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WWE Raw Ratings: Viewership Hits Record Low
- Thread starter DMczaf
- Start date
Mike Works
Member
I'm surprised that ratings are down considering the gripping Heavyweight/Universal Championship weekly storylines of Randy Orton in 2017 vs Jinder Mahal and supposed champion Brock Lesnar vs absolutely no one.
Some long term thinking there.
Some long term thinking there.
You always see this sort of response to any sort of criticism thrown in the company's direction. It's pathetic. Just comes across as overly defensive and out of touch. Like they literally can't handle the idea that there's anything to criticize.
Just more and more material for the inevitable "death of WWE" dvd
HashtagLapsed
Member
If things are this bad now it will be a bloodbath during handegg season.
pretty done
Member
I don't remember TNA ever beating WWE in ratings though. nt
VanquishUK
Member
So when's Punk coming back.
Professor Beef
Banned
When Triple H dies
And the number show that Vince Russo should never book a wrestling promotion even agian
Paracelsus
Member
I stopped watching again, like I did in 2009 during the peak of this plague
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRzeotjLbMg
Call me when Punk makes another promo suddenly making the product tolerable again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRzeotjLbMg
Call me when Punk makes another promo suddenly making the product tolerable again.
Bruce Springsteen
Member
The peak of wrestling ratings when it actually could beat Monday Night Football says otherwise
The peak of TNA's ratings was when Russo was the head writer
Again, men lie women lie numbers don't
HashtagLapsed
Member
The record losses WCW posted under Russo are interesting numbers too.
Werid how when Vince Russo became head Booker and writer at WCW ratings tanked.
And for TNA
The September 10th edition of TNA IMPACT! drew a 0.93 cable rating with 1.3 million viewers. The Jeff Jarrett-less, Vince Russo-driven promotion has now taken TNA to its lowest rated episode of IMPACT! in over a year. The number goes all the way back to August 14, 2008, when TNA drew a 0.93
Thursday's number is down from the previous week's 0.96 rating.
Not to mention he was the main reason why they were kick off of spike TV.
Etrian Oddity
Member
Russo was literally in the right place at the right time in WWF for that attitude spike. He also had the two biggest and most charismatic guys this side of Hulk Hogan in Stone Cold and The Rock, at the same time; and the greatest pro-wrestling commentator in Jim Ross to sell the product. It was too much for even Russo to ruin.Werid how when Vince Russo became head Booker and writer at WCW ratings tanked.
And for TNA
The September 10th edition of TNA IMPACT! drew a 0.93 cable rating with 1.3 million viewers. The Jeff Jarrett-less, Vince Russo-driven promotion has now taken TNA to its lowest rated episode of IMPACT! in over a year. The number goes all the way back to August 14, 2008, when TNA drew a 0.93
Thursday's number is down from the previous week's 0.96 rating.
Not to mention he was the main reason why they were kick off of spike TV.
yeh. its not that easy.
He also seems to be the type that desperately needs a filter.
Now?
Russo gets Raw, Cornette gets Smackdown in a good universe.
As someone mentioned earlier, Russo needed a filter. He had ambitious ideas, but needed someone like Vince to pick through them and figuring out a way to make them work in a pro wrestling environment.
My favorite bit of wrestling storytelling ever, Survivor Series 98: Deadly Game, was Russo through and through but it totally worked and propelled the Rock to mega-heel status. It is one of the few instances in pro wrestling, where everything has a different context when you know the reveal.
I wish that storylines today had that kind of ambition. The Attitude Era wasn't such a great era because of the mature rating of the content, it was a great era because it was ambitious, earnest and fearless.
Not only the Rock but it turned Mick Foley into a huge main event face. At the time of Survivor Series, he was wearing a suit and doing McMahon's bidding. It looked like McMahon was setting up the whole thing for Foley to win it.
The balls it took to switch their alignment right when Rock was starting to become massively popular.
The storyline doesn't get enough credit.
HashtagLapsed
Member
I feel like pro wrestling had more vitality back then. I feel like WWE's product today lacks that vitality. It feels produced, laid back, stale and just unessential. When it is good it is great, but the last couple of months have been a real struggle.
DeaconKnowledge
Member
Fixed that for you.
PHOENIXZERO
Member
Even with Vince as a "filter" Russo got through a lot of shit and flat out moronic ideas, including Brawl 4 All.
You have a 70 year old man (who has been growing increasingly out of touch for decades at this point) micromanaging things with a show format that's barely changed in 20 years with a direction that comes off as the people in the back tweaking with all the random camera cuts every 5-10 seconds. It's become incredibly scripted in that time which has neutered a lot of talent from doing their own thing so to speak while scripted TV has evolved considerably, WWE's awful writing and production has not and is now a hodgepodge mess of inconsistencies in trying in vain to be one thing yet a bunch of other things at the same time with none of them really working and that they can't even keep it all straight one episode of Raw let alone week to week. I wish I kept those images of a 1999 (I think) script and one from... 2011 was it? Either way they went from being like seven to nine pages with broad outlines to full on scripts with word for word written promos including lines for the announcers which kills so much spontaneity in what's supposed to be a live show.
You have a 70 year old man (who has been growing increasingly out of touch for decades at this point) micromanaging things with a show format that's barely changed in 20 years with a direction that comes off as the people in the back tweaking with all the random camera cuts every 5-10 seconds. It's become incredibly scripted in that time which has neutered a lot of talent from doing their own thing so to speak while scripted TV has evolved considerably, WWE's awful writing and production has not and is now a hodgepodge mess of inconsistencies in trying in vain to be one thing yet a bunch of other things at the same time with none of them really working and that they can't even keep it all straight one episode of Raw let alone week to week. I wish I kept those images of a 1999 (I think) script and one from... 2011 was it? Either way they went from being like seven to nine pages with broad outlines to full on scripts with word for word written promos including lines for the announcers which kills so much spontaneity in what's supposed to be a live show.
Nope. WWE always likes to trumpet how they never have an off season or break. Raw and Smackdown are on every week of the year, and the wrestlers are on the road, doing shows for ~300 days total. Which means the writing staff, production crews, management, etc. are also putting insane hours in.
I've often wondered what effect that has on the product. Besides the obvious disadvantage of putting talent at higher risk for injury, most creative types will tell you that being able to take a break can work wonders for giving you ideas and pushing along the creative process.
Of course, given that the average lifespan of a wwe writer is like 3 months, and Vince is mostly booking the show himself, it probably doesn't matter that much. I do still wonder what affect, if any, an off season would have.
Brawl 4 All was fine. It gave all the boring personality-less brawlers of the WWF something to do.
We could use another one.
Then Raw and Smackdown would be the same show. Unless Heyman was allowed to be extreme, which he wouldn't be.
PHOENIXZERO
Member
Tell that for all the guys who got injured and lost money because of it or had their careers ruined by it.
Well put. If I was to boil down the problem with it right now to a single word "overproduced" would be a great way to describe it.
It's a scripted program whose whole success hinges on the audience buying in and these guys are going out there and making you FEEL the scripted nature of it.
Guys, it was worth it.
It's not like Bart Gunn would have had much of a career if Brawl 4 All never happened. It made Bart Gunn interesting for a year. Without Brawl 4 All, Bart may not have been employed by the end of 98.
We came to the conclusion that it should be a yearly thing.
Let's see how big of a dog Roman Reigns really is.
Etrian Oddity
Member
The fucking Brawl 4 All robbed us of a goddamned Dr. Death Steve Williams title run. The whole reason Dr Death was signed to WWF was to to be a monster heel who actually beat Austin after the Austin-Taker feud.
Goddamned shame.
The bigger problem was that the professional wrestler put on a boring show against the boxer. Actual fighters did better all around.
It didn't help they insisted on doing it as a shoot fight when Butterbean was perfectly willing to work it.
VanquishUK
Member
In a good universe Russo is on the ring crew.
UberTag
Member
You can thank the over-scripting from people who can't write for that. All of the best segments the WWE has turned out over the past 5 years have been instances where the talent have been trusted to lead their own creative process and/or improv their reactions. This seldom happens because the other 95% of the time they're rigidly hand held. They can't overcome 50/50 booking and unimaginative creative when they have no freedom to realize their own on-screen characters.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
The funny thing is that generally speaking those aren't bad ratings.
It's that advertisers don't want to pay money to advertise on a wrestling show.
It's that advertisers don't want to pay money to advertise on a wrestling show.
JasonUresti
Member
The bigger problem was that the professional wrestler put on a boring show against the boxer. Actual fighters did better all around.
Watching Bart Gunn get murdered by Butterbean in 40 seconds wasn't boring.
piratepwnsninja
Member
Ding ding ding.
I started with wrestling in the mid-90s, and what they've lost for me is characters. It's why I'm simultaneously happy and sad about someone like Bray Wyatt. They let him have an over the top character, he does most of his own dialog, and is decent enough in ring. They just don't let too many people have that kind of character anymore. I don't need twists every week or surprise turns. But I do need storylines with characters I actually care about to even be interested in the in ring product.
Yup.
DeaconKnowledge
Member
Heyman and Cornette have radically different styles.
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