6,000 fans at SD; only 1,500 fans stayed to watch 205 Live on Tuesday

[Rarely-Wrong Liggins]

Let's not forget a very important part of the death of WCW story: WCW didn't necessarily die only because of dwindling live event attendance or ratings (WWE would kill for 2001 WCW's ratings right now), but because Jamie Kellner, head of Turner Broadcastiglng at the time, cancelled it for quite arbitrary reasons (fun fact: Kellner also cancelled Animaniacs while he was head of WB, so he's a real prick).

If they would have had a TV deal, they'd have had a chance to rebuild things slowly.

Kellner, that guy was something else.

In response to an April 29, 2002 interview [4][5] question on why digital video recorders were bad for the industry, Kellner responded:

“ Because of the ad skips.... It's theft. Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn't get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial or watch the button you're actually stealing the programming. ”

 

[woof]

But Becky is the hottest thing in WWE... female Stone Cold potential

6K gate actually isn’t “bad” for the flop that has been AJ Styles era SD in general though. That most of them didn’t stick around for a Charlotte/Becky dark match and the CWs isn’t remotely surprising either. Even by current nothing-draws standards, there are some things that the audience just doesn’t give a shyt about even if a loud portion of them pretend to.

 

[JerseyBoy23]

They won't change anything in fact we've heard from both Vince and Road Dogg that September is "a bad month to promote"

 

[trick]

I get the feeling that their ultimate goal is complete independence from these pressures via the WWE Network. And that plan, in my opinion, trades on the wrestling fan placing more importance on the massive amount of classic programming on the platform than on how terrible and bland the original product is. In short, they want to exploit the wrestling fan's love of nostalgia to prop up their channel and ambitions (really disgusting shyt when you break it down like that).

The thing is, there are really only so many people who are going to pay $120 a year specifically for WWE programming and content, and I think they're closer to that threshold than they think right now (currently sitting ar around 2 million subscribers). It's an unsustainable plan, borne of ambitions propped up by inflated stock and rights fees. I might be wrong about where WWE's heading, but I get the feeling that they actually need to start getting in touch with what the fans want and like quick, fast, and in a hurry before things start going downhill.

It's disgusting, but their core audience is easily swayed. Look at reddit, look at the faces at the live show. If you throw those people a bone once in a while, they'll gladly pay for a shyt product when they only get to see a glimpse of something good on a 3 hour programming block.

You know what? I think they actually tried to get in touch with what the fans want. They signed a lot of indy darlings. NXT is basically ROH in the mid-2000s on a bigger scale. Hiring great wrestlers won't solve anything though. There's just a lot of problems in the WWE right now. They have a lot of money and can ignore them now, but what happens when they start pouring money in XFL and if their programming tanks on FOX? Like you said, it'll be too late by then.

 

[WMG the 2nd]

Incredible that his shows are in the gutter creatively, live gates and ratings are down, the wrestling business as a whole has been in a slump creatively for years and no one seems to have an answer for it, yet they continue to get these content providers to pay out the wazoo for their subpar content and their stock keeps reaching new highs.

It’s a stupid amount of content
Networks want content and Netflix has shown you can have quality wrestling content for cheap or you can go with a guy who runs the biggest wrestling company ever despite it being clearly mediocre because he fire dan base will never leave and do nothing but complain but also because hey still have something for everyone. It’s just the top of the show is predicated on what a 97 year old Roid head who eats steak and ketchup sandwiches as a main diet thinks should be featured prominently

For as much as you guys talk shyt about that man he knows he can smack you in the mouth and whisper something in your ear and you’ll be ok with it. Nearly every other wrestling program is streaming or has a video library that has had he talent Wwe has or younger talent right now you guys can enjoy but it’s something about those Michael Cole lack luster calls that keep people engaged enough for Jose commercials to roll and it’s why Vince will never make a radical change in his business model again. Only way his ship stops rowing is if he gets sued for discrimination or he and hat family gets he greatest me too allegations of this year

 

[jadillac]

That's them Raw 95 Bam Bam Bigelow vs Mantaur main event numbers.

Man Mountain Rock vs Jean Pierre Lafeytte numbers

 

[jadillac]

Like I said, if the show gets better the stock will go sky high and money will be greater.....BUT they can't sustain a great product bc the consistent effort is lacking , so when product falters again the stock will drop and although the stock will still be high, the downward trend will look bad.

 

[dh86]

They sold out Raw here in March because they false advertised Brock & Ronda leading to a big last minute boost of ticket sales. shytting on one of your biggest towns usually results in consequences

 

[Here Comes the Pain]

Smackdown

They should shelf the brand for good & just have Raw at this point.

 

[trick]

It’s a stupid amount of content
Networks want content and Netflix has shown you can have quality wrestling content for cheap or you can go with a guy who runs the biggest wrestling company ever despite it being clearly mediocre because he fire dan base will never leave and do nothing but complain but also because hey still have something for everyone. It’s just the top of the show is predicated on what a 97 year old Roid head who eats steak and ketchup sandwiches as a main diet thinks should be featured prominently

For as much as you guys talk shyt about that man he knows he can smack you in the mouth and whisper something in your ear and you’ll be ok with it. Nearly every other wrestling program is streaming or has a video library that has had he talent Wwe has or younger talent right now you guys can enjoy but it’s something about those Michael Cole lack luster calls that keep people engaged enough for Jose commercials to roll and it’s why Vince will never make a radical change in his business model again. Only way his ship stops rowing is if he gets sued for discrimination or he and hat family gets he greatest me too allegations of this year

Right, something is going to have to nearly break his company before he makes any changes. He's making loads of money, while producing the worst content of his career. He's old as shyt, so he won't change the way he does things. It's just a shame. While the WWE is really making bread, I genuinely believe someone could come through and produce something better and make risks in story-telling, in presentation and in the way things are done in the ring. Judging by the content we see on any of the wrestling shows on TV (Impact, Lucha, All In, NJPW, etc), nobody in charge of those other promotions can take wrestling to newer places. It's only gone where it's been before.

 

[Da King]

 

[Jmare007]

They obviously don't give a shyt, because it isn't Raw/Roman related. If they did give a shyt, they would move it and have it as the lead into SD.

Last year they had a run with some ABYSMAL TV attendances even for RAW...they didn't give a shyt either and didn't have the safe net they have now

 

[Killah Ray]

Making ticket prices cheaper would definitely help...the money they charge now is borderline rape...

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

WCW fukking DIED under similar circumstances.

That looks like last days of WCW live attendance levels right there.

Let's not forget a very important part of the death of WCW story: WCW didn't necessarily die only because of dwindling live event attendance or ratings (WWE would kill for 2001 WCW's ratings right now), but because Jamie Kellner, head of Turner Broadcastiglng at the time, cancelled it for quite arbitrary reasons (fun fact: Kellner also cancelled Animaniacs while he was head of WB, so he's a real prick).

If they would have had a TV deal, they'd have had a chance to rebuild things slowly.

Jackass just decided flat out he doesn’t want pro wrestling on their network, killing WCW and torpedoed the industry since cokeboy was the only big promoter left once that happened . Worst thing to ever happen to North American pro wrestling in my opinion. The fans are still dealing with the consequences of that nearly 20 years later.

They sold out Raw here in March because they false advertised Brock & Ronda leading to a big last minute boost of ticket sales. shytting on one of your biggest towns usually results in consequences

Was that when they announced Brock would be there knowing he wouldn’t to try getting heat on him going into summerslam so the fans would back Roman? I feel like that’s the sort of thing you could sue for. Any sort of regularity in regards to falsely advertising shyt will bite them in the ass quickly.

 

[dh86]

Jackass just decided flat out he doesn’t want pro wrestling on their network, killing WCW and torpedoed the industry since cokeboy was the only big promoter left once that happened . Worst thing to ever happen to North American pro wrestling in my opinion. The fans are still dealing with the consequences of that nearly 20 years later.


Was that when they announced Brock would be there knowing he wouldn’t to try getting heat on him going into summerslam so the fans would back Roman? I feel like that’s the sort of thing you could sue for. Any sort of regularity in regards to falsely advertising shyt will bite them in the ass quickly.

The week before, it was announced that Brock would appear for a face off with Roman during the build to wrestlemania, and Brock never appeared as a part of the Brock hates the fans storyline and Roman approached Vince instead. It was also the week they announced Ronda would appear on every Raw until wrestlemania. They forgot to tell the fans about the no shows tho