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WWE Raw drops to lowest TV rating in 18 years

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Lothar

Banned
The writing has been better than it has been in many areas, with a lot of moves that seem meant to satisfy the dedicated crowd. Every (main) champion the WWE has is somebody who wasn't even on the roster a few years back.

It's a shame this is their reward, but at a certain point it's tough to stop their downward momentum.

It satisfies the hardcore crowd, the casual crowd doesn't care. When I try to tell casual wrestling fan friends why I'm excited about AJ Styles getting the title, they don't get it. "What's the big deal about him? He's the best at fake fighting?" That's a quote from someone who subscribes to the Network. Someone who was sad when Undertaker had his streak broken. Someone who was jumping up and down when he saw the Rock live. Someone who has a Jake the Snake Roberts ringtone. Someone who has fun with the dual chants during Cena matches.

This is satisfying to everyone. No explanation needed. Fans who don't normally watch wrestling wanted to watch every week to see this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYOwsuM0ecM
 

GraveRobberX

Platinum Trophy: Learned to Shit While Upright Again.
Didn't the new Fall Season kick off also?
Returning shows will take a bite also out of WWE viewership

NFL will bleed them dry if matchups coming get 1-2 good games
People will watch that then stale WWE
 
It satisfies the hardcore crowd, the casual crowd doesn't care. When I try to tell casual wrestling fan friends why I'm excited about AJ Styles getting the title, they don't get it. "What's the big deal about him? He's the best at fake fighting?" That's a quote from someone who subscribes to the Network. Someone who was sad when Undertaker had his streak broken. Someone who was jumping up and down when he saw the Rock live. Someone who has a Jake the Snake Roberts ringtone. Someone who has fun with the dual chants during Cena matches.

This is satisfying to everyone. No explanation needed. Fans who don't normally watch wrestling wanted to watch every week to see this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYOwsuM0ecM
The entire product's just so sanitized and corny now. I don't even mean that "PG era = for teh kiddiez" shit.

There's just no spontaneity or excitement, and what little occasional surprises there are just end up snuffed out by poor follow-through. An embarrassment.

It's too long and drawn-out for kids, too hollow and repetitive for adults, and too devoid of purpose or personality for either.

A mess. And the camerawork needs some more dynamism. The in-ring action looks positively sedate and lacks any sense of actual athleticism, and the production crew is doing little to mask that.

A flop.
 
There's hardly anyone in WWE anymore that people can legit love to hate because of one part company stubbornness in not letting talent who can get booed really embrace that hate and go with it and the company's hard-on for social media pulling back the curtain that was already opened to the point where you got them doing their marketing... I mean philanthropy all over their TV, why would people want to boo someone who they got posing and smiling with sick kids and raising money for various other causes? It's just a TV show with a bunch of actors and really bad, bland writing and there's a hundred other options with better acting and writing. Talent isn't really given the ball to run with that and the "brass ring" stuff is all bullshit, if you're not scripted to be "the guy" and you get over despite it you effectively get punished for getting over. The production is still largely stuck in the late 90s and all the LEDs in the world can't hide and some flat out awful camera work. Vince doesn't seem to really care because WWE is still making a shit load of money anyway.

Was the links to the copies of a "modern WWE" script compared to an Attitude Era outline posted here before?


Cue the camera movement on hits.
 

Compbros

Member
There's hardly anyone in WWE anymore that people can legit love to hate because of one part company stubbornness in not letting talent who can get booed really embrace that hate and go with it and the company's hard-on for social media pulling back the curtain that was already opened to the point where you got them doing their marketing... I mean philanthropy all over their TV, why would people want to boo someone who they got posing and smiling with sick kids and raising money for various other causes?.



Because it doesn't stop people from wanting to see Loki. Back in the day WWE seemed to want to blur the line between reality and fiction so that your average fan thought that a wrestlers character was who that person was. Of course not for people like Kane or the Brood but for Rock and Triple H, sure. But the collective have evolved as fans and viewers, everyone knows it's scripted and these are actors. There's also the problem of "smarks" hurting the business because people cheer for good/favorable wrestlers instead of faces and boo for undesirables instead of heels. Kofi said it in a podcast when New Day first started, people weren't really behind them as faces but they weren't getting venom until they went to Detroit. Once Detroit booed them Kofi said "oh, we want to be cool like Detroit so let's boo these guys" and then they started getting booed everywhere. People want to be fans of the product but won't allow themselves to be immersed in the characters and story telling.


Edit: Also, "WHAT" has almost completely killed the business by trivializing heel promos.
 

RBH

Member
Last night's live WWE SmackDown, featuring the fallout from Backlash with new champions plus John Cena and Dean Ambrose vs. WWE World Champion AJ Styles and WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz in the main event, drew 2.658 million viewers. This up 8% from last week's show, which drew 2.454 million viewers.

SmackDown was #5 for the night in viewership, behind If Loving You Is Wrong, The Kelly File, The O'Reilly Factor and Special Report with Bret Baier., and #1 in the 18-49 demographic.

SO CLOSE!!! Raw 1.88, Smackdown rating JUST in ... 1.86 (up from 1.76 last week and 1.95 the week before).
https://twitter.com/thewadekeller/status/776178321444995072?lang=en
 

Nerdkiller

Membeur
A little something I've made in light of the recent news.

cyyhT6h.gif
 
The entire product's just so sanitized and corny now. I don't even mean that "PG era = for teh kiddiez" shit.

There's just no spontaneity or excitement, and what little occasional surprises there are just end up snuffed out by poor follow-through. An embarrassment.

It's too long and drawn-out for kids, too hollow and repetitive for adults, and too devoid of purpose or personality for either.

A mess. And the camerawork needs some more dynamism. The in-ring action looks positively sedate and lacks any sense of actual athleticism, and the production crew is doing little to mask that.

A flop.

I stopped watching like 20 years ago, when I was 12-13 or so. It's too "real" now. When I watched it was almost like a live action cartoon or something. The top wrestlers now are so fucking generic and unintentionally cheesy.

No offense to them, but the female wrestling is really just pure shit. If you want to see how they choreograph the moves, just watch the women. It's just really flat.
 

Mahonay

Banned
I stopped watching like 20 years ago, when I was 12-13 or so. It's too "real" now. When I watched it was almost like a live action cartoon or something. The top wrestlers now are so fucking generic and unintentionally cheesy.

No offense to them, but the female wrestling is really just pure shit. If you want to see how they choreograph the moves, just watch the women. It's just really flat.
When is the last time you've watched WWE?
What face does Dixie make when AJ Styles ends up being the one that leads a show to beat Raw in the ratings?
CNN88sMUkAAF-3v.jpg
 

MrChom

Member
No offense to them, but the female wrestling is really just pure shit. If you want to see how they choreograph the moves, just watch the women. It's just really flat.

...the women's matches I've seen recently have been really good. I've no idea on earth where this is coming from. I'm waiting for Asuka to come in and lay waste to everything....in about 18 months when NXT has rebuilt!
 
Storylines are still boring and horrible and they've watered down the in ring product by limiting moves to where it's the same thing every time. Every match is the same damn layout. Trade finishers back and forth a few times if you are a main eventer and finally get the win. If you are a midcard wrestler or lower you could also lose by roll up. No surprises in anything. Commentary is still horrible. Rosters are stretched so thin, they bring back horrible wrestlers like Jinder Mahal and jobber matches. 50/50 booking is still in effect.
 

Lothar

Banned
Interesting how the ratings plummet is no longer being blamed on the champion.

It's not too far from the truth. The problem is the "You Deserve It" chants when Owens won the title. That shows beyond a doubt that they're not invested in the character. When Joffrey became king in Game of Thrones, people weren't happy for the actor and chanting "You Deserve It" at the TV. People weren't happy when The Rock won the title for the first time. People despised Jericho in 2008 because his heel character was effective.
 

Anth0ny

Member
A minor rebound?

8 pm - 2,734 M
9 pm - 2,686 M
10 pm - 2,633 M

I think the average is actually a bit lower than last week.

Third hour didn't have as steep a drop since people were interested in cruiserweights. doubt that really helps in the future, though.
 
A minor rebound?

8 pm - 2,734 M
9 pm - 2,686 M
10 pm - 2,633 M

Last week - 2.69 million
This week - 2.68 million

Not that much of a drop off. Cruiserweights probably saved the 3rd hour.

Plus, MNF was terrible after halftime. Just wait until the MLB playoffs begin to go along with MNF.
 
It's not too far from the truth. The problem is the "You Deserve It" chants when Owens won the title. That shows beyond a doubt that they're not invested in the character. When Joffrey became king in Game of Thrones, people weren't happy for the actor and chanting "You Deserve It" at the TV. People weren't happy when The Rock won the title for the first time. People despised Jericho in 2008 because his heel character was effective.

Wrestling is just a different medium than television drama. The wrestling equivalent to Joffrey in Game of Thrones would have been Vince Russo booking himself to win the title in WCW. I don't know if that would be the right thing to do, today.

The Championship title, today, is like the actor behind Joffrey Baratheon receiving a Emmy, in which people who still dislike his character respect the actors ability and they are glad that he's won an Emmy award.

Some purist looking at the Attitude Era, though, could have said the same thing about wrestling at the time. That was part of Bret Hart's storyline in his final months/year in WWF, that wrestling fans had become heels, that they were cheering for dastardly things done by DX, Stone Cold, or others, while babyfaces got luke warm reactions. Contrast this from the territories or even WWF bouts in the 1970/80ss where heels got stabbed by irate fans (BlackJack Mulligan, Ole Anderson, Roddy Piper) and you can come up with a similar argument.
 

Lothar

Banned
Wrestling is just a different medium than television drama. The wrestling equivalent to Joffrey in Game of Thrones would have been Vince Russo booking himself to win the title in WCW. I don't know if that would be the right thing to do, today.

The Championship title, today, is like the actor behind Joffrey Baratheon receiving a Emmy, in which people who still dislike his character respect the actors ability and they are glad that he's won an Emmy award.

Some purist looking at the Attitude Era, though, could have said the same thing about wrestling at the time. That was part of Bret Hart's storyline in his final months/year in WWF, that wrestling fans had become heels, that they were cheering for dastardly things done by DX, Stone Cold, or others, while babyfaces got luke warm reactions. Contrast this from the territories or even WWF bouts in the 1970/80ss where heels got stabbed by irate fans (BlackJack Mulligan, Ole Anderson, Roddy Piper) and you can come up with a similar argument.

People didn't see Jericho in 2008 like winning an Emmy award. Listen to the crowd on the show after he punched Shawn's wife. The crowd believed. He was getting attacked on the way to the shows. What changed in that short time? In the 70s, people believed wrestling was real. Everyone knew it wasn't real in 1998 and 2008. Yet they despised Corporate Rock and Vince McMahon.
 

Jamie OD

Member
People didn't see Jericho in 2008 like winning an Emmy award. Listen to the crowd on the show after he punched Shawn's wife. The crowd believed. He was getting attacked on the way to the shows. What changed in that short time? In the 70s, people believed wrestling was real. Everyone knew it wasn't real in 1998 and 2008. Yet they despised Corporate Rock and Vince McMahon.

Heck it was just last year where we had hot crowds for patriot American John Cena going against Russian superpower Rusev with Cold War storytelling straight from the 80s.
 
There's a lot wrong with the product, but I'm simply confused with the top 4 guys (on RAW) right now:

* Roman Reigns ... Pushed as a face, but more than half of the people boo/hate him to the degree where he comes off as a heel in-ring and in-promo.

* Kevin Owens ... Pushed as a heel, has credibility with fans (though his title win was gifted, not earned).

* Seth Rollins ... Pushed as a heel, recently been put in matches against other heels to the degree where he could perhaps have a face turn, but hasn't.

* Rusev ... A heel.

So the top 4 guys in the title picture are all heels. Finn Balor was supposed to be there as a face, but injury changed that. But what was WWE's contingency plan?

Big Cass. Cesaro. Sami Zayn. There are a bunch of viable faces on the roster, yet they effectively pit heel vs heel vs hell vs heel in the main event picture.

I don't understand it.
 

UberTag

Member
Big Cass. Cesaro. Sami Zayn. There are a bunch of viable faces on the roster, yet they effectively pit heel vs heel vs hell vs heel in the main event picture.

I don't understand it.
All of the main event level faces are busy kicking each other's asses over on SmackDown.
 
People didn't see Jericho in 2008 like winning an Emmy award. Listen to the crowd on the show after he punched Shawn's wife. The crowd believed. He was getting attacked on the way to the shows. What changed in that short time? In the 70s, people believed wrestling was real. Everyone knew it wasn't real in 1998 and 2008. Yet they despised Corporate Rock and Vince McMahon.

Suit wearing 2008 Jericho was the perfect wrestling heel. Literally everything you want a heel to do.
 
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