What did SNME used to do back in the day? I'll guess around a 10.0 or something to that extent. You can't compare the #'s that Hogan drew back in the day to anything in the 90's. He did that stuff on Network TV, when SNME is lucky to sniff a 3.0 nowadays. I know Network Ratings are different then Cable Ratings.
So we get into the monday night wars with both drawing a combined 5.0 between the two, and a relatively split fan base. Where did that 5.0 go? They grew up and wrestling wasn't cool anymore. Hell I was one of those guys. I had enough with it around WM 11, and honestly looking back, who the hell could blame anyone for leaving the business. You had in that time frame, WCW bringing in all the old WCW wrestlers, a bunch of Clowns and gimmicks on WWE, it wasn't entertaining.
Kasey touched on something with how hot the Raw Crowds were in 97. I know I didn't watch Raw in 96. I came back when Hall showed up on Nitro and I was hooked. Survivor Series 96 brought me back to the WWE, as I could see WCW was all Hogan all the time. The cruiserweights were amazing, but other then that, I found it entertaining, but hardly the product the WWE was.
I believe, and it comes true today, that the 2.5 of a decade ago, is the 3.0 of this decade. The only people that are watching are the completly insane loyal fan boys. Anything above that #, you're starting to reach into the casual fan. Those #'s in 97 were low for WWE, but it was a good low. The only people in the crowd were the White Hot fans that absolutly bought into the Canada/USA angle, and they hated WCW.
As we all know the Attitude Era/Goldberg Era brought that huge swell of fans back. Hell there were some nights if you combined the two shows, they got near a 12.0, that's insanse. The Monday Night War brought back a majority of those grown up 80's kids, and exposed it to todays teenagers that now hate Cena. But as we all know, the bubble burst, and we're back down to the mid 3's again.
I'm with Shadowmancer though, you just get that feeling, once the Cena Era is over, we are on our way to a re-birth of wrestling. Wrestling goes in cycles of being very hot to very lame in the public eye. We are in that down cycle, as much as Stephanie McMahon and her "We are Pop-Culture" campaign want to deny it. But if you believe in the numbers and patterns of pro wrestling, WM 25ish will see a boom in the business again.
So we get into the monday night wars with both drawing a combined 5.0 between the two, and a relatively split fan base. Where did that 5.0 go? They grew up and wrestling wasn't cool anymore. Hell I was one of those guys. I had enough with it around WM 11, and honestly looking back, who the hell could blame anyone for leaving the business. You had in that time frame, WCW bringing in all the old WCW wrestlers, a bunch of Clowns and gimmicks on WWE, it wasn't entertaining.
Kasey touched on something with how hot the Raw Crowds were in 97. I know I didn't watch Raw in 96. I came back when Hall showed up on Nitro and I was hooked. Survivor Series 96 brought me back to the WWE, as I could see WCW was all Hogan all the time. The cruiserweights were amazing, but other then that, I found it entertaining, but hardly the product the WWE was.
I believe, and it comes true today, that the 2.5 of a decade ago, is the 3.0 of this decade. The only people that are watching are the completly insane loyal fan boys. Anything above that #, you're starting to reach into the casual fan. Those #'s in 97 were low for WWE, but it was a good low. The only people in the crowd were the White Hot fans that absolutly bought into the Canada/USA angle, and they hated WCW.
As we all know the Attitude Era/Goldberg Era brought that huge swell of fans back. Hell there were some nights if you combined the two shows, they got near a 12.0, that's insanse. The Monday Night War brought back a majority of those grown up 80's kids, and exposed it to todays teenagers that now hate Cena. But as we all know, the bubble burst, and we're back down to the mid 3's again.
I'm with Shadowmancer though, you just get that feeling, once the Cena Era is over, we are on our way to a re-birth of wrestling. Wrestling goes in cycles of being very hot to very lame in the public eye. We are in that down cycle, as much as Stephanie McMahon and her "We are Pop-Culture" campaign want to deny it. But if you believe in the numbers and patterns of pro wrestling, WM 25ish will see a boom in the business again.