Powell's Blog POWELL'S BLOG: WWE Raw advertising is weak, TNA house show advertising is even worse By Jason Powell Oct 12, 2009 - 03:38 PM Email This Article | Printer Friendly Page Send Us News & Results | Back to Main Listing Tuesday, October 12 – 3:38 P.M. (CT) -What the is WWE thinking? The only thing they've promoted for tonight's show is that the guest hosts will be Nancy O'Dell and Maria Menounos. Yes, I know both women are attractive. That's nice and all, but how many WWE fans had even heard of O'Dell before she appeared on a WWE pay-per-view? Hell, I thought Menounos was a Latin boy band until WWE flashed her picture last week and I read the spelling of her name closely. The point is that unless there's this huge WWE and "Access Hollywood" crossover that I'm not aware of, WWE is hyping their flagship show based on two celebrity gossip show hosts that most people have never heard of. I think I speak for most of the WWE viewing audience when I say I'd rather watch a WWE legend guest host the show than these two. It's great that WWE is promoting O'Dell's charity, but they could do that without having her host the show. For all we know, these women will be great guest hosts. The problem is that very few people will tune in specifically to see them. In fact, I'm starting to believe that guest hosts who lack star power or don't look good on paper are starting to turn people off from the show. Sure, WWE could advertise a match or two on the website later today, but why not advertise to the full audience they had during last week's Raw? How hard is it to give the fans a wrestling hook? Why not advertise a match or two a week out and make that the focus of the hype rather than the two guest hosts. Sure, there's a huge audience that will tune in for Raw regardless of the guest hosts, but giving viewers a wrestling-based hook can be the difference between a good and a bad rating. -I had a great time at the TNA house show in St. Cloud on Saturday night, as my house show report indicates. The youth movement was on display on this card and the future looks bright for TNA with everyone on the show contributing in some way to delivering a quality show. The problem is that TNA drew poorly. I could ignore if it this were the exception for TNA house shows. Some events do better than others, of course, but correspondent estimates are consistently below 1,000 fans in attendance at TNA events, which should be considered unacceptable for a company being watched by over a million people on television every week. Saturday's show was held about 90 minutes from my house, so I can't really say how much advertising they did within the actual town itself. I just know that they drew what appeared to be fewer than 500 people in a college town on a Saturday night. I've seen good indy shows with only a big name or two on top draw more than 200 people in the Twin Cities and that's without the benefit of a national television show supporting it. Clearly, TNA needs to evaluate how they're promoting house show events because something is amiss and whatever they're doing just isn't cutting it. -By the way, I'm told the attendance for Sunday's show in Mankato, Minn. was brutal, but I'm giving the company the benefit of the doubt on that one simply because the walk-up likely suffered due to the Twins playoff game last night. As for the Twins, um, well, the Vikings are 5-0! HELP SUPPORT DOT NET! BECOME A MEMBER AT OUR CHARTER RATE OF JUST $5 A MONTH - GET THE FIRST LOOK AT EXCLUSIVE INSIDER DOT NET NEWS, TONS OF EXCLUSIVE AUDIO SHOWS, MESSAGE BOARD ACCESS, START YOUR OWN BLOG, AD-FREE MAIN LISTING: SIGN ME UP (or MORE INFO) GOT AN IPHONE OR IPOD TOUCH? THEN BE SURE TO DOWNLOAD OUR NEW FREE iPhone APP: (click here!) (or SEARCH "pro wrestling" in iTunes App Store) FOR MORE BREAKING WWE & TNA NEWS AND COMMENTARY, VISIT OUR AFFILIATE PWTORCH.COM (click here!) FOR MORE MMA & UFC NEWS AND COMMENTARY, VISIT OUR AFFILIATE MMATORCH.COM (click here!) CLICK TO RETURN TO DOT NET MAIN LISTING OR SELECT A LINK BELOW FROM THIS CATEGORY Powell's Blog Latest Twelve Articles Powell's Blog: UFC going head-to-head with WWE Raw in January should put a rumor to rest, consistency is the key for TNA going forward, an important edition of WWE Raw tonight Powell's Blog: One key area where TNA dropped the ball during Thursday's Impact Powell's Blog: Shane McMahon announces his resignation from WWE POWELL'S BLOG: WWE Raw advertising is weak, TNA house show advertising is even worse Powell's Blog: More thoughts on the C.M. Punk vs. Undertaker finish, big Smackdown angles ignored on Raw, Hell in a Cell pay-per-view, WWE advertising Raw competition Powell's Blog: Jeff Hardy still showing up in WWE advertising, big Dot Net Weekly audio show, Eric Young's push is doing more harm than good, WWE marijuana policy, NFL kickoff