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marleau_12

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19 hours ago, Canucks-12 said:

These ratings don't mean much. They don't count the people watching in other counties or people that pvr Raw like I do.

This week was a great show. I'm looking forward to TLC. Should be a good one. 

They certainly do, even if they don't fluctuate their income on a week to week basis. These are historic lows. It's not just the number of people watching being low (below 3 million), but their rating share (percentage of people watching TV tuning into Raw). They've had a segment at a high of 8.1, at a time when WCW Nitro was in direct competition with them, because of just how sheer compelling their program became, and how necessary it was to tune in. This last week was a 2.15, the lowest since it looked like the company was on the verge of bankruptcy in the mid 90's.

They're not on the verge of bankruptcy now, not even close, but it spells bad things for their viability going forward if things don't improve. For one, their TV contract is easily their most major source of income. That's primarily the US contract which these ratings are speaking to, but I can tell you without looking that their ratings will be down across the board in all countries outside of perhaps India, and a couple of others where wrestling culture is the same. But in Canada, the UK, Germany, and other American-like western countries, I can tell you that they're almost certainly not maintaining their popularity.

Their TV contract is a set fee, which was one they signed when they had higher ratings, and they're being paid according to those higher numbers (which is why I said their income doesn't fluctuate from week to week), but if their ratings don't improve at the right rate, the USA Network will be forcing them to make some sort of changes, and they'll be at a massive disadvantage at their next contract negotiations.

All the raw finances aside, these numbers just indicate a low customer engagement, especially for a show that markets itself as live must see TV. Remember that immediate DVR viewing is a thing that gets appropriated into ratings. For someone that takes days to watch it, or only clicks on YouTube to see a few segments and highlights, that's not the kind of engagement they need. You shrink the people willing to watch your product, you shrink your pool to market the WWE Network to, and shill their merchandise to.

There's only a few more weeks for things to trend purely downwards, as we're going to be getting into the Royal Rumble/Wrestlemania season, where by default the ratings will have to pick up, as they market their biggest shows of the year, and they lose the weekly regular season competition from Monday Night Football and the NFL. They'll improve by default, but it's just the rate at which they improve, and how that compares to January in previous years that will be the barometer here.

The numbers don't lie. And while they don't spell disaster, things aren't looking up.

 

 

One marker for why things aren't looking up, is the sheer quality of the program, or there lack of. There's no external force this year that wasn't there last that's pushing viewers away this time. People on the broadest of scales aren't interested to find out what's currently happening or what happens next. And that's a reflection of what the WWE is choosing to put out there. This is a scripted improv program, but the scripted element is more forced than ever.

There's nothing really going on. No one to watch for. They've sunk a lot of their creative gamble into the hope that Roman Reigns catches on with everyone, and that's the backwards way of doing things. Taking someone who the crowd has barely reacted to, and catering the show to serve to him because you think he has the "it" factor. He has been given the ball to run with, and the results aren't promising. His promos with the mic range from passable, to childishly bad and repetitive.

The rest of the card sits around in either meaningless feuds, or just get tossed in meaningless matches on a week to week basis. People who get the crowd to respond seem to get the rug taken from under their feet in a way that it almost makes it feel like they're being intentionally held back. Crowds barely even cheer for their favourites any more because they know their people aren't going anywhere.

 

 

Did you hear just how did that Charleston crowd was for this last Raw? They sat on their hands silently for the entire show, and they began to clear out before the show ended in a way that they had to maneuver their camera work to hide the empty seats. This has been a particular trend in the last few weeks, and is itself reflected in their third hour ratings which are falling off a cliff at a more accelerated rate than they were previously.

Even the Smackdown taping they did yesterday for Thursdays show had apparently just a crowd of 3,000, and they were even more silent than the one for Raw on Monday. It doesn't matter in terms of TV presentation, as they always just add in cheers and boos to whomever they want on Smackdown, but again, it all comes back to customer engagement. It's hard to present a positive outlook in the future, when people aren't interested. Especially when the smaller crowd you've wrangled in are bored. Are they going to continue to just tune in, or pay you for tickets for the hell of it? They lose more and more along the way, and that's what's reflecting in these audiences and ratings. You have to keep people coming back and wanting more. Banking only on simply being the WWE will not get them far enough.

 

 

This thread itself is an indicator of the state of things. It was far busier here in past years. Years that weren't even that good. This WWE product is just so apathetic that there's nothing to respond to. It's hard to even get riled up enough to complain for most. And we love complaining.

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3 hours ago, g_bassi13 said:

They certainly do, even if they don't fluctuate their income on a week to week basis. These are historic lows. It's not just the number of people watching being low (below 3 million), but their rating share (percentage of people watching TV tuning into Raw). They've had a segment at a high of 8.1, at a time when WCW Nitro was in direct competition with them, because of just how sheer compelling their program became, and how necessary it was to tune in. This last week was a 2.15, the lowest since it looked like the company was on the verge of bankruptcy in the mid 90's.

They're not on the verge of bankruptcy now, not even close, but it spells bad things for their viability going forward if things don't improve. For one, their TV contract is easily their most major source of income. That's primarily the US contract which these ratings are speaking to, but I can tell you without looking that their ratings will be down across the board in all countries outside of perhaps India, and a couple of others where wrestling culture is the same. But in Canada, the UK, Germany, and other American-like western countries, I can tell you that they're almost certainly not maintaining their popularity.

Their TV contract is a set fee, which was one they signed when they had higher ratings, and they're being paid according to those higher numbers (which is why I said their income doesn't fluctuate from week to week), but if their ratings don't improve at the right rate, the USA Network will be forcing them to make some sort of changes, and they'll be at a massive disadvantage at their next contract negotiations.

All the raw finances aside, these numbers just indicate a low customer engagement, especially for a show that markets itself as live must see TV. Remember that immediate DVR viewing is a thing that gets appropriated into ratings. For someone that takes days to watch it, or only clicks on YouTube to see a few segments and highlights, that's not the kind of engagement they need. You shrink the people willing to watch your product, you shrink your pool to market the WWE Network to, and shill their merchandise to.

There's only a few more weeks for things to trend purely downwards, as we're going to be getting into the Royal Rumble/Wrestlemania season, where by default the ratings will have to pick up, as they market their biggest shows of the year, and they lose the weekly regular season competition from Monday Night Football and the NFL. They'll improve by default, but it's just the rate at which they improve, and how that compares to January in previous years that will be the barometer here.

The numbers don't lie. And while they don't spell disaster, things aren't looking up.

 

 

One marker for why things aren't looking up, is the sheer quality of the program, or there lack of. There's no external force this year that wasn't there last that's pushing viewers away this time. People on the broadest of scales aren't interested to find out what's currently happening or what happens next. And that's a reflection of what the WWE is choosing to put out there. This is a scripted improv program, but the scripted element is more forced than ever.

There's nothing really going on. No one to watch for. They've sunk a lot of their creative gamble into the hope that Roman Reigns catches on with everyone, and that's the backwards way of doing things. Taking someone who the crowd has barely reacted to, and catering the show to serve to him because you think he has the "it" factor. He has been given the ball to run with, and the results aren't promising. His promos with the mic range from passable, to childishly bad and repetitive.

The rest of the card sits around in either meaningless feuds, or just get tossed in meaningless matches on a week to week basis. People who get the crowd to respond seem to get the rug taken from under their feet in a way that it almost makes it feel like they're being intentionally held back. Crowds barely even cheer for their favourites any more because they know their people aren't going anywhere.

 

 

Did you hear just how did that Charleston crowd was for this last Raw? They sat on their hands silently for the entire show, and they began to clear out before the show ended in a way that they had to maneuver their camera work to hide the empty seats. This has been a particular trend in the last few weeks, and is itself reflected in their third hour ratings which are falling off a cliff at a more accelerated rate than they were previously.

Even the Smackdown taping they did yesterday for Thursdays show had apparently just a crowd of 3,000, and they were even more silent than the one for Raw on Monday. It doesn't matter in terms of TV presentation, as they always just add in cheers and boos to whomever they want on Smackdown, but again, it all comes back to customer engagement. It's hard to present a positive outlook in the future, when people aren't interested. Especially when the smaller crowd you've wrangled in are bored. Are they going to continue to just tune in, or pay you for tickets for the hell of it? They lose more and more along the way, and that's what's reflecting in these audiences and ratings. You have to keep people coming back and wanting more. Banking only on simply being the WWE will not get them far enough.

 

 

This thread itself is an indicator of the state of things. It was far busier here in past years. Years that weren't even that good. This WWE product is just so apathetic that there's nothing to respond to. It's hard to even get riled up enough to complain for most. And we love complaining.

You may be right. 

I'll always be a fan though. 

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On December 9, 2015 at 12:36:21 AM, Canucks-12 said:

These ratings don't mean much. They don't count the people watching in other counties or people that pvr Raw like I do.

This week was a great show. I'm looking forward to TLC. Should be a good one. 

Numbers in the UK are dropping drastically. 

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Triple H: "We're Not 100% Sure" How To Fix WWE Right Now.

Triple H conducted an NXT Takeover London media conference call today in which he commented on fan frustration with the current WWE TV product:

"We just have to become more disciplined and more Creative with how we do things, and how we operate the shows. We've had some unfortunate situations with injuries and everything else. It's on us to be more creative and come up with a better format; a better show. We hear people's frustrations and in a lot of ways feel the same way. It's fixing it. And, trying to fix it. It is what it is. How we fix it, we're not 100 percent sure yet. But, we will get there. Trust me."

WrestleZone also asked why wrestlers like Fin Balor have not been called up:

"The thing that I hate doing is, `Well, there's a lot of injuries right now, so we're going to pull this guy up,' but then the injured guys will come back and then we're not sure what we'll do - now we have too many guys for the space.

I hate taking a guy as talented as Finn Balor and saying, `You're the band-aid to hold us over until all these other guys come back and then we'll see from there.' If we don't have that gameplan for when we call these guys up, especially for a Finn Balor, then it's not the right time. You need to have something in your mind, and hopefully a long-term plan in place that gets them to where you want  them to be. At least that would be the goal for me when guys come up."

 

 

 

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Good riddance this company deserves the low ratings, how can anyone support this stale product at the moment when you got real fighting like UFC. Face it WWE is going down in the gutter and I love it, I was a attitude era fan and Vince slapped us loyal fans who supported the product, so I do hope WWE goes in the gutter, 2.1 ratings for raw hahahaha I love it wait till next year were it will reach 1.9 YES! The loyal fans who were "wrestling fans" are gone, they have gave up, and who can sit there and watch 3 hours of boredom hahaha keep the ship sinking wwe I for one love it! probaly will go a bit up when Austin comes back but really wwe has no star power to keep the ratings up and hey how about keep getting excited over the worst wrestler ever named tyler breeze glad I turned it off, don't need to watch raw just watch, wait just skip through the hi-lights on youtube.

Edited by desiboynux4lifee*******
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A Super Fan writes about the state of WWE.

Quote
Greetings,
My name is Frank Mustari. I’ve been a PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING fan since I was six years old. I am now 25. For as long as I can remember, I would watch wrestling on Monday nights with the upmost anticipation. It was a religion of sorts to me. School and wrestling were what my adolescent life revolved around.

As I grew up, wrestling remained a vital facet of my life, but I began to explore other forms of entertainment that appealed to me. With the current day and age, you can find new content that you never knew existed, and become easily captivated by it. Despite all of my new ventures in entertainment, PRO WRESTLING always held the #1 spot in my heart despite its common shortcomings. I always blindly stayed loyal because it’s been ingrained within me.

I’ve devoted much of my life to this form of art known simply as pro wrestling. I regularly attend your live events & have been for many, many years. On average, I attend about 30-40 live events per year across the country. I’ve attended 10 consecutive Wrestlemania’s, numerous Royal Rumbles, Summerslams, RAWs, Smackdown’s, NXT’s, and other specials you have ran. When I attend these events, I always try to sit ringside. I currently have 50+ ringside collectible chairs from PPV’s that I have attended. I love the feeling of being within the action. I’m on the pulse of your product. It’s a feeling you can’t get at any other sporting event. I’ve paid premium prices for said tickets, as well. Prices that have inflated drastically over the years. To put it in perspective, my Wrestlemania 27 ringside ticket was $900 face value. The face value price on my Wrestlemania 31 ringside seat was $2400 including all the fees & taxes. That’s nearly a 300% mark-up in four years. I understand inflation, but in an economy that’s been getting better, but still struggling nonetheless, a mark-up of such drastic proportions screams greed. Your live events, better known as house shows used to be a HUGE draw for me. I loved the interactions & the lack of time constraints on the matches and performers. They have free will to test the waters & try new things. The best part of those house shows back in the day were the affordable prices. A ringside seat for a show of that nature was on average, roughly $65 for a ringside seat. Present day? About $120 for a ringside seat. Again, nearly double the price. So if a family of 4 wants to sit ringside and see their heroes, they are shelling out nearly $500 for three hours of entertainment, not including any other expenses at the show like parking, food/drinks & merchandise. It’s sad. But hey, you have sheep like me who’ll pay it, so why not make the money to spite yourselves?


I have seen it all with my own two eyes in person. And despite all of that, I’ve had some of the best experiences & memories of my life from your product. I am forever grateful for it. I’ve not ashamed I’ve been brought to tears while watching your product because I was EMOTIONALLY INVESTED in it. Your product has been an escape for me, where during your live shows, nothing outside of those arena walls matter. If I’m going through a rough patch in my life, I know that WWE can help me to forget that, even if it is just for three hours. I don’t regret a any of the money I have spent on your product (and I have spent MANY dollars), because I have always supported your product. When you enjoy or love something, you support it. I have even gone as far to have done NUMEROUS unpaid media opportunities in support of YOUR company. I can safely say I have spent five figure sums of money on your product. I have defended your company and the stigma attached to it my entire life. I’m just one singular person, meaningless in the grand eyes of your company, but I’m surely not the only one who can vouch for all these things. That’s how much I want to believe in your company.

That’s how much WE want to believe in your company.

As I said earlier, as I was growing up, I couldn’t be any more excited to watch wrestling on Monday nights.Recently, however, I’m struggling to find the same child-like desire that I felt for many years.

The ignorance of who your fan-base is, is alarming. The blatant mishandling of popular talent is frightening. The ineptitude to put together three hours of exciting programming is disappointing. I get it. It’s an extremely tough gig to produce as much content as you do on a weekly basis, but as your FLAGSHIP show, you should be putting more of an emphasis on what your viewer wants, rather than what YOU want. I’m sure you’ve written off the TV ratings dip with some sort of excuse. “It’s football season.” Well, for your information, it’s just that, it’s an excuse. I was one of those people who decided not to watch the show. It was the first time I willingly did not watch your show in my life as a fan of your product. The following week, I DVRed your flagship show. I began to watch, and turned it off halfway through because it was more a chore to watch than anything. There was nothing for me to emotionally invest in. Nothing that captivated me. Nothing that made me want to see what happens next. I had an opportunity to go see your next pay-per-view, TLC, and I respectfully turned it down because honestly, I just don’t care about it currently and and it saddens me to say that because I know how unbelievably amped I used to get for your live events. Didn’t matter what city, what show, or who was performing, I knew I was getting the best bang for my buck.

Now? I don’t feel that way anymore.

I must stress that I do not blame this on your talent, I blame it on the people behind the scenes who are too ignorant to see that they are alienating their fan-base one week at a time. I understand this is a business, and the main goal of a business is to make money. However, making money shouldn’t be your ONLY goal. You have your major sponsors like Mattel, Toys R Us, Coca-Cola, Burger King, etc. The money is there & will always be there, however, at this rate, the fans may not be.

I’m speaking not only for myself, but for a frustrated fan-base in pleading, PLEASE, please give us something to sink our teeth into. Something interesting, something we haven’t seen before, something for us to get behind & to invest ourselves and suspend our disbeliefs again. Stop force-feeding content we don’t want. We like when things develop organically. Don’t continue to try to fit a square into a circle because you’re afraid to admit you’re wrong. We’ll forgive you eventually, as long as you provide with the entertainment that we yearn for.

But for now, you’re driving your fans away in droves. Not just any fans, the fans, like myself, who have spent many hard earned dollars on your product. The fans who have spent countless number of hours watching your product. The fans who genuinely care about the state of your company, despite is not truly having a stake in it. Your fan base is devoted, but we’ve had it. Enough is enough. Don’t expect us to watch because we are ingrained to watch. The signs are there, the viewership is down. Live events sales are dropping. Interest in the product is at an ALL-TIME low & mainstream interest is virtually non-existent. Soon, the stockholders will take note, and that’s the last thing you want to have happen.

I attended your most recent PPV event, Survivor Series. I’ve never seen such indifference leaving a building for one of your shows. It wasn’t that it was a bad show, it was just the realization was setting in to your loyal fans that change isn’t anywhere near. We aren’t happy. I can assure you your talent is unhappy. I can also assume your other employees are unhappy. Make it a fun environment for everyone involved again. Recapture that magic.

Hire people who are passionate for the product. I’ve heard too many instances of people in powerful positions within your company, that don’t love the business the way they should. Inject your company with new blood. Get people working for your company that want to be there. People that won’t consider it a job. People that won’t just clock in and clock out. Hire people who care, and probably care TOO much for their own good. You’re making enough money to bring some new people on board. I’m not speaking for myself, I’m speaking for TALENTED people that I know would bust their ass & give everything they have to better your company. Everyone can learn from each other. The new and the old. Your current staff & potential new employees. Maybe some fresh brains, eyes & ears are what your company needs to breathe new life into the company. The little people have ideas, too, you know. Some good, some bad, but at the end of the day, we just want to make this a better place & product as we grow older and for our kids, and our kid’s kids, and so on and so forth.

I understand I can’t speak for everyone, but I have a decent understanding of where the general consensus opinion of your current product stands. I also understand you’ve had some unforeseen injuries, departures, & other misfortunes occur along the way. However, the product was long stale before those events occurred. Perhaps I’m emotionally rambling. Perhaps, I’m not. No matter what, I’ve never seen so many people speak out against the current state of your product whether it’s die-hard fans, people within the business, journalists, or the casual viewer.

I also understand this may fall onto empty eyes & ears, but I sincerely hope I am heard.

Pro wrestling is meant to be fun. Lately, it’s been everything but that.

It’s not hard to do wrestling right. You’ve done it before and you can do it again. Just don’t wait to pull the trigger. Don’t expect our blind loyalty to always shine through. And DON’T insult our intelligence.

Do NOT take US for granted. Without us, there’s no YOU.

A concerned fan,

Frank Mustari
 

 

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Vince will probably blame the low rating due to Cena not being on television. Which is kind of true, little kids and Cena fangirls miss their daily dose of Cena.

IWC can't wait long enough for the day Vince retires, Kevin Dunn gets the boot and Triple H takes over.

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48 minutes ago, shiznak said:

Vince will probably blame the low rating due to Cena not being on television. Which is kind of true, little kids and Cena fangirls miss their daily dose of Cena.

IWC can't wait long enough for the day Vince dies, Kevin Dunn gets the boot and Triple H takes over.

fixed that for you :x

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43 minutes ago, shiznak said:

Vince will probably blame the low rating due to Cena not being on television. Which is kind of true, little kids and Cena fangirls miss their daily dose of Cena.

IWC can't wait long enough for the day Vince retires, Kevin Dunn gets the boot and Triple H takes over.

This is true, but it's only a part. And it doesn't help they were already trending downwards while he was still on the show weekly.

Also Vince won't retire. Not unless he's bedridden, or dead. And even then I'm not sure (whether a figurative ghost Vince who's shadow hangs over the show, or a literal ghost Vince who refuses to let go)

My faith in "his idiotic daughter, and his doofus son in law" is not that high though, even with NXT being as much better than RAW as it is. But it will probably help to whatever extent when Vince isn't there. Especially if Stephanie takes a bigger step back. But it seems there has to be a certain genericness that the main show needs to maintain. I don't think they can just start running it more like an indie federation (like NXT). Though the biggest thing they could take away from NXT right now, and apply immediately to Raw, is how the show's stories, feuds, and characters seem to mould so heavily around how the crowd responds to wrestlers. Throw in a group of largely talented people, and follow the fan response to them. The main roster has one of those elements, but they continue to resist that fan response element, to quite crazy extremes.

Though it was funny yesterday seeing HHH simultaneously apologizing for RAW and the main product as a representative of the company, but also distance himself from it on a creative standpoint, saying he doesn't have the say in what happens in Raw, but that NXT is his project.

At least that was the company openly accepting there's a big issue with the show creatively. But I don't think their vague promise to improve means anything in particular, especially when he states that they don't know how to begin to fix the issue. 

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2 hours ago, g_bassi13 said:

This is true, but it's only a part. And it doesn't help they were already trending downwards while he was still on the show weekly.

Also Vince won't retire. Not unless he's bedridden, or dead. And even then I'm not sure (whether a figurative ghost Vince who's shadow hangs over the show, or a literal ghost Vince who refuses to let go)

My faith in "his idiotic daughter, and his doofus son in law" is not that high though, even with NXT being as much better than RAW as it is. But it will probably help to whatever extent when Vince isn't there. Especially if Stephanie takes a bigger step back. But it seems there has to be a certain genericness that the main show needs to maintain. I don't think they can just start running it more like an indie federation (like NXT). Though the biggest thing they could take away from NXT right now, and apply immediately to Raw, is how the show's stories, feuds, and characters seem to mould so heavily around how the crowd responds to wrestlers. Throw in a group of largely talented people, and follow the fan response to them. The main roster has one of those elements, but they continue to resist that fan response element, to quite crazy extremes.

Though it was funny yesterday seeing HHH simultaneously apologizing for RAW and the main product as a representative of the company, but also distance himself from it on a creative standpoint, saying he doesn't have the say in what happens in Raw, but that NXT is his project.

At least that was the company openly accepting there's a big issue with the show creatively. But I don't think their vague promise to improve means anything in particular, especially when he states that they don't know how to begin to fix the issue. 

Since Dusty died, I dont think NXT has been great; the last couple of sets of tapings I've been kind of bored, it's starting to follow a formula ala WWE, Show, Buildup, PPV, Finish, predictable, as usual.

Edited by Nail3738
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My TLC "Predictions"

 

Sheamus over Roman via Shenanigans

Owens over Ambrose clean - if they're building him up for Brock, Shenanigans if they aren't

New Tag Champs, New Day COULD retain, but...WWE has a hardon for the Usos

Alberto Del Rio Retains.

Wyatt Family over ECW Old Farts

Charlotte Retains

Cryback over Rusev if Rusev/Lana are truly in the Dog House.

Edited by Nail3738
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On 12/12/2015 at 11:47 PM, desiboynux4lifee******* said:

Good riddance this company deserves the low ratings, how can anyone support this stale product at the moment when you got real fighting like UFC. Face it WWE is going down in the gutter and I love it, I was a attitude era fan and Vince slapped us loyal fans who supported the product, so I do hope WWE goes in the gutter, 2.1 ratings for raw hahahaha I love it wait till next year were it will reach 1.9 YES! The loyal fans who were "wrestling fans" are gone, they have gave up, and who can sit there and watch 3 hours of boredom hahaha keep the ship sinking wwe I for one love it! probaly will go a bit up when Austin comes back but really wwe has no star power to keep the ratings up and hey how about keep getting excited over the worst wrestler ever named tyler breeze glad I turned it off, don't need to watch raw just watch, wait just skip through the hi-lights on youtube.

wat

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