The Ratings thread

Mr.Nice Guy

jaykhunter wrote: »

I don't get ya at all. Most of the biggest draws in the last 30 years's strongest asset is charisma/promos, not wrestling - Hogan, Rock, Austin (as SCSA) etc. Cena's a great storyteller/charismatic first and foremost. Financially/ratings-wise WCW peaked with the nWo angle, at the time main event matches generally stunk (with Hogan, Hall/Nash, Piper, Leno etc). TNA generally lose money, at best made a very small profit, so it's not really anything worth discussing.

I mean it's not an either/or situation. You don't have to choose between the two. You can have both.

WCW and TNA, however, went down the road of dismissing the wrestling component (that's what happens when you let the toxic Vince Russo run things) and the result was the companies died, or are in the process of dying.

jaykhunter wrote:

2016 is a banner year for in-ring quality in WWE, but there's very little in the way of great kayfabe promos and storylines. If athletic contests drummed up fans we wouldn't be getting graphs like the RAW ratings 511 posted.

The graphs are because of a multitude of factors: not being responsive to what the fans want, poor writing, emasculating the supposed superstars which makes them not appear like superstars at all, burning out the audience by going to 3 hours in order to placate their networks (added to excessive amounts of PPVs), lack of stars of the quality of the names you mentioned, wins and losses not meaning anything for the most part, to name but a few key factors.

It's mind-boggling to me that someone could actually say that wrestling needs less of an emphasis on athletic competition these days. If this were true then a company like TNA would be doing superbly well right now - they're instead struggling to stay afloat.

Which brand has a better perception amongst the fanbase right now, WWE or NXT? And which brand has more of an emphasis on athletic competition?

Brock Lesnar is probably their biggest draw. How many whacky storylines does he get involved in?

What company would be considered WWE's main rival right now? UFC. Many of WWE's former fans have given up and followed that. They haven't gone there for whackiness, fingerpokes of doom etc. They want to see feuds treated seriously, and where wins and losses matter.

Neil3030

The highest rating Raw ever drew was an 8.4 on May 10, 1999. The lineup went:

Recap: Recap from last week
Brief shot: Corp Ministry enter one side of the building, Union on the other
Match: Kane v Billy Gunn
Brief shot: Corp Ministry and Union heading to the ring
Promo: Corp Ministry and Union (with appearence by Commissioner Shawn Michaels who books a bunch of matches for that night)
Match: Big Show vs Paul Bearer
Match: Debra vs Sable (well, an evening gown match, so not really a match - but ended in a guitar shot from Jarrett to Venis)
Brief shot: Vince, Austin, Rock, Shane, HHH, Taker backstage preparing for their match
Match: Bossman vs Test
Brief shot: Cactus walking backstage
Interview: Val Venis and Jeff Jarrett
Match: Cactus Jack vs Medeon & Viscera
Interview: Chyna, re: match later with Shamrock
Match: Farooq vs Bradshaw (Union as lumberjacks)
Brief shot: Patterson & Brisco walking backstage
Match: Patterson & Brisco vs The Mean Street Posse (losers fired)
Interview: Shamrock, re: match later with Chyna
Match: Jeff Jarrett vs Val Venis
Brief shot: Shamrock and Chyna walking backstage
Vignette: Beaver Cleavage
Match: Shamrock vs Chyna
Match: Austin, Rock & Vince vs Undertaker, HHH and Shane

In 2 hours, they had: 10 matches, 1 recap, 6 brief backstage shots, 1 Promo, 3 Interviews

In last week's RAW, drawing a 1.88, the lineup went:

Recap: events leading up to the Owens vs Reigns main event that night
Promo: Mick Foley, Charlotte, Dana Brooke, Bayley, Sasha Banks
Match: Banks vs. Bayley vs. Dana Brooke.
Recap: events leading up to the Cesaro vs Sheamus match later that night
Backstage segment: Dana and Charlotte
Backstage segment: Shining stars, R-Truth, Enzo and Cass
Interview: Owens and Jericho
Match: Bo Dallas vs. Brandon Scott (squash)
Recap: events leading up to Zayn's appearance on the Highlight Reel later
Vignette: Connor's Cure fundraiser
Promo: Zayn and Jericho (Highlight reel)
Match: Cesaro vs Sheamus (match 5 of a best of 7)
Backstage segment: Rollins and Mick Foley
Brief shot: match announced between Zayn and Jericho at next PPV
Recap: events leading up to Alicia Fox vs Nia Jax
Match: Alicia Fox vs Nia Jax
Promo: New Day and The Club
Match: Woods & Kingston vs The Club
Vignette: Cruiserweight classic
Promo: Jinder Mahal
Match: Mahal vs Swagger
Brief shot: Enzo and Cass walk towards ring
Match: Epico vs Enzo
Vignette: Braun Strowman
Backstage segment: Owens, Rollins and Foley
Match: Reigns vs Owens (interference from Rusev)

In 3 hours, they had: 8 matches, 4 recaps, 4 promos, 4 backstage segments, 3 vignettes, 1 interview and 2 brief shots. So in an extra hour of TV, they actually had LESS wrestling matches, and padded out the remaining time with filler. In 1999, a channel hopper would most likely tune into a match, and may stick around. In 2016, a channel hopper will most likely tune into Mick Foley talking to someone.

Chain Smoker

Match count is a very wishy washy statistic to use. I wouldn't be surprised if they're averaging four or five times as much match time as they were during the russo era, including in the example you gave there.

ERG89

Neil3030 wrote: »

The highest rating Raw ever drew was an 8.4 on May 10, 1999. The lineup went:

Recap: Recap from last week
Brief shot: Corp Ministry enter one side of the building, Union on the other
Match: Kane v Billy Gunn
Brief shot: Corp Ministry and Union heading to the ring
Promo: Corp Ministry and Union (with appearence by Commissioner Shawn Michaels who books a bunch of matches for that night)
Match: Big Show vs Paul Bearer
Match: Debra vs Sable (well, an evening gown match, so not really a match - but ended in a guitar shot from Jarrett to Venis)
Brief shot: Vince, Austin, Rock, Shane, HHH, Taker backstage preparing for their match
Match: Bossman vs Test
Brief shot: Cactus walking backstage
Interview: Val Venis and Jeff Jarrett
Match: Cactus Jack vs Medeon & Viscera
Interview: Chyna, re: match later with Shamrock
Match: Farooq vs Bradshaw (Union as lumberjacks)
Brief shot: Patterson & Brisco walking backstage
Match: Patterson & Brisco vs The Mean Street Posse (losers fired)
Interview: Shamrock, re: match later with Chyna
Match: Jeff Jarrett vs Val Venis
Brief shot: Shamrock and Chyna walking backstage
Vignette: Beaver Cleavage
Match: Shamrock vs Chyna
Match: Austin, Rock & Vince vs Undertaker, HHH and Shane

In 2 hours, they had: 10 matches, 1 recap, 6 brief backstage shots, 1 Promo, 3 Interviews

In last week's RAW, drawing a 1.88, the lineup went:

Recap: events leading up to the Owens vs Reigns main event that night
Promo: Mick Foley, Charlotte, Dana Brooke, Bayley, Sasha Banks
Match: Banks vs. Bayley vs. Dana Brooke.
Recap: events leading up to the Cesaro vs Sheamus match later that night
Backstage segment: Dana and Charlotte
Backstage segment: Shining stars, R-Truth, Enzo and Cass
Interview: Owens and Jericho
Match: Bo Dallas vs. Brandon Scott (squash)
Recap: events leading up to Zayn's appearance on the Highlight Reel later
Vignette: Connor's Cure fundraiser
Promo: Zayn and Jericho (Highlight reel)
Match: Cesaro vs Sheamus (match 5 of a best of 7)
Backstage segment: Rollins and Mick Foley
Brief shot: match announced between Zayn and Jericho at next PPV
Recap: events leading up to Alicia Fox vs Nia Jax
Match: Alicia Fox vs Nia Jax
Promo: New Day and The Club
Match: Woods & Kingston vs The Club
Vignette: Cruiserweight classic
Promo: Jinder Mahal
Match: Mahal vs Swagger
Brief shot: Enzo and Cass walk towards ring
Match: Epico vs Enzo
Vignette: Braun Strowman
Backstage segment: Owens, Rollins and Foley
Match: Reigns vs Owens (interference from Rusev)

In 3 hours, they had: 8 matches, 4 recaps, 4 promos, 4 backstage segments, 3 vignettes, 1 interview and 2 brief shots. So in an extra hour of TV, they actually had LESS wrestling matches, and padded out the remaining time with filler. In 1999, a channel hopper would most likely tune into a match, and may stick around. In 2016, a channel hopper will most likely tune into Mick Foley talking to someone.

Dat starpower. Nobody today stands out a star these days, even Cena or Orton aren't a big deal now compared to 2 years ago.

Blue_Dabadee

If they really care about ratings then they should quit uploading RAW footage onto their YouTube channel (even though I don't want that to happen). People like me are lazy to watch entire thing, so I just watch highlights on YT for about 30 mins.

There is very little monetary gain from YouTube anyway.

Itssoeasy

So i see raw did a poor rating but the NFL had a poor rating for MNF last night aswell. I mean the Donald trump Hillary Clinton debate was always going to affect the ratings other tv shows got last night.

511

This week's rating is 1.75. The third-lowest rating ever.

Second-lowest was a 1.6 on the 30th of December 1996.

The lowest was a 1.5 on the 23rd of December 1996.

The lowest Nitro rating was a 1.7 on the 11th of December 2000.

511

Frank O. Pinion

From the F4W daily update:

Sports Business Journal has a study on how viewership for sports on television has gotten older over the past decade. The study found that the median age for those watching pro wrestling on TV was 54 years old in 2016, which is up from 28 in 2000 and 33 in 2006. Dave Meltzer noted on Twitter that the average age of those watching Raw and SmackDown is in the 40s.

That should be a worrying trend for WWE.

Loughc

Frank O. Pinion wrote: »

From the F4W daily update:

Sports Business Journal has a study on how viewership for sports on television has gotten older over the past decade. The study found that the median age for those watching pro wrestling on TV was 54 years old in 2016, which is up from 28 in 2000 and 33 in 2006. Dave Meltzer noted on Twitter that the average age of those watching Raw and SmackDown is in the 40s.

That should be a worrying trend for WWE.

Very worrying, there's very little merch opportunities in that market and they are marketing themselves towards the family/kids market which is completely alienating the viewers they actually have.

ERG89

Frank O. Pinion wrote:

Dave Meltzer noted on Twitter that the average age of those watching Raw and SmackDown is in the 40s.

I feel like I have aged that much after watching them to be fair Dave.
How are new fans meant to commit to 5 hours of TV a week it's too much to ask of new viewers every week in the long run. Especially when those 5 hours are mediocre most weeks.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Haven't they hit historic new lows again in recent weeks for RAW?