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[The Albatross]

With a plurality of the audience skewing older (e.g., 24 and up seemingly), I don't think that this means that they need to drop the PG or PG-13 story lines and that'll "fix" their story line problem. As a 30-something, if I were watching the Attitude era and post-Attitude era "R Rated" storylines, I'd turn it off immediately. Seeing grown men make dick jokes, a stable's theme be based entirely on sucking someone's dick, and storylines involving characters rape or take advantage of each other sexually... Those are cringe-worthy, "I'm embarrassed to watch this garbage" story lines that appeal precisely to the average 15-year-old male, not the 30-something year old male. Back when I was 15, I thought they were hilarious and awesome, but the reason I watched wasn't because HHH told someone to suck their dick, but because they also had compelling story lines underneath it and realistic rivalries that made you care about the matches. As a 16 year old I'd hoot and holler to see Sable's boobs at a show and then talk about a pimp-wrestler's hoes at school the next day, but the real reason we'd watch was to see how Vince would use another crony to do his bidding against Austin. Those undercurrent storylines were what were interesting in these feuds, not the "R-Rated" filler that they wrapped around it.

 

[Keyser Soze]

I think I say this every time the ratings pop up, but if it was not for the WWE Network - Breaking Ground, NXT, Table for Three, - I think I would have gave up on the main product. The fact that NXT is keeping me intrested means I always have some idea about what is happening on RAW, so check it out every now and then. It has gone from a main thing I watch weekly to sometime that fills the time if there is nothing else to do. Clips on Youtube are the main way I console the main product nowadays.

 

[Barrage]

The difference between the WWE's mainstream acceptance and actual popularity is similar to the trajectory of comic books.

Nowadays you could say you were reading a Batman Graphic Novel and noone would bat an eye. But DC would KILL to sell the number of issues they did when comics were judged as for "losers" and "nerds" 25-35 years ago.

 

[Deleted member 47027]

I think I say this every time the ratings pop up, but if it was not for the WWE Network - Breaking Ground, NXT, Table for Three, - I think I would have gave up on the main product. The fact that NXT is keeping me intrested means I always have some idea about what is happening on RAW, so check it out every now and then. It has gone from a main thing I watch weekly to sometime that fills the time if there is nothing else to do. Clips on Youtube are the main way I console the main product nowadays.

The atmosphere they're selling with the Network truly has something for everyone. Raw, not so much, even though they are accessible to all.

 

[jmdajr]

WWE is still not as accepted as comic books.

But at least it ain't animu!

Spoiler

poor animu :'(

 

[The Albatross]

The difference between the WWE's mainstream acceptance and actual popularity is similar to the trajectory of comic books.

Nowadays you could say you were reading a Batman Graphic Novel and noone would bat an eye. But DC would KILL to sell the number of issues they did when comics were judged as for "losers" and "nerds" 25-35 years ago.

I think that's more a testament to the medium in general, not the content. Time Magazine, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and so on, would kill for the readership and subscription counts they had 25 - 35 years ago. I don't think that's a reflection on the unpopularity of news or social commentary, but more the evolution of print for distributing anything.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

It was a 10% ratings drop in one week. This isn't about broad social trends.

 

[Violence Jack]

With a plurality of the audience skewing older (e.g., 24 and up seemingly), I don't think that this means that they need to drop the PG or PG-13 story lines and that'll "fix" their story line problem. As a 30-something, if I were watching the Attitude era and post-Attitude era "R Rated" storylines, I'd turn it off immediately. Seeing grown men make dick jokes, a stable's theme be based entirely on sucking someone's dick, and storylines involving characters rape or take advantage of each other sexually... Those are cringe-worthy, "I'm embarrassed to watch this garbage" story lines that appeal precisely to the average 15-year-old male, not the 30-something year old male. Back when I was 15, I thought they were hilarious and awesome, but the reason I watched wasn't because HHH told someone to suck their dick, but because they also had compelling story lines underneath it and realistic rivalries that made you care about the matches. As a 16 year old I'd hoot and holler to see Sable's boobs at a show and then talk about a pimp-wrestler's hoes at school the next day, but the real reason we'd watch was to see how Vince would use another crony to do his bidding against Austin. Those undercurrent storylines were what were interesting in these feuds, not the "R-Rated" filler that they wrapped around it.

This is what I miss most about WWE. Make me give a damn about the wrestlers by putting them in engaging storylines. Don't just feed me a bunch of un-charismatic wrestlers with no gimmick to them wrestling random matches for no reason.

 

[Gonzalez]

Is it, though?

These kids are drinking their milk, and eating their meat. Wrestling kids aren't a bunch of hippie vegans my friend.

 

[aGuyInaBearSuit]

Vince McMahon is basically George Lucas at this point. Sure, he gave us a lot of great stuff back when, but these days he seems to have no idea what people want out of what he originally gave us and what made it great in the first place.

The difference is that there's no way Disney will come in and buy WWE to try and make it good again.

 

[Tom Nook]

Sad the ship is sinking.

 

[The Elite]

Vince McMahon is basically George Lucas at this point. Sure, he gave us a lot of great stuff back when, but these days he seems to have no idea what people want out of what he originally gave us and what made it great in the first place.

The difference is that there's no way Disney will come in and buy WWE to try and make it good again.

I wonder if Disney would get angry at Lana for breaking Kayfabe by announcing her engagement to Rusev.

 

[UberTag]

This is what I miss most about WWE. Make me give a damn about the wrestlers by putting them in engaging storylines. Don't just feed me a bunch of un-charismatic wrestlers with no gimmick to them wrestling random matches for no reason.

Apparently we're not supposed to watch wrestling for gimmicks, feuds, charisma and personalities any more. We're supposed to sign up for the Network and seek out those things from the talent in Table of 3 dinner chats and WWE Studios films and talk show appearances and Breaking Ground behind-the-scenes footage and Total Divas excerpts and when they play video games on WWE's YouTube channel.

THAT's where we'll find that stuff. See.. there's "something for everyone"! It's just not part of the 8 hours worth of televised wrestling the WWE puts out each week.

 

[Queen of Hunting]

Tna managed to pull a 2.2 million wheb they went mondays.

Lets think bout that

 

[The Elite]

Apparently we're not supposed to watch wrestling for gimmicks, feuds, charisma and personalities any more. We're supposed to sign up for the Network and seek out those things from the talent in Table of 3 dinner chat and WWE Studios films and talk show appearances and Breaking Ground behind-the-scenes footage and Total Divas excerpts and when they play video games on WWE's YouTube channel.

THAT's where we'll find that stuff. See.. there's something for everyone! It's just not part of the 8 hours worth of televised wrestling the WWE puts out each week.

And no one will be interested in engaging this content when their weekly frontline show is underwhelming. The Network does have some really good content on it but you're not going to attract new subs when Raw is having trouble holding interest.

Raw hasn't been too bad from a wrestling standpoint this year. We've been seeing a lot of great matches. But fake sports need a quality storyline and that just hasn't been there.

 

[DKehoe]

Tna managed to pull a 2.2 million wheb they went mondays.

Lets think bout that

I hadn't even thought about that. That's crazy.

 

[Deleted member 47027]

Tna managed to pull a 2.2 million wheb they went mondays.

Lets think bout that

 

[Jamie OD]

Tna managed to pull a 2.2 million wheb they went mondays.

Lets think bout that

Once and they never got close to it since.

 

[Queen of Hunting]

Once and they never got close to it since.

Thats because the dropped hard like wwe are point is tna nearly managed these numbers thats dangerous numbers if wwe is getting close

 

[The Elite]

If Disney bought WWE they would probably run it out of the same division as Disney on Ice.

 

[Violence Jack]

Tna managed to pull a 2.2 million wheb they went mondays.

Lets think bout that

That was the night TNA laid all their cards of the table. Raw had the return of Bret Hart and his first confrontation with Shawn Michaels and Vince since the Montreal Screwjob. TNA had Styles/Flair vs. Abyss/Hogan (in what turned out to be a horrible match), the debut of Jeff Hardy, the debut of RVD, and a Sting heel-turn.

All that, and TNA never was as good as it was before Hogan joined and fucked everything up.

 

[Coins]

For every kid at a house show, there's usually two parents that like this shit. I go to the shows in St. Louis and the adults far outnumber the kids.

 

[jmdajr]

I bet a high percentage of kids who watch have parents who watch too.

If I thought poorly of wrestling I probbaly wouldn't let them watch it.

 

[Plinko]

From the November 2014 Wrestling Observer.

22% between 35-49
37% over the age of 50.

WOW. I'm stunned by that number.

Hey, know what that means should be done, WWE? PUT WCW SATURDAY NIGHT AND WWF SUPERSTARS ON THE WWE NETWORK.

Ugh. I've waited so long It makes storylines in the 1980s almost impossible to follow.

 

[Anth0ny]

Vince McMahon is basically George Lucas at this point. Sure, he gave us a lot of great stuff back when, but these days he seems to have no idea what people want out of what he originally gave us and what made it great in the first place.

The difference is that there's no way Disney will come in and buy WWE to try and make it good again.

I wonder.

It's a popular brand name (even with the ratings in the shitter people still know what pro wrestling and WWE is, they just don't watch it every week), has a huge presence in Toys R Us and other toy stores, and can sell out stadiums with their shows.

I wouldn't be surprised if Disney scooped them up. They buy everything.

 

[tchocky]

WOW. I'm stunned by that number.

Hey, know what that means should be done, WWE? PUT WCW SATURDAY NIGHT AND WWF SUPERSTARS ON THE WWE NETWORK.

Ugh. I've waited so long It makes storylines in the 1980s almost impossible to follow.

They did add some NWA from 1986 to the network yesterday and today.

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

WOW. I'm stunned by that number.

Hey, know what that means should be done, WWE? PUT WCW SATURDAY NIGHT AND WWF SUPERSTARS ON THE WWE NETWORK.

Ugh. I've waited so long It makes storylines in the 1980s almost impossible to follow.

screw that, where's Mid-South

 

[Plinko]

I wonder.

It's a popular brand name (even with the ratings in the shitter people still know what pro wrestling and WWE is, they just don't watch it every week), has a huge presence in Toys R Us and other toy stores, and can sell out stadiums with their shows.

I wouldn't be surprised if Disney scooped them up. They buy everything.

With their masterful revitalizing of the Marvel and Star Wars franchises, I'd be all in for this.

We'd probably see a return to more gimmick characters, which I'm 100% certain wrestling needs right now because UFC provides the "reality" aspect of this type of entertainment--WWE had that for years until UFC came in.

 

[Dazzler]

As a long time fan, there's really no point in watching anything but TLC until Royal Rumble

Nothing of any consequence will happen

There'll be a six-man tag on every raw

Sheamus is champ

Product is just so unwatchable right now

 

[yuraya]

The belts seems so unimportant. Can't remember the last time I gave a shit about the US or Intercontinental titles. The matches and feuds for them are so insignificant. I don't get some of the decisions Vince makes. Sometimes some of the belts aren't even defended during ppvs. Heck they aren't even being defended during these long 3 hour raws. What is even the point of having titles? Makes no sense. Its kind of sad they made some stupid money in the bank briefcase more important than all the titles.

Also whatever happened to the hardcore championship? Would be great if they brought that back to add something different and diverse to the current bland repetitive matches every raw.

 

[Plinko]

The belts seems so unimportant. Can't remember the last time I gave a shit about the US or Intercontinental titles. The matches and feuds for them are so insignificant. I don't get some of the decisions Vince makes. Sometimes some of the belts aren't even defended during ppvs. Heck they aren't even being defended during these long 3 hour raws. What is even the point of having titles? Makes no sense. Its kind of sad they made some stupid money in the bank briefcase more important than all the titles.

Also whatever happened to the hardcore championship? Would be great if they brought that back to add something different and diverse to the current bland repetitive matches every raw.

The fact that they insist on having all heels hold the belts for months makes absolutely zero sense.

 

[UberTag]

As a long time fan, there's really no point in watching anything but TLC until Royal Rumble

Nothing of any consequence will happen

There'll be a six-man tag on every raw

Sheamus is champ

Product is just so unwatchable right now

Is TLC even worth watching? Best matches will be the tag team ladder spotfest and Owens getting his win back over Ambrose from Survivor Series. That's not too exciting.

 

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

Is TLC even worth watching? Best matches will be the tag team ladder spotfest and Owens getting his win back over Ambrose from Survivor Series. That's not too exciting.

Sheamus vs. Reigns is gonna be a stiff, dope match, brother, regardless of whether you like the two as promo guys.

 

[Mahonay]

I'm not watching RAW anymore at the moment (stopped after Hell in a Cell) but I am watching tons of old stuff on the Network that I haven't seen before or haven't seen since I was a teen.

Survivor Series was really awful. No surprise RAW ratings were bad again.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

The fact that they insist on having all heels hold the belts for months makes absolutely zero sense.

It's pretty common throughout history. Remember Flair is a 16x champ, and he held that shit forever in the '80s. Usually the good guys win and get a couple of months before they lose it and the chase is on again. There's just no interesting chases going on right now.

 

[jmdajr]

It's pretty common throughout history. Remember Flair is a 16x champ, and he held that shit forever in the '80s. Usually the good guys win and get a couple of months before they lose it and the chase is on again. There's just no interesting chases going on right now.

Ain't nothing wrong with it. Folks would be upset if Reigns was champ month after month. No win situation it seems.

 

[Anth0ny]

The fact that they insist on having all heels hold the belts for months makes absolutely zero sense.

it's all about the chase man

the moment roman wins that title at mania over the superheel brock lesnar will be the greatest wrestlemania moment of all time. 150,000 fans in unison on their feet crying in joy

 

[PHOENIXZERO]

Well, most wrestling fans do. Wrestling isnt for technical nerds who want to argue about if a match was a 4 or 5 star match. Its low brow entertainment.

They didnt get the Mattel contract until 2010 and there attitude era toys sold well. Susan G doesnt give a shit.

The fact is, the attitude era was the last time that wrestling grew.

2008, the deal was put in place in 2007.

2008. The Benoit situation started the shift.

No, it was the Mattel deal. Benoit made them extra paranoid with the Wellness Program and getting rid of weapon shots to the head.

 

[mephixto]

Nothing or nobody stands out of the rest, all I see is big buff dudes with different outfits and haircuts. Last WWE star that I watched and had some kind of potential was CM Punk and I didn't even liked the dude.

 

[njr]

So that 2.9 Million translated to 2.16 on the ratings. As much as people say ratings don't matter anymore because people are consuming their content in other mediums, I just can't buy it. When you have a drop of 1.2 million viewers within a year, there's something wrong with the product.

 

[Sibersk Esto]

RAWs used to have multiple title matches a show.

Bring back the hardcore title and give the undercard guys something to do.

 

[Dazzler]

Does anyone honestly think Wrestlemania won't end with Reigns holding the title aloft as the boos "reign" down?

 

[tj hazuki]

The product freaking sucks at the moment. I tune out most of the time now adays. Them trying to build Roman Reigns as the next John Cena 2.0 is not going to work either. They have to bring in new writers, characters, etc.

Sign guys like AJ Styles, Austin Aries and or someone else from the indies to the main roster. They need new fresh faces badly.

 

[Aiii]

Does anyone honestly think Wrestlemania won't end with Reigns holding the title aloft as the boos "reign" down?

The thing is, that means Sheamus stays champ through Mania and I just don't see that happening. Of course Reigns could be retaining champ at Mania, or Sheamus loses the belt to Brock or Cena instead, but I very much doubt it will be Sheamus vs Reigns.

 

[Anth0ny]

Does anyone honestly think Wrestlemania won't end with Reigns holding the title aloft as the boos "reign" down?

it's more or less guaranteed. mania ended in boos when cena beat rock and they didn't give a fuuuuuuuuuuuck

 

[Coins]

2008, the deal was put in place in 2007.


No, it was the Mattel deal. Benoit made them extra paranoid with the Wellness Program and getting rid of weapon shots to the head.

No, Mattel took over in 2010. Jakks had it until December 2009.

 

[jmdajr]

The product freaking sucks at the moment. I tune out most of the time now adays. Them trying to build Roman Reigns as the next John Cena 2.0 is not going to work either. They have to bring in new writers, characters, etc.

Sign guys like AJ Styles, Austin Aries and or someone else from the indies to the main roster. They need new fresh faces badly.

It's not like some of these guys have been around forever. We do have new faces.

 

[Chamber]

As a long time fan, there's really no point in watching anything but TLC until Royal Rumble

Nothing of any consequence will happen

There'll be a six-man tag on every raw

Sheamus is champ

Product is just so unwatchable right now

Nothing of consequence happens outside of Wrestlemania and Summerslam. I think everyone being fully aware of that is a big part of their problem.

 

[G-Fex]

Now they've gone into the Mattel discussion rofl

 

[abundant]

RAWs used to have multiple title matches a show.

Bring back the hardcore title and give the undercard guys something to do.

They already have TWO titles for the undercard (US & IC), yet they do nothing with them.