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Post by Cyno on Dec 12, 2014 20:08:43 GMT -5
I thought Spike was trying to refocus branding. Like how the CW did when they dropped Smackdown. SD was pulling some of their highest numbers, but they still wanted out of wrestling because they were going for a different demo. Wrestling seems to skew older than people would normally think. WWE's recent numbers came back and the average age was like 41? So if Spike's trying to grab a younger audience wrestling won't help that. Well, that's slightly different. In CW's case, it was part of Dawn Orstoff's master plan to cater exclusively to the 18-to-35 female demographic (ironically, she was the UPN executive at the time of the merger, yet cared little about the UPN shows), which is alright if you are on cable, but as far as being network TV goes, it was poisonous, so her removal was the best thing for the network. Spike was similar, but they just wanted that younger male audience, and while pro wrestling sounds like something that could attract younger audiences, it is MMA today that does so, while wrestling is for older people. But I still view that if TNA had succeeded, Spike would have at least shown some interest. Plus, the Bellator tie-ins weren't as horrendous as some people made out. We had a bitchin' TNA Champion this year because of it. I just realized that Dawn Ostroff left the CW in 2011. It explains why the network's quality went up afterwards.
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Post by A Platypus Rave on Dec 12, 2014 20:41:17 GMT -5
I think a few factors may have been: 1. TNA became more of a headache to support and the product started to look cheap after the poor decision to take Impact on the road and the fallout from that. When TNA was settled in Universal it seemed to be a more low-maintenance enterprise all around. 2. TNA ratings drew less than COPS reruns As TNA promised Spike they'd be getting 2's by the time the renewal was up and they dropped in ratings considerably is undoubtedly one of hte reasons Spike didn't want to pay them anywhere near what they were getting.
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Post by Mayonnaise on Dec 12, 2014 20:51:44 GMT -5
1. Spike hated Russo and have for years but TNA's outright lies about him could have been overlooked had they been successful at achieving number 2. 2. Spike paid TNA a LOT of money with the expectation that TNA would do all it could to reach 2 million viewers a week. Not only did they fail at that, they went backward in terms of presentation and viewers.
So TNA failed miserably at even trying to uphold their end of the final Spike deal and hired someone that the executives at Spike hated making it worse. Spike had no reason to match their last offer to TNA or come close to it while TNA wanted more than they got before either in money or time.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2014 22:57:40 GMT -5
The sad part is, TNA had its best ratings in the Hogan/Bischoff era with Russo as the writer. The post-BFG shows in 2010 and 2011 drew 1.90 and 2.01 million viewers respectively. They were still drawing anywhere from 1.5 to 1.9 million in 2011. Ironically, once Russo left, the TV got better but the ratings got worse, and it continued to go downwards in 2013 and eventually 2014. Yes, the days of Anderson, RVD, and a drugged out Hardy main eventing every PPV was the last real high point in the ratings for TNA.
If they just stayed on Thursday's in 2010 in the same time slot rather than moving to Monday's and fiddling with their Thursday slot every few months once the Monday experiment failed, maybe they could have been a little more consistent. Regardless, they drew 2 million viewers in October 2011 (BFG fallout, Hogan turns face, Storm wins the title) so Spike was probably OK with them up to that point. Things really went south in 2013, I think, right after going on the road full-time and bleeding money.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 13, 2014 2:49:07 GMT -5
For the first time, an executive sat down and watched an episode.
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WWEedy
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,320
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Post by WWEedy on Dec 13, 2014 6:41:23 GMT -5
Is the whole Spike hating Russo thing still being propagated? I thought the Spike guy with the hate boner for Russo expressly said he had a hate boner because Russo had nothing to do with their negotiations for TNA, he wasn't a second thought and would be lucky if he affected anything to do with the day to day negotiations between Spike/TNA despite Russo saying otherwise.
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Post by Tiger Millionaire on Dec 13, 2014 11:11:27 GMT -5
The Company never growing, back in 07-09 TNA was Spike's prized show but they never grew after that. If they were maintaining two million viewers and 1.4 ratings like they had before Hogan, they'd likely still be on Spike. They kept promising how they were going to break through the barrier each year and gathering 2.0 ratings but they began to dwindle downwards instead of going up and they lost millions of dollars in the company which had become bloated and no longer producing good results for them as well as the public nightmare that was backstage with no leaders and nobody motivated or wanting to be there and Spike eventually got shows that were getting higher ratings than them and were much cheaper to produce and they decided TNA wasn't worth it anymore. Wrestling ratings are down as a whole since then.
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Post by Can you afford to pay me, Gah on Dec 13, 2014 11:40:50 GMT -5
The Company never growing, back in 07-09 TNA was Spike's prized show but they never grew after that. If they were maintaining two million viewers and 1.4 ratings like they had before Hogan, they'd likely still be on Spike. They kept promising how they were going to break through the barrier each year and gathering 2.0 ratings but they began to dwindle downwards instead of going up and they lost millions of dollars in the company which had become bloated and no longer producing good results for them as well as the public nightmare that was backstage with no leaders and nobody motivated or wanting to be there and Spike eventually got shows that were getting higher ratings than them and were much cheaper to produce and they decided TNA wasn't worth it anymore. Wrestling ratings are down as a whole since then. True they are but is it because wrestling has become not popular because the WWE went PG which doesn't sit well with the adult fans unless they have a kid. TNA product for years has been horrible so fans lost interest in that and when TNA went on to become more a WWE reenactment during the first part of the year is there really anything about wrestling to really get excited about on a national TV level. Now I'm sure if NXT was the style of show we had on a bigger level wrestling would been more popular overall because it would be something different and best of all GOOD wrestling. There is a large group of fans who just want QUALITY wrestling with a not so over booked angle around it. They need too go back too let the fans decide who they want and not tell us who too like. It worked with Austin and The Rock.
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Post by Tiger Millionaire on Dec 13, 2014 12:47:28 GMT -5
Wrestling ratings are down as a whole since then. True they are but is it because wrestling has become not popular because the WWE went PG which doesn't sit well with the adult fans unless they have a kid. TNA product for years has been horrible so fans lost interest in that and when TNA went on to become more a WWE reenactment during the first part of the year is there really anything about wrestling to really get excited about on a national TV level. Now I'm sure if NXT was the style of show we had on a bigger level wrestling would been more popular overall because it would be something different and best of all GOOD wrestling. There is a large group of fans who just want QUALITY wrestling with a not so over booked angle around it. They need too go back too let the fans decide who they want and not tell us who too like. It worked with Austin and The Rock. Disagree. Has nothing to do with the PG rating. The wrestling, the actual matches are much better than they were during the Attitude Era, which was an outlier not the norm regarding ratings. Wrestling was hot. It's not now. It's a niche market that got hot based on a ton of factors, but ultimately regulates to a certain point. I mean you bring up Austin and The Rock era, nothing was more overbooked or hotshoted than that era, where titles were passed around like a duchy on the right hand side.
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Post by The Trashman on Dec 13, 2014 13:11:11 GMT -5
Consistently low ratings?
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Post by OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 on Dec 13, 2014 14:43:57 GMT -5
Maybe once Jarrett left and they started dealing with Dixie directly it all went to shit
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SAJ Forth
Wade Wilson
Jamaican WCF Crazy!
Half Man-Half Amazing
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Post by SAJ Forth on Dec 13, 2014 22:02:28 GMT -5
I think it was Russo. They outright told them not to re-hire the man.
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Post by Can you afford to pay me, Gah on Dec 14, 2014 0:17:54 GMT -5
True they are but is it because wrestling has become not popular because the WWE went PG which doesn't sit well with the adult fans unless they have a kid. TNA product for years has been horrible so fans lost interest in that and when TNA went on to become more a WWE reenactment during the first part of the year is there really anything about wrestling to really get excited about on a national TV level. Now I'm sure if NXT was the style of show we had on a bigger level wrestling would been more popular overall because it would be something different and best of all GOOD wrestling. There is a large group of fans who just want QUALITY wrestling with a not so over booked angle around it. They need too go back too let the fans decide who they want and not tell us who too like. It worked with Austin and The Rock. Disagree. Has nothing to do with the PG rating. The wrestling, the actual matches are much better than they were during the Attitude Era, which was an outlier not the norm regarding ratings. Wrestling was hot. It's not now. It's a niche market that got hot based on a ton of factors, but ultimately regulates to a certain point. I mean you bring up Austin and The Rock era, nothing was more overbooked or hotshoted than that era, where titles were passed around like a duchy on the right hand side. That the point I making though. The fans pretty much turned Rock and Austin into faces. They where the act the fans loved. That booking style worked for that time. What fans want now it seems too be work rate wrestling. There talent in the WWE fans look to be on top and the WWE refusing too put those guys in that spot for whatever reason. Wrestling gets hot for whatever reason. It was up during the mid 80s into the early 90s. By late 92 it went down in 96 it blew up again. The issue is nobody has that "it" guy that the majority can relate too. Cena is stale and unless your ten everyone knows that and the PG era has a lot to do with it because it gone for longer than most era we seen and because of being a publicly traded company and nobody challenging them. Wrestling can be hot of the fans get something they are wanting and not what they want too shove down our throats. WWE ratings are falling yes because the last ten years we been given John Cena who hasn't done hardly anything fresh as a character in a very long time. TNA problem is not settling on a main guy on a long period of time and yo yoing people in and out of the ME before they can get a chance too be established. Every guy that new starts too catch fire as been pushed down or turned. How does wrestling get hot again when nobody is allowing something too catch fire or do something refreshing? Its not a case of wrestling being uncool. It more there nothing too be exciting about to become must see TV.
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Post by EvenBaldobombHasAJob on Dec 15, 2014 7:43:50 GMT -5
hiring Vince Russo after being told not to and then lying about it.
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