So everything is Daniel Bryan's fault, huh?

[Richard Blonoff]

I wonder about how much illegal streams really cut into profits. If you were to ask Dana White and the UFC, they are living paycheck to paycheck and eating beans and rice each day due to illegal streams, obviously it isn't that bad, but I am curious.

I also don't think it is ever fair to blame one guy. There are anywhere from five to ten matches on a PPV card, and most of the time the storylines being built into them are garbage. You have a US title that is just a shiny prop for Ambrose, an IC title that Big E won with almost no story behind it, tag belts that aren't relevant now that Rhodey and Goldey are out of The Authority storyline, an entire division that is only used to promote a TV show.

Look at TLC, you have the unification match ladder match. Ok sweet, what else are they offering? Two 3v1 handicap matches, an IC title match where the #1 contender was just determined and has had almost no interaction with the actual champ(though I admit it is hard to built a feud in 13 days), and a Divas title match that no one gives two squirts of piss about. This isn't worth $50 bucks.

I think I see the point JMT is trying to make. When viewership and buys are down, they always want to blame someone and they almost always blame the new guy. Maybe Triple H should point his finger back at his big nosed self because the last two times Cena wasn't the main guy, he inserted himself into storylines and both were awful.

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

I wonder about how much illegal streams really cut into profits. If you were to ask Dana White and the UFC, they are living paycheck to paycheck and eating beans and rice each day due to illegal streams, obviously it isn't that bad, but I am curious.

I also don't think it is ever fair to blame one guy. There are anywhere from five to ten matches on a PPV card, and most of the time the storylines being built into them are garbage. You have a US title that is just a shiny prop for Ambrose, an IC title that Big E won with almost no story behind it, tag belts that aren't relevant now that Rhodey and Goldey are out of The Authority storyline, an entire division that is only used to promote a TV show.

Look at TLC, you have the unification match ladder match. Ok sweet, what else are they offering? Two 3v1 handicap matches, an IC title match where the #1 contender was just determined and has had almost no interaction with the actual champ(though I admit it is hard to built a feud in 13 days), and a Divas title match that no one gives two squirts of piss about. This isn't worth $50 bucks.

I think I see the point JMT is trying to make. When viewership and buys are down, they always want to blame someone and they almost always blame the new guy. Maybe Triple H should point his finger back at his big nosed self because the last two times Cena wasn't the main guy, he inserted himself into storylines and both were awful.

Exactly. It's like they're putting all these buys on Cena and Orton's shoulder. It's not like there's any other reason to watch this PPV. Are they going to blame them if these buys are terrible? I mean, why even do this unification match now? It's TLC. A B PPV. There's no way the numbers are going to be out of this world anyways.

With the clear lack of depth to this PPV I wouldn't be surprised one bit to see the numbers go down.

 

[klunderbunker]

Pay per views are a different story. You actually can put blame or success on the top one or two matches and forget the rest of them. The main events are pushed harder than anything else and it's the main drawing point.

Look at Wrestlemania X7 for instance. Yeah it had TLC 2 and Undertaker vs. HHH, but do you honestly think the vast majority of the buys were for any specific thing other than Rock vs. Austin? Look at it from the other side. At Unforgiven 1998, Austin's opponent wasn't announced until about a week before the show and the buyrate was bad despite the company being on fire. Without the time to build up a match or not having a match being established, the buys will suffer, despite the rest of the card being there. Some buys will come from other stuff, but the main event drives pay per view buys and always will.

 

[BaconBits]

I wonder about how much illegal streams really cut into profits. If you were to ask Dana White and the UFC, they are living paycheck to paycheck and eating beans and rice each day due to illegal streams, obviously it isn't that bad, but I am curious.

It's not quite as bad as Dana makes it out to be, but it is rather significant. The buyrates for the UFC aren't what they were even two or three years ago, but there are more people than ever on mma forums and wearing Affliction and Tapout and other assorted MMA garb and talking about the fights. I've gone to sports bars to watch cards before and they're not as packed as they used to be either. People are watching the fights somewhere.


The WWE doesn't have nearly the widepread appeal as the UFC anymore, yet they're in the same sort of PPV based business.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

I'm not gonna argue Cena has star power but the days of blaming shit ratings on Bryan are over. In the words of Gene Snitsky, "It wasn't his fault".

It's Triple H and this shit Authority storyline, its not interesting, simple as that! If you put Bryan in another feud that didn't involve this dumb shit the ratings wouldn't have dropped so significantly, buyrates wouldn't have been so shitty and things would have been better. I'm not saying they wouldn't have dropped because they probably would have dipped a little bit but not to the extent they ultimately did.

In regards to Summerslam, interest in that event dropped immediately after Triple H added himself as the special guest ref, especially in regards to Cena and Bryan because people knew what was coming.

Until WWE stops scapegoating their talent and starts admitting that the reason their ratings drop is because of their alleged creative team things won't get better. At the same time WWE still makes tons of money so its not going to change until people leave in droves.

 

[jmt225]

So if the opening post is suggesting that a poor story is what has led to the shit rating this week, then why then did SummerSlam draw pretty piss poor when really it was the best built, most entertaining and consistently solid show with not one, but two main events?

The story leading up to Summerslam with John Cena vs. Daniel Bryan was not a good one. I bitched about it when it was taking place. However, I still loved Summerslam as a whole, and I loved the Punk/Lesnar/Heyman build-up that was dominating Raw at the time.

Also, if you want to play the wrestler blame game for Summerslam's low buyrate, John Cena was still the main event, so he deserves equally the blame, if not more so. You have to remember that this was Bryan's first time main eventing. Of course someone isn't going to draw big immediately. It takes time to build someone's stature within the company and among the fanbase. You have to have patience when trying to establish a new star, let him put on that killer match at Summerslam, give him a legitimate run with the title, tell some good stories with him, give him time to truly prove himself as a main eventer to the fans. If after 6 months to a year of this he's not drawing well against other well established stars, then someone saying he's a failure as a draw would definitely hold merit. However, giving him a one shot deal with a shitty fucking storyline, changing his character which got him over in the first place, and then whooping his ass week-in and week-out is not going help him become that star the company supposedly wants him to be.

WWE did a brilliant job building up John Cena at first. If you remember though, they did an absolutely piss poor job building up Orton. Orton had that KILLER match at Summerslam against Benoit, and then what happened? He got beat by HHH and became a generic dull ass babyface, put in a generic dull ass storyline. If it wasn't for The Undertaker giving Orton a resurgence many months later, Orton probably would have never recovered from that.

The same thing that happened to Orton happened to Bryan. Bryan's still over with the audience, thank God, and if there is a resurgence with Bryan becoming a main event player, then it'll be thanks to him and the audience, not a veteran taking him under his wing and giving him the feud of a lifetime.

 

[klunderbunker]

The story leading up to Summerslam with John Cena vs. Daniel Bryan was not a good one. I bitched about it when it was taking place. However, I still loved Summerslam as a whole, and I loved the Punk/Lesnar/Heyman build-up that was dominating Raw at the time.

Also, if you want to play the wrestler blame game for Summerslam's low buyrate, John Cena was still the main event, so he deserves equally the blame, if not more so. You have to remember that this was Bryan's first time main eventing. Of course someone isn't going to draw big immediately. It takes time to build someone's stature within the company and among the fanbase. You have to have patience when trying to establish a new star, let him put on that killer match at Summerslam, give him a legitimate run with the title, tell some good stories with him, give him time to truly prove himself as a main eventer to the fans. If after 6 months to a year of this he's not drawing well against other well established stars, then someone saying he's a failure as a draw would definitely hold merit. However, giving him a one shot deal with a shitty fucking storyline, changing his character which got him over in the first place, and then whooping his ass week-in and week-out is not going help him become that star the company supposedly wants him to be.

WWE did a brilliant job building up John Cena at first. If you remember though, they did an absolutely piss poor job building up Orton. Orton had that KILLER match at Summerslam against Benoit, and then what happened? He got beat by HHH and became a generic dull ass babyface, put in a generic dull ass storyline. If it wasn't for The Undertaker giving Orton a resurgence many months later, Orton probably would have never recovered from that.

The same thing that happened to Orton happened to Bryan. Bryan's still over with the audience, thank God, and if there is a resurgence with Bryan becoming a main event player, then it'll be thanks to him and the audience, not a veteran taking him under his wing and giving him the feud of a lifetime.

I've heard the bold part before and it just doesn't work. Bryan was world champion for four months and had a world title match at Wrestlemania, followed by months of feuding with Sheamus and Punk for the titles. The argument that the fans don't know who he is yet or that he hadn't had time to become established doesn't hold up.

 

[Dirk]

They went out and made deals with the two biggest mainstream draws they've ever had, The Rock and Brock Lesnar.

Now hold on just a gosh darn minute, brothurrrr...

 

[jmt225]

I've heard the bold part before and it just doesn't work. Bryan was world champion for four months and had a world title match at Wrestlemania, followed by months of feuding with Sheamus and Punk for the titles. The argument that the fans don't know who he is yet or that he hadn't had time to become established doesn't hold up.

A World Championship run back when the World Champion didn't appear much on Raw like they have the past year or so. A World Championship run where he was constantly dominated and "lucky." A World championship run that ended in an 18 second match on the biggest show of the year in the opening bout.

Then what happened after that World Championship run? A couple of good matches with Sheamus and Punk, and then he got put in a tag team for a year. And we know how WWE treats their tag team division. But at least it was in that tag team where Bryan was able to make himself stand-out and where he became one of the most over guys in the company. And then, the feud with Cena happens, and they turn Bryan back into the typical bitter indy wrestler that he was on NXT.

WWE's handling of Bryan has stunk. That said, Bryan continues to find a way to keep himself over and relevant. The guy deserves all the credit in the World.

 

[klunderbunker]

A World Championship run back when the World Champion didn't appear much on Raw like they have the past year or so. A World Championship run where he was constantly dominated and "lucky." A World championship run that ended in an 18 second match on the biggest show of the year in the opening bout.

Then what happened after that World Championship run? A couple of good matches with Sheamus and Punk, and then he got put in a tag team for a year. And we know how WWE treats their tag team division. But at least it was in that tag team where Bryan was able to make himself stand-out and where he became one of the most over guys in the company. And then, the feud with Cena happens, and they turn Bryan back into the typical bitter indy wrestler that he was on NXT.

WWE's handling of Bryan has stunk. That said, Bryan continues to find a way to keep himself over and relevant. The guy deserves all the credit in the World.

Legit question as someone who saw Bryan live during his main event run: is Bryan over, or is YES over?

And I still don't buy the argument of he hasn't had enough time. He won the title and was heavily featured. Bryan's WHC reign went well given who he was facing. The follow up showed that he had staying power, but his time as the top guy in the company didn't go well at all.

 

[jmt225]

Legit question as someone who saw Bryan live during his main event run: is Bryan over, or is YES over?

I remember reading your house show review. I also remember that you live in Kentucky, not exactly the best wrestling town.

Do you really believe Bryan isn't over on the East Coast? West Coast? Canada? Overseas? Come on now, KB. Just because he might not have the great fans of Kentucky rooting for him, that doesn't mean he's isn't massively over in other places where WWE more frequently visits.

 

[klunderbunker]

I remember reading your house show review. I also remember that you live in Kentucky, not exactly the best wrestling town.

No it isn't. San Diego (I think. It was somewhere in California) however is and Wade Keller used almost the same words I did.

Do you really believe Bryan isn't over on the East Coast? West Coast? Overseas? Come on now, KB. Just because he might not have the great fans of Kentucky rooting for him, that doesn't mean he's isn't massively over in other places where WWE more frequently visits.

He may be very over in smark towns, but the PPV buy numbers don't seem to back him up on a national level.

To clarify: Bryan has been one of the most entertaining guys in the company for well over a year now and has been one of the only good things in WWE for a long time. However, he doesn't seem to work as the top guy. That's hardly an insult as very few people are on that level.

 

[Hard Hit Prince]

The dip in ratings and pay-per-view buys were all Bryan's fault.

 

[klunderbunker]

The dip in ratings and pay-per-view buys were all Bryan's fault.

I wouldn't say all. Del Rio boring everyone to death did nothing to help. At all.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

I stopped watching WWE roughly a month ago give or take. The only reason I kept watching after WM28 was because of Daniel Bryan, not to say there weren't other things I liked (I liked Punk vs. Cena and Punk vs. Jericho for example) but Daniel Bryan after he became heel was the only thing that kept me watching.

I may only be one fan, I may not be a kid but I am a lifelong fan and I never thought WWE would get so bad that I couldn't watch it. After a month of seeing Triple H and Steph, and this Authority storyline (especially since Triple H isn't near as good as Vince was in the role) was what finally pushed me over the edge and its what stopped me from buying PPV's and watching their programming, it wouldn't have mattered if Cena was in Bryan's spot for the storyline, I wouldn't have watched anyways.

When I see Triple H on TV its the same reaction when I saw Hogan on Impact, I would immediately change the channel. It's not a knock against either guy but in there comes a time where them being in top storyline's becomes detrimental to business. Triple H became a main eventer in 1999 and between then and 2013 he has more often than not been near, or at the top of the company. Triple H has never been big in the buyrates or ratings department, when he became top guy in '02-'03 business dropped in a big, big way. As good as he is Triple H carries a certain stink with him, not only because he's been on top as much as he has but also because of the backstage antics he supposedly pulls as well. In this day and age public perception means a hell of a lot and with a lot of fans and people Triple H's perception isn't that good regardless of if it's warranted or not (Orton too). Now after 14-15 years (where there has been at least 4-5 hours a week of WWE television on) he's still the guy who you see the most on Raw, not Orton and not Cena. When I tried to watch Raw at a friends house he turned the channel as soon as he saw Triple H followed by the words "He's still on TV? Fuck!". That says it all right there. If a lifelong fan and a casual fan (who will watch WWE when he see's what he likes) will turn off the show because of Triple H then there is a problem there. He may do a great job as COO but as an on-air talent I think its time for Triple H to take a step back.

 

[Hard Hit Prince]

I stopped watching WWE roughly a month ago give or take. The only reason I kept watching after WM28 was because of Daniel Bryan, not to say there weren't other things I liked (I liked Punk vs. Cena and Punk vs. Jericho for example) but Daniel Bryan after he became heel was the only thing that kept me watching.

I may only be one fan, I may not be a kid but I am a lifelong fan and I never thought WWE would get so bad that I couldn't watch it. After a month of seeing Triple H and Steph, and this Authority storyline (especially since Triple H isn't near as good as Vince was in the role) was what finally pushed me over the edge and its what stopped me from buying PPV's and watching their programming, it wouldn't have mattered if Cena was in Bryan's spot for the storyline, I wouldn't have watched anyways.

When I see Triple H on TV its the same reaction when I saw Hogan on Impact, I would immediately change the channel. It's not a knock against either guy but in there comes a time where them being in top storyline's becomes detrimental to business. Triple H became a main eventer in 1999 and between then and 2013 he has more often than not been near, or at the top of the company. Triple H has never been big in the buyrates or ratings department, when he became top guy in '02-'03 business dropped in a big, big way. As good as he is Triple H carries a certain stink with him, not only because he's been on top as much as he has but also because of the backstage antics he supposedly pulls as well. In this day and age public perception means a hell of a lot and with a lot of fans and people Triple H's perception isn't that good regardless of if it's warranted or not (Orton too). Now after 14-15 years (where there has been at least 4-5 hours a week of WWE television on) he's still the guy who you see the most on Raw, not Orton and not Cena. When I tried to watch Raw at a friends house he turned the channel as soon as he saw Triple H followed by the words "He's still on TV? Fuck!". That says it all right there. If a lifelong fan and a casual fan (who will watch WWE when he see's what he likes) will turn off the show because of Triple H then there is a problem there. He may do a great job as COO but as an on-air talent I think its time for Triple H to take a step back.

I say bullshit to all of this - Triple H character is very well portrayed and it has nothing to do with your lost interest for professional wrestling. When you look at HHH's career and you compare it to what he's doing today, you'll have two complete opposite characters - so just because the name is the same, it doesn't mean that the character is and it's interesting to see a future WWE Hall of Famer in a different role while he can still play.

Onto your friend, I have a very similar story - me and my cousin were watching Raw the other night and he hasn't watched it for probably ten years and Triple H being there was a plus, he loved the fact that his favorite wrestler of that time was still active and rolling, yet sad he wasn't wrestling anymore in a full time capacity. Oh and he had no idea what HHH is/was backstage - for him it's a famous wrestler and that's it, and that is the same for pretty much everyone else. If you take dirtsheets to further improve your level of hate for a wrestler, great for HHH and the joke is on you really, HHH is playing a villain character and it's a very good one because you're not paying to watch him, you'll however pay if a storyline makes sense to a point his regime will be put in danger.

 

[FunKay the Inevitable]

With the growth of illegal streaming, the PPV market is a rapidly dying one. Even the best built PPVs can get shit buyrates because a good 50% or more are illegally streaming the shit out of it.

You know why? Because the shows are too expensive, and too plentiful. You can't expect what is generally a blue collar fanbase with limited entertainment dollars to have to fork over what amounts to another bill.

Except no more than a year earlier the same show draws significantly more? I know the use of illegal streaming and the like is up, but I severely doubt that 62,000 more people were streaming the PPV compared to last year.

Also, Bryan is over, that doesn't mean he's going to be a major drawing star. Santino is over and he doesn't draw a cent in terms of ratings or buyrates. I think WWE's handling of the whole Bryan build into SummerSlam was the best they've given anyone on the rise in a long, long time. People clearly just weren't as interested in him and Cena and Punk vs. Brock in comparison to the dreadfully built but massivley star powered main event of HHH vs. Lesnar

 

[Poop Master Flex]

I say bullshit to all of this - Triple H character is very well portrayed and it has nothing to do with your lost interest for professional wrestling. When you look at HHH's career and you compare it to what he's doing today, you'll have two complete opposite characters - so just because the name is the same, it doesn't mean that the character is and it's interesting to see a future WWE Hall of Famer in a different role while he can still play.

Onto your friend, I have a very similar story - me and my cousin were watching Raw the other night and he hasn't watched it for probably ten years and Triple H being there was a plus, he loved the fact that his favorite wrestler of that time was still active and rolling, yet sad he wasn't wrestling anymore in a full time capacity. Oh and he had no idea what HHH is/was backstage - for him it's a famous wrestler and that's it, and that is the same for pretty much everyone else. If you take dirtsheets to further improve your level of hate for a wrestler, great for HHH and the joke is on you really, HHH is playing a villain character and it's a very good one because you're not paying to watch him, you'll however pay if a storyline makes sense to a point his regime will be put in danger.

Triple H is in fact the reason I don't watch anymore and I gave him 3 months worth of chances, I just don't find him interesting, I don't find the Authority storyline interesting and my friend I spoke of is just one example of many I have at my arsenal. Over the last decade the #2 reason (outside of no Rock or Austin) I've heard people not watching anymore is because of Triple H and the fact that he's boring as shit, his matches are boring unless he has a GREAT opponent and watching one of his promo's is less interesting than watching a dog lick his balls (credit Jim Cornette for that one).

I understand there are fans of Triple H out there but from my experience I know a hell of a lot more that can't stand watching the guy and frankly, its not even close. As for your friend, I would wonder what his opinion would be if he watched him on a weekly basis in this day and age. Further more if he hasn't seen wrestling in over a decade then he hasn't seen a lot of the reason why people who HAVE watched within the last decade are sick of him, I didn't much care for him a decade ago but it was nowhere near the point I couldn't stand the sight of him.

I'm gonna just end with this. Me and my friend are all but 2 guys, in the long run our opinion doesn't matter, I understand that and I respect that. I don't care who is on top, who is on the bottom and who is in the middle, as long as its entertaining I will watch, simple as that. Triple H does not entertain me, the authority storyline does not entertain me and the simple fact is whether Daniel Bryan was on top or not the ratings have steadily dropped and buyrates have dropped since the Authority storyline has started, that isn't a coincidence. It's easy to blame Bryan but if he was truly the problem then why have ratings not gone up? Why has the buildup to a unified title match (something many fans have wanted for years) drawn the LOWEST RATING OF THE YEAR? And when the buyrates for TLC are in the toilet (which I'm almost certain they will be) who will get the blame because it certainly won't be Cena? Honestly, I don't even think a Cena heel turn can save that storyline.

Once again this is the opinion of one fan, we won't know until after TLC and after this storyline ends how good it is for business but the way I see it Triple H has an amazing ability to make anyone he comes in contact with less interesting with the exception of HBK and maybe Jeff Hardy. This is the same guy that made Brock Lesnar boring and Lesnar's 1st month with Cena was awesome, Lesnar's time with Punk was awesome but put that guy with Triple H and he immediately becomes less interesting.

 

[Dirk]

I was quite bored by Punk vs Heyman, to be honest...

 

[Poop Master Flex]

I was quite bored by Punk vs Heyman, to be honest...

To an extent I was too but thought his month with Lesnar was pretty good, especially their match.

 

[Mr. Artistic guy]

The authority story seemed like it had wheels and a course and then WWE became their usual self-saboteurs and messed with the obvious. It seemed to be built on Bryan and his revenge, and would have worked if they had let that be. Bryan won and got screwed again in his next PPV outing, meaning he couldn't be champion. But he just took it and accepted that he'd need to have a match at the next PPV, no revenge, no taking it out on the relevant perpetrators.

Meanwhile, the story began a transition to becoming centred on The Big Show and his plight against the authority. They made him seem like the biggest threat to them, and Bryan a mere pawn that had lots of fight, but wasn't smart enough or tenacious enough to take the fight to the guys who had been screwing him over the whole time. The next PPV ended in a Double DQ No contest. At this point Bryan had nothing more to give to the story, they had painted him into the corner and it was all about Show.

So, OK, they think they've got the wrong guy initially and they try to save face and shift emphasis onto Show. Which is fine and all but... after building and building towards him and Orton and making it seem like he was the chosen one, he loses in a dirty fashion at Survivor Series (which was to be expected), but then he too is just dropped from the story for a totally blind-sided and impromptu WWE/world title unification match at a B-PPV. So WWE have tarnished the story that they created by, basically, having ADHD.

They couldn't stick to a thing and now we have a match that sounds good, but people aren't looking forward to as much as they aught to because it's come out of nowhere AND they've just had to pull their attention from whatever has happened since Summerslam which is now barely relevant any more anyway because we've totally moved on without resolving most of it.

WWE have had multiple chances to get things right, but they've gone "wait, we've got a unification battle scheduled for the period leading up to Wrestlemania. Well let's fuckin drop this shit then, whatever it was". That, plus the natural lull that WWE has before rising again explains why the show about unifying their two top belts, which has been a match that made itself for over a decade, between their top two consistent performers with a billions titles between them, didn't go down as well as one might expect with the home viewing audience.

 

[Alastor]

I watch because of HHH and stopped watching after Bryan hogging the main event spot for the past few PPVs.

 

[BaconBits]

Except no more than a year earlier the same show draws significantly more? I know the use of illegal streaming and the like is up, but I severely doubt that 62,000 more people were streaming the PPV compared to last year.

Also, Bryan is over, that doesn't mean he's going to be a major drawing star. Santino is over and he doesn't draw a cent in terms of ratings or buyrates. I think WWE's handling of the whole Bryan build into SummerSlam was the best they've given anyone on the rise in a long, long time. People clearly just weren't as interested in him and Cena and Punk vs. Brock in comparison to the dreadfully built but massivley star powered main event of HHH vs. Lesnar

You're right that streaming doesn't account for 62k buys, but still, streaming definitely impacts every pay per view now more than ever.

 

[Kris Benwa]

I say bullshit to all of this - Triple H character is very well portrayed and it has nothing to do with your lost interest for professional wrestling. When you look at HHH's career and you compare it to what he's doing today, you'll have two complete opposite characters - so just because the name is the same, it doesn't mean that the character is and it's interesting to see a future WWE Hall of Famer in a different role while he can still play.

Onto your friend, I have a very similar story - me and my cousin were watching Raw the other night and he hasn't watched it for probably ten years and Triple H being there was a plus, he loved the fact that his favorite wrestler of that time was still active and rolling, yet sad he wasn't wrestling anymore in a full time capacity. Oh and he had no idea what HHH is/was backstage - for him it's a famous wrestler and that's it, and that is the same for pretty much everyone else. If you take dirtsheets to further improve your level of hate for a wrestler, great for HHH and the joke is on you really, HHH is playing a villain character and it's a very good one because you're not paying to watch him, you'll however pay if a storyline makes sense to a point his regime will be put in danger.

I agree with this. To say Triple H in this roll is pretty stupid tbh. He plays the role of dick boss great and the smirk he has really sets it over the top. In fact I'd say Triple H was one of the only things that was really interesting about The Authority story. He turned heel for the first time since 2006 and we all know he works best as a heel and he has done continued to do so. The problem was is that we were given a perfectly set up story that looked like it was gonna end the way stories of that nature generally end but it didn't. Let's be honest Bryan wasn't interesting in this story they could have had anyone else in his spot save for Orton or Cena and it would have been the same and the same for Orton and Cena could have took his spot. Triple H is the only thing making this story good IMO. And if the guy stopped watching because of Triple H and not the story I'm pretty sure he just doesn't like Triple H. It's okay to not like Triple H but don't bullshit and say he has been a good part in this story line.

If we look at things post-Summerslam what besides the Authority Storyline was interesting? Punk vs. Heyman wasn't, ADR vs. whoever wasn't, I can't even tell you the rest of the stories. When Triple H turned we had Cody Rhodes and Goldust all of a sudden become interesting. At Hell in a Cell Cena returned and made the WHC and overall product more interesting. Seeing how Triple H would try to screw Bryan was interesting the bad thing was that it wasn't resolved properly and at this point I don't think too many people care.

Bryan was over yes but the chants were over more so as made evident by Big Show using them, Cena using them, ADR using Si, people chanting it in segments he had nothing to do with. Bryan's own overness has died down. As far as ratings I think it's a plethora of things nobody cared to see Orton vs. Bryan that's a match we had seen plenty on RAW. No Cena which is obviously a point to make because the HIAC buyrates shot back up. Punk vs. Heyman was boring people to sleep every week. The only exciting things was the Rhodes' battle with who? Triple H and the Authority.

Calling Triple H boring and incapable of having a good a match needs to be stopped. We have to nerve to call Bryan interesting but Triple H boring Can you remember one word of any promo that Bryan has ever cut besides yes or no LOL. The fact is people cheer Yes and No because it's fun to say and the arm motions are fun to do that does not equate to people wanting to see him. And if the TLC buyrates raise even slightly it's because of the Unification Match and I guarantee they will be higher than they have been with Bryan in the main event.

 

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

Who gives a shit?

TV is quickly becoming archaic in terms of delivering content (if it isnt already)

Considering WWE is doing killer business, I'm sure they're doing fine.

More people just watch that shit on Hulu or what have you nowadays. Would explain the consistent fall in ratings across the board.