Will Shawn's retirement affect the ratings during the 'Monday Night Wars'?

[HBK-aholic]

I've always been of the opinion that no one man can make a company sink, or float. Especially not one who hasn't held the championship for 8 years, is in his 40's, and didn't prove to be a great draw in his times as champion (Granted, there are reasons for that). Even as Shawn's biggest fan, I've never believed him leaving will affect the company in terms of rating. Of personal enjoyment and quality, yes, but never ratings.

However, I've seen a fair number of people, both on forums and social networking sites, who have said they will stop watching now, or are seriously considering it. I personally don't believe there are enough of those people to do damage to the WWE against TNA, however. What do you think? Are you going to stop watching the WWE?

 

[Ferbian]

I wouldn't stop watching WWE because Shawn retired, as I've stated many times, yes Shawn Michaels is my favorite wrestler of all time, but there's still people on the WWE roster I enjoy tuning in to watch every week, I mean after all even though Shawn Michaels wasn't retired from Wrestlemania 25 but was gone until Summerslam, I didn't exactly see the ratings fall during that time, so I have my doubts that Shawn being gone would affect the ratings.

Unless of course Shawn went to TNA, that might do some changes in the ratings, but I doubt Shawn would go to TNA, especially because I think if Shawn really ever wanted to get back in the ring, it would be with WWE.

 

[hatehabsforever]

Sure, the retirement of HBK will affect the ratings war between WWE and TNA. For one night, that being last night's head to head between RAW and iMPACT. I expect RAW's ratings to go up, especially for the last segment (I cannot imagine anyone was watching TNA while Shawn was giving his farewell address), while as hard to imagine as it may be for the TNA smarks, iMPACT's rating will plunge yet again. Between the fallout from an awesome WM26, the retirement of a true classy legend, and the fact that it was opposed by a pre-taped and sub-par iMPACT, I look for the ratings gap to be wider than ever.

On to next week, things will quickly return to normal. RAW consistently putting on the better product, killing TNA in the ratings, while TNA flounders and struggles to stay afloat. People will emotionally say they won't watch WWE now that Shawn is gone, and maybe a few won't, but most will. I'm sure no one's a bigger HBK fan than Becca and I'm sure while she's disappointed to see HBK go, she'll continue to be big WWE fan and will continue to watch.

Because as we enter the post-Heartbreak Kid era, I for one am tremendously excited about the direction of the WWE. With HBK gone, plus likely an extended break for HHH, Taker, Rey, and possibly others, I see the progression of an exciting youth development: Morrison, Swagger, Hart Dynasty, Sheamus, and others. Continued dominance with established veterans still there, but a youth movement that TNA can only dream of.

HBK had his day, and it was great. Now he'll move into the next stage of his life with his wife, his kids, his religion, and with inner peace. It's time for new guys to step up, like a young brash 19 year old did 25 years ago. And it's going to be great. You just have to watch it.

 

[FightOwensFight]

Sure, the retirement of HBK will affect the ratings war between WWE and TNA. For one night, that being last night's head to head between RAW and iMPACT. I expect RAW's ratings to go up, especially for the last segment (I cannot imagine anyone was watching TNA while Shawn was giving his farewell address), while as hard to imagine as it may be for the TNA smarks, iMPACT's rating will plunge yet again. Between the fallout from an awesome WM26, the retirement of a true classy legend, and the fact that it was opposed by a pre-taped and sub-par iMPACT, I look for the ratings gap to be wider than ever.

On to next week, things will quickly return to normal. RAW consistently putting on the better product, killing TNA in the ratings, while TNA flounders and struggles to stay afloat. People will emotionally say they won't watch WWE now that Shawn is gone, and maybe a few won't, but most will. I'm sure no one's a bigger HBK fan than Becca and I'm sure while she's disappointed to see HBK go, she'll continue to be big WWE fan and will continue to watch.

Because as we enter the post-Heartbreak Kid era, I for one am tremendously excited about the direction of the WWE. With HBK gone, plus likely an extended break for HHH, Taker, Rey, and possibly others, I see the progression of an exciting youth development: Morrison, Swagger, Hart Dynasty, Sheamus, and others. Continued dominance with established veterans still there, but a youth movement that TNA can only dream of.

HBK had his day, and it was great. Now he'll move into the next stage of his life with his wife, his kids, his religion, and with inner peace. It's time for new guys to step up, like a young brash 19 year old did 25 years ago. And it's going to be great. You just have to watch it.

You pretty much nailed it. I think there is plenty of young talent (like you mention...and that wasn't including the likes of Ziggler, McEntyre, The Miz, etc) to blend with enough veteran big names (Cena, Orton, Batista, Edge, Jericho, etc) to have a real nice balance.

I am with you though about the end of Impact and Raw last night. I can't imagine anyone watching Impact while Sean was making his very touching speech.

Also, you can already tell TNA is starting to panic with the change next week to 8 PM. Over the last 4 weeks or so that will make 3 different times for Impact (Thursday, then 9 PM on Monday, and now 8 PM on Monday). Seems desperate to me.

 

[Razor]

I don't see why. Cena is the person responsible for an entire half a point in the ratings for Raw. I don't think HBK ever drew that by himself in his heyday, let alone now.

The people who say "Uhhh..I'm not going to watch now" are just overreacting to their favorite wrestler retiring. If they were true fans of the product, they might sit out an episode or two then come back. Of course, that doesn't allow for the people who only watched for HBK (however many few that may be).

In the long run, HBK retiring will not be looked back on as the final WWE death knell or anything like that. It will be looked on as a day when the Screwjob was finally put to rest and a 25 year career was finally allowed to stop. It will be looked on as a day when the WWE finally had the star caliber in other superstars not named Undertaker or Triple H. Enough star caliber that HBK could safely leave and the main event would not have a gaping hole that couldn't be plugged. It will be looked on as the day that a man in his 40s put on a wrestling match that proved to the world "I'm going out on top." It will be the day when a man left, and the entire wrestling community felt the hit.

However, it will not be known as the day "WWE took a turn for the worse" or "TNA pulled ahead." That's just waaaay too fatalistic.

 

[WWEIsLife]

HBK's Retirement will not all affect the Ratings. Shawn Micheals is one of my Favorite Wrestlers of all time along with Bret Hart & Others. Do I see myself not watching WWE anymore? No,there are still plenty of guys to tune in for on both RAW & Smackdown. John Cena,Batista,HHH,Undertaker,Jericho,Edge,Christian,Matt Hardy,Kane,Randy Orton,etc to the Young guys like Jack Swagger,John Morrison,Hart Dynasty,Evan Bourne,Kofi Kingston,Sheamus,Yoshi Tatsu,Drew Mcintyre,Dolph Ziggler.

I also agree I doubt many people were watching Impact during HBK's heartfelt goodbye last night. So im glad HBK was able to go out on his terms and say he would honor the terms of the Career Ending Stipulation. Too bad some people can't do that. Im looking at you Hulk Hogan.

 

[Serious Mozzarella]

The way they were building new talent last night proves to me that the WWE had no intention of "fighting" with TNA, and they're only interested in building their own product, which will go on to stomp all over anything TNA ever comes up with (seeing as, the only thing TNA ever comes up with is "anti-WWE" crap). HBK's retirement opened up a spot as one of the biggest names in the company, in my honest opinion, and while it was sad, and quite frankly too soon, nothing but good can come from this.

The fans popping huge last night for new wrestlers only adds to the greatness the WWE is beginning to pump out, and I sincerely doubt that TNA is going to make a dent in the WWE's ratings or viewers any time in the near future.

 

[xZiLeRaTe]

no disrespect or anything but wether shawn was there or not it didnt really make a difference in the ratings. but with shawn gone it leaves a open spot for new talent to step up. in a way im happy for shawn retiring for his health and family and new stars to step up again no disrespect to shawn

 

[future admin]

people wouldn't stop watching wrestling just because shawn left, he may have been the reason people started wrestling, but you would have started to like watching other wrestlers aswell, so you cannot be called a fan if you just followed because of 1 wrestler, 1 helluva wrestler, but he is still only one wrestler

 

[Davi323]

With all of the stars on the WWE roster, as much as I loved HBK as a wrestler, one guy isn't going to make a noticeable difference. I just can't believe that enough people watched Monday Night Raw only because of Shawn Michaels to affect the ratings.

 

[Phoenix]

Given that Shawn has already retired once and WWE's ratings spiked up after he retired with the rise of the Attitude Era, I don't see how Shawn's retirement would affect the ratings any differently then or to any of the past 3 years where he's taken long hiatuses to heal up. For those numbers of years we have experienced WWE without HBK in short term practise, but the product still remained consistent. Now with Shawn being gone indefinitely, they will be fine. WWE has a fine set of superstars that can carry the show fine and while people will say they will stop wrestling because Shawn is gone, I call their bluff immediately, he's left us once before through injury and no-one expected the 8 years of overtime he gave us but that's why he's the Showstopper!

Effectively, there is only one case where one man will affect the ratings for WWE, and that is Vincent Kennedy McMahon, if something big happened to him (like a legit death), that will be the big moment that affects WWE ratings more than anything. But that being said, where Shawn has gone, another guy will take his place albeit that no-one can match his legacy or truly take HBK's place, but we've seen many come and a lot go, unfortunately for us, we've seen Shawn go again but the product will still remain strong, especially what Wrestlemania 26 just provided us with.