Will RAW's low rating start the next boom?

[jpfizzle]

With last weeks low rating (a 2.6 for those who keep score.) The main site reports that managment felt this was a real sting with the high profile advertised matches, it goes on to say that these are the "lowest ratings since the attitude era."

Whilst to me and the casual fan, infact the majority of people tuning in, the ratings make little difference to me... the article did get me thinking; will WWE soon do something to start the next boom?

There are a number of quick fix's that will work for a month or so, namely bringing back "The Corporation" or "The Ministry." This is ridiculous in my opinion as the Attitude Era is the past and not the future.

Even so, what do you think they should do to make Wrestling the IN thing again? Or are we already in the beginings of it with the influx of new talent?

 

[FoleyIsGod]

Simple fact is, wrestling isnt mainstream any more and probabaly wont be for another 20 years.

Look at UFC, in 1994 or whenever, noone gave a toss about it. Now its huge and way into the mainstream.

Its alright advertising big matches, but the regular viewrs end up watching anyway, even if it was Khali vs Mark Henry every single week. All the fans the WWE USED to have mianly left due to Vince and Creative fucking them over with stupid booking deicisions and crappy storylines(Katie Vick, Triple H booking himself to be GOD, JBL holding the belt for so damn long, no pushes to guys who could actually wrestle etc)

There isnt even one star that can be huge in the wings, ie the next Rock or Stone Cold. Y2J should have been huge, but he wasnt used properly in either WCW or the WWF until it was a little too late to salvage anything.

Bottom line is, expect more low ratings because even for wrestling loyalists like me, there isnt really anything worth watching on Raw these days. Its all been done, though the HBK storyline with Y2J was one of the best in years and probabaly the only reason I watched Raw for a few weeks.

Hell, im a Punk amrk, but he was scripted awfully by creative and kept getting squashed for week, ala Rey in 2006.

 

[AMERICANFIRE]

well if you ask me raw has some big problems on their hands. this is the secend straight week that the ratings have been this low and beaten out by smackdown. smackdown is not even aired live like raw is so how do you lose to a show who has spoilers every week. next idont really know what can fix this long term. short term though i think vince is getting ready to come back to tv. maybe he will start a storyline on who tried to " kill " him with the stage collapse. i could maybe see another corperation or ministery for vince to build and destroy who he thinks did it. i dont know who would be involved but after no mercy i hear ausin is coming back to promote cyber sunday. this could lead to another vince vs austin feud but i dought it. austin could be building towards a WM match i suppose but its to hard to say. as far as long term i like getting the younger stars built back to top again. the stables could make wwe intresting to watch again. hell maybe in time we will see the return of the tag team division thats been gone since 2002. going younger is
definitly better for wwe future. instead of pushing the older wrestlers. wwe is actually using their heads for once. by pushing younger stars. i dont really see where wwe will be in 5 years but i hope they fix this soon. they for starters need another rock and austin. mvp and kennedy look like the leading canidates for that or maybe cena, orton, edge, diebasi, rhodes, y2j, nitro, and countless others. wwe better take notice of these posts soon. its not like we post this stuff to make us feel better. its so dumb asses like wwe wake up and listen to the fans ideas. we are tired of the same shit week in and week out.

 

[Shocky]

No, it won't start the next boom, in fact, i think the WWE on Monday Nights may go the way of the dodo.

For some odd reason, Monday Night has become a huge, highly competitive night for the key Demo, the Key demo being 18-35 year old males. That chunk of the audience that advertisers want watching their shows the most.

Look at the competition now. You've always had Monday Night Football. Tonight is a bad night for the WWE. There is a game with a huge market, with the Jets vs. the Chargers. The WWE is going to lose a big chunk of their audience to the Jets fans watching monday Night Football.

The MLB Pennant Races: Last week of the baseball season, and not even half of the divisions are settled at this point, including huge markets. I'm not sure how many games are tonight, but this is going to hurt the WWE Regardless. People watch pro sports more during the playoffs and at the end of the season.

Terminator/Prison Break: Fox has a nasty one two punch on monday nights that hits with the key demo. I'm one of them that prefers Terminator to Wrestling at this point. With 24 on the horizon, and coming off a near two years absence, that show is going to be tough to compete with.

CW's Gossip Girl: Say what you will, but this show is starting to generate a huge buzz. They have nearly doubled their audience in the last year, an audience (female) that the WWE was hoping to tap into.

NBC: Heroes. I hate this show, I honestly do. It's a terrible, and boring show, yet it takes a huge chunk of ratings away from Raw. Comic Book nerds are wrestlings audience, and a show like this cuts into that core badly.

CBS: Two and a Half Men has always been a hit, no surprise here. This hits into that older audience and the older side of the 18-35 demo. The show is amazing, and it's hilarious, even in it's 7th or 8th season. it's a much better choice for me to watch at 9 then wrestling.

The Solution: Monday Night has become the new Thursday night as far as the networks are concerned. It has become an ultra competitive night that each network wants to win, and they are putting out more and more niche based programming, niches that cut into the WWE's core audience.

The WWE needs to do one of two things. The WWE wants to be more kid friendly, and I get that, but kid friendly shows don't go on at 9 at night on cable. It just doesn't work. That audience doesn't want PG, they want borderline R, or Mature. The WWE has hurt themselves with it's own identity crisis. Is it a kid's show on at night, or is it an adult show hiding in the guise of a childrens show. Until the WWE quits pussy footing around what their new identity is going to be, they aren't going to connect with anyone.

Choice two. The Monday Night ship may have sailed. If the networks are eyeballing Monday Nights as the new battleground night, the WWE might want to consider moving to Tuesdays. Their ratings are in the tank, and the competition from outside sources is at an all time high. Monday Night might simply not be a Wrestling night anymore.

 

[Manjmonkey]

No it wont start the next boom back then wrestling was more mainstream you had wrestler like hulk hogan who everyone knew now if anyone most common people may know who john cena is. The fact is wrestling probably wont ever get those high ratings but i think it will stick around. Wrestlings still poplular just not as much as during the attitude era

 

[I_Heart_Princess_P]

Like I said on another thread. Better storylines and "larger than life" wrestlers won't matter. Ever since the UFC has came out, Pro Wrestling don't realy cut it anymore for the adult male demo, though the young children will always watch the WWE, which is why I believe Vince is trying to make the WWE more kid friendly .

 

[Tim]

It won't start the next boom. They'll try and start the next boom but it won't work, and Raw might have to be cancelled if worst comes to worst. Wrestling isn't as mainstream as it was in the past, you can tell that by comparing ratings. People are getting bored of all the same moves and same champions, and they are not watching now. Thre isn't reallya standout star either at the moment, apart from HHH. In the Attitude era, you had Stone Cold, The Rock etc. There is nothing that can be done in the long term to get WWE back to its previous success. There are a number of ways it could achieve brief success, but that would only last for a couple of weeks.

 

[HBK-aholic]

It won't happen. They're losing viewers and they're doing so fast. I don't think it's really fair to say anything too awful at the moment, due to the football which has been mentioned etc. Not a fan of football, so I can't go into detail on that, but I think when the season is over and everything is finished viewers will go up.

I don't see what's bad about it. I'm one of those die-hard fans who doesn't really like critiscing the product, and who fails to see why so many people are annoyed/bicthing constantly. I think the WWE is as good as it has been.

The next boom won't happen in a long time. I think it takes something special, and a change in the way people view the sport. There isn't a prospective star who I can see making everything okay, and wrestling has the worst reputation I've seen something on TV have.

 

[bowdy]

It is a joke. They bang on about "ratings".. well when were the ratings at their highest? During the edgy programming during the WCW/WWE ratings war. If you add up the ratings that WCW used to get, alongside the WWE ratings - you would get at least a 6 every night. But instead of remaining edgy and winning over the WCW fanbase, WWE has gone backwards to please kids - just so they can sell John Cena merchandise!!!

They started getting a bit edgy for about a year - with the McMahon fake death (before the unfortunate Benoit incident!), the Punk title win on Raw (how long since a title changed hands on Raw!?) and the ratings were slowly creeping up. Then what do they do? Go back to the family orientated garbage they did before. If they want to go back to that, then the main event of a future Raw will be Duke the Dumpster Drose vs Repo Man vs Doink the Clown in a triple threat Pineada on a pole match.

 

[AnthonyMango/NoFate007]

Shocky pretty much hit the nail on the head (minus Heroes...love that show lol) and I'd rep him for it if I could.

The main reason that the ratings are lower is because they have more competition right now with the new seasons of shows and football drawing great numbers.

It seems though, like the other reason is because its back to normal. If I remember correctly, they were drawing decent numbers during the "Martial Raw" when things were unpredictable (as well as the Kane angle which did a nosedrive straight into shitsville).

Then, of course, Cena seems to draw a little bit of a boost. Having him absent doesn't necessarily help.

But will this ratings slump usher in the new era? No. I think we're stuck in this phase for the next year at the very least if not the next two years. We'll see.

 

[Danmen001]

It doesn't concern me, unless it effects the quality of the programming. Basically, I thought RAW is a great product, and I watch all the shows regardless. I enjoy it, I watch it, I live wrestling.

In Australia even, wrestling airs at a terrible time, and I'm ashamed to say that, since TNA has come in Australia, it has beaten WWE ratings. Why? Not quality, timeslot. TNA gets prime time, on Saturday night television. WWE airs at 3:30 p.m., Raw on Wednesday, ECW on Thrusday, and SD! on Friday. That is a terrible slot, lots of the audience isn't even home at that time. Keep in mind these 2 shows are all on the same channel, so it's not just that.

I remember Wrestlezone had an incorrect reporting article on this, they said TNA has popularity in Australia over WWE, and they should take advantage of that. Wrong. TNA has a better timeslot, and the fact is, if WWE fixed that by moving their shows to a much more convenient time, I figure their ratings would dominate.

Basically, my point is they need to move to another network, and fix all their timeslots. There won't be a boom, even if that could draw ratings. The WWE doesn't want to go back there (I assume).

 

[FoleyIsGod]

I would simply have more wrestling on the Raw show. It worked back in 2004 when Heyman was running Smackdown, with "real" wrestling(ie matbased stuff, similar to mma)

Like Kurt Angle said in a recent interview, the mainstream now doesnt want to see matches where the big guys tiptoe around the ring and use crap, boring movesets.

They want to see ground and proud and stuff that is legit(or LOOKS legit) in this case.

Im sure throwing in the occasional holy shit moments to make them realise that the WWE is like MMA, but with MORE entertaininment value.

Fans today dont want to see Hoganesque style fo wrestling, ie Hulk Up and do all the showman bollocks. The Rock did that, and those mainstream fans that remember thate ra, will realise that era could not be topped.

Id simply have the first hour of Raw dedicated to the iddies9 (ie Cena) and the make the second hourpure kick ass, r-rated stuff. hell, why not experiment with that forumla but with 3 hours, ie having the kiddie hour finishing at 8 and having 2 hours of kick ass, legitmate wrestling matches. No shitfests that are called the Diva matches(WWE look at TNA, they took a joke division in the US and made it the most popular part of thier show)

 

[KillBill]

I think it may bring back the next boom. Vince does crazy and daring things when he needs ratings, it seems a lot of people are looking forward to this 2nd generation stable, so when it finally happens, it may bring some new viewers. Maybe vince should actually take some chances on good TNA talent if and when it comes along. Do some more shocking events, like Punk and Jericho winning titles, and so on and so forth. The big thing is football, but just remember, its the beginning of the season. So theres a lot of teams doing well, but by in a month, some of these games advertised will involve teams that aren't doing so well, and interest will drop. And going back to the shock value, am I the only one that thought last monday was the perfect scenario for a Batista heel turn? I was almost expecting it, with him not wrestling til the end, with the bad history with him and HBK, it would have been perfect and shocking, I think WWE missed a great opportunity on that one.

 

[Slyfox696]

Well, first, let's keep something in perspective. Even with the WWE's lowest ratings since 1996, they STILL are one of the highest rated cable programs in America on a regular basis. They don't get paid in advertising money, so their ratings are only important to the TV company. Wrestling is a show very high in DVR recordings, not to mention, is very privy to Internet leaching and spoilers. And, finally, there are just a lot more cable channels today than there were ten years ago.

Now, obviously, the WWE took a major hit last summer, that they've never fully recovered from. First it was Benoit, then it was the steroid scandal, and then they lost Cena, and now they've lost Cena again. Those are huge influences on the show, things that really don't have much to do with the programming. If those things had never happened, I think Raw would still be cruising at around the 4.0 mark.

Now, will it start the next boom? Nope. You can't create a boom period, it just happens. You don't create Hulk Hogan, you don't create Stone Cold Steve Austin, it just kind of metamorphs itself into something great, something bigger than wrestling. It'll happen again eventually, but until then, the WWE just has to hang on and wait this down period out.

 

[KillBill]

Bring back the Rock. There ya go. Boom! Thats the only realistic thing, even though it may never happen, but unlike other names mentioned, just remember, hes still younger than half the roster, which is amazing!