll was the big cultural phenomena and so we had the glitzy and the glamourous Rock n Wrestling era. Similarily in the late 90's the audience was yearning for more violent and shocking television and so we got the Attitude Era as a result.

In the 2000's it could be said reality television took the TV industry by storm. Almost every reality show from American Idol to Big Brother worked and worked well. But surprisingly this was a mainstream cultural phenomena that the WWE missed out on. WWE did come up with two reality shows namely Tough Enough and the Diva Search but neither of the two shows was good enough to generate crowd interest. An arguement could be made as to why these two shows did not work. After all what these shows offered was merely a chance for a wrestler to work with the WWE. That might be a huge thing for the wrestler but it was a pretty minor thing in the eyes of most WWE fans. After all the debut of a wrestler, especially that of a lower midcarder does not really interest the crowd.

But what was more surprising was the fact that a certain PPV named Cyber Sunday did not take off. Unlike Tough Enough and the Diva Search competitions this PPV was an integral part of the main product. The concept of this PPV was that the fans decided the matches that would go on the PPV. In some matches the fans could choose an opponent for a particular person and in others they could choose the stipulation for the match. In my opinion it was a good mix of wrestling and reality television, that was the big thing in those days and still is to an extent, and I really thought that this was the next big revolution in wrestling. But surprisingly this PPV got very low buys each year and after a while WWE decided to discontinue the PPV altogether.

So my question is, Why didn't Cyber Sunday/ Taboo Tuesday work? Concept wise it had all the ingredients of being a huge success but for some reason it did not work out. Why was that the case?

My Opinion: Every boom period in wrestling has corresponded with the evolution of a new wrestling megastar who defined the era in more ways than one. Examples are Hogan in the 80's and Austin in the late 90's.

My point is that the timing of Taboo Tuesday was all wrong. Imagine John Cena at the height of his popularity as a rapper winning the World Heavyweight Championship on the back of public voting. That would have made a great advertisement for the PPV. The WWE would have promoted it as " You chose your World Champion once. Now it's time to do so again." A charismatic new WWE Champion crowned on the bak of public voting would have really given the concept a huge boost and it might even have become a big 5 PPV.

The PPV had a good concept but it did not really provide many earth shattering results. If I remember correctly most of the times the champions retained their championships at this PPV and the people ultimately lost interest.

However, that is only my opinion. Feel free to give yours.

Why didn't Cyber Sunday/ Taboo Tuesday work?

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

There was never the real opportunity to see who you wanted in the matches. WWE would give a few options, but it was always the people that they wanted you to pick, that they believed were marketable options.

For example, the public may desperately want to see Daniel Bryan fight Edge for the World Heavyweight title, but WWE could put the 3 options to choose from as Dolph Ziggler, Randy Orton or Wade Barrett, who are 3 wrestlers they believe would be worthy challengers to Edge and who are worth a storyline. Bryan isn't high enough on their radar for them to want to put him in a World Title match at a PPV.

Same with the match type. We could want to see Edge in a HIAC match against his opponent at the PPV, but the options suggested are submission match, table match or strap match.

The options were so limited, and you were not able to choose who you really wanted to see in the matches, or the type of matches. All you were able to do is vote for one of the people WWE were happy for you to vote for

It was bullshit in my mind, it could have been a great concept for a once a year PPV where surprise matches were made, and wrestlers who wouldnt normally have got the chance to, were able to appear on PPV in title matches, if only WWE had had the balls to do it properly

 

[Power & Glory]

Considering that we never got to see the actual results after we voted to know how the standings are, like when you do in polls, instead getting the "Thank you for your vote" or something similar followed by a blank page with "you will be redirected back to wwe.com", it is my opinion that we, the voters and fans never had to say in it to begin with. All they did in my opinion is use the "votes" to see how many people are actually interested in the product they are offering.

Sure, once the ppv starts, anyone can put on bogus "results" backstage in the production truck to fool people and lets face it, Vince is a too big of a ego maniac to let anyone have a say in his creation.

So once people realized that along with what other posters said above, the ppv itself was doomed. I personally am glad its gone.

 

[gooseholla]

I think the main problem with making it too free is the problem of the primary element of wrestling: it is fixed - that is, people sit down and work out spots, routines, results etc. before hand to make it good. If anyone could have faced anyone in any match type, it would potential end up in poor wrestling.

They wanted you to choose their option, by putting rubbish options alongside, so that everything would happen as normal, but fans would feel they had a say in the PPV.

 

[salopstick]

hbk said in his book thet the polls were real and vince wouldnt short change the fans or rig a vote. the fans knew hbk had had a legit injury and as such knew he would win the vote hbk was prepared to and actually won the vote. as such i believe this to be true

however has already stated all the matches and stipulations were loaded in wwe's favour so we actually voted for what vince wanted.

also the matches were never really loaded along the current storylines so there was not really a pay off for the fans. it was just a random card put together

 

[OutsiderDX]

The base of the concept was "Fans vote for the matches". But then the E went against the entire concept by not just limiting the vote, but also handicapping the vote.

The vote was : pick from OUR three choices. It was not pick from ALL options.

The PPV would have approximately 7 matches:

3 of those the WWE figured were inconsequential what the fans picked. They didn't care what the "stipulation" or "special referee" of the matches were, because the WWE already pre-set the opponents. So it didn't really matter if it was a falls-count-anywhere, a no-disqualification or 2-out-of-3 falls- or who ref'ed.

4 others would to let the fans pick the opponents, but they would handicap the voting. They would throw a heel in who the fans wouldn't pick, or face who the fans would pick. Then on top of that, they would create a storyline on RAW or Smackdown where one of the choices had a very heated interaction / fight with the opponent.

The WWE pretty much counted on the fans being Sheep. They know better than anyone, how easily people are influenced.

The fact is knowledgable fans never had a chance to get anything near a true "choice". And that why it was never worked. It was the fans that got worked.

 

[I am the Jerichoholic]

I liked the first two taboo tuesdays, when they turned it to cyber sunday it got stale. It has nothing to do with the name change just mentioned above felt like we were almost forced into the vote.

The first two were great tho, for the IC title we had like 15 people to choose from to face Chris Jericho, from low mid card to most popular. That was a great idea, let the fan pick from a wide range just incase we may be all feeling someone rather then the 3 or so it turned into. and usually one choice was really awful.

Besides that the HBK match with triple h was awesome because of that knee injury (not the knee injury but the match its self) then the next years Flair and Triple H in a cage...Fantastic, not only was the match a real pleasure to watch but Flair was in top form giving Triple h the finger while he was in the figure 4...too funny.

From there cyber sunday rolled in and no matchs really stood out that I remember, Fixed or not it just had the feeling of being fixed and that was enough for me to lose intrest.

 

[Vega]

I agree with most people on here and say: they didn't go far enough.

I'm sure it is a great concept and it could create a lot of feel-good-moments, but it was limited so much that nobody had interest.

1. First of all the voting options were very small. Once you could choose a competitor out of two or three people (more on that in my last point) who would have gotten a title shot anyway in the near future or won't be chosen anyway (Hardy or Kozlov?), sometimes a special guest referee who didn't effect the match, a useless comedy segment or sometimes a stipulation where the result was obvious.

2. The voting system itself. You couldn't see if your vote was actually counted, how the standings were (I'm okay with that if they hide them for the last 24 hours or so) and if they were just bullshitting you and chose the matches themself anyway.

3. In my opinion the most important thing: NEVER after the very first match (where Benjamin defeated Jericho for the Intercontinental title) at the five events has a competitor elected by the fans won a title. If you do that one time, okay, but after five times nobody is going to believe you anymore. Fans will know that the officials shit on their decision.

People need to feel they choose the important things or you can scrap the event beforehand.

If they go with it again, they should let it be more free. One idea would be that the world title is vacated and the people vote the two guys fighting for it out of ANYONE. A sure thing is that you get a champion the people want. Or, having the current situation (WrestleMania out of mind), they could tell the Miz that they want a feel good moment and that he will lose the title to a fan favorite. Now they could go with a competitor AND a stipulation to choose. Like, he faces Cena in a match with Riley and Cole banned, Morrison in a Cage match or Daniel Bryan in a Submission match. This way, people will be sure they choose the new champion by voting and Miz wouldn't look weak. Or have a Fatal 4 Way (even the PPV?) where people choose the three competitors per match completely free. The worst that can happen is that you crown a champion the people want.

 

[The Suplexer Perfecter]

There was never the real opportunity to see who you wanted in the matches. WWE would give a few options, but it was always the people that they wanted you to pick, that they believed were marketable options.

They weren't going to give every single gimmick match as an option. Everyone would pick Hell In A Cell obviously.

For example, the public may desperately want to see Daniel Bryan fight Edge for the World Heavyweight title, but WWE could put the 3 options to choose from as Dolph Ziggler, Randy Orton or Wade Barrett, who are 3 wrestlers they believe would be worthy challengers to Edge and who are worth a storyline. Bryan isn't high enough on their radar for them to want to put him in a World Title match at a PPV.

Since when was the IWC every single wrestling fan? The public may desperately? Haven't seen it yet. Bryan only gets a reaction during a match, not when he comes out. The MAJORITY of fans who watch it wouldn't vote for him even if he was an option.

Same with the match type. We could want to see Edge in a HIAC match against his opponent at the PPV, but the options suggested are submission match, table match or strap match.

As I said above, everything would be a Hell in a Cell match. They wanted various match types for some variation.

 

[Window Licker 101]

I believe that most fans when they heard the concept dreamnt they had everlasting power to make the card top from bottom. When the options were limited and only disappointing selections were available then no one really cared. Kind of obvious that Taboo Tuesday didn't work as a PPV on a weekday when everyone is busy at work won't compare to a weekend PPV.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

They weren't going to give every single gimmick match as an option. Everyone would pick Hell In A Cell obviously.

Just an example, I could have said another match. Point is, there wasnt enough options to choose from. WWE limited the choices to the extreme

Since when was the IWC every single wrestling fan? The public may desperately? Haven't seen it yet. Bryan only gets a reaction during a match, not when he comes out. The MAJORITY of fans who watch it wouldn't vote for him even if he was an option.

Once again, just an example. Bryan was the 1st name that came into my head. That is why I said "FOR EXAMPLE". If it makes you happier then imagine I said "John Cena"

As I said above, everything would be a Hell in a Cell match. They wanted various match types for some variation.

Yes, various match types for variation is a good idea, but the choices were limited. Whether HIAC was listed or not, there should have been more options. And for the 3rd time, I gave HIAC as an EXAMPLE. I could have said Cage, or Punjabi Prison, or Street Fight, or Last Man Standing, or TLC, or Coal Miners Fucking Glove match.

FFS

 

[VCUpkunk11]

Yeah I'm with you guys on this one. If I were to do it, what Id do is, Make matches like

Miz defends his title in a (Drop down menu of various choices) and depending on what option they picked HIAC, fatal 4 way, EC, or w/e... then there would be anywhere from 1 to 5 opponents to choose... maybe even 29 opponents if you want him to defend it in a royal rumble match.

So for example lets say someone picks

Miz defends his title in a fatal four way vs (drop down menu), (drop down menu), and (drop down menu)

Doing it this way you get the type of match you want Miz to be in, as well as you can vote for who you wanna see no matter how big or small, the people are. So you could vote for Great Khali, John Cena and Hornswoggle if you wanted too.

The drop down menus to choose opponents would consist of EVERY WWE star on the active roster, even if in cases like HHH or Undertaker who havent been around in a while but are close to returning, you could vote for them as long as theyre on the active roster.

The drop down menus to choose types of matches would consist of ANY AND EVERY kind of match EVER done in WCW, WWE, or ECW. So everything from Singapore Cane Match, HIAC, Elim. Chamber, Submission Match, Gauntlet Match, Fatal Four Way, Tables Match, Ladder Match among the tons of others.

Doing this would boost the ratings for such a PPV, knowing that the fans have a legitimate shot of seeing their favorite superstar compete in a big match. So if someone wanted to see Miz vs Hornswoggle for the title they could have a shot at it if Hornswoggle was the leading vote getter. Not to mention, you'd get more and more people to watch the PPV because they wanna see if their favorite stars got to compete in a match.

 

[VCUpkunk11]

They weren't going to give every single gimmick match as an option. Everyone would pick Hell In A Cell obviously.

An easy way to solve this problem is... lets say theres 6 matches at this PPV in this order.

Lets say its

Intercontinental Champ. Match
Divas Title Match
U.S. Champion. Match
WWE Tag Team Title Match
World Heavyweight Champ. match
WWE Title match

Lets say the first match, the leading vote getter is HIAC, then the 2nd match the leading vote getter was also HIAC, since the first match already had HIAC, then you go to the 2nd most popular vote.

So all 6 matches would be different kinds of matches. So you could have HIAC, TLC Match, Submission Match, Fatal Four Way, Gauntlet Match and Elimination Chamber Match. No match would be the same as another match in the PPV.

 

[Mr. Perfect/Ziggler Fan]

I'll just say what I'm sure many others think, too. The reason it never worked is because fans never had a say in it. WWE can say that fans did have a say all they want to, but anyone can falsify results to their liking.

It's a great concept, but with storylines, certain wrestlers not being able to hang with others, etc., it just couldn't work. WWE wanted to have fans believe they were doing something, where in reality it was just a ploy to get more traffic to their website.

WWE obviously gets tons of traffic, but I'm sure they got a lot more with this promotion. And more traffic to their site means more revenue in their pockets. That's all it was. It's a business.

 

[C.K.O.]

It's like what many people said, it wasn't real it's the WWE. "We" never had a choice, at the end they chose

 

[Richard]

When I first heard about the concept of Taboo Tuesday/Cyber Sunday, I thought that it had great potential but I knew that it would only last a few years, if people seriously thought that Vince would actually, REALLY give the power to the people, then you were mistaken.

Vince gives enough power to the fans every night at every show by letting us in and letting us cheer and boo who we want. Our big reactions give the superstars their pushes if they get constant loud pops or constant loud choruses of boos. To think Vince McMahon was going to give us any more power was just absurd, it's his company, he will determine what happens.

As for the actual PPV, I think it comes down to viewer distrust in the company and not being sure if your vote was actually legitimate but I think for the first few it was via text message? Someone correct me if I am wrong but I'm sure you can't get people to text message vote on something they actually don't get a vote on and this comes to the next point, VOTING WAS POINTLESS. Then votes happened on WWE.com and then I knew that was getting close to the end.

I remember it was Jericho vs Batista in I think the last ever Cyber Sunday PPV for the main event, Jericho defending his World Heavyweight Championship and I think the two referee choices were Shawn Michaels, Someone else and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Now, come on, that's pretty obvious, the WWE could safely fly Steve out to the PPV because he knows the fans are going to pick someone like Austin over someone like Michaels or the other person who were there on a weekly basis.

Again with the main event of Taboo Tuesday 2004 with HBK getting picked over Benoit and Edge for a title shot against Triple H. It was so obvious it was going to be Shawn Michaels that it wasn't funny. The only one who I wasn't quite sure was Shelton Benjamin being picked for the IC title match with Jericho, that's about the only match I wasn't sure of.

 

[The Crock]

At the end of the day, Vince wants to make the decisions. Having a PPV where the power is in the hands of the fans doesn't work out, and from a storyline standpoint it is a bad move. Obviously, I think the voting was a little biased, and it didn't live up to what the fans thought it would really be. They'd get choices that the WWE would want to see, and they'd have to choose from something that maybe they didn't want to see. Plus, the fans would always vote for basically the same thing, after a while it would get fairly monotonous and it would be stupid from a business standpoint because it costs lots of money to transport cells, cages, etc.

It wasn't a bad concept, but I never saw it as a long term type of PPV. Somewhat like New Year's Revolution, it was there to fill in a gap for a certain amount of time. They were going to get rid of it regardless, really. Gimmick PPVs are like that, people get bored of them quick, so they have to go to the next idea. It's an ever-evolving type of thing.

 

[Second_City_Antichrist]

My opinion is, the company really didn't let the fans choose what match they wanted....I mean, the one year in question if I remember was 2005 when it was Coach vs. Batista and one of the choices was a verbal debate..A VERBAL DEBATE.....who wants to hear Coach talk...I'd rather see Coach get his ass handed to him....

The problem was that it really wasn't the fans choosing...it was more WWE creative doing the choosing of three pre-selected choices and the fans "voting" on them, so you really couldn't say it was decided by the fans....

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

Same reason why NXT or the Diva Search doesn't do very well. You're voting means jack shit at the end of it.

Why am i going to bother watching NXT and voting to keep a talent on the main roster, when the majority of them are all going to be hired anyway.

Every single contestant on Season 1 now has a contract, so what was the point in voting every week? Same as the Diva search, the majority of Divas ended up with contracts at the end of it all anyway. So why bother picking one to support when they'll all get on the main roster anyway.

Why bother voting for a #1 contender, if Shawn Michaels is going to get selected every damn year anyway?

 

[TheChampionOfTheWorld]

Why didn't Cyber Sunday/ Taboo Tuesday work?

The reason it didn't work was because the WWE didn't really want it to. Just look back to 2008 when Chris Jericho was defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Batista, with the fans selecting the referee. The choices were an injured Randy Orton, Shawn Michaels (who Jericho had a long going rivalry with), and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Was there any doubt who was going to win? Michaels stood no chance of winning because Stone Cold was a choice. Now if Michaels was retired and was making sporatic appearances then he might have won, however, he was an active superstar who people get to see all the time.

Another match on the card was WWE Champion Triple H against 1) Jeff Hardy, 2) Vladimir Koslov, or 3) both. Who would really want to see Koslov in a World Title match. Hardy (major face) or Koslov (who WWE wanted to be successful but lacks charisma). Really? Really? Come on.

If they wanted this concept to work they would truly make the voting matter. Give the fans real choices where its not as easy as selecting Austin. I even liked the idea of a total fan vote, so the fans can get what they really want to see. They are the ones who are buying the PPV. The fan choice doesn't always have to work out either. Maybe in the case of the internet coming up lame you can always save a MITB contract to bail you out. I think also only opening voting up during the telecast would create some interest too. That way you don't know who or what you are voting for so you have to watch the ppv.

I could see the WWE going back to this concept for a Monday Night Raw or something like that.

 

[Mac Attack]

Cyber Sunday did not work because they did not make it believeable. After the first year people realized that these matches had already been fabricated. This then made people lose their faith in the PPV. With a loss of faith in he concept it totally failed. Without full belief in the concept the buyers started decreasing and ultimately the WWE creative team dropped the PPV. Had they actually created many unpredicatable outcomes to the people's votes then it would clearly be still around. However, I feel that they could have really used soical media better although it was of less use back then. If they released polls earlier, and showed who had the potential to be in the match much earlier and actually tease the matches. The card generally was pretty good, but you just didn't feel it was what you voted. There was really no reason to vote and in some ways people felt betrayed when they would vote. This was said to be a democracy but really Vince made it a dictatorship.

 

[Mac Attack]

Cyber Sunday did not work because they did not make it believeable. After the first year people realized that these matches had already been fabricated. This then made people lose their faith in the PPV. With a loss of faith in he concept it totally failed. Without full belief in the concept the buyers started decreasing and ultimately the WWE creative team dropped the PPV. Had they actually created many unpredicatable outcomes to the people's votes then it would clearly be still around. However, I feel that they could have really used soical media better although it was of less use back then. If they released polls earlier, and showed who had the potential to be in the match much earlier and actually tease the matches. The card generally was pretty good, but you just didn't feel it was what you voted. There was really no reason to vote and in some ways people felt betrayed when they would vote. This was said to be a democracy but really Vince made it a dictatorship.