WWE RAW rating, lowest in 18 years (2.33)... Time to just bring back Vince GOATsso

[Art Barr]

Booking was a helluva lot better during the Attitude Era & Ruthless Aggression Era. The writing has been atrocious. Remember when there were challengers who looked like viable threats to the World Champion? Now everybody looks like a transitional champion until LOLCENAWINS. Remember when you actually cared who won the IC and US titles? You can't get emotionally invested in these characters.

Writing sucked when he was there in the attitude era.


Art Barr

 

[MrSinnister]

Back in the 80's the Vince led WWF was like a minstrel show of wrestling. All of the best matches and storylines were in the NWA and WCW which had Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair and the Four Horseman, Sting, Lex Luger, the Road Warriors etc.

Vince was the goat when it came to marketing and promotion but the overall quality sucked. I stopped watching wrestling mostly because I grew up, but the other part was due to the death of the NWA/WCW as it was constructed in the 80's. Once everything was dominated by Vince and the WWE or whatever you call it, shyt started to go down hill. And yeah names like Stone Cold and The Roc's names ring out but wrestling will never be like it was in the mid/late 80's.

THIS. It's pretty much reversion to the mean. The current WWE I'd what Vince knows in his blood, except now he has to deal with the reality era on top. He knows how to TRY to create characters, not real, actual people with clear motivations.

Yes, this is why he relied so much on a Vince Russo. He would make Jerry Springer-type shyt seem remotely plausible in a White trash kinda way. Whether competing or paying him, he was pushed by Russo. The momentum just carried over so much into the RA era with great stars already made in AE or in the immediate afterglow. AE ended when Haitch got the belt.

Cena's just another Haitch, on the top of the mountain, cashing a check or phoning it in. People used to try to call it out, now they're just numb and either/and stay at home/don't watch. Since Haitch is there, protecting his legacy, no change for main show, but he makes NXT what people wanted to see for main roster lmao. Now he doesn't get the blame when he is the direct cause for this.

Vince is just being Vince. But remember how innovative Haitch was, before he was the deal facto heir (he is credited for the Montreal Screwjob, as well as earning Vince's ear early through Shawn and had veto power). Vince is going to always search out a Hogan and a monster heel. It's Haitch that should be making these reality characters with him.

 

[Ollie Williams]

THIS. It's pretty much reversion to the mean. The current WWE I'd what Vince knows in his blood, except now he has to deal with the reality era on top. He knows how to TRY to create characters, not real, actual people with clear motivations.

Yes, this is why he relied so much on a Vince Russo. He would make Jerry Springer-type shyt seem remotely plausible in a White trash kinda way. Whether competing or paying him, he was pushed by Russo. The momentum just carried over so much into the RA era with great stars already made in AE or in the immediate afterglow. AE ended when Haitch got the belt.

Raw was unbearable when Bischoff handed Triple H the World Title.

 

[MrSinnister]

Raw was unbearable when Bischoff handed Triple H the World Title.

True, but that was knee deep in the Ruthless Agression. I mean when the McMahon-Helmsley Era tortured Rock and Foley fans for a full year. When DX and X-Pac got over exposed to all hell, and they make Kane a bytch (the first time). 1999-mid2000 was the diminishing returns of being a fan. Had Rock chasing the title for an entire year, and getting it for maybe a month at a time.

Then the roster got stacked, and it just didn't matter who won, as long as it wasn't HHH, but that's who held the belt for maybe 3 times the period of everyone else combined. Still had great moments, because of the ACTUAL GOAT, King Kurt, Jericho, awesome tag team division, women's divison, but boy...so much wasted money to make people worship HHH's roid comeup.

 

[Da King]

Writing sucked when he was there in the attitude era.


Art Barr

Peak of wrestling sucked now?

 

[Da King]

First of all, fire Dunn.

He's teflon status, his dad going into the burning car to save some shyt for Vince Sr. guaranteed him a lifetime job

 

[Bryan Danielson]

GOTDAMN man..... I haven't watched Raw in like 2 weeks and I gave up on Smackdown about a year ago.

I do gotta catch up to find out what's going on

 

[Jmare007]

He's teflon status, his dad going into the burning car to save some shyt for Vince Sr. guaranteed him a lifetime job

I know, but my point is that nothing is really gonna change while Dunn is still in charge of producing TV and being on Vince's ear.

 

[JuvenileHell]

I know, but my point is that nothing is really gonna change while Dunn is still in charge of producing TV and being on Vince's ear.

True, but Vince don't give a fukk, homies over marks breh

 

[JerseyBoy23]

By January the ratings will be back and they'll get over a million subscriptions during March so I think nothing will change. Vince has unofficially thrown in the towel during football season for the past 15 years yet wrestling sites haven't noticed the pattern yet.

We can all complain about this but they are still gonna sell out Jerry World which reinforces that they can do whatever they want during the whole year as long as WrestleMania sells.

 

[The Devil's Advocate]

Facts:
WWE RAW has had a steady decline in ratings for 15 straight years since he left
WCW was dead before he got there yet he gets all the blame for it, Ric Flair recently came out and said the same thing that it's laughable he gets pinned for it all
WWE has only created 2-3 legit stars in the 15 years since he left, Cena, Brock, ?
TNA ratings even dropped when he got the booking taken away from him

People always say Russo is trash without the filter of Vince, well, Vince has been the filter of WWE for the last 15 years and has seen half his audience leave. Can't blame the TV market because NFL MNF ratings have gone up under same conditions.

Wrasslin will be doing numbers in the 1's this time next year

the internet happened

people knew it was super fake... but it's even harder to keep that going with these same people hugging it out on twitter... having podcasts about all the insider secrets... having videos go up with 15 seconds of replaying something that looks fake.... etc etc etc


and this is me as someone who hasn't even read the thread nor watched wrestling since a kid.... but you can see this shyt was falling off just by social media posts

 

[GoddamnyamanProf]

The only problem with this is that we are unfortunately in the "Indie" era and fans want a guy that looks like Daniel Bryan rather than a strong looking dude like Goldberg,Batista etc...

No, they want guys that are good workers and entertaining. Roided or not.

 

[K.Y.R.I.E]

No, they want guys that are good workers and entertaining. Roided or not.

 

[ExodusNirvana]

No reason to bring back Russo when they could swallow their pride and give the book to Heyman

People don't realize that some of the best RAWs over the past few years were written by Paul Heyman and Dutch Mantel

 

[Da King]

the internet happened

people knew it was super fake... but it's even harder to keep that going with these same people hugging it out on twitter... having podcasts about all the insider secrets... having videos go up with 15 seconds of replaying something that looks fake.... etc etc etc


and this is me as someone who hasn't even read the thread nor watched wrestling since a kid.... but you can see this shyt was falling off just by social media posts

And people thought it was a shoot from 97-00?

Trash writing over the years killed the product and permanently lost half the fans. People will check in around Wrasslemania because it's such a huge event, then check out again