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Post by angryfan on Oct 21, 2014 17:33:39 GMT -5
I fully expect to hear that somebody not "established" is to blame for this, and at some point I have to ask, if the business is in a down turn and not cool, and it's been that way for 12 years, if ratings have been eroding, if PPV buyrates outside of Mania (where it's been the "special attraction" show for five years now) are also going downhill, then I look simply at who are those who have been there for the entirety of that span?
If people started tuning out in '02, haven't come back, and more people are leaving, then, I'm looking at every effort since then, everything given legs, and I'm saying, "This doesn't work".
Or, more likely, Vince is saying, "Keep slamming that square peg in that round hole, it'll fit eventually".
I get that the only way to build a boom is with the young audience, and the only way to build them is to hook them on the product, but Vince and company haven't done that. They hooked them on one guy, and if, God forbid, that one guy goes away, they are beyond screwed. People aren't buying the PPV's like they used to, they're not subscribing (or staying with) the network, they're not flocking to shows that feature 90% of the roster (coincidentally the segment that is seen as throwaway), so...what has been gained?
WWE, at this point, could stick to selling nothing but Cena gear, having the shows be three-hour informercials for how awesome Cena is, and it would probably work out better for them since, at least that way, they wouldn't have to worry about him getting injured.
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Post by slappy on Oct 21, 2014 17:48:40 GMT -5
Average weekly viewership now in graph form
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Post by thegame415 on Oct 21, 2014 17:57:21 GMT -5
Maybe they should just pretend like it's the night after WrestleMania every Monday.
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Post by Kevin Hamilton on Oct 21, 2014 18:10:26 GMT -5
I didn't bother this week. I guess this one's on me ladies and gents. Sorry.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2014 18:10:39 GMT -5
Average weekly viewership now in graph form interesting that May 12th was the show Bryan announced his injury and the next week they hit the lowest rating
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Dean-o
Grimlock
Haha we're having fun Maggle!
Posts: 13,865
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Post by Dean-o on Oct 21, 2014 18:16:10 GMT -5
The only way they will "shake things up" is to simply make Cena champion again, and probably sign some part timer from the past. It's all they know what to do.
This is the end result of an product that has been over-produced, safe, and most of all, BORING for far too long.
The formula is completely broken. The people in charge need to seriously not worry about their shareholders and investors and do SOMETHING different, because this corporate product we have now just ain't cutting it anymore.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2014 18:23:30 GMT -5
"Get the title back on Cena dammit!" -[name redacted]
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Chiral
Salacious Crumb
Posts: 73,306
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Post by Chiral on Oct 21, 2014 18:31:49 GMT -5
I love the tv show Walking Dead. But if next week's episode was a third recap of last week, a third recap of what has happened earlier, and a third of the coolest characters (best actors really, in rassler case "talent") I'd stop watching it too. So if it were Endless Eight? Guess it's appropriate, I stopped watching that after the third week. Embarrassingly, I was half watching Endless Eight and didn't notice til the third episode that something was up...
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Post by xCompackx on Oct 21, 2014 19:37:55 GMT -5
The only way they will "shake things up" is to simply make Cena champion again, and probably sign some part timer from the past. It's all they know what to do. This is the end result of an product that has been over-produced, safe, and most of all, BORING for far too long. The formula is completely broken. The people in charge need to seriously not worry about their shareholders and investors and do SOMETHING different, because this corporate product we have now just ain't cutting it anymore. Honestly, the best thing WWE could do product-wise is to go private again. When you have so many people you have to please, how can you possibly make a quality product? It'll never happen I know, but I maintain that it would help.
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Boo!
Dennis Stamp
Posts: 4,417
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Post by Boo! on Oct 21, 2014 20:31:11 GMT -5
They're not this way because they're public they're this way out of choice. They want an 'all things to all men' product. I think they've always wanted to be Disney, or compared to. When things got desperate they edged away from it out of necessity but quickly returned. There's little wrong with a family-friendly wrestling product but you need to have a hook that appeals to the family audience. Cena does the job okay but he's never really been a mainstream figure like some of his forebears. Yes he sells the most t-shirts and is probably the most identifiable wrestler associated with the brand in a full-time capacity but with WWE's commercial arm and reach you'd expect frankly anyone to be in that position.
It feels like WWE 1994. Leading man (men) who are popular only in relative terms and a very weak undercard. If they don't have a Rock, Austin or Hogan who can provide them with that mainstream/big audience punch then they need to elevate those underneath. They have the talent there to have world-class undercard that rivals the Hulkamania or Attitude boom years but they pay zero attention to it. Their IC champ has lost 4 TV matches in a row their US champ is...who even cares?
The product is suffocating because it's being produced/written by people who've found their niche. It's auto-pilot for everything and it's showing.
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Push R Truth
Patti Mayonnaise
Unique and Special Snowflake, and a pants-less heathen.
Perpetually Constipated
Posts: 39,269
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Post by Push R Truth on Oct 21, 2014 21:15:51 GMT -5
Obviously not enough focus on Cena vs Orton
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Unocal 76
King Koopa
Providing The Finest Oil
Posts: 12,687
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Post by Unocal 76 on Oct 21, 2014 21:18:20 GMT -5
Good lord.
And it didn't have a ton of competition- Texans/Steelers wasn't the sexiest of MNF matchups
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riseofsetian1981
King Koopa
"I met him fifteen years ago. I was told there was nothing left."
Posts: 10,323
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Post by riseofsetian1981 on Oct 21, 2014 21:47:30 GMT -5
It's clearly Bryan's fault!
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2014 22:18:15 GMT -5
"Get the title back on Cena dammit!" -[name redacted] Get the belt back on the show PERIOD. Even if Cena has it, at least knowing the champ is on TV gives people a reason to care. Brock's not back for a long time, and it's going to show in the ratings.
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Post by 1 Free Moon-Down with Burger on Oct 21, 2014 22:21:00 GMT -5
Not surprised one bit, WWE has been dreadful since Mania (albeit some good RAWs here & there) Somehow in Vince's warped mind this'll be Ambrose/Rollins' fault And somehow in the minds of angry fans it'll be Orton/Cena's fault.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2014 22:32:23 GMT -5
I have only watched about an hour of Raw since the last full Raw I watched, which was the week before Night Of Champions. Now, in any other show or sport, missing four weeks of the show usually means that I've missed some major developments... Not the case with Raw. The same shit that happened four weeks ago have been happening every week, twice a week, since then. I believe I could check back in around the Rumble and still not have missed much. That's why the ratings have fallen. You can only watch a rerun so many times before you grow bored and change the channel.
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Post by g1megatronfan on Oct 21, 2014 22:36:12 GMT -5
I haven't watched in a few weeks. Doesn't sound like I'm missing a damn thing. They need to redo their show from the same old bullshit:
Raw opens with Triple H boring the crowd into a coma just like the good old days.
A John Cena promo saying the same shit he's been saying for the last 10 years.
A 5 minute throwaway match.
45 mins of reviewing what Triple H said.
30 minutes reviewing what Cena said.
A shitty 3 minute divas match.
Backstage segment with HHH & Stephanie taking about dumb shit.
A random match.
A Randy Orton segment where he takes 35 minutes just to walk to the ring then he proceeds to bore the few awake fans into comas by talking.
Then it's main event time: John Cena Vs the odds and overcomes.
Same old shit. Ratings going down? I wonder why?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2014 22:50:56 GMT -5
I get that the only way to build a boom is with the young audience, and the only way to build them is to hook them on the product, but Vince and company haven't done that. And it's only going to get tougher going forward. Television in general isn't doing as well as it used to with younger demographics. Young people are consuming more and more online content and less and less tv content.
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Chuck Conry
Dennis Stamp
zombies DON'T Run
Posts: 3,725
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Post by Chuck Conry on Oct 21, 2014 23:07:26 GMT -5
They get new and interesting faces, but then they mix them up with old ones we're tired of seeing. I don't hate Orton, Cena, or Kane, but I'm tired of seeing them. Making it worse they are all in the same storyline. Split them up and try to elevate people one at a time without clogging up the main event scene all at once.
Back in the day there was something major going on each week. You felt like you HAD to watch the next week. We don't have that now. We also have our mid-card in a live action version of Groundhog's Day where mid-card titles aren't worth anything. The champs lose, no real storyline is built around them. There's no "hook" to care about anything. I missed this week and I didn't care that I did. Something needs to happen where I feel like I can't miss each week.
The whole mid-card seems stale and that isn't good. Also, we've seen each match a million times already.
They've caught lightning a few times over the years were something crazy went down and you felt like it was major and wanted to keep watching to see what would happen. The sad thing is, they've screwed it up every time.
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StuntGranny®
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Not Actually a Granny
Posts: 16,099
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Post by StuntGranny® on Oct 21, 2014 23:08:04 GMT -5
What reason is there to watch?
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