WWE: WWE's 180

Article posted 19 hours ago on pwinsider.com:

It was a few years ago, on a conference call of some sort, that Linda McMahon made a point of saying that Smackdown's ratings were falling because the show is taped on Tuesday and websites, like this one, posted the results of the show days before it aired. Her assertion was that since fans could get the results in advance, it kept some of them from actually watching the show when it aired. While she ignored the fact that Smackdown spoilers have been posted before the show aired from its genesis, even when it was drawing in the fours, her point was very clear. She blamed the internet for "spoiling the show" for those fans who wanted to be surprised by seeing the events unfold with no prior knowledge and felt that the posting of spoilers cost the company some of its viewership.

Well, WWE has done a complete 180 and become one of the very sites that, in the past, they have deemed hurtful to their business. For the sake of those that don't want Friday's show spoiled I will not got into specifics here, which unfortunately for anyone that has already been to WWE.com will not matter since the promotion didn't extend the same courtesy to its readers.

A number of significant storyline events took place at the Smackdown taping in Philadelphia last night (which was covered as it happened and can be found elsewhere on the site). In a complete change in philosophy, there is full coverage of the main events from the taping on the main page of WWE.com. It's no secret that WWE has been making a concerted effort to make their website more relevant with its coverage of the product and personally, despite what they have said in the past railing against it, I have no problem with them changing their course and covering the Smackdown tapings.

The problem with their story is that while WWE.com is venturing into the brave new world of (somewhat) more substantial coverage of their product, they still have a ways to go in getting down the basics of how to actually do it. In covering the spoilers from Smackdown last night, they placed the story of significant storyline changes on their main page, meaning that anyone who surfed the site and wanted to avoid the spoilers for Friday night couldn't, meaning they now know what will happen on Friday and, by Linda McMahon's own words, now "have no need to watch the show".

So, if you don't want Friday's show spoiled for you, stay away from WWE.com until after you watch the show. We have already received a number of emails from irate readers and I would bet WWE.com has as well. Hopefully they will learn from this and in the future they will be more careful when exposing spoilers on their site. I also hope Linda Mac never says another word about internet websites costing her company viewers.