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WWE Raw Ratings: Viewership Hits Record Low

PaulExcellent said:
I want to understand wrestling and give it a shot, but goddamn I feel like I'll never really understand the plot lines.
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One guy comes out and says something really boisterous and arrogant. Another guy disagrees. They have a match. The bad guy cheats. The good guy doesn't cheat. Their friends interfere in the match, setting up various future matches.In between all this, they yell and make various unfunny jokes at each other. Sometimes fake backstage politics comes into play. This culminates in a pay per view in which the two original competitors settle things once and for all for a belt.

The winner of the belt comes out the next night after the pay per view and says something really boisterous and arrogant.

etc.
 
Speevy said:
I always wonder if people who keep asking the WWE to produce better storylines understand that the entire industry is dying. Industries die all the time.

Wrestling started small, gained in popularity, and was propelled into the mainstream on an unsustainable business model.

In 20 years there will be no televised wrestling. Mark my words.
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Naw, Pro Wrestling has been for 100s year is still popular all over the world. There will be something on this.
 
People keep arguing with my post in various ways that I feel like I must make a comparison to clarify things.

Imagine if wrestling was a style of music that will always be played by someone, and will always be popular to someone.

But for a number of years, it tops the charts. Everyone knows about it. Then people lose interest. Then for most of us, it may as well not exist after that. That is what is happening to wrestling, albeit slowly.
 
Speevy said:
People keep arguing with my post in various ways that I feel like I must make a comparison to clarify things.

Imagine if wrestling was a style of music that will always be played by someone, and will always be popular to someone.

But for a number of years, it tops the charts. Everyone knows about it. Then people lose interest. Then for most of us, it may as well not exist after that. That is what is happening to wrestling, albeit slowly.
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Wrestling has gone up and down in popularity for 100 years as in any sport. It have it peaks and valleys.
 
Heroman said:
Wrestling has gone up and down in popularity for 100 years as in any sport. It have it peaks and valleys.
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Indeed. There was a dip after 70s/80s, then came back in the mid to late 90s. Then dipping again. Pro wrestling had similar peaks and valleys in Japan too.

If WWE wasn't shit and run by a maniac it would probably increase in popularity again.
 
Speevy said:
People keep arguing with my post in various ways that I feel like I must make a comparison to clarify things.

Imagine if wrestling was a style of music that will always be played by someone, and will always be popular to someone.

But for a number of years, it tops the charts. Everyone knows about it. Then people lose interest. Then for most of us, it may as well not exist after that. That is what is happening to wrestling, albeit slowly.
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This argument is a decade plus old. No one thinks wrestling is going to go back to the popularity of the late 90s if WWE's writing was better. But could it have sustained 2012's level or had less of a drop off? Maybe.

And you called it a bubble that burst, which you are already backing away from here.
 
Basileus777 said:
This argument is a decade plus old. No one thinks wrestling is going to go back to the popularity of the late 90s if WWE's writing was better. But could it have sustained 2012's level or had less of a drop off? Maybe.
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It could ,you never know , that how pro wrestling and fights sports work
 
Wrestling fans are a fickle mob that I don't really understand and I consider myself a fan.

Why are people still booing Roman Reigns? How is the Champ only on there part-time? Has Dolph Ziggler won the tittle yet? Raw has it's ups and downs but the last few PPV (including WM) have been sub par at best.
 
PaulExcellent said:
I want to understand wrestling and give it a shot, but goddamn I feel like I'll never really understand the plot lines.
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There's no continuity and the plot lines aren't good/the reasons to watch anymore anyway. Hence the record low ratings. We wrestling fans just watch it now out of habit or to make fun of it. Occasionally there's something entertaining. Like one dude beat someone up so bad a month ago, he needed to be put in an ambulance, and then he came back and flipped the ambulance over. That and making fun of it are the only reasons to watch.
 
Speevy said:
Because the demand is shrinking, and it's not generating revenue for as many parties as it used to.

That's pretty much the long and short of it.

WWE's product was also bad at times during the height of its success. Wrestling is not a prestige product. It's a carnival attraction soap opera. My entire point was that producing the stars like we had in 1998 or writing interesting storylines WILL NOT turn the WWE's fortunes. I wish people would stop repeating this ridiculous bit of conjecture.
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WWE's product was bad at times during the heights of their success but it wasn't bad for years like it's been for a while. On top of that, good booking tends to create stars, like Hogan, Savage, Austin and the Rock, who can then go on and carry bad shows.

Writing interesting storylines obviously isn't going to suddenly turn things around but it'd be a start and help them create stars, something they seem completely incapable of doing these days (which is funny, since that's something they always like to say about the UFC).

Speevy said:
People keep arguing with my post in various ways that I feel like I must make a comparison to clarify things.

Imagine if wrestling was a style of music that will always be played by someone, and will always be popular to someone.

But for a number of years, it tops the charts. Everyone knows about it. Then people lose interest. Then for most of us, it may as well not exist after that. That is what is happening to wrestling, albeit slowly.
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Except there's not just one style of wrestling, it changes and evolves over the years, just like music.

TBH you sound like someone who doesn't really know what you're talking about and has formed your conclusion before you've even come up with an argument to prove it.

Soapbox Killer said:
Wrestling fans are a fickle mob that I don't really understand and I consider myself a fan.

Why are people still booing Roman Reigns? How is the Champ only on there part-time? Has Dolph Ziggler won the tittle yet? Raw has it's ups and downs but the last few PPV (including WM) have been sub par at best.
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Because the only way to be a star in WWE in 2017 is to not be on their shitty shows.
 
LiquidSolid said:
Except there's not just one style of wrestling, it changes and evolves over the years, just like music.

TBH you sound like someone who doesn't really know what you're talking about and has formed your conclusion before you've even come up with an argument to prove it.
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I followed the ratings wars intently during the days of RAW vs. Nitro and I know that the WWE's present performance is pathetic by comparison.

I also know the shows aren't selling out like they used to at every venue.

Those are two major indicators of the WWE's popularity, yes? That and merchandising, subscriptions to the WWE network, and other things, right?

I also know a thing or two about business. I know that when you invest a great deal of money into expansion, you need to be able to sustain your growth/ventures with a steady flow of revenue.
 
Soapbox Killer said:
Why are people still booing Roman Reigns?
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because he still represents the mismanagement of the wwe. at least in terms of booking.

roman is vince's tool to tell us what we will like. and roman is our tool to tell vince what we don't like. if nothings changed with the way things are run, theres no reason to stop telling vince what we think.

i actually think most fans recognise that he's a good wrestler with a lot of charisma. i think they are booing vince. not roman per se.
 
luchadork said:
because he still represents the mismanagement of the wwe. at least in terms of booking.

roman is vince's tool to tell us what we will like. and roman is our tool to tell vince what we don't like. if nothings changed with the way things are run, theres no reason to stop telling vince what we think.

i actually think most fans recognise that he's a good wrestler with a lot of charisma. i think they are booing vince. not roman per se.
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I thought that the criticism was that he had no charisma? I haven't meaningfully watched wrestling in a while, but I recall him not being particularly exciting or good on the mic
 
SolicitorPirate said:
I thought that the criticism was that he had no charisma? I haven't meaningfully watched wrestling in a while, but I recall him not being particularly exciting or good on the mic
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I don't think he has charisma. He has charisma when he is outside of WWE and is being a bit of an arrogant dick. But the way they have made his character and you can see how much he doesn't believe in himself, from my perspective he has very little charisma.
 
luchadork said:
because he still represents the mismanagement of the wwe. at least in terms of booking.

roman is vince's tool to tell us what we will like. and roman is our tool to tell vince what we don't like. if nothings changed with the way things are run, theres no reason to stop telling vince what we think.

i actually think most fans recognise that he's a good wrestler with a lot of charisma. i think they are booing vince. not roman per se.
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Vince can't hear your boos over all the money you're giving him for the chance to boo Roman.
 
I feel like this is the same as ESPN. Like other staples of the 90s and 2000s, wrestling now has to compete with the endless entertainment source known as the internet. I completely fell off sports because there is so much shit to get into on the internet.
 
ChouGoku said:
I feel like this is the same as ESPN. Like other staples of the 90s and 2000s, wrestling now has to compete with the endless entertainment source known as the internet. I completely fell off sports because there is so much shit to get into on the internet.
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Have you tried Tout, though?
 
So apparently this week's raw actually did a 1.89, which is DOWN from last week's taped show, despite having a higher audience average.



wow
 
Anth0ny said:
So apparently this week's raw actually did a 1.89, which is DOWN from last week's taped show, despite having a higher audience average.



wow
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aC2Yzuq.gif
 
I have not watched in a while, but still have the WWE App on my phone, and laugh / get annoyed everytime I get a notification with WWE Speak in it...

"Vanquished"
"Kingslayer"
"Monster Among Men"

...please stop!
 
Anth0ny said:
So apparently this week's raw actually did a 1.89, which is DOWN from last week's taped show, despite having a higher audience average.



wow
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Haha

How much longer will people keeping denying the greatness of Russo and how he was largely responsible for the Attitude Era aka the height of wrestling


These current rosters are an indie marks wet dream, guess what, casuals are giving less and less a shit. Catering to the marks was the worst thing the WWE ever did
 
Bruce Springsteen said:
So you're telling me that WCW was in a great place before he got there?

Russo haters also love to ignore TNA was drawing 2 million viewers when Russo was head of that
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Russo era WCW might be some of the worst wreslting I have seen in a while.
Russo involved in TNA was the Miami reason why they were kick off of spike.
 
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