FeenixRising
Banned
How Sway?
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WWE Raw Ratings: Viewership Hits Record Low
- Thread starter DMczaf
- Start date
How Sway?
ElRenoRaven
Member
Hell more so. The indies are putting out a better product. Hell watch this and tell me this doesn't have you wanting to watch this show and more so this match.
Sami Callihan vs. Michael Elgin AAW Championship Press Conference | AAW Pro Wrestling
Have you seen shit that compares to that on WWE lately story much less promo/angle wise?
Lower TV deal = less original content for the network, less talent signings/layoffs
If, and only if, Vince leaves his position as a result of the next tv deal negotiations, will there be any drastic change in creative.
Plinko
Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
Here's the problem: It's not 3 hours of wrestling. It's barely 1 at times. Way, WAY too much time recapping what happened right before the commercial, what happened last week, etc.
This. Every time I look up from my conversation at the bar it's some fucking nonsense like Bailey's friend and ex making out or Enzo getting mystery jumped backstage. I always go right back to my conversation when it's that, which is most of the time.
Put people in the ring. Let them wrestle. That's why I'm even remotely interested in watching.
excelsiorlef
Member
Where'd you hear that? On WOR today he said he wasn't talking about cancellation.
DUFFMCWALIN
Member
I've been out of touch with wrestling for six months or so now but Everytime I look at the roster im shocked they aren't doing better. They have brought so much good talent in from other places. How are they still fucking this up? Feeding all new talent to Roman? Is writing tripping over its own dick? There is so much good talent in wwe right now.
Having a lot of talent doesn't mean much when there are so many glaring issues with the way its all run.
-World champion disappears for months
-Wins and loses don't matter
-Belts don't matter
-Fem stars don't get opportunities and at times are actually demoted.
-Roman gets pushed more than everyone else around him despite being less talented than everyone.
-Commercial during every damn match and sometimes 2 commercials during a match.
-Main events are almost always some pointless tag match.
-No good rivalries
-No good heels.
That is how its is on RAW. SD is much better. And SD doesn't even have Cena for now. Assuming he returns and comes to SD..RAW gonna get rekt even more in the ratings especially with MNF returning soon.
Thats just madness...
This promo was pretty cookie cutter old school wrasslin, but probably brings to mind how many in wwe can honestly do such a long form promo in this style. The sad thing is the majority can! So many on the wwe roster have this kind of passion for their character, but none of them are able to show it. So many characters are lacking motivation beyond getting a championship.
Agreed. Even tough it is true that SDL hasn't been the same post superstar shakeup, it's still better than Raw.
What makes it sad is that some of these wrestler do cut good promos on NXT, but when they move up to the main roster, everything that made them stand out in NXT is stripped away. Just look at what they did to Sami Zayn.
ElRenoRaven
Member
Yup. It's as old school as they come yet there is passion and there is a true story. The WWE version would be this. Let's take say AJ Styles and Kevin Owens.
Both come to ring. Shane is in center with a table. Both come in. Cut basic promo about how each is gonna destroy the other at the PPV and then sign. Then Kevin being the heel would attack AJ and leave him laying. Cue announcers going OMG what has he done. He just left AJ laying. The end.
Then you take this and do the exact thing over and over and over just plugging in different wrestlers. No emotion, no anything.
Hell it's all of them. Take Bayley. She could cut a good emotion filled promo and not come off looking like a 12 year old geeky kid. She had the same damn character but the promos were so much better. On main roster they have her playing the same role but with promos that make her look so awkward and like she can't form a complete sentence without studdering.
Bruce Springsteen
Member
Zero story
Killing_Joke
Member
Here's the real issue. Splitting a thin roster (star power) between 3 shows is stupid. Bringing back the brand split was dumb from jump. Oh here's a hot returning Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan, let's put them on the fucking B show. Here's AJ Styles the hottest star in wrestling at the time, put him on the B show. Lets give Bork the championship and not show up for 2+ months just because. Lets bring back Kurt Angle and have absolutely nothing for him other then shitty 2mins of promos that go nowhere.
RAW is just really fucking boring. And honestly the matches have been very disappointing with the talent they have.
RAW is just really fucking boring. And honestly the matches have been very disappointing with the talent they have.
It's so weird. He was there for the Attitude Era. He was there for the big Corporation conspiracy storyline in the end of 1998. He should know what good TV is.
The same goes for Shane.
Unspeakable Evil
Member
Lol maybe Roman pinning Undertaker killed both casual and hardcore audiences.
UberTag
Member
You're not missing out on anything.
Hell, you could have skipped WM and not missed out on anything.
You SHOULD, however, make a point of scoping out Bate vs. Dunne from the last NXT special if you get the chance.
They weren't working a WWE style and, naturally, the match was all the better for it.
The fundamental issue is that the WWE uses NXT as their developmental pool for talent growth... and yet, when they finally move that talent to the main roster they effectively don't trust the talent to utilize the skills they were supposedly developing in NXT. Instead they trust talentless Hollywood soap opera writers... and the whims of a senile old man.
funkystudent
Member
Once my life got remotely busy and TV time became a premium I have pretty much dropped wwe entirely.
I will follow some twitter accounts and wrestle gaf but even then I haven't a clue what's going on and can't tell you who the IC or tag champs currently are.
Feels good.
Even with more free time I was hanging on by a tread though. WM was a real downer this year and nothing really changed story wise.
I will follow some twitter accounts and wrestle gaf but even then I haven't a clue what's going on and can't tell you who the IC or tag champs currently are.
Feels good.
Even with more free time I was hanging on by a tread though. WM was a real downer this year and nothing really changed story wise.
Nothing interesting happens and feuds have no heat because the writing is terrible.
Smackdown still manages to be interesting now and then. Post shakeup and with the lack of Brian and Orton champion things took a dive but it's mostly a competent show.
I've given up on Raw. Nobody is doing anything interesting and I don't care about any of it. When I hear that Goldusr and R Truth are the only ones in a good program then I know 3 hours of Raw aren't worth it. And the solution isn't more meaningless wrestling either, it's good feuds and better writing (or just let the wrestlers get creative instead of scripting everything).
Smackdown still manages to be interesting now and then. Post shakeup and with the lack of Brian and Orton champion things took a dive but it's mostly a competent show.
I've given up on Raw. Nobody is doing anything interesting and I don't care about any of it. When I hear that Goldusr and R Truth are the only ones in a good program then I know 3 hours of Raw aren't worth it. And the solution isn't more meaningless wrestling either, it's good feuds and better writing (or just let the wrestlers get creative instead of scripting everything).
PHOENIXZERO
Member
Need to look at total viewership, not the rating because the ratings on cable are recalculated somewhat frequently, especially when comparing ratings from 15-20 years ago.What about WWF new Era ratings?
edit:
The biggest concern for them should be the aging audience, aside from viewers in the 50+ demo that no one cares about every other demo is sliding harder than even the total viewership. There's so much more interesting and compelling choices out there to watch if you choose to watch TV but they're making zero effort to actually interest people into watching their product, it's pretty much the strangely diehard and seemingly easy to please WWE fans at this point who are watching it out of habit.
EDIT: Not to say their audience isn't shrinking because it absolutely is and worse they're not really attracting new viewers hence the aging demo.
Viacom pretty much dumped WWE when they tried to ask way more than what Viacom was interested in paying. Also Spike is going to be re-branded to "The Paramount Network" sometime next year.
It is but viewership is falling faster than pretty much anything else on cable, there could be a point where the USA Network/NBCU/Comcast doesn't find paying Vince 500,000-600,000+ an hour for Raw and Smackdown as they currently do worth it, especially if Bonnie Hammer is ousted or leaves. Bonnie Hammer is pretty much Vince's money mark and I (and a lot of others) haven't particularly care for since she gained power and eventually was put in charge of the Sci-Fi Channel during the late 90s/early 2000s due to her apparently dislike of Sci-Fi and Fantasy.
Cord cutting impacts total viewership but it doesn't affect ratings, Nielsen recalculates them to compensate for cord cutters.
No one is going to be willing to give them the money they're been getting from USA and anything less will hit their stock value and corporate image hard as will any new deal that doesn't involve a healthy increase. They've been spinning their WWE Network numbers for years now, losing their TV deal or having to take one for the same or less is something they would have a much harder time spinning even with the a shrinking market of a decaying industry.
What other option do they have other than releasing half their roster? The brand split would be fine if they were legit making new stars but they're not because their booking philosophy where absolutely nothing matters is utterly inept beyond NXT with a stubborn, out of touch senior citizen who still thinks he has the pulse on what the audience wants even when they tell him they don't he thinks he can force people to like what he wants and everyone who doesn't like it is just a minority of their audience who is wrong.
Violence Jack
Member
That match was such a shitfest in itself that they didn't need Roman to pin him for that to happen.
Roman pinning Taker was not the problem with that match. Everything else in between was wrong, including the heinous build leading up to Mania.
anecdotally... its fucking shit now.
they put the shows in holding patterns for the 6 month 'road to wrestlemania' period where we got programming catered to people that dont watch any more; killed all momentum for all the characters; and now 2 months later we're in another holding pattern for brock and the big dog in 10 months time.
they put the shows in holding patterns for the 6 month 'road to wrestlemania' period where we got programming catered to people that dont watch any more; killed all momentum for all the characters; and now 2 months later we're in another holding pattern for brock and the big dog in 10 months time.
T
thepotatoman
Unconfirmed Member
They're rebranding Spike into Paramount Network for a gender balanced audience instead of a male dominated one. I don't know if it would fit.
Sir_Crocodile
Member
Unless I misheard, I thought he said that if Bonnie Hammer left USA and someone who just looks at the bottom line comes in for the '19 renegotiation, they had that risk.
Couldn't agree more - and those supposedly awesome matches are boring even if they're well executed because usually there is only one logical outcome.
Sir_Crocodile
Member
A good wrestler and an average wrestler in the main event, both of whom have been booked terribly, the good wrestler has zero heat and the average wrestler has heel heat even though he is a face.
And an hour before it we'll cut a promo that ONLY GEEKS WATCH WRESTLING.
What could possibly go wrong?????????????
And an hour before it we'll cut a promo that ONLY GEEKS WATCH WRESTLING.
What could possibly go wrong?????????????
s_mirage
Member
The amount of fans on the net who seem to shit on Meltzer's observation that 1% of network cordcutters does not seem to explain the 20% ratings drop amazes me. I don't get it; a bad product is fixable, but viewers turning off the medium entirely would seem to be considerably more problematic, in the short term at least.
I don't understand why they want to blame it on cordcutters anyway. Why would USA be interested in a future big money deal for shows which have fans that are undergoing a mass exodus from cable TV viewing?
I don't understand why they want to blame it on cordcutters anyway. Why would USA be interested in a future big money deal for shows which have fans that are undergoing a mass exodus from cable TV viewing?
twinturbo2
butthurt Heat fan
Just to give you an idea of how bad things are, Vince Russo has been in touch with WWE recently.
This isn't going to end well.
This isn't going to end well.
The reason more people are turning off the TV programme compared to cancelling the Network is quite easy to explain imo. The Network only has the most hardcore fans subscribing, they levelled out at 1.3m paid and been there for years. Of course it stands to reason that the more casual viewers are the first to give up on a show, rather than the hardcore marks.
When I quit WWE it was a process of about a year and a half. First I quit Smackdown, a few months later I stopped watching Raw every week, first checking reactions to the show before deciding if I would check it. Then I gave up on that after realizing it was shit even when people said it wasn't. Then I dropped NXT, after that the B-PPVs, then I stopped watching the YouTube highlights, and finally after this Mania I was done completely.
There was a good 7 months or so between quitting TV and quitting the Network. I imagine this will be the same for many in the future. I expect the Network to not start dropping subs until after Mania next year or thereabouts.
Funny thing is because vince is so hell bent on cheer roman god dammit
Him beating take doesnt get any mention.
Look at brock evertime heyman is there he always powerfully mentions he beat the streak etc.
Roman its just a piss in the wind at beating and probs retiring taker. Ya know he could along the line off be like its my yard now who thefuck wants to come challenge me ? Sorta thing.
This is just one thing. This is problems with ppv etc and partimers. We know once brock and roman get into there progrsmme roman will.mention the taker stuff nut until then you wouldn't think mania even happened.
Him beating take doesnt get any mention.
Look at brock evertime heyman is there he always powerfully mentions he beat the streak etc.
Roman its just a piss in the wind at beating and probs retiring taker. Ya know he could along the line off be like its my yard now who thefuck wants to come challenge me ? Sorta thing.
This is just one thing. This is problems with ppv etc and partimers. We know once brock and roman get into there progrsmme roman will.mention the taker stuff nut until then you wouldn't think mania even happened.
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thepotatoman
Unconfirmed Member
I guess the argument is good TV ratings and a merchandise brand you can make money on are incompatible with each other, so might as well build the sellable brand than sticking to a dying business?
s_mirage
Member
I can appreciate that, what I don't get is why some fans (online but not here typically) seem desperate to blame the fall in ratings on anything other than a poor quality product.
Hahaha, they deserve each other.
twinturbo2
butthurt Heat fan
Booking a Kendo Stick on a Pole match for Extreme Rules was basically giving the Batsignal to Russo.
Also, they ruined Bayley. WTF creative?
Wait! They did that? Hahaha
Couldn't even get through the last PPV so I didn't even bother looking up the next one.
Tried to watch the NXT PPV but didn't make it more than an hour in.
Not surprised they screwed up Bayley, although I have no idea what they did.
They fuck up pretty much everything so I just can't get invested in anyone anymore.
Heck, I don't even enjoy Nakamura matches anymore, certainly not when he's going up against midcarters who have a hard time even being a midcarter.
I miss the days where Dean Malenko was considered a mid-carter.
Shit, guys like that have more talent that 95% of the main event guys today in WWE.
It couldn't be any worse. Even if Russo is dumb, he's still smarter than the people currently writing.
Just the fact that he said he would have turned Reigns heel shows he'd be so much better at the job.
Good news.
ElRenoRaven
Member
Well and Vince is good when he has a good editor. When Vince had Vince editing him Raw was amazing. The problem with Russo is when he has no editor and gets free reign. That's when he sucks total ass. But as long as he has someone going no this won't work or tweaking his stuff he's fine.
No he not, Vince Russo is one of the worst Booker's in the history of the business
There's a bunch of bookers he's better than. All the bookers of the WWE since 2001 for starters.
We are about the same man that killed WCW and Almost killed TNA. Like Badh of Beach 2000 is a handbook on how not to book
Mechanized
Member
I would actually like to see Russo back, the shows would at least be entertaining. Not for the intended reason, of course. But better than the nothing wwe is now.
GoldandBlue
Member
Man, that was not a good match to go out on.
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