• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

WWE Raw drops to lowest TV rating in 18 years

Status
Not open for further replies.

RBH

Member
15913038.0.jpg


Chris Jericho: "It was Team WWE vs. Team Nexus, and the finish boiled down to [Edge] and [Jericho] in there, but it was Cena against a couple of them. John wanted to do things a certain way and we told him 'you're wrong'. He did it anyways, and it sucked. And then after he came over to us and said 'I should have listened to you, but I wasn't seeing it that way.'"

Edge: "I remember. I was like, fine I'm out of the match by that point."

Chris Jericho: "He wanted to get DDT'd on the floor by Barrett, then kick out and beat them both. And you and I were like, that's the dumbest thing. That's just throwing it away for no reason."

Edge: "They should have gone over because they were so hot."

Chris Jericho: "We were fighting for Barrett to go over. And where's Wade Barrett now?"
http://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/20...john-cena-kill-the-nexus-edge-jericho-podcast
 
I forget the details but He did something real bad to his spine and was basically wheelchair bound for several years.

Dude is lucky to be walking again.

He had a spinal stroke. According to him his doctor said it was just a freak accident. He worked out and went to his hotel and was paralyzed or something like that. He's in much better shape today.
 
I have been a wrestling fan since I can remember and I am now 39 years old. But over the past 10 years the business has basically died in my opinion, and nothing will bring it back in the near future.
It will take a full blown Attitude Era complete with bloody matches and plenty of steel chairs to the head. Which will never happen again and rightfully so due to concussions and other head trauma. Even if the WWE had the talent on the mic which they don't they can never go extreme enough to grab mainstream attention again.
 
I don't think that people want extreme wrestling. The whole "Videos of people hurting themselves" used to be popular 10 years go but I don't know who is into watching Jackass-like videos anymore.

WWE needs to do a lot, but the fact that there's nothing else to watch on TV is a major problem for WWE, which won't get any different ideas and nothing to push their style forward.
 
Extreme draws the headlines and word of mouth. Like it or not the violence is what drew the ratings they saw in the late 90's early 2000's. Look at the NFL even with all the evidence of head trauma they continue to dominate ratings consistently.
 
Good, I hope it keeps dropping.

I'm a lifetime fan (35 years old), and there have been a few moments over the last few months this Summer where I finally started asking myself just what the hell is the point in continuing to watch WWE.

I don't want to get to that point. I'm all for whatever it takes for them to turn this lull around, ugh.

Dat heel turn.

Superb!
 
Extreme draws the headlines and word of mouth. Like it or not the violence is what drew the ratings they saw in the late 90's early 2000's. Look at the NFL even with all the evidence of head trauma they continue to dominate ratings consistently.

You think the NFL draws ratings because of head trauma? No, it's because of fantasy football and balanced, competitive product.

I'm thankful that WWE is "pg" these days because if these stupid story lines were R-rated or worse it'd be cringe-worthy, embarrassingly bad. They're stupid storylines now, but not generally offensive.
 
You think the NFL draws ratings because of head trauma? No, it's because of fantasy football and balanced, competitive product.

I'm thankful that WWE is "pg" these days because if these stupid story lines were R-rated or worse it'd be cringe-worthy, embarrassingly bad. They're stupid storylines now, but not generally offensive.

PG means no blood though. Wrestling without blood is like football without tackling
 
Good, I hope it keeps dropping.

I'm a lifetime fan (35 years old), and there have been a few moments over the last few months this Summer where I finally started asking myself just what the hell is the point in continuing to watch WWE.

I don't want to get to that point. I'm all for whatever it takes for them to turn this lull around, ugh.

WWE no but I would recommend the Kayfabe Commentaries shoot series especially back to the territories and Timeline history of WWE, WCW, and ECW.
 
PG means no blood though. Wrestling without blood is like football without tackling

Can't really tell if you're being serious or not, I'm not in enough of these discussions. If you're being serious, this is a ridiculous argument as tackling is the central part of ending a play in football, and blading is absolutely unneccesary, but can be effective to add drama to a match. But when somebody is "busted wide open" in every match it looses its effect. Plus, today, everybody knows that no wrestlers are 'busted open,' they blade themselves. When Hart / Austin had that famous submission match, and Austin added color even against Vince's wishes, it added so much to the match. When every match has excessive blood in it, it's not special and, frankly, unnecessarily dangerous.

Saying that blading is to wrestling as tackling is to football does not make any sense. If blading were a football analogy it would be like head hunting, completely unnecessary and dangerous to players.

WWE no but I would recommend the Kayfabe Commentaries shoot series especially back to the territories and Timeline history of WWE, WCW, and ECW.

Just looked this up as I hadn't heard of it...

Is there like an unwritten rule that wrestling fan websites need to be HORRIBLE?
 
Stopped watching a while ago. I just "keep up" by listening to the solomonster podcast. Nothing compels me to watch it. Hearing solomonster say how boring it is etc doesnt help.

Better fleshed out stories/characters would help a lot. I get the urge watch it when I see the gifs of New Day having a ball, but seems like it would be a chore to watch the rest of it. Bray caught my attn when he first arrived, but they messed that up.
 
D

Deleted member 47027

Unconfirmed Member
Legitimately makes me laugh so many people are mad at Cena. He does great things. He's bigger than wrestling. A true superstar.
 
Can't really tell if you're being serious or not, I'm not in enough of these discussions. If you're being serious, this is a ridiculous argument as tackling is the central part of ending a play in football, and blading is absolutely unneccesary, but can be effective to add drama to a match. But when somebody is "busted wide open" in every match it looses its effect. Plus, today, everybody knows that no wrestlers are 'busted open,' they blade themselves. When Hart / Austin had that famous submission match, and Austin added color even against Vince's wishes, it added so much to the match. When every match has excessive blood in it, it's not special and, frankly, unnecessarily dangerous.

Saying that blading is to wrestling as tackling is to football does not make any sense. If blading were a football analogy it would be like head hunting, completely unnecessary and dangerous to players.

I was halfway joking. Obviously it isn't like tackling, but it's completely essential to wrestling. It should obviously be used sparingly for grudge matches or certain types of matches like cage matches.

Having an entire PPV based around the concept of a Hell and a Cell match without being able to blade for instance is patently absurd.
 

Raging Spaniard

If they are Dutch, upright and breathing they are more racist than your favorite player
Watched RAW tonight and no shit ratings are bad when you have a commercial break every 2 minutes. Barely anything happens and you're taken out of the show, its fucking horrible and thats regardless of the stale ass, repetitive content.
 

Lothar

Banned
Extreme draws the headlines and word of mouth. Like it or not the violence is what drew the ratings they saw in the late 90's early 2000's. Look at the NFL even with all the evidence of head trauma they continue to dominate ratings consistently.

1999 wasn't that violent for WWF. 1998 was just for Foley but it didn't need to be. People got behind Foley 100x more for Mr Socko than they did Hell in a Cell. After Hell in a Cell most fans still didn't care about Foley and I believe he was thinking about retiring. Things like Hell in a Cell and chairshots never needed to happen. Ratings wouldn't have been any different. People were tuning in for the Rock and Austin/McMahon and DX.
 
Watched RAW tonight and no shit ratings are bad when you have a commercial break every 2 minutes. Barely anything happens and you're taken out of the show, its fucking horrible and thats regardless of the stale ass, repetitive content.

Their commercial breaks are the same they've ever been. You just don't have 90 second matches like the Attitude Era now.
 

Raging Spaniard

If they are Dutch, upright and breathing they are more racist than your favorite player
Their commercial breaks are the same they've ever been. You just don't have 90 second matches like the Attitude Era now.

Times have drastically changed. You have streaming services that teach the consumer to sit through maybe one or two ads for an hour of entertainment, todays audience has no time for commercials, specially when WWE themselves put all the highlights on youtube a couple of hours later.

Theyre doing everything they can for me to not watch the show live:

-nothing important happens
-booking is extremely repetitive
-highlights are immediately available (legally!)
-PPV event matches are announced way before they are announced via kayfabe
-commercials and timing are 10 years behind the curve

Why watch live?
 
1999 wasn't that violent for WWF. 1998 was just for Foley but it didn't need to be. People got behind Foley 100x more for Mr Socko than they did Hell in a Cell. After Hell in a Cell most fans still didn't care about Foley and I believe he was thinking about retiring. Things like Hell in a Cell and chairshots never needed to happen. Ratings wouldn't have been any different. People were tuning in for the Rock and Austin/McMahon and DX.

This is a very good point and one that I always forget. Mic Foley did not become huge draw until Mankind became a comic relief to the Austin / Undertaker / McMahon feud, which were very serious.
 
1999 wasn't that violent for WWF. 1998 was just for Foley but it didn't need to be. People got behind Foley 100x more for Mr Socko than they did Hell in a Cell. After Hell in a Cell most fans still didn't care about Foley and I believe he was thinking about retiring. Things like Hell in a Cell and chairshots never needed to happen. Ratings wouldn't have been any different. People were tuning in for the Rock and Austin/McMahon and DX.

1999 was the year Rock hit Foley in the head with 18 unprotected chair shots or whatever which is way worse than anything he did in 1998.
 

Game4life

Banned
I think about this a lot... whether or not that stuff stands the test of time.

back in 98, sable teasing her tits on TV was a pretty novel concept, especially if you were a kid. not many had the internet, and there was no way to get your hands on a playboy, let alone a porn video.

today, anyone can google tits. most kids have a fucking supercomputer in their pocket and full length hd porn videos are a few taps away. does a female wrestler in lingerie teasing nudity work in 2015? I don't think it does, at least not as much as it did in the late 90s.

profanity can bring intensity to a promo, but again, it's not as shocking as it was back in the day. hearing profanity bleeped out on tv back in the late 90s was exciting! it's why springer was popular, and the attitude era took advantage of that. they were breaking rules! today, thanks to youtube, any kid can watch the angry video game nerd talking about fucking diarrhea shit. isn't pewdiepie the most subscribed youtuber? dude cusses all the time.

in the late 90s, the audience wanted a certain product. WWF supplied that (as did WCW), and it was rewarded with big time ratings. I don't think you can just copy and paste late 90s sensibilities, present them in 2015, and expect things to be good. you have to give the audience what they want. today's audience. personally, I think NXT nails it. new japan does as well, to an extent. straight forward storytelling and hard hitting matches. it's not as hard as wwe is making it seem.

No. I still get pumped watching this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4xCM5waFlE

Just listen to the crowd. These segments will always hold because of the energy and authenticity guys like Stone Cold brought to the table. Today none of the characters are remotely interesting.
 

Lothar

Banned
1999 was the year Rock hit Foley in the head with 18 unprotected chair shots or whatever which is way worse than anything he did in 1998.

That was one thing, was totally stupid and unnecessary, didn't make anyone care any more about the feud, fans cared just as much about the Rock and Mankind hitting each other with bags of popcorn in their empty arena match.
 

btrboyev

Member
No competition will eventually bring the company down...it's surprising it's lasted as long as it has been since Vince bought WCW.
 

Carnby

Member
Although the initial Invasion angle with wcw was botched, I was ok with Shane "controlling" wcw. The night that happened, I was hoping for some good "wcw" vs wwf(e). We all know how that ended. Later when Heyman ripped that massive promo and some unexpected ecw guys entered the fray, i thought this would be the redemption, and an awesome wwe/wcw/ecw showdown. You had Vince, Shane, and Heyman with their respective brands, so yeah, I was hyped over the moon at that point. Then a mere hour later, they merge wcw/ecw, cut Heyman's nuts off, and put Steph in charge. I knew from that moment on, it was going to be total shit. I've had Xpac heat with Steph ever since.

That swerve was so awful, I instantly stopped watching wwe until 2011.

That was one thing, was totally stupid and unnecessary, didn't make anyone care any more about the feud, fans cared just as much about the Rock and Mankind hitting each other with bags of popcorn in their empty arena match.

Wut. It was a very memorable moment of a great fued. Don't play the revisionist.
 
Divas Revolution is a mess
Rollins being overexposed as well being booked as a punk bitch who loses to everyone
The Bray/Roman feud is boring
The promos are too long and straight up the worst thing
It's 3 fucking hours


I can go on but I can't say I'm surprised.
 

DeathyBoy

Banned
All of those teams were in place in 1999.

Dudleys were a goofy tag team until RR 2000 versus The Hardy's. E&C/Hardy Boys were decent, but that ladder match at NM 1999 wasn't the norm for them - they still weren't particularly over or memorable until The Hardy's versus Dudleys feud. And even then the E&C everyone loves didn't show up until April 2000. Prior to that, they were just a decent generic tag team. Same with The Hardy Boys - adding Lita is when they really took off.
 

kirblar

Member
Their commercial breaks are the same they've ever been. You just don't have 90 second matches like the Attitude Era now.
And that is actually a bad thing. 15 minute matches with a commercial break in the middle on free TV should not be the norm.
 

Krixeus

Member
Divas Revolution is a mess
Rollins being overexposed as well being booked as a punk bitch who loses to everyone
The Bray/Roman feud is boring
The promos are too long and straight up the worst thing
It's 3 fucking hours


I can go on but I can't say I'm surprised.

But, Kevin Owens...
 

iMax

Member
This is a MASSIVE problem. Turnovers for storylines. For some reason, they just keep the same shit going WAAAAYYYY longer than they used to, and it becomes beyond stale.

Then other stories they drop after two episodes...

There is no consistency, no pacing, to any of their arcs.

What we really need is an anonymous Raw general manager.
 
I'm trying very hard to think of what Steph has contributed to the product that's ever been good. I mean, she can be a convincing heel... but she refuses to have any sort of comeuppance. I mean, the only time I can think of where Steph got put in her place in recent memory was Vickie Guerrero throwing her into a pool of pudding. And good on Vickie for getting that in her farewell. She was always awesome.

Steph was fine during the whole master power angle.
 

Into

Member
Seeing Stephanie emasculate the only act in WWE that seems to have any positive momentum (New Day) is fucking depressing.

Her ego is so big that she needs to be the heel that shits on everyone, but also the babyface that brought you Diva's Revolution and fighting breast cancer and heralding that Connor kid. She wants to have fun being a dick heel, but also the fun of getting pops by mentioning Brady in Boston.

And dont give me that shit "its her character", because quite frankly, i do not believe that is so much of a character, as it is just her wanting validation but also to have fun.
 
10 minute of commercial break followed by 5 minute of entrances and 2 minute of match. Cut back to 10 minute of commercial break.

I tuned into Raw today and that's exactly what I got with Sheamus match. Fuck off, WWE.

And the worst part of all that is you got a Sheamus match.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom