Tuesday, MAY 27 - 12:40 P.M.

I'm still shocked by Vince McMahon's decision to hype a silly money giveaway as a major happening. I'd like to say that this will come back to haunt Vince the next time he has a major announcement, but the fact is that he's built up enough goodwill over the years that viewers will still pay attention the next time he teases them.

However, I believe this move will cost the company some pay-per-view buys on Sunday. They did such a good job of building up the One Night Stand pay-per-view in rapid fire mode last week, but they shoved the entire show into the background by teasing Vince's announcement throughout Raw. Suddenly, the action in the ring didn't seem to mean as much and the pay-per-view hype was an afterthought as viewers pondered what the big announcement would be.

Although there's still time to create interest in the draft lottery, it just seemed odd that Vince chose to make that announcement first as if to say that it wasn't as important as the giveaway. My guess is that he knew the giveaway wasn't going to live up to the hype, so he chose to include the draft lottery to pacify viewers.

Great, Vince wants to give away his own money. It's never been done before in the history of television. Of course, there are a slew of game shows that give away money all the time, but apparently they don't give away the owner's money. Guess what? No one cares where the money comes from.

WWE failed to deliver a big final push for Sunday's pay-per-view and there's not nearly as much buzz as there normally would be over the draft lottery. The giveaway announcement didn't excite viewers as much as it seemed to deflate them. The winners will be pleased, but other 99.99999 percent of the audience will be sitting home rolling our eyes as if they're watching a bad Diva Search contest.

I'm not saying that this stunt won't help the ratings to some degree, but why was it done at the expense of the One Night Stand pay-per-view and the draft lottery? Surely, Vince could have waited a week to give away his money.

Monday, MAY 26 - 11:34 A.M.

-The Hogan family destroyed its own image this weekend when the audio clips of their phone conversations with jailed son Nick Hogan were released to the media. It was bad enough when Nick came across as a whiney momma's boy in the initial audio clips, but the sound bytes of he and Hulk Hogan badmouthing victim John Graziano was downright appalling.

I wonder what Hulk would have thought if Brooke Hogan had been seriously injured in Sunday's car crash. Would he have blamed it on her for upsetting God? For that matter, I wonder if Linda would still feel that an eight-month jail sentence was too severe for a "car accident" if Brooke were in Graziano's position today and the driver had been street racing. Sadly, I'm guessing the narcissistic family will fail to make the connection.

-Last week's Raw was entertaining, but it didn't really leave viewers with a big hook for tonight's show. I suppose there is the general manager issue now that William Regal was fired according to the storylines. However, they failed to make a big fuss over who the next G.M. will be. In fact, they're still not making a big deal out of it, as it's not even mentioned until the final paragraph in the official Raw preview. WWE needs a hot show with only six days to promote the One Night Stand pay-per-view, so it should be an interesting evening.

-Sabu has been praised by some fans for showing up at the XPW show over the weekend despite his health problems. I'm not sure whether XPW or Sabu is to blame, but he should have been pulled from the advertising. After all, he told Mexico's AAA promotion roughly two weeks ago that he needs surgery and would not be able to wrestle for at least a year. In other words, he and/or XPW promoters knew he would not be able to appear on the show, yet he was still advertised as appearing in the main event.

-I do know that Sean Waltman was grateful to be booked on the XPW show. He mentioned the booking when he talked the night before he was released from a treatment facility, but he wanted it kept quiet because it was an unadvertised, surprise appearance. He stated at the time that he was just happy to have a booking just days after his stint in rehab.

-The XPW reunion didn't stir up any feelings of nostalgia in me. I think it's great that Big Vision Entertainment is entering the world of Blu-ray discs, but I wish they'd come up with their own big vision for wrestling rather than revert to the tired garbage wrestling style. XPW always came across as a low-class, second rate, wannabe ECW promotion under Rob Black. It won't be easy for the company to shake off that stigma if they choose to move forward with this venture.

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