The headlines say it all. 1.88 cable ratings. Lowest rating in 20 years! McMahon has lost it. McMahon is killing his own company. The champion is fat. The booking is crap.
Can we just stop criticizing people? The fact is that we shouldn't panic. Here's the thing: more and more people are watching streams online, whether legally or otherwise. Hulu is a choice people make because Hulu is a shorter, more condensed version of RAW. People are cutting cable out of their lives, for that matter, because it's just too expensive, so why are we sitting here making doomsday prophecies?
In this era, we could have Rock vs. Austin, and maybe it'd draw a little better, but it's rough to get TV ratings in an era where TV just isn't all that important anymore. We could have three attitude eras and all the TnA we wanted to, but if no one is watching TV as a whole, then that's difficult.
Some would make the argument that the NFL is still drawing great ratings, but that's partially because it's hard to find football many other places, especially cable-produced games. Streams of NFL games are rare, and with wrestling, that's just not the case.
Now, yeah, RAW isn't the most interesting thing right now. In fact, I think a change to 2 hours is warranted, or at least make it three hours of compelling television! That being said, you can't blame ONLY creative or ONLY our champion on RAW, Kevin Owens.
As a journalism major, I can confidently tell you that just as newspapers have become a niche thing, TV may well be heading the same way, in fact, because the internet can give you most of the same things. Hell, you can watch cable online now! Twitter ratings aren't exactly the best indicator of a show's performance, so why doesn't Nielsen try and figure out how to measure the internet?
At the end of the day, TV is a media that while it won't die out, it will become something much more minor. Wrestling isn't dead by a long shot, either; crowds would tell you that it's still, for the most part, popular enough. No, it's not Hulk-Hogan-is-God level anymore, or Austin-Rock level for that matter, but to say, for example, that John Cena isn't a pop culture icon would not exactly be fair.
The point I'm trying to make here is that wrestling is pretty alive and well, and maybe it won't experience an old-time CABLE RATINGS THROUGH THE ROOF boom period, but I think wrestling is still alright.
Thoughts?
Can we just stop criticizing people? The fact is that we shouldn't panic. Here's the thing: more and more people are watching streams online, whether legally or otherwise. Hulu is a choice people make because Hulu is a shorter, more condensed version of RAW. People are cutting cable out of their lives, for that matter, because it's just too expensive, so why are we sitting here making doomsday prophecies?
In this era, we could have Rock vs. Austin, and maybe it'd draw a little better, but it's rough to get TV ratings in an era where TV just isn't all that important anymore. We could have three attitude eras and all the TnA we wanted to, but if no one is watching TV as a whole, then that's difficult.
Some would make the argument that the NFL is still drawing great ratings, but that's partially because it's hard to find football many other places, especially cable-produced games. Streams of NFL games are rare, and with wrestling, that's just not the case.
Now, yeah, RAW isn't the most interesting thing right now. In fact, I think a change to 2 hours is warranted, or at least make it three hours of compelling television! That being said, you can't blame ONLY creative or ONLY our champion on RAW, Kevin Owens.
As a journalism major, I can confidently tell you that just as newspapers have become a niche thing, TV may well be heading the same way, in fact, because the internet can give you most of the same things. Hell, you can watch cable online now! Twitter ratings aren't exactly the best indicator of a show's performance, so why doesn't Nielsen try and figure out how to measure the internet?
At the end of the day, TV is a media that while it won't die out, it will become something much more minor. Wrestling isn't dead by a long shot, either; crowds would tell you that it's still, for the most part, popular enough. No, it's not Hulk-Hogan-is-God level anymore, or Austin-Rock level for that matter, but to say, for example, that John Cena isn't a pop culture icon would not exactly be fair.
The point I'm trying to make here is that wrestling is pretty alive and well, and maybe it won't experience an old-time CABLE RATINGS THROUGH THE ROOF boom period, but I think wrestling is still alright.
Thoughts?