Could WWE tap into the female market?

[Nr1Humanoid]

Could they easily use female wrestlers to draw a bigger female crowd?

I know there are girls in the crowd but seems to me there could be more.

[SEAN CARLESS]

Nov 23, 2012 19:06:49 GMT -5 Nr1Humanoid said:

Could they easily use female wrestlers to draw a bigger female crowd?

I know there are girls in the crowd but seems to me there could be more.

WWE is all ass backward when it comes to drawing the average female market. The entire Cena/AJ story is to apparently draw women in soap-style, except the entire appeal of Cena is being single and potentially available. It's kind of the way the "Trish has a boyfriend" thing in 2006 died on the vine in the Mickie James build. People want to romanticize and fantasize about them as attainable, even though they're clearly not. And as a result (in this case) it alienates men who feel the whole thing is stupid, and women don't care. I mean, who could possibly care and want to see them together? They have less chemistry than Kristen Stewart and the sparkly vampire.

Now, on the other hand, WWE should be building up say an AJ, in the ring, as a relatable avatar for younger girls. Instead of the schitzo character they write that is increasingly unlikeable. I've always thought that girls doing amazing things in the ring could get over if produced and booked right. But instead, WWE keeps churning out the same one minute cheesecake shlock, only without the actual cheesecake.

[Wolf Hurricane]

Nov 23, 2012 19:20:56 GMT -5 SEAN CARLESS said:

Nov 23, 2012 19:06:49 GMT -5 Nr1Humanoid said:

Could they easily use female wrestlers to draw a bigger female crowd?

I know there are girls in the crowd but seems to me there could be more.

WWE is all ass backward when it comes to drawing the average female market. The entire Cena/AJ story is to apparently draw women in soap-style, except the entire appeal of Cena is being single and potentially available. It's kind of the way the "Trish has a boyfriend" thing in 2006 died on the vine in the Mickie James build. People want to romanticize and fantasize about them as attainable, even though they're clearly not. And as a result (in this case) it alienates men who feel the whole thing is stupid, and women don't care. I mean, who could possibly care and want to see them together? They have less chemistry than Kristen Stewart and the sparkly vampire.

Now, on the other hand, WWE should be building up say an AJ, in the ring, as a relatable avatar for younger girls. Instead of the schitzo character they write that is increasingly unlikeable. I've always thought that girls doing amazing things in the ring could get over if produced and booked right. But instead, WWE keeps churning out the same one minute cheesecake shlock, only without the actual cheesecake.

Best answer. Five stars.

Time and time again, WWE has failed it's female audience. From the Lita/Trish saga to Mickie's blowing up as a star several years ago, WWE has failed to capitalize on Divas that have managed to gain exceptional appeal universally, not to mention among women in particular. For all this talk about Cena as Superman (and Punk as Batman, by proxy), why has it not occurred to the WWE to come up with a Wonder Woman? I don't buy that people don't care to see women in high billing: If that were the case, movies and shows like Resident Evil, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Bionic Woman, and the aforementioned Wonder Woman would be dead on arrival.

If you're a boy, there are numerous role models or guys you can look to in the WWE and say "that's who I want to be when I grow up." You can say "I wanna be the next Shawn Michaels" or "I wanna be the next John Cena." If you're a teenager or an adult, you can relate to CM Punk or someone. Who do girls have to look up to? Who do women have to relate to?

It's missed money, man.

[hitch]

I don't think it is at all established that to attract female viewers they have to have female characters. How many female members are there in One Direction, an 'entity' if I can phrase it like this, particularly 'over' with that demographic at this moment in time?

I'd say men want to see more women than women do. Women likely want to see better storylines and possible some better looking wrestlers. I'm not sure girl-on-girl philosophy is solid. When a Diva comes on television I'm not not convinced the women at home think 'Right ladies, this is for us'

[Piccolo]

As a woman, I'd guess there are 2 ways to draw women. Bear in mind, I haven't watched in quite a while, so these opinions might be outdated regarding the current product... if they're doing these things and women still aren't attracted, it's possible my opinion is wrong.

1) Write good stories all around for all characters, male and female. In my experience, women like to get emotionally involved in our entertainment. Is HBK my favorite wrestler because he was hot at one time and was good in the ring? Those things helped. But mostly it's because I remember his stories. The guy wasn't a good actor or anything, but there was usually something coherent and interesting going on with him... I often cared about the outcomes of his matches and what he was going to do next. I get into wrestlers who make me care about what they're doing from week to week. Some of that is charisma, but a lot of it is story-building.

2) Develop a women's division that I could be interested to show my female friends, with heroes and villains who have emotions that are beyond high school level. The last time I watched, the villains were just mean girls and the heroes were just nice girls. That's shallow and boring. Develop characters and feuds and relationships that are compelling, train them to wrestle well, and see what happens.

Those would be my thoughts. But that's kind of more how you keep women who have already tuned in; I don't know how you hook them in the first time.

[Sam Punk]

I don't think it's possible. Women typically aren't into pro wrestling. The ones that do go to a show, at least according to Tyler Black, are not there to see the show.

[kidglov3s]

The best way to attract women viewers is the same way to attract any viewers, produce a great wrestling product. Stone Cold and The Rock brought in way more women than Alundra Blayze ever did.

[hitch]

Okay but if they want to build a woman's division - properly, treat it like the men's division and have it noticed when the crowd die or go out for a piss or to get a hotdog. It's not 'sexism' that they do it, or to notice it. If they want to do the women's division properly - great. But the criteria should be the same as men's. If it isn't over - you're out.

[Razor Gives It A 4/10]

They left when Val Venis left

[hitch]

Nov 23, 2012 20:09:39 GMT -5 Razor Gives It A 4/10 said:

They left when Val Venis left

I wanted him to be paired with Pam Pagina. A comedy gimmick of a rather frigid woman whom was to be his sister who'd go around disapproving of his actions.

[Piccolo]

Nov 23, 2012 20:04:37 GMT -5 hitch said:

Okay but if they want to build a woman's division - properly, treat it like the men's division and have it noticed when the crowd die or go out for a piss or to get a hotdog. It's not 'sexism' that they do it, or to notice it. If they want to do the women's division properly - great. But the criteria should be the same as men's. If it isn't over - you're out.

Well, they can't give it as much time as they give the men's... that would mean splitting the show 50-50. But inasmuch as they can, I do think they should treat it the same. Develop the wrestlers the same way... choose them for talent and charisma, find the ones with passion for the business and bring them in, develop their skills, bring them up when they're as ready as the male recruits you're bringing up. Pick people with the same level of wrestling skill as you'd choose in the men. Give them the same type of treatment on TV. Pay as much attention to their character development and stories as you do the men's. Give as much weight to their feuds and their titles and their build as good guys and bad guys and athletes and competitors.

And then, at that point, judge how well they're getting over, and they're doing much less well than the men you've treated in that same way, axe their division. You have to treat it the same all the way through, or you can't reasonably expect similar results... but if you do treat it the same all the way through and get no results, then you know wrestling fans aren't looking for good stories, good characters, or good matches, they're looking for people with a particular type of reproductive organs. And then you can tailor the show to that, if need be.

[hitch]

Nov 23, 2012 20:12:44 GMT -5 Piccolo said:

Nov 23, 2012 20:04:37 GMT -5 hitch said:

Okay but if they want to build a woman's division - properly, treat it like the men's division and have it noticed when the crowd die or go out for a piss or to get a hotdog. It's not 'sexism' that they do it, or to notice it. If they want to do the women's division properly - great. But the criteria should be the same as men's. If it isn't over - you're out.

Well, they can't give it as much time as they give the men's... that would mean splitting the show 50-50. But inasmuch as they can, I do think they should treat it the same. Develop the wrestlers the same way... choose them for talent and charisma, find the ones with passion for the business and bring them in, develop their skills, bring them up when they're as ready as the male recruits you're bringing up. Pick people with the same level of wrestling skill as you'd choose in the men. Give them the same type of treatment on TV. Pay as much attention to their character development and stories as you do the men's. Give as much weight to their feuds and their titles and their build as good guys and bad guys and athletes and competitors.

And then, at that point, judge how well they're getting over, and they're doing much less well than the men you've treated in that same way, axe their division. You have to treat it the same all the way through, or you can't reasonably expect similar results... but if you do treat it the same all the way through and get no results, then you know wrestling fans aren't looking for good stories, good characters, or good matches, they're looking for people with a particular type of reproductive organs. And then you can tailor the show to that, if need be.

It wouldn't mean 50-50 anything. To be equal or fair you don't have to divide everything up into equal bits.

Listen to any radio show for an hour. Songs aren't divided 50-50. Characters on TV show aren't 50-50. It's a mix.

I'm all for more female wrestlers and all for them getting more airtime. But ONLY when it's deserved. We cannot continuously ignore the fact that female wrestling, at least as far as the WWE currently produce it, isn't terribly interesting to most people.

[Piccolo]

Sure it would - weren't you talking about treating it like the men's division? That would mean giving them equal time.

I'm just saying that it's not realistic to expect that, but that they should treat it the same in every other regard... in the quality of the people they bring in, the reasons why they choose those performers, how they develop them, what qualities they cultivate in them during their training, and in how they write their stories on the air. Then, when they've done that, they should expect it to garner equal interest. That seems eminently reasonable to me. Is there anything about that that you would disagree with?

[KobashiChop]

They have a legit opportunity to put on womens matches with women who could very easily be strong role models for girls to look upto, the same way you have Cena fans draped in his merch.


But they'd rather have Rosa wiggle on the apron.

[Wolf Hurricane]

Nov 23, 2012 20:22:24 GMT -5 Piccolo said:

Sure it would - weren't you talking about treating it like the men's division? That would mean giving them equal time.

There's something like five or six Superstars for every singular Diva. At most, "equal time" would be ten minutes per hour, minus adverts. That's ten minutes per SmackDown and twenty per RAW. Not an excessive amount of time, I'd say.

[Rave]

Nov 23, 2012 20:03:31 GMT -5 kidglov3s said:

The best way to attract women viewers is the same way to attract any viewers, produce a great wrestling product. Stone Cold and The Rock brought in way more women than Alundra Blayze ever did.

This. I'd rather have a great product to watch than any kind of female "role model".

Also, Tyler Black apparently can't tell female fans from rats, which is sad.

[saintpat]

The idea that WWE is missing the boat on this flies in the face of the entire history of pro wrestling -- no promotion, with male or female performers, has ever done well with the female demographic.

There is a certain percentage of women who like 'beefcake' guys with big muscles and may tune in if WWE gears back to the meathead look, but truth be told they would probably be watching and attending with their boyfriends/husbands just as most women always have.

One thing I have heard, enough times for it to seem to me to matter, is this comment by numerous female viewers who have been along at PPV-viewing parties or at my house when Raw was on: "Why do they all have greasy hair? Don't they ever bathe?" That is invariably one of the first reactions, and I've wondered exactly how and why the 'wet' look became so essential to the product.

[Piccolo]

Nov 23, 2012 20:29:24 GMT -5 Wolf Hurricane said:

Nov 23, 2012 20:22:24 GMT -5 Piccolo said:

Sure it would - weren't you talking about treating it like the men's division? That would mean giving them equal time.

There's something like five or six Superstars for every singular Diva. At most, "equal time" would be ten minutes per hour, minus adverts. That's ten minutes per SmackDown and twenty per RAW. Not an excessive amount of time, I'd say.

Right, but if you're treating the division completely equally, you'd load it up so the rosters are approximately equal, so the time would eventually even out.

Still, equal time for proportion of people who are already there is a better way of looking at it - I like the idea of 20 minutes per show devoted to a well-written, well-characterized women's division with wrestlers who were chosen for their ability. That sounds about perfect.

[Deleted]

Extreme zooms on Orton Thighs every 30 minutes.

[willywonka666]

I'd like to tap into the female market