WWE's ratings have been going down at a rate that doesn't correspond with the general decline in TV. Basically, WWE's been falling faster than others.
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WWE Raw drops to lowest TV rating in 18 years
- Thread starter RBH
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WWE's ratings have been going down at a rate that doesn't correspond with the general decline in TV. Basically, WWE's been falling faster than others.
wild wild rice
Member
People still care about in ring ability and seeing good matches. Who knew?
Bruce Springsteen
Member
in terms of ratings
I saw this most recent RAW, it's embarrassing how much they're making it a live action cartoon show
Violence Jack
Member
I thought it was already known that SD replaced Raw as the best show. The matches are better, AJ Styles is truly the face that runs the place, pacing is tighter since they don't have 3 hours of filler, and the roster is more varied.
After the draft Raw had a far deeper roster. The mens heavyweight talent that will lead the company for the next decade, all the top line women's talent, the best NXT call ups and the cruiserweights who made the CWC the best WWE produced thing in years. Yet even with a 3 hour running time and great roster they still have fuck all idea how to make a good show.
Smackdown is doing an excellent job with what they have. They made Heath Slater and Rhino relevant and gave the Wyatt's a new lease of life. Ziggler became a genuine threat and Baron Corbin is slowly turning into a monster. Top of the card is a bit thin but they've the best wrestler in the company as champ and he's straight fire right now.
Smackdown is doing an excellent job with what they have. They made Heath Slater and Rhino relevant and gave the Wyatt's a new lease of life. Ziggler became a genuine threat and Baron Corbin is slowly turning into a monster. Top of the card is a bit thin but they've the best wrestler in the company as champ and he's straight fire right now.
But Elsworth isn't champ??
Smackdown is far from perfect, but the people over there understand long term booking and building up characters for the audience to relate to, as well as the need to create a program where people are constantly interacting with each other instead of being placed in arbitrary bubbles where they are fighting one guy for weeks on end like on Raw. Corbin & Ziggler being in the main event this week is prime example of this. Let's hope that Super Cena doesn't turn up at the rumble to take the title from Styles and fuck everything up.
ElectricBlanketFire
Member
Ellsworth already isn't funny anymore.
More so that SD has gone up.
Raw has been keeping fairly steady in terms of its viewership (aside from the Goldberg appearances) over the past couple of months. SmackDown was doing around 2.2-2.4 million viewers back when the brand split first kicked off during the summer, so it's a nice little jump for them.
Host Samurai
Member
It's honestly hard to care about Ziggler at this point. Would like to finally see some fresh faces like Samoa Joe & Nakumara. The roster needs a cleanse from the John Cena era of overexposure.
Stallion Dan
Member
Anyone watching this WOS wrestling thing on ITV in UK?
WOS is World of Sport, was cancelled in 1985 after bringing wrestling to UK for years with Legends like Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks. This 2 hour special is a one off, JR presenting.
WOS is World of Sport, was cancelled in 1985 after bringing wrestling to UK for years with Legends like Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks. This 2 hour special is a one off, JR presenting.
Yup, some people are talking about it now:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1321153&page=331
crimzonflame
Member
WWE needs to embrace anime and have anime like arcs.
Nerdkiller
Membeur
twinturbo2
butthurt Heat fan
Filler episodes will be 22 minutes of headlocks.
Sectorseven
Member
What's the problem? They're right in that meaty part of the Attitude Era.
They've already embraced DBZ style power creep with moves
Violence Jack
Member
So a typical Orton match?
Austin, Rock, HHH, Mankind, E&C, take your pick.
SallyIsNow
Banned
It's clearly Austin
In '99-'00 he was out injured. The peak's actually with Rock.
Bruce Springsteen
Member
Clearly Steve Blackman was the backbone of the attitude era
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!
Member
Wrestlemania 2000 sucked, so it's ironic that's the highest rated Wrestlemania season.
Violence Jack
Member
I don't think Austin was around for WM 2000. Neither was Taker. That was all Rock, HHH, and Jericho.
I just looked at the WM 2000 card. Holy shit that looked like an awful PPV aside from 2 matches.
Doesn't matter, he got people into WWF wrestling, first and foremost. Any ratings gained during that time, whether he was champ or not, is still a feather in his cap as much as anyone else.
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!
Member
It had less to do with who was a draw than it did that wrestling was super hot at that point and people were fleeing WCW in droves. 98-99 weren't as high because people actually had a decent choice as to what show to watch.
Austin left for his neck surgery barely 2 months before the 2000 WrestleMania season started though, his last appearance before the surgery was Survivor Series in November of '99. So he was still very responsible for those ratings.
Violence Jack
Member
I think the point was that if there wasn't someone like The Rock to takeover as top face during the WM 2000 season, the ratings might have suffered a bit with no Austin. But yes, Austin caused that ratings spike in the first place.
Stallion Dan
Member
Into the Light
Banned
Last years WM was worse that 2000.
A big problem for me is that the story lines suck, that is if there's any story line at all even most of the time. They're making strides getting some better talent in there finally, making matches more entertaining and exciting, but their creative department is just a bunch of monkeys with typewriters for RAW and dolphins with balls in a tank for Smackdown. They need to get aggressive and head back to the attitude era. Styles, Balor, Jericho, and Rollins can only carry so far. Bringing up Shinsuke immediately would help. Getting rid of wastes like Reigns would help. But it's all about the attitude, setting, and writing at this point. And 3 hours of RAW? I can do without boring shots back stage of people just sitting around looking at their cellphones and the commentators.
Razgriz-Specter
Member
Im not really sure where else to ask this but after the Kurt Angle hype i got in the mood for some wrestling.
I have thought about watching NXT for a bit but finally decided to try it
however I was wondering about is when exactly does Asuka make her debut?
I have thought about watching NXT for a bit but finally decided to try it
however I was wondering about is when exactly does Asuka make her debut?
funkystudent
Member
On the main roster? Who knows.
NXT people debuting on the main roster is a crapshoot. Extremely experienced people that are ready to go can be locked in NXT for years while some people will randomly get called up after a short mediocre month run in NXT and now you got random counterweights and UK guys bypassing the system entirely.
I would hope Asuka debuts after wrestlemania but I can also see that being kicked down the road 6 months to a year for no real reason.
Darkstorne
Member
Yep. They were lucky enough to have an incredible cast of talent back then. Stone Cold was absolutely an important part of those ratings, but it was also important that when he dropped out there were others that could easily carry the weight.
Regarding the ratings: I fall perfectly into that 18-34 bracket that's in heavy decline (assuming those figures are still semi-accurate today), and it's because there's no option to stream RAW and Smackdown. If they were added to the WWE Network, even with a 24 hour delay over live broadcasts, I'd watch them. But no way I'm paying for a Sky TV package over here just for WWE. Over-priced as hell, and their continued reliance on cable TV when it's been dying a slow death for over a decade now is the biggest reason for their audience loss imo.
Razgriz-Specter
Member
Well that as well but when exactly did she first show up in NXT?
I haven't started NXT yet so I was just wondering if its early on or what.
Seen a lot about her on YouTube which is what has me interested in watching her.
Thanks for the response.
JesseEwiak
Member
Actually, what we found out is that aside from The Rock, the other people couldn't carry the weight. Because after The Rock went to the movies and Austin turned heel, the bottom fell out of things.
Because truthfully, Mick Foley, Triple H, Kurt Angle, and yes, even The Undertaker in 2001 were B+ players. Which isn't an insult to them. You need B+ players on the roster. After all, in the modern WWE, you have a bunch of A+ players, then a bunch of C+ players at best with no middle ground.
But, you need that A+ guy to truly draw. Cena helped, but he was an A-level guy in a world with no A+ guys (and no, Bryan, Punk, etc. were not A+ guys. People were talking about Steve Austin being Flair's heir apparent in 199freakin'1. He was not some random guy Vince plucked out of nowhere).
Asuka showed up in September of 2015 in NXT. 1st match was at the Takeover even around then.
Razgriz-Specter
Member
Thank you.
StWilson85
Member
They need to find a way to make Asuka interesting in NXT before putting her anywhere near the main roster.
kimifan141
Member
Personally i felt raw decline during the PG era i mean who wanted to watch champs like swagger ? despite some good moments in it, i had stopped watching wwe for awhile came back after aj debut in rumble.
The bookings and feuds just seem terrible. As someone previously mentioned, you need mid tier talent and Raw has none. If you're not a Roman Reigns, KO, jericho, rollins, braun strowman or a part timer by the name of goldberg, lesnar or undertaker than you're basically a nobody.
And then just to keep things terrible, all the main players have individual feuds and angles that are just being shoe horned into one big shitty feud. You have the eventual KO and jericho feud (or is that no longer a thing since the swerve?) You have Strowman and his on again off again feud with sami zayn. Rollins wants Trips. Reigns could have worked to be a credible mid tier champion with the US belt but all these things are just hamfisted into one another. All these people are basically a stones throw away from the universal title for no real reason.
The fact that they've taken a mid tier title (US championship) and basically ruined the hell out of it by cramming it alongside and essentially into the storyline for the Universal title just shows how far their heads are up their own asses.
And then just to keep things terrible, all the main players have individual feuds and angles that are just being shoe horned into one big shitty feud. You have the eventual KO and jericho feud (or is that no longer a thing since the swerve?) You have Strowman and his on again off again feud with sami zayn. Rollins wants Trips. Reigns could have worked to be a credible mid tier champion with the US belt but all these things are just hamfisted into one another. All these people are basically a stones throw away from the universal title for no real reason.
The fact that they've taken a mid tier title (US championship) and basically ruined the hell out of it by cramming it alongside and essentially into the storyline for the Universal title just shows how far their heads are up their own asses.
davidwhangchoi
Member
don't forget Kurt Angle and Big Slow.
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