McMahon Million Dollar Mania

The concept seems pretty simple: register, watch, get thousands of dollars cash when Vince calls.

The logic behind the contest is equally simple: get ratings.

The problem is the concept and logic are not only simple, but simplistic.

Years ago Vince, not to be confused with "Mr. Mahon", told us the audience had grown too smart for tired old "wrasslin'" storylines and good guys versus bad guys. Instead, he promised a new era, the "Attitude Era" to be exact, filled with fresh stories and angles that didn't insult the intelligence of fans, nor made us embarrassed to be called fans in the first place.

Largely Vince, and a roster of incredible stars surrounding him, delivered on the promise.

Yes there was still the odd Katie Vick vignette that made one wonder (and cringe), but with Austin and The Rock at the helm RAW and the WWE product was exciting and 'must see' television.

Then came the collapse of WCW, the movie-stardom of Dwayne Johnson, and the career-ending injury of Stone Cold. Combined with the deaths of Owen Hart, Eddie Guerrero (top tier talents in their prime) and the bizarre Benoit epsiode, WWE has been battered in the press and in the ratings.

To be sure some of this is beyond the control of Vince and the Creative Team, yet rather than craft compelling stories to highlight a wide array of talent, they have fallen to cheap (or in this case somewhat expensive) stunts to draw an audience.

I appreciate the Million Dollar concept for what it was meant to be, and perhaps what it still might become, but at first blush the first night of MMDM was a disaster.

The number of segments were too many, and ran too long. Their timing often killed any heat from the in-ring performances which, on the whole, were good. The drama of a Cena-HHH-Hardy confrontation to culminate the broadcast, the serial cliffhanger to make us tune in next week, was lost in a slow and tedious phone call to yet another winner.

I hope, as has been speculated elsewhere, that the creative team will streamline or otherwise correct some of the parts of the contest to take less away from the product (after all the contest is meant to enhance the audience, not drive it away).

On the whole though, the concept seems more like something for a mid-afternoon radio program than a prime-time television show.