John Cena Heel Turn Discussed In Creative Meeting, Santina Loses Tons Of Viewers

source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

— During a recent WWE creative team meeting, one writer proposed the idea of a John Cena heel turn. Suffice it to say, Vince McMahon became angered and ripped him for how foolishly short-sighted the idea was.

The feeling is that with all of the merchandise revenue Cena garners, turning him heel would be a bad idea, at least until his sales cool off.

Another person close to the situation said McMahon shouldn’t have lit him up because they should be open to discussing new ideas, even if they’re bad. He feels discussing new ideas should be encouraged and if they’re bad, simply discarded at that point.

— As reported earlier, last week’s episode of Raw drew a 3.29 cable rating. The segment-by-segment breakdown is as follows: The long opening segment building the show’s opening match was for naught as Batista vs. Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase lost 156,000 viewers. The women’s tag match pitting Mickie James and Kelly Kelly against Maryse and Jillian gained 242,000 viewers. Carlito vs. The Brian Kendrick lost 128,000 viewers. Segments involving The Miz calling out Cena again, Santina Marella, Beth Phoenix, Rosa Mendes, Chavo Guerrero and Vickie Guerrero gained 498,000 viewers for a 3.55 quarter hour, drawing the peak number for the show. However, the Santina Marella vs. Beth Phoenix match was a huge ratings loser as 369,000 viewers tuned out during the bout and largely never came back. MVP’s VIP lounge segment followed by a Kofi Kingston and MVP vs. William Regal and Matt Hardy tag match lost an additional 185,000 viewers. The show’s main event pitting Randy Orton against Batista only gained 14,000 viewers, drawing a lackluster 3.17 quarter hour.

— The final number for Friday Night Smackdown on May 8th was a 1.89 rating and 2.97 million viewers. While the rating isn’t that much lower than usual, the number of total viewers was really bad as fewer viewers per household than usual were watching.

*LEAKED* video of Umaga talking tonight on SmackDown! (>>)