And Cena declines. Swerve! Heel turn! Curb stomp on a child and Cena laughs. The media would report on that for a solid week. Bam! New eyes on the product. Buyrates go through the roof as people tune in out of curiosity at first, then over time to see who will bring that dastardly Cena to justice. (Seth Rollins probably died in the riot the curb stomp caused.)
-
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
- Thread starter RBH
- Start date
- Status
And Cena declines. Swerve! Heel turn! Curb stomp on a child and Cena laughs. The media would report on that for a solid week. Bam! New eyes on the product. Buyrates go through the roof as people tune in out of curiosity at first, then over time to see who will bring that dastardly Cena to justice. (Seth Rollins probably died in the riot the curb stomp caused.)
Cena also claims that he did this with the rapper gimmick, claiming he was threatened with being terminated until he got over and became the true face of the dub dub.
Charles Foster Kane
Rosebud
I used to watch this a lot when I was a kid in the 90s. It was the WWF.
Was surprised a couple of years ago when I realized it was still a thing. Have never watched it again though.
Was surprised a couple of years ago when I realized it was still a thing. Have never watched it again though.
Barkley's Justice
Member
At any given time, count how many:
- Wrestling-related threads
- Fast food threads
- Comic book-related threads
are on the front page of OT
BoboBrazil
Member
Most of the wrestling OT threads are just by posters from the wrestling community thread trying to get attention to it so people will post there though. Noone cares about wrestling anymore, atleast not the current day incarnation of it. They certainly don't talk about it in public if they do. I'm shocked Raw still pulls the rating it does.
Most of the WWE's fanbase falls into a young demographic, and they're not watching ANY channel on television. There's a reason why the Network was made -- the WWE is reacting to a shift in entertainment consumption habits.
If you were to launch a new wrestling company in 2015, you would want to be completely connected to your audience through social media and online video. The WWE is trying their best.
If you were to launch a new wrestling company in 2015, you would want to be completely connected to your audience through social media and online video. The WWE is trying their best.
Officerrob
Banned
The main WWE demographic is men in their 30's
UberTag
Member
How long until PewDiePie gets his chance to guest host RAW? He can appear in a little box in the corner and talk over matches until Cole gets fed up with him and they set up a feud for a match at Mania Star Symbol.
TheXfactor
Member
what about the actual show though? like the entertainment?
I care and actually do talk about it in public. Conversation comes up as I wear WWE related shirts out in public. I admit to still watching it. I don't have shame in it. It's entertaining. I guess I'm the minority but, you definitely can't say no one cares.
I think the reason this has happened is because the way people look at wrestling has drastically changed. Back in the day your average wrestling fan watched Raw or Smackdown and that was it. At most they discussed it with their friends. The average wrestling fan only saw what WWE wanted them to see. It was like a magic show.
The circumstances have changed a lot since then. With Twitter, everybody is in the same loop. Your average wrestling fan knows about everything that's happening backstage. Everyone sees through the curtain and the magic show is no longer entertaining. What's the point of watching when you know more than what they're showing you? The most important part about being an entertainer is being one step ahead of your audience. However, that's no longer possible for the WWE.
I think the only way they can salvage the show is to break the 4th wall and expand the drama beyond the ring. If the audience can see behind the curtain, then expand the entertainment to behind the curtain. This is where I think they are failing. They are trying to entertain the old way when things have changed.
Just take a look at the CM Punk debacle. That was the most interesting storyline in years and that wasn't even a real storyline. They should have learned from that. The real interest people have in wrestling now is behind the scenes stuff. They are failing to evolve though due to fear of exposing themselves.
The circumstances have changed a lot since then. With Twitter, everybody is in the same loop. Your average wrestling fan knows about everything that's happening backstage. Everyone sees through the curtain and the magic show is no longer entertaining. What's the point of watching when you know more than what they're showing you? The most important part about being an entertainer is being one step ahead of your audience. However, that's no longer possible for the WWE.
I think the only way they can salvage the show is to break the 4th wall and expand the drama beyond the ring. If the audience can see behind the curtain, then expand the entertainment to behind the curtain. This is where I think they are failing. They are trying to entertain the old way when things have changed.
Just take a look at the CM Punk debacle. That was the most interesting storyline in years and that wasn't even a real storyline. They should have learned from that. The real interest people have in wrestling now is behind the scenes stuff. They are failing to evolve though due to fear of exposing themselves.
BoboBrazil
Member
Well I guess people that watch it will come up to you and talk about it with you, just like if you wore an anime shirt or videogame shirt.
0.1.1.2.3.5.8.13.21.34.55
Banned
I remember enjoying this when I was 8. Best part was, Baywatch came on TV after it. Late night Saturday broadcast.
sogood.gif
sogood.gif
Syphon Filter
Member
It is? I would have thought it would be kids too. what is the ratio?
I don't care what anyone says I want Dr. Thuganomics back. He actually had character back then.
Found this on reddit. It's a year old but I remember reading recently that nothing has changed, though I can't find a link to anything:
T
thepotatoman
Unconfirmed Member
I don't know about that. I certainly never was one to read the dirtsheets. The only thing I really found out about outside the show were the injuries.
But you're right that this is a different time. A lot of the time the show feels like it belongs in the 80's when shows like Scooby Doo and Columbo can repeat the exact same thing over and over again and no one would ever notice because repeats don't feel like repeats when you catch whatever you can catch on live tv.
In the age of DVRs and netflix, formulaic television stopped working and most of television has evolved to be more serialized as a response, but WWE acts like television is stuck in the past when the audience mostly didn't know or care about what happened last week or will happen next week. In some respects, WWF was ahead of the curve in constantly giving people new reasons to come back, but they seem to be falling behind in that respect.
I mean, you don't need insider info to tell you that Cena overcomes the odds is a recurring theme that's likely not going to ever end, and that they want Reigns to take that position when Cena moves on.
Oh man, you should've seen how the whole Divas Revolution thing went down. It was like 'OMG GUYS, FEMALE ATHLETES ARE A THING NOW!' and created a bunch of buzz word crap with no substance.
Sectorseven
Member
How do Smackdown ratings fare these days?
Just over 2 million but they are moving to USA network (same channel as Raw) in January and the talk is that Vince wants to put a big effort to make it more relevant which they will probably do for a couple of months and then revert back to ignoring it.
real_slime
Banned
only on neogaf and squared circle, pal
go to a house show and look at the audience
it's kids.
Don't worry, this weeks Smackdown has several appearances of a returning star that will pop the rating higher than Raw.
The Gobbeldy Gooker
Actually, by the TV ratings too. Kids aren't watching.
Sir_Crocodile
Member
real_slime
Banned
I mean, you can cherry pick smark crowd pictures that barely prove your point all you want, but who's buying the t-shirts? Who's playing the video games? Who's buying the replica belts? You? Nah, kids are getting that stuff bought by their parenta. You've got a healthy contingent of fans who either followed it their whole life or came back to it in adulthood, but that isn't what is driving these merch sales. 30 year old guys who don't buy merch and are frustrated with the product so they just pirate it aren't who they are playing to.
None of these pictures were cherry picked. It's just a Google search for "WWE audiences" and then clicking Image and using the search tool to get large images, but hey, they can ignore the stats, ignore the ratings, ignore the fact that the audience in the arena is mostly adult males (who are also wearing a ton of merchandise), ignore that kids aren't the ones buying the WWE Network, that their latest PPV sponsor was an Antacid medicine (because kids love those, right?) and that they're on a network that prides itself to score big in the key demographics and focuses their original programming completely to it.
WWE made their choice to go PG and pretend they're a kids program to cater to certain sponsors and take some heat off of them post-Benoit, but it's not who their actual audience is.
real_slime
Banned
I'm a reasonable guy. If you've got these stats you talk about that show WWE doesn't make most of its money off kids and famlies supporting the kids hobbies, then I'll back down.
lmao
You can prove anything with facts, m8.
So what does this mean, that the WWE is fueled by nostalgia?
I'm talking about his championship run in the 90s, but I just looked it up and I forgot that it was so short. I retract my statement and replace him with Bret "Never Drew a Dime" Hart.
real_slime
Banned
Totally missed that. Well that shuts me the fuck up on this subject then. Looks like I extrapolated the live crowd and visibility of the kid audience to mean that's their main market, and it seems like that isn't the case.
Well now.
Paracelsus
Member
No, it's fueled by people who are stuck in a limbo, because there's nothing else worth watching on tv and think it's just a phase and they'll get a new attitude era or at least a summer of punk momentarily.
CM Punk had ratings drop just like this in his time as champion. Just the whole product has taken a big drop in overall viewers over the past year. The pin is often squarely set on the champion, and in this case, Rollins. Their booking of him as been horrendous and he hasn't been in any good feuds. Not his fault, sure, but that's how they look at it. The backfire needs to be at piss poor writing team and whoever contends this is actual entertainment (Vince, Stephanie, Hayes, whomever).
Yeah. Ratings drops during MNF periods are common, and logical, sure.
But these aren't mere ratings drops, these are the lowest ratings in two decades, the downward trend is huge in comparison to the overall downward trend of the ratings too.
Unfortunately, it doesn't mean shit as their income from their TV deal actually increased and isn't up for a little while longer and they'll just find excuses like the MNF game doing big numbers to excuse themselves. Or they'll blame whatever talent they want to blame and de-push them, which they did in the past with guys like Bryan and Punk. Ego's just get in the way and if Triple H and the McMahon's aren't lacking in one thing, it's ego (not all unjustified, obviously, but still).
Sir_Crocodile
Member
Yeah, his mr backlund run was literally just to get the title from bret to diesel without bret eating the pinfall.
I wouldn't be too hard on bret either
those were mantaur days
I've somewhat gotten back to watching WWE after stopping from around 2007-2014ish.
And by watching I mean watching the Youtube video highlights because I cannot stomach 3 hours of Raw in its current state. My view on it as an outsider is that there is no one there, who am I cheering for? Cena? people were doing that back in 2006 or what ever, Reigns? He's like watching paint dry. Who are the heels I wanna love to hate? Owens? Not really doing much with him as interesting as he is. Rusev? He just came back but doubt they'll do shit with him. New day are great but it's just promos after promos, and then they lose most the time. I'd want it so that they literally have all belts, IC on Woods, US on Kofi, and WWE on Big E, an actual heel stable, then you can build a face(s) to take them down.
But no, I'm sure WWE has the perfect heel1+heel2 vs face1+face2 tag team for us next week! I'm gonna guess Reigns and Dolph vs Breeze and Rusev.
And by watching I mean watching the Youtube video highlights because I cannot stomach 3 hours of Raw in its current state. My view on it as an outsider is that there is no one there, who am I cheering for? Cena? people were doing that back in 2006 or what ever, Reigns? He's like watching paint dry. Who are the heels I wanna love to hate? Owens? Not really doing much with him as interesting as he is. Rusev? He just came back but doubt they'll do shit with him. New day are great but it's just promos after promos, and then they lose most the time. I'd want it so that they literally have all belts, IC on Woods, US on Kofi, and WWE on Big E, an actual heel stable, then you can build a face(s) to take them down.
But no, I'm sure WWE has the perfect heel1+heel2 vs face1+face2 tag team for us next week! I'm gonna guess Reigns and Dolph vs Breeze and Rusev.
USA Today picked up on this:
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/11/wwe-mick-foley-explains-problems-with-wwe
They did just replace like every single host on Late Night talkshows, didn't they?
Time to bring back Leno and Letterman!
real_slime
Banned
they actually did that with leno. it's not just WWE.
The universe is all connected brothers.
Yeah that's my point. People complained about the drop in ratings when Punk was champ, but now ironically if they pulled Punkish numbers next week, people would consider it a miracle.
You could write a book about how bad the booking in the WWE is (I'm sure someone will one day). It's ironic since their in ring talent is amazing. I mean these guys routinely wrestle 20 minute matches nearly every week on free TV, and they are entertaining matches, but over time you become desensitized to them because they are ultimately pointless and don't build towards anything.
- Status