In this weekly column, I will comment on the past week's goings-on in WOW, and whatever else it occurs to me to discuss :-) I also hope that a big part of the column will be printing and responding to your e-mails. So please send them in (the address is thatthing35@yahoo.com)!
I swear that one day, I will actually write a column about the most recent episode, but things keep coming up about the organization itself that I want to talk about :-) For commentary on the events of the latest WOW episode, you can just look at this recap of the updates I posted to the various character pages.
2/19/01: Bad News, Good News
The bad news is...The WOW PPV showcased some major blunders that overshadowed the fine performance of many of the wrestlers. Replays of the PPV were cancelled due to consumer complaints, if Dave Meltzer is to be believed (and if any Internet wrestling reporter is to be believed, he would be the guy.) Don't let anyone fool you: This is highly unusual and a very, very bad thing. Not only does it mean that WOW will make a lot less money on the PPV, it also means that a lot of potential fans were lost. A big part of the problem was undoubtedly that the PPV had too many matches, and the lesser ones came first, meaning that if even if you sat down and watched the whole first hour, you didn't see that much great wrestling. I would bet that the overwhelming majority of complainers turned the show off before they even saw the great duels between Riot and Wendi Wheels, Jungle Grrrl and Beckie, etc. Audio and video problems also plagued the broadcast.
The good news is...The WOW TV product is doing great. It has been widely reported that 200 new stations will soon be adding WOW to their schedule. Posts to the WOW message board have exploded, with a huge number of new fans showing up. And WOW is going to try another PPV in early April. This is a risky decision. If it works, it will be terrific because, coming so soon after the first one, it would do a good job of erasing people's bad memories. If the April PPV also fails, then it will be a major hit on the organization's reputation, most likely foreclosing the possibility of future PPVs, as well as alienating potential fans. I think WOW has to take some risks, though -- they are not going to create demand for their product by sitting there and playing it safe -- and this is a good one to take, in my opinion.
The bad news is...The WOW Shop Zone has been taking its time getting merchandise to people.
The good news is...I finally got my Riot shirt after about a month's wait, and other people are reporting that they got their merchandise after a similar wait. Although obviously the Shop Zone folks still need to work a little quicker, at least they are working through the backlog. I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has ordered from the Shop Zone in the last couple of weeks.
The bad news is...The official WOW web site didn't have a lot of content, was never updated, and didn't look that great either.
The good news is...WOW realized that there was a fansite, wow-fan.com, that was a far better site than their official one. So they hired the wow-fan.com webmaster to run the website for them. Very logical! And an action that shows, speaking louder than any words, that WOW respects its fans and pays attention to them.
The bad news is...WOW is often criticized for having bad writing and silly gimmicks.
The good news is...WOW has reportedly hired some new writers, and the increase in the quality of the writing is already evident.
The bad news is...The heavily hyped swimsuit contest, obviously designed to attract the more casual wrestling fan, has been a failure due to constant changing of the rules, a half-assed job by the webmaster, site problems, voting fraud, etc.
The good news is...WOW knows this and has stopped the contest.
To sum up:
The bad news is...WOW has made some poor decisions.
The good news is...WOW seems to be extremely quick to recognize when they make a mistake, and they take action to fix it right away. Just last week, I discussed almost all of these problems, and as I sit here writing a week later, WOW has taken decisive steps to address them! If you are familiar with how corporate bureaucracy tends to work, you know how rare it is for a corporation to be so "on the ball". Most corporations never admit mistakes, and it takes forever to get them to change anything. If WOW continues to listen to their fans and attack problems aggressively, I think they will be able to overcome the odds and become a force in the wrestling world. They are obviously putting the fans first, and that should make us all feel good.
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(e-mail: thatthing35@yahoo.com)