“TNA consultant Eric Bischoff published a blog on ericbischoff.com yesterday critical of WWE's recent "youth push" based on low TV ratings on Monday's episode of Raw among adult males.”

This was the opening paragraph on Wade Keller’s site posted by James Caldwell.

Critical?

Where exactly was I critical of WWE’s recent youth push? What harsh words did my blog utilize to critique the talent, scripting or strategy of building new stars?

Hold on a minute, let me go back and read my blog again. Maybe I did.

I will be right back.

Nope. I was right. I was not critical of WWE’s current “youth movement”. What I DID do was point out the fact that established talent (and many of those over 40) rate well in the key demos (M 18-34 and M 18-49) and I used WWE’s current ratings and recent comments to Wall Street that support this fact.

Now I know this may feel like a criticism to guys like Caldwell who find facts like these to be an affront to him and people like him, because it flies in the face of the lemming like dialog that is so popular among his readers, but I assure you there was no malice in my words.

The fact (I am using this word a lot lately) is that I applaud WWE’s efforts to build a new generation of stars. They have done an amazing job developing the developmental territory in Florida and while I think NXT is a patchwork mess of “kind of a reality, kind of a wrestling show” from a creative and production perspective, I also applaud the investment and effort to showcase young stars there.

But I also know that using established stars to help bring credibility, awareness and experience to younger starts is the correct formula to successfully target key male demos. History has proven it.

The numbers don’t lie, they don’t have an agenda, and they don’t try to attract headlines on IWC sites in an attempt to gain favor.