Fade To Black

It must have been two weeks ago while watching Raw that I thought to myself, 'matches never end during commercial breaks'. I was inspired to write something on here about it there and then but I forgot all about it.

Well, the WWE did me a favour on Monday night. They went one better.

Or could it be worse?

The main event of the episode featured Triple H defending his newly won WWE title against Randy Orton. The match must have been in or around the twenty minute mark when the cameras jumped to the editing truck which is based outside the arena.

In the truck were the countless number of monitors with the staff at the desks producing the live show. William Regal - the general manager of Raw and new King of the Ring - entered the studio and began berating the staff. He was on a power trip and was angry at the fans for booing him during his coronation earlier in the episode. He then proceeded to order the director to put the show off the air. The director refused so Regal knocked him down then did the honours himself.

The screen went into black and all the viewers at home could hear was the match continuing until that too went out.

It was an intriguing finish to the show. As an aside, the match itself was called off when William Regal came down and ordered the referee to stop it. It wasn't just the audience at home that were robbed of the finish.

I wasn't sure how to respond to it at first. Sure, it was anti-climatic after the build-up they had given to the title match throughout the show but I can see why they did it. It's intention was to put heat on William Regal as well as promote the same match on pay-per-view in three weeks.

What ever positive interest they got in the product from the end of Raw was flushed away on ECW last night.

The ECW show ended with Mike Adamle dropping his headset and walking off set. Tazz - his co-announcer - followed shortly after leaving the main event to be aired without commentary.

For two days straight the WWE had screwed with the fans at home in the closing moments of their shows. I think that's ridiculous.

The people at home invest time sitting there watching the show. You don't want to anger them by doing these unprofessional looking things to get a slight buzz of interest.

This buzz is only short-term, is it really worth doing it if it's going to turn the fans away for the long-term?