Financial Times: "WWE Stock Slammed As Ticket Sales And TV Ratings Drop"

[DLo]

I just can't believe that someone like vince could just lose the fundamentals of how to build a wrestking brand. Im not saying his board is pulling the strings, but I think the reason why he stubbornly pushes for things fans dont want is because he wants to uphold wrestlers that wont upset the mercurial and speculative nature of the stock market.

He is out of touch. Vince is doing the same thing that Verne Gagne and Stu Hart did to run their promotions into the ground. He should retire and pass the company to Steph/Shane/HHH

 

[FRIED MASON]

Can someone put dahell's face on Austin?

 

[TobiOT]

Raw set yet another all-time modern low outside of football season last night with 2.16 million viewers.

The show only beat episodes this past New Year's Eve and Christmas Eve for the record-low mark. What's really scary is this was a nine percent drop from the record non-football season low of 2.37 million viewers that was set last week.

Last night's Raw saw a strong 18.8 percent first-to-third hour drop, falling just under 1.9 million viewers, the first time under two million for Raw outside of a holiday. But the real story was how few fans were watching at the start.

Worse, the traditional pattern is that the decline is just starting and will get worse until the end of the NBA playoffs.

Most of Raw went against the early NBA playoff game that did 3.83 million viewers. The last 25 minutes went against a game that did 3.64 million viewers. It did beat the NHL playoffs on NBC Sports Network, which did 1.18 million viewers.

Still, Raw was eighth for the night on cable and beat everything that wasn't NBA or news related.

For a year-to-year comparison, the NBA playoffs were down 18.3 percent from the same week last year, while Raw was down 29.4 percent, the biggest drop from the previous year when you compare two shows that weren't specials (such as a year after a very highly rated nostalgia show).

The audience under the age of 35 was almost identical to last year, and over 50 was down, but not an unusual amount. It was the 35-49 audience that collapsed from last week, although even based on not including that demo it would have done a record low number.

The three hours were:

• 8 p.m. 2.34 million viewers
• 9 p.m. 2.24 million viewers
• 10 p.m. 1.90 million viewers

 

[Sghost597]

Heavy is the head that wears the crown. No one stays on top forever.

Could this really be it?

I've been patiently waiting for this for years and years. They industry is so badly in need of a kick in the ass, and they deserved to be punished for the lackluster creative blackhole shyt they've been doing for 10+ years.

The really shytty thing about it... If Vince is still alive. He probably destroy all of their archives rather than to sell it off as last FU to all of us..

 

[The Intergalactic Koala]

1.90

Holy hell..................

 

[Francis White]

Seth is a flop as champ again. They need to let him cut his own promos . Give all the characters an outline and let them improvise. I hope Kofi fares better.

 

[The Intergalactic Koala]

The really shytty thing about it... If Vince is still alive. He probably destroy all of their archives rather than to sell it off as last FU to all of us..

The fall of this miserable business would be like the episode of The Simpsons where Marge fukked with the writing for the Itchy and Scratchy show.

IWC will get out of the crib like

Vince Plan

 

[Jesus H. Christ]

Horrible numbers

Vince needs to go and buck tooth dunn

 

[Legal]

Alright, to not be overly negative for once......USA/WWE GOTTA pull the plug on the third hour.

Raw has been bad for a REALLY long time, but it really entered a crater when they kicked off the three hour shows. The audience doesn't stick around for the third hour, and having to fill all that time leads to them essentially spreading themselves thin as far as effective talent and storylines go.

What I think they forgot about Raw at its peak was that shyt for the most part, moved along pretty quickly because they essentially booked Raw as two one hour shows, and knew they didn't have a ton of time on their hands.

They're burning audiences out with shytty product on Monday, and those same burnt out viewers are asked to watch another two hours on Tuesday, maybe fukk around and catch another hour on Wednesday, and on PPV weekends, come back for another three and a half (four and a half if you count the preshow), with even MORE for the big four shows.

It's too much for consumers to care about when they know most of it is just going to be rehashes of shyt they saw and didn't care for last week, or another attempt to force someone they don't like on them (shout out to Baron Corbin effectively being the new Roman Reigns).

A lot of work needs to be done to make this shyt bearable for the people that choose to watch, but dropping that third hour is obviously the place to start.

 

[Saysumthinfunnymike]

Could Smackdown actually top RAW tonight

Those numbers crazy but even I was in and out. Between playoffs, discussing End Game and talking Thrones who gives a shyt?

 

[Sghost597]

Alright, to not be overly negative for once......USA/WWE GOTTA pull the plug on the third hour.

Raw has been bad for a REALLY long time, but it really entered a crater when they kicked off the three hour shows. The audience doesn't stick around for the third hour, and having to fill all that time leads to them essentially spreading themselves thin as far as effective talent and storylines go.

What I think they forgot about Raw at its peak was that shyt for the most part, moved along pretty quickly because they essentially booked Raw as two one hour shows, and knew they didn't have a ton of time on their hands.

They're burning audiences out with shytty product on Monday, and those same burnt out viewers are asked to watch another two hours on Tuesday, maybe fukk around and catch another hour on Wednesday, and on PPV weekends, come back for another three and a half (four and a half if you count the preshow), with even MORE for the big four shows.

It's too much for consumers to care about when they know most of it is just going to be rehashes of shyt they saw and didn't care for last week, or another attempt to force someone they don't like on them (shout out to Baron Corbin effectively being the new Roman Reigns).

A lot of work needs to be done to make this shyt bearable for the people that choose to watch, but dropping that third hour is obviously the place to start.

Nah, I think the 3rd hour is less of the problem and more of Vince to push an easier, less edgy, and samey product to make it more accessible. So, what we have is just really low quality while even basic bytch CW shows are miles more complex than WWE in narrative and continuity.

At times... WWE can fill out an exciting 3 hour show, but when you have someone as stubborn as Vince. You make a lot of the wrong decisions. It's not even big thing.. It's littlest bad decision that big down pacing and overall quality. Just a ton of bad microdecisions just piling on a decent product and large problems slowly start to catch up. Cena had fans angry at his push, but they where still passionate. Reigns push started out like Cena, but quickly turned into this wave of indifference and apathy, because Vince doesn't understand millienals and how quickly we will throw a product to the bushes. The prior generation of fans where rabid and loyal. We aren't. We want an entertaining, well-made product that resonate and relate to us or we will not care.

Lets be honest .. Outside of production value(Which I think WWE overdose on LED panels too much) ... Vince was never any good as a booker or creative mind. He pushed himself when got pushed into a corner 20 years ago. Dude should be retired and living the good life. Yet, he rather drive his company into the ground than let it prosper with younger and better minds.

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

The really shytty thing about it... If Vince is still alive. He probably destroy all of their archives rather than to sell it off as last FU to all of us..

We all know he’s that sort of spiteful too so it’s a very real possibility

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

Could Smackdown actually top RAW tonight

Those numbers crazy but even I was in and out. Between playoffs, discussing End Game and talking Thrones who gives a shyt?

If it does beat raw, they’ll just butcher smackdown like they always do when it gets ahead of raw.

Nah, I think the 3rd hour is less of the problem and more of Vince to push an easier, less edgy, and samey product to make it more accessible. So, what we have is just really low quality while even basic bytch CW shows are miles more complex than WWE in narrative and continuity.

At times... WWE can fill out an exciting 3 hour show, but when you have someone as stubborn as Vince. You make a lot of the wrong decisions. It's not even big thing.. It's littlest bad decision that big down pacing and overall quality. Just a ton of bad microdecisions just piling on a decent product and large problems slowly start to catch up. Cena had fans angry at his push, but they where still passionate. Reigns push started out like Cena, but quickly turned into this wave of indifference and apathy, because Vince doesn't understand millienals and how quickly we will throw a product to the bushes. The prior generation of fans where rabid and loyal. We aren't. We want an entertaining, well-made product that resonate and relate to us or we will not care.

Lets be honest .. Outside of production value(Which I think WWE overdose on LED panels too much) ... Vince was never any good as a booker or creative mind. He pushed himself when got pushed into a corner 20 years ago. Dude should be retired and living the good life. Yet, he rather drive his company into the ground than let it prosper with younger and better minds.

Forget millennials, Vince didn’t even get generation X or Y. That’s the big thing. He doesn’t even generate anger from the fans now, but apathy instead, and wrestling fans in my observation stay gone once they’re gone. He’s always been a horrid booker to say the least. He just promotes well. Every set looking the same, every announce team sounding the same, and the overdosing on LED lights for the ring, stage, and ramp only compounds the problem. Nothing and nobody stands out, so nothing and nobody is worth tuning in for. It’s why they’re doing their lowest ratings ever. It’s a lazy, shallow, and soulless assembly line production now.

 

[Legal]

If it does beat raw, they’ll just butcher smackdown like they always do when it gets ahead of raw.


Forget millennials, Vince didn’t even get generation X or Y. That’s the big thing. He doesn’t even generate anger from the fans now, but apathy instead, and wrestling fans in my observation stay gone once they’re gone. He’s always been a horrid booker to say the least. He just promotes well. Every set looking the same, every announce team sounding the same, and the overdosing on LED lights for the ring, stage, and ramp only compounds the problem. Nothing and nobody stands out, so nothing and nobody is worth tuning in for. It’s why they’re doing their lowest ratings ever. It’s a lazy, shallow, and soulless assembly line production now.

Yeah, it's like he learned the worst lessons from professional sports. In pro sports, A LOT of shyt is uniform. Every game you watch on any given sports network will have a uniform look and presentation, dictated by the network.

But the announcers are allowed to have their own style, which makes at least that part unique.

Each arena/field/rink is just different enough to tell a difference.

Hell, you're not even guaranteed to see all the same players on one team from one game to another.

But Vince has overlooked those facts to stick with the idea that the NFL, for example, is SOLELY successful because of the NFL branding. While the NFL name is a big part of it, there are dozens of other factors that make them successful.

Stripping shows of their uniqueness by having them all look and generally sound the same, with mostly the same characters doing mostly the same things makes the act of keeping up with this shyt just sound exhausting. When I used to watch, I didn't even bother watching SmackDown and Raw, and would catch up by reading results online, or catching the odd video clip when something exciting happens, and would just watch the PPVs. That's how most of their audience is watching now, and YouTube views don't mean shyt to someone that needs to sell 52 weeks of ad inventory for your three hour block.

 

[prophecypro]

They'll have some big money deal coming up to bail their asses out again (no one is talking about the fact they also lost their tv deal in the middle east region too but Im sure something will come up) but yeah ratings and attendance is down and will continue to drop but these deals will keep them afloat for a while