New "Adult Oriented" Show From WWE - Would It Work?

[mikde_]

So basically i was wondering would a seperate show/product that is targetted towards adults and the IWC work?

I understand that WWE will never do this but hey lets have some fun....

It could include a more IWC friendly product with a PG13 rating and more focus on wrestling rather than the live action soap opera that they focus on now.

They could still keep RAW/Smackdown ect PG and continue what they are doing there but im sure there would be many fans who would be interested in seeing this. You could air it about 10pm and either continue the stories from Raw/Smackdown but with a added edge or just create a seperate brand for it.

I understand that WWE like to keep all their ventures wether it be TV, Movies or Online activities all targetted towards the same audience but there is many other corporations who have different products to suit different needs. An example of this would be Disney....They have their kids tv channels and childrens movies but they also own production companies that focus on making more adult orientated movies. In the end they reap the benefits of all their ventures whilst also appealing to many people on different levels. Many other companies also do this.

Heck they dont even have to use the WWE name!

So would it work if WWE decided to branch out like this? Or would it be a risk not worth the reward?

My idea of a seperate wrestling product is just a idea, if you have any other ideas of how WWE could branch out then i would love to hear them!

 

[ringthebell]

A separate show would just not simply work, as they do put all their thought and work into Raw and Smackdown, although, I am not putting you down for this.

We can complain all we want about them not gearing it towards strictly the older crowd anymore and it will not most likely change in our favor. Although, I do agree and wish that they would read the fan's posts, browse through them and actually pay attention to the fans. I have nothing against kids, I have a four year old son, but I do view it as most of us have been watching wrestling since way back WCW all the way to the end and into the WWF Attitude Era all the way to now.

With all that being said, how about throwing in a little mix, have the kiddie product, but also throw back the badass era in there too. Kids hear worse things day to day whether it be in school or on the television. WWE has become very cautious about what they do, for example, tonight on Raw, CM Punk commented on Laurinatis's worn out slacks in the knees because he has been doing nothing but major begging, I mean c'mon. I believe we all knew what the next comment would be and they slam us with that rated G cover up crap. He should have said the knees were worn out because all the stuff he has had in his mouth. Don't give me that crap neither about that is crossing the line, has anyone seen the television shows on FX or on other networks, they cross that line all the damn time.

All I am saying is if you aren't going to go strong in one direction, mix it up, because if WWE thinks business is booming now, you bring back a little badass, money goes through the roof, ppv buy rates go upward, merchandise sales blows down the doors, and ticket sales hit an astronomical rate. Again, I am not saying that their business is not doing well, because it is, but just think about all the possibilities. I know your smarter than just gearing towards the kiddies Vince, Adults love wrestling too. Just shock the WWE Universe one or two times, when you turn Cena heel, make em turn in a Hogan fashion possibly, where he tells all the fans, they suck, and they are the problem. He breaks all the kids hearts, and all of a sudden, the adults love the renowned superstar. Hogan was popular before the heel turn, and then when he went NWO, he was the most popular wrestler in a very long time, because they let him cross that line, just think about it, that's all I am saying.

 

[King of the Words]

I know they tried the (WWE) ECW for a while but it didn't seem to work out very good. You either went there as a demotion or new talent was found there. I never seen much of it but it never seemed to have the edge of the real ECW and the attitude era in WWE. I would like to see Raw, where it's on a school night and comes on at a later time then Smackdown, become pg13. Smackdown, which is on Friday at an earlier time could stay pg. Raw would be for the adults and Smackdown would be for the kids. I would divide the roster up into 2 groups and put each superstar where they would fit best. Such as John Cena, Rey Mysterio and Big Show being on SD for the kids, and Punk, Orton, and Triple H. being on Raw for the adults. I think it would be worth trying and would give the adult fans something more entertaining for a change. They could have 12 PPV's a year. Have the RUMBLE, MANIA, SUMMER SLAM, and SURVIVOR SERIES interpromotional events. Then for the rest of the year they could have 4 Raw PPV's and 4 SD PPV's, with one Raw then one SD and so on... I would love the WWE to do something like this and give the adult fans and the kids a product that isn't all mixed together and not really giving anyone what they truly want for their money.(IMO) Hopefully after Linda is finished with Politics they will get back to entertaining their loyal older viewers, who made the McMahon's rich to begin with, and made WWE the #1 wrestling company in the world.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

The thing to remember is that WWE is primarily geared towards it's toy deal and merchandising. So PG is crucial to that endeavour, they are about halfway through that deal. The difficulty WWE would face is that as a traded company, it's shareholders could veto anything that veers away from the basic plan of PG if "it's not in their interests".

So you end up with the homogenised ECW, a watered down version of something that falls between the 2 camps, PG and Mature.

Vince blew his opportunity when he shut down WCW, it should have remained a seperate company, run by people who knew what they were doing as a genuine alternative to WWE. WCW could have been the PG show and WWE the Attitude show...

Restarting WCW would fail for the same reasons ECW did, Brand Extensions don't work either. At this point, crazy as it sounds, the best thing WWE can do to achieve the OP's goals is to "invest" in buying either ROH or DGUSA and keeping it a different, purer product.

 

[The Suplexer Perfecter]

So basically i was wondering would a seperate show/product that is targetted towards adults and the IWC work?

I understand that WWE will never do this but hey lets have some fun....

It could include a more IWC friendly product with a PG13 rating and more focus on wrestling rather than the live action soap opera that they focus on now.

PG 13 is for movies. You mean TV-14. I wish people who hate the TV-PG rating would at least know the correct TV rating they want.

PG also is NOT the issue. It's the incompetent story telling and the talent of the wrestlers. Guys like Austin and Jericho have stated PG is not the problem.

Also, the majority of fans are not the internet fans. If they were guys like Bryan and Punk wouldn't lose viewers in their segments.

 

[Jdulemba1001]

What everyone needs to realize is like the above poster said, the IWC is a small section of the fans. If they made a show for "us" kids would tune in too, because its still WWE. Parents would see it, make the connection, and may not let kids watch RAW and Smackdown. They have to be consistent throughout the company. I do think they could use the WWE Network to show some old "edgy" programming though.

 

[CalciferBoheme]

When thy have their own network something like this could work, but otherwise I don't think it would.

But for someone who just wants wrestling, we do have Superstars

 

[HBKperfect23]

I like the idea. Like someone mentioned above PG is not the problem. But I do think it would be a great idea to have different companys under Vince. He could have kept all 3 promotions going. WWE,WCW,ECW. WWE could be what we see now, WCW could be for the IWC/Classic wrestling fans and ECW could carry the attitude era. The key would be keeping them completely separate. You dont want your kids watching stuff from the attitude era, fine, WWE is completely PG. Vince keeps them completely separate and only when completely nessacary would someone jump ship. They're already putting enough tv on air to give time slots to 3 promotions.

 

[mikekinkade]

It isn’t as simple as making products geared towards different age groups and catering to needs. The whole idea of doing something edgy is to spark emotion from the fans. Doing something edgy (attitude era edgy) can’t just be reserved for a particular show. You will end up having fans only emotionally invested in the edgy show.

If you give different shows different ratings, you’re essentially telling fans that “don’t worry about the PG shows since we’re saving the good stuff for the MA rated show.” Kids today are savvy. They will see the difference and not really see the point in watching a PG show. Vince probably realized this when they re-launched ECW. He didn’t want his RAW and SD bands to get cannibalized. If Vince gave Paul Heyman an opportunity to book ECW properly in the re-launch the SD and RAW rating would have plummeted.

 

[HBKperfect23]

If you give different shows different ratings, you’re essentially telling fans that “don’t worry about the PG shows since we’re saving the good stuff for the MA rated show.” Kids today are savvy.

I dont see that at all. The way I layed it out, I would watch WCW the show geared towards IWC/classic wrestling. Im sure a lot of Cena Nation and that crowd would watch the WWE. Maybe they'd watch both or all three.

The point of it would be to have something for everyone and if you dont like a certain type of wrestling you could advoid that show. The WWE/WCW/ECW names are just something people are farmilair with. Name it whatever you like, just keep it serparate.

 

[Suibon]

The WWE kind of did that already with their version of ECW (minus the blood and gore and the white trash fanbase and the crap-for-storylines). As it happened, it was the low-rated low-drawing C-show behind both Smackdown and Raw, where middling wrestlers deficient in one or more aspects of pro wrestling or washed-up veterans went to rot.

So the issue becomes: if WWE branches out and makes an adult-oriented show possible, would people watch? Would ratings rise for it (without a consequent drop for those of Smackdown and Raw)? Would there be enough talent to go by and make a name for themselves as main-eventers in yet another show?

Given the tendencies of the general audience, I say no. Pandering to a non-entities does not make a bottomline look good.
​

 

[HBKperfect23]

ECW didnt work because they didnt put talent on there. I am using the name ECW as an example because it was established. Call it ACW (Attitude Championship Wrestling) or something like that. Im talking about making a product that is geared towards those who loved the attitude era. I think theres people who only watched that period. Also I think theres people who only watched pre attitude wrestling and having a brand for them could bring in new veiwers.

 

[mikekinkade]

I don’t think a lot of people understand the psychology behind professional wrestling. I am by no means an expert, but there is a psychological reasoning when it comes to fans as to why an “edgier show” won’t work (while you have PG rated shows.)

If you were my age during the attitude era (ages 10-13) you will understand what I mean. Seeing the stuff RAW put out made those years incredibly entertaining when it came to television. I would argue being 10-13 is by far the best age to enjoy attitude era wrestling. You were old enough to understand what was happening, yet young enough to not over analyze the product. If you presented me with a PG rated product (note: I don’t consider Nitro at the time a PG rated product) I highly doubt I would have watched it. It would seem an inferior product because it wouldn’t be able to “spark emotion” as well as the MA rated show.

Your PG rated shows will undoubtedly suffer. What would the PG rated shows be able to offer that the MA rated show couldn’t? Are parents really going to prevent there kids from watching the MA rated show?

 

[JohnnyBlaze1986]

Simply put: No.

With WWE, everything has to blend together. What happens on one show, affects the other. They are marketing themselves towards youngsters. They aren't going to blend that with adult programming....

 

[jrichardson25]

So basically i was wondering would a seperate show/product that is targetted towards adults and the IWC work?

I understand that WWE will never do this but hey lets have some fun....

It could include a more IWC friendly product with a PG13 rating and more focus on wrestling rather than the live action soap opera that they focus on now.

They could still keep RAW/Smackdown ect PG and continue what they are doing there but im sure there would be many fans who would be interested in seeing this. You could air it about 10pm and either continue the stories from Raw/Smackdown but with a added edge or just create a seperate brand for it.

I understand that WWE like to keep all their ventures wether it be TV, Movies or Online activities all targetted towards the same audience but there is many other corporations who have different products to suit different needs. An example of this would be Disney....They have their kids tv channels and childrens movies but they also own production companies that focus on making more adult orientated movies. In the end they reap the benefits of all their ventures whilst also appealing to many people on different levels. Many other companies also do this.

Heck they dont even have to use the WWE name!

So would it work if WWE decided to branch out like this? Or would it be a risk not worth the reward?

My idea of a seperate wrestling product is just a idea, if you have any other ideas of how WWE could branch out then i would love to hear them!

Great idea... in theory. I have to agree with the others. This probably wouldn't work.

There's enough wrestling on TV now. That's the main reason why it wouldn't last... see ECW/NXT/Superstars/Velocity/Heat for 1 hr blocks that didn't pan out.

The line about Disney, I see where you're going... I don't feel it would work and it would be stupidly risky right now and fixing the insanity on Raw and Smackdown would be time better spent.

Great post btw... and your sig is epic.

 

[TempestH]

I like the idea. Like someone mentioned above PG is not the problem. But I do think it would be a great idea to have different companys under Vince. He could have kept all 3 promotions going. WWE,WCW,ECW. WWE could be what we see now, WCW could be for the IWC/Classic wrestling fans and ECW could carry the attitude era. The key would be keeping them completely separate. You dont want your kids watching stuff from the attitude era, fine, WWE is completely PG. Vince keeps them completely separate and only when completely nessacary would someone jump ship. They're already putting enough tv on air to give time slots to 3 promotions.

I like the idea as well, but I can't help but think that eventually it would have degenerated into one of the promotions getting most of the total budget and attention, and ending up with one appearing to be greater than the other two, with the other two being treated like "the minor leagues." Wrestlers would get rewarded or punished by being moved between the promotions, and whether they were on WWE, WCW, or ECW would be indicative of their status with management.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

Doing a show only for The IWC wouldn'T work because we are only a very small portion of the audience and it doesn'T make sense to make a new show for only a really small portion of their global audience. Like somebody wrote earlier, if you want more wrestling oriented programming just go to WWE.com and watch either Superstars or NXT that were all the wrestling is done in the WWE, on those 2 shows.

 

[XXJJ]

Like others have said they tried it with ECW and it didn't work out. Also, a show that your main audience is the IWC is not going to work. Your only going to have a couple of thousand viewers if that is the case.

 

[Fear&Loathing]

I think this is a brilliant idea. If WWE wants to widen its horizons to more viewers this would be great for the WWE Network. Really glad somebody brought this topic up I've been thinking about the possibilities since the network was announced.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

The analogy of Disney is a misnomer, what they do is grab talent and Intellectual Property and then rebrand it. Disney didn't make Pulp Fiction, The Weinsteins did, Disney just ended up owning Miramax... WWE does grab IP and do similar stuff, BUT it's always to assimilate into itself.

Walt Disney would likely have been horrified to be albiet indirectly involved in movies like Fright Night or Snake Eyes, violent thrillers and horrors... BUT those who took over decided diversification was the way forward. Vince McMahon is the polar opposite, he wants control of everything associated with his company, once he is gone, this kind of thing could happen. As it stands though, it's just not gonna happen like Disney.