[WWE Discussion] - Who or what is killing the ratings?!

Whether these dirt sheets are true or not is one thing but could WWE's ratings being hurt true?

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-- The December 26, 2011 episode of the Raw SuperShow garnered a 2.93 cable rating, up from 2.92 the week before. It is the fourth consecutive week in which Raw has drawn below a 3.00 cable rating.

Monday's show averaged 4,460,000 million viewers overall, up from 4,290,000 the week before. It also snapped an eight week streak of viewership declining during the second hour.

The first hour of Raw averaged 4,330,000 viewers during the first hour and 4,590,000 in the second. Monday's show drew the most second hour viewers since November 21, 2011, the night following Survivor Series.

I've been reading a lot of these sites pointing the blame at CM Punk in particular but I've also seen Zack Ryders name as well as Dolph Zigglers and even the Miz!

There was also another report claiming it's Michael Coles fault for 'burying' talent on commentary, but isn't his job being the heel asshole to take jabs at the 'good guys'?

What are your opinions, do you feel it's the current push of new wave talent? Is it Michael Cole? Or could it be the WWE has gotten stale?

Personally for me I've enjoyed the past few months of WWE it's been the most interesting it has in a while, a lot of older fans seem to agree also which would suggest that the younger audience maybe turning off because of their 'hero' Cena isn't in the spotlight maybe?

The dismal numbers aren't a sudden development. They've been on a slide over the last few years, coincidentally when the PG era really took hold is when they started to tank.

WWE controls only their product - which is a shadow of its former self. Older fans are moving on, I can't tell you the last time I sat down to watch an episode of RAW or SD!...the only reason I still watch match clips on Youtube are for the wrestlers I care about...There is only so much silliness I can handle.

Outside of their control, Lazzara's on the money with the streaming, plus a lot of people are ditching cable/satellite these days due to the ridiculous costs associated with it, and that means a few less viewers.

As for the superstars and the Bryan/Punk/Ryder ME pulling some of the worst numbers in history...cannot find explanation. There really should be no reason the match with three of the best in the industry would pull in some of the worst show ratings ever. Unfortunately, I fear this will hurt them in the long-term, and we'll see pushes being given to those who don't deserve it as usual.

Yup, I heard the same thing about CM Punk & that they apparently want to take the title off him because of it.

I agree about the streaming. Also, not all households are Nielsen ones (mine included), so who knows how many are really watching RAW every week.

I think TLA is dead on with a lot of his assertions. Especially points three through eight which are all very much intertwined. There's no drama because there are no real feuds and there are no feuds because WWE's poor booking pulled the trigger too soon on a lot of things and killed anybody or anything that had any type of momentum. I think points 6 and 7 go right back to point 8 in that the bookers aren't doing their jobs. Punk and Cena shouldn't be doing and saying a lot of the same stuff every night, but they have to because nothing happens that gives them something new to say.

Point one is annoying, but I doubt that hurts the ratings. The commentary is also terrible and really needs to be fixed but once again I don't know if people are turning the channel because of it. Michael Cole needs to be placed next to a neutral commentator to make him look like an ass instead of next to King when King's shit defenses of the babyfaces just make Cole look right. The WWE needs to have some better dynamics with their teams like Vince and Jesse the Body, Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan or JR and King. All of those commentating duos had chemistry and that's what made them good.

quote M_N_M48060

The commentary is also terrible and really needs to be fixed but once again I don't know if people are turning the channel because of it.

I've done it a few times. I definitely think it has an influence on the ratings. Not so much on the quality per se, but how they do their job. Announcers do literally speak for the viewers. The shining example would lie with Cole on RAW. He's a heel, it's his job to heel it up, but he goes over the top and the worst thing about it is that there is absolutely nobody there to shut him up. When King went on about Stone Cold being the worst employee in the world, JR would always be there to sing his praises. When Heenan was making up some ridiculous lie about a babyface, Gorilla always put him in his place. Pretty standard formula down the line of really any basic face/heel announce team.

Now while that may not be the actual cause of people changing the channel, the lack of energizing support (King attempts support at best) makes a lot of those guys look like they're not worth the time. Daniel Bryan, for example, has been on Cole's abuse pretty much since he's debuted. The tone from Lawler I always get is "hey man, that's not cool, leave him alone" instead of "hey *bleep* you, Cole, Daniel Bryan is awesome and here's why..." Now he's the World Champion and while I myself love AmDrag, I can see why many are scratching their heads and trying to figure out a reason why they should give him their attention.

It's certainly not the #1 reason for the drop but more than likely an ingredient that's mixed in there.

Well, it has got better over the last few months. But its still a case of you won't miss much if you don't watch raw. Compare it to before: so unpredictable, exciting, lots of drama with each feud. Now hardly anything. I only watch for the sake if it really, just because I can record it or stay up to watch it (which I regret too often, just never feels worth it)

And yeah people stream it a lot more these days too.

It could be punk, who knows? I love the guy but to be honest his title reign has been quite boring so far. He kept saying how he'll make it exciting again, but he hasn't done anything different imo. It's probably his feud with del Rio, because that is completely stale, and it was never really interesting in the first place apart from 2 decent wrestling matches they had.

Expecting next weeks raw to get decent ratings

quote The Living Angelus

8) Stop Blaming TVPG, Start Blaming Booking
You think the Attitude Era was amazing because wrestlers could swear and there was more T&A style segments? That shit was lame back then too, and embarrassing when I had my parents walk in and some dumbass Diva in the umpteenth bikini-style contest for the month was stripping half naked and you had Jerry Lawler practically having an orgasm on commentary screaming "PUPPIES! PUPPIES! PUPPIES!" at the top of his lungs. I'm glad Bra & Panty matches are a thing of the past. They were dumb then in 1998 and they'd be dumb now in 2011. TNA embraced the TV14 rating when WWE went TVPG and look where that got them.... absolutely no where. Swearing doesn't improve ratings. Blood doesn't improve ratings. T&A doesn't improve ratings. Stop blaming the PG rating for the low ratings, the omission of these three factors have absolutely no effect on it. Start blaming for the shoddy booking of their shows. They have high quality PPV's which blow TNA's out of the water, but yet you tune into RAW and it's one stupid segment after the next. We just had that live SmackDown show a few weeks ago and instead of showcasing some amazing matches, we had one stupid segment after the next. Booking is at fault.

Add all these points together, that's why ratings are lower than ever.

I agree with your other points, but I am not entirely convinced that you can absolve the PG-era of all blame.

It isn't as simple as saying "Blood + swearing + tits = good ratings", and to say that is all TV-14 was is a gross misinterpretation. The fact is that if you create a product with a PG-rating, then the booking has to reflect that - it has to appeal to children, who don't like to see swerves and John Cena actually losing cleanly. With a TV-14 rating, there is room for storylines that can appeal to both children and adults, and it does allow for a product which has the potential to be more gritty, violent and edgy. The Punk/Cena storyline is the exception that proves the rule, as I don't think there's been anything WWE has pulled under the PG-era mantra that has even come close to that level of edginess.

You are absolutely right to say that TV-14 on it's own is not a saviour, as demonstrated by TNA. Good booking is still essential. However, it's still worthwhile noting that despite TNA having a TV-14 rating, they actually book their female wrestlers as just that - wrestlers. WWE are still stuck in that limbo where all they are is eye-candy, an example of PG not really changing anything. In my opinion, TV-14 allows the shackles to be loosed - and, let's face it, when most kids are playing Call of Duty, a PG-era wrestling match just doesn't cut it anymore.

It is not the main problem - that has been poor booking and a failure to create new stars. But if you want to go right the way back to InVasion, the fact is that once ECW and wCw went belly-up, there were literally millions of fans who just stopped watching the product. It was nothing short of a catastrophic failure that Vince failed to bring those fans with him.

IWC plays a lot of role too, imo.

i mean, some of you are complaining about everything being predictable. but it's only given now that you understand how the backstage politic works.

not to mention that dirt sheets pretty much kill any anticipation for surprises. people knew save us was jericho months before he came back. people knew michaels would challenge undertaker for a second match months before michaels turned semi heel.

not to mention the iwc are probably the most fickle wrestling fans.

not everything is predictable, though, especially this year. mark henry a world champ? orton putting over barret? vince got fired? punk winning the mitb? daniel *bleep*ing bryan as a world champ?


this is not to say that the roster's done nothing wrong, though. they're lack of credibility, and the way creative uses them doesn't help either.

and the lack of jobbers actually really hurt too. we used to have some local wrestlers jobbing to superstars. it's way more efficient than burying the same superstar to put someone else over (recent case: jinder mahal)