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WWE Raw Ratings: Viewership Hits Record Low

Do I need to track down more actual viewership numbers for Raw? Rating number is irrelevant due to how frequently Nielsen would change their calculation of what a ratings point equaled. Like a posted a few pages back for example a 6.3 in November 1999 equaled just under 4.8 million viewers while February 1999 4.435M viewers was a 4.45.

http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1999/Cable-TV-Nielsen-Ratings/id-c8ec08046af6824fedf58548c58e6fdf



The influence of Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara is what has pretty much lead to where we are now. Making WWE more low brow Jerry Springer inspired trashy crash TV in their ripping off ECW's edginess without the understanding of wrestling from Paul Heyman is a major reason why WWE eventually went to shit creatively and booking wise as they started going with TV writers instead of bookers who don't understand wrestling and on average don't stick around for more than a few months. I'm pretty sure they influenced Vince McMahon with the silly "we're making movies" nonsense considering that's how Russo and Ferrara viewed at it as well and were incapable of understanding why something they saw on some TV show didn't work or draw for wrestling. As already said, their"strength" was having a mid-card that always had something going on and the ideas that would get filtered though sometimes Vince failed that like with the stupid miscarriage angles WWE did starting with the first one involving Terri Runnels which is something Russo and Ferrara came up with as well as P.M.S and Meat, pretty sure the "Terri Invitational Tournament" was also an idea of theirs but they weren't the booker since Pat Patterson was still around but I guess give them credit for that which ended up getting the Hardys and Edge and Christian over... Though they got a lot more popular post Russo with Brian Gewitz writing for them.

If you really want to get into the whole writers thing.

Brian Gewitz > Russo and Ferrara

Paracelsus said:
Remember he's from the company that had Test and Albert managed by Trish (T&A) and a wrestler subtly named Paul Penis.
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I think you mean Val Venis.
 
It never ceases to amaze me that there are still people defending Vince Russo. In 2017. I could understand in like 2002, but the further away we get from the attitude era, the more indefensible he becomes.

There's been enough bullshit in the last 2 years alone to incriminate him as an incompetent con-man but lets keep pretending that he's some kind of genius.
 
The 06/12/17 edition of Raw drew only 2.542 million viewers. A new low for the year 2017. I've seen some of it while I was flip-flopping with the Sony E3 presser. I'm just glad I paid attention to Sony's affair than this one. Totally lackluster.

A breakdown of the hourly ratings:

1st hour = 2.769 million viewers
2nd hour = 2.522 million viewers
3rd hour = 2.335 million viewers.
 
ramoisdead said:
The 06/12/17 edition of Raw drew only 2.542 million viewers. A new low for the year 2017. I've seen some of it while I was flip-flopping with the Sony E3 presser. I'm just glad I paid attention to Sony's affair than this one. Totally lackluster.

A breakdown of the hourly ratings:

1st hour = 2.769 million viewers
2nd hour = 2.522 million viewers
3rd hour = 2.335 million viewers.
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NBA Finals was a part of this, but still wasn't a huge drop from the first to second hour. Lesnar just isn't a draw any more.
 
This makes sense now.

19222712_10154985365563355_2104809223498547407_o.jpg


Violence Jack said:
My god. Just do all of us and Bayley a favor and send her back to NXT. Vince has ruined her in record time.
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Everyone called it too. Vince loves Blondes.
 
I was one of those naive people who thought "they can't fuck up Bayley, she's too likeable and WWE know she can make them a ton of money if they book her right. They'll be careful".

I forgot just how stupid, incompetent and petty the people at Titan Towers can be.
 
Vince McMahon needs to just swallow his pride and hire Russo back, what does he have to lose? Just admit he was the creative force and move on with it, before USA drops them
 
BMO = GOAT said:
Hmm because he is "The One".

Serious answer,kinda, he was not actually there when the "shakeup" occured. This is the WWE tho so F logic��
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So Reigns about to announce he wants Cena at Summerslam in a good ole Smackdown Vs RAW brawl.

Reigns wins and Cena retires off to join the cast of Avengers.
 
Bruce Springsteen said:
Vince McMahon needs to just swallow his pride and hire Russo back, what does he have to lose? Just admit he was the creative force and move on with it, before USA drops them
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It's past the time to just hire Russo back. Now they need to give him whatever he asks for. Write him a blank check if they have to.
 
Bruce Springsteen said:
Vince McMahon needs to just swallow his pride and hire Russo back, what does he have to lose? Just admit he was the creative force and move on with it, before USA drops them
Click to expand...
Or McMahon can literally stop trying to force characters onto wrestlers and stop trying to force the crowd to accept who he deems is "the man" or what have you.

It used to be you'd hire a wrestler and ask them, "what's your persona? Gimme a promo." McMahon now runs it as hiring a person and going, "this is your gimmick, this is your promo. don't deviate from the script." When the fans started to cheer a heel they'd turn him face, and when they started hating a face they turned him heel. It's an obvious thing to everyone but VKM.

Honestly the problem with WWE is the top-down ultra micromanagement.
 
Etrian Oddity said:
Or McMahon can literally stop trying to force characters onto wrestlers and stop trying to force the crowd to accept who he deems is "the man" or what have you.

It used to be you'd hire a wrestler and ask them, "what's your persona? Gimme a promo." McMahon now runs it as hiring a person and going, "this is your gimmick, this is your promo. don't deviate from the script." When the fans started to cheer a heel they'd turn him face, and when they started hating a face they turned him heel. It's an obvious thing to everyone but VKM.

Honestly the problem with WWE is the top-down ultra micromanagement.
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This even extends to things outside their control. The fans are the "WWE Universe", like we're part of the scripted entertainment too. It's patronising, forced, awkward bullshit. And their constant wanting to take credit for trending on Twitter, like it fucking matters. We know you're trending. We're making you trend. It's 2017, you're a global live broadcast behemoth, trending on social media should be a default position, not something you have to keep slapping yourselves on the back for, nor asking the fans to participate in.
 
Should have just had one of the Raw top heels do a Shoot/Work interview on Cena. Shane would give him special leave to be able to compete on Raw and show up on Smackdown as well.
 
Wrestling fans pining for Vince Russo is like One Piece fans pining for the halcyon days of Thriller Bark. That shit ain't like you remember cuz.
 
Sho_Nuff82 said:
Wrestling fans pining for Vince Russo is like One Piece fans pining for the halcyon days of Thriller Bark. That shit ain't like you remember cuz.
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It's like Star Wars fans demanding Lucas back because the OT was so good.

Russo's spells in WCW and TNA are the prequel trilogy. Jar-Jar Binks is the finger poke of doom.
 
HazySaiyan said:
I was one of those naive people who thought "they can't fuck up Bayley, she's too likeable and WWE know she can make them a ton of money if they book her right. They'll be careful".

I forgot just how stupid, incompetent and petty the people at Titan Towers can be.
Click to expand...

Or maybe, just maybe....Bayley hasn't done enough to step ahead? Her mic work is still pretty abysmal and when the WWE relies so heavily on scripted promos you need someone who can work a mic.
 
Yeah, nobody should want Vince Russo in their promotion in 2017. The long term consequences of Russo are not worth any short term benefits. Russo killed WCW and crippled TNA in a way they never recovered from
 
Burai said:
It's like Star Wars fans demanding Lucas back because the OT was so good.

Russo's spells in WCW and TNA are the prequel trilogy. Jar-Jar Binks is the finger poke of doom.
Click to expand...

New Star Wars trilogy would have to be even worse than the prequel trilogy for this. The prequel trilogy would have had to have been a horrible production before Lucas even got on board. Star Wars prequels would have had to have Jar Jar Banks before Lucas.

The fingerpoke of doom did more to kill WCW than Russo ever did. And not only was that before Russo but Russo at the same exact day was putting the world title on Foley in one of the most memorable wrestling moments ever. You're actually using something that was Russo's competition at the height of his success against Russo. :)
 
You're fooling yourself if you think everything that happened in WWE at the time was due to Russo.

And while the fingerpoke of doom killed some momentum in WCW, you're completely overlooking him book David Arquette and all the other shit from 99/00.
 
WCW was declining before Russo jumped to WCW but most people felt that the promotion could stabilize and bounce back once the ship got righted. Russo put WCW into a downward spiral it couldn't recover from. People need to remember that Russo was so incredibly bad in WCW that there are people who to this day still believe that Russo was a sleeper agent for Vince McMahon.

Oh, another bonus point for why Russo should never be allowed near a promotion again: He still defends Arquette winning the title and thinks it was a smart idea.
 
It's possible that McMahon and Russo ended up making a good team, shoring up each others weaknesses and calling out their worst elements.

Kind of like George Lucas and Alex Kurtzman.

Of course it's also entirely possible that Russo is just an incompetent fuckwit and just happened to be there when WWE was at it's peak.
 
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