9 Things We Learned Watching Southpaw Regional Wrestling

For a company that is often rightfully criticized for their shameless attempts at forcing advertising tie-ins into their programming, WWE continuously gets wrong what SRW nails perfectly.

Granted, it's a bit unfair to pretend that the two aren't one and the same, but consider how many times we've had Hardee's or Sonic shoved in our faces by the likes of Jerry Lawler or Enzo and Cass in out-of-nowhere segments that desperately fail at trying to blend in seamlessly with the programming. It's grating, and while no one begrudges WWE the right to sell ads on their shows, don't insult the intelligence of the fans while shilling.

With Southpaw Regional Wrestling, WWE filled a fake program with fake commercials advertising a real product, in this case KFC's Georgia Gold friend chicken, and rather than turn viewers away with the overt nature of the whole ordeal, manage to make us want to rush out and buy a bucket of Georgia Gold to support this organic content they've presented us with.

Best of all, they used Ric Flair playing a paid Ric Flair impersonator as the pitchman since "SRW definitely can't afford The Nature Boy WOOO!". Most fans would rather deal with good creative content tied to a sponsor than regular unimaginative run-of-the-mill commercials.

I don't presume to know what KFC's involvement was with SRW. Did they reach out to WWE to attach themselves to the concept or did WWE suggest they slip in some ads on programming that cost almost nothing to produce?

No clue, but I do know it's basically a viral marketing campaign at this point, something WWE has never been good at developing on their own, and for the first time in my life I want a bucket of Georgia Gold.