WWE TV 12/05 - 12/11

[goc]

My simple, unasked for, answer is that they need to stop booking week to week and insert more mysteries and surprises and payoffs. Where does that fall on "overused talking points" bingo?

I don't disagree with this at all. There's really nothing about WWE TV that is "can't miss" right now. If you miss Raw it's not like you really are going to miss some big storyline progression. The biggest surprise they've done in the past year was HHH's return to help Kevin Owens win the Universal Title and like 4 months later we've still had no real follow up.

[stro]

WWE TV needs more swerves. There's such a thing as too much wrestling, and WWE TV currently puts out way too much wrestling per week to keep people interested.

[WingedEagle]

 

 

Do any of the 'WWE'S RATINGS ARE DOWN THEY ARE GONNA BE IN BIG TROUBLE' types actually bother to pay attention to the overall TV landscape? Ratings are going down across the board, WWE is still the highest rated show on USA Network, helping to boost the network's overall average. It's still one of the top 25 shows on cable.

 

They are not in a bubble here, people are cord cutting more and more. To the point where ESPN tried to bully Nielsen into retracting a report it had that said ESPN lost 621,000 subscribers. Nielsen ratings are becoming more and more outdated as they fail to measure the growing ways people can watch TV without cable or satellite. Nielsen isn't factoring in Hulu, Sling TV, Playstation Vue or whatever else is out there.

 

They certainly do, and Meltzer for one regularly points out how even with the slide in ratings, USA's overall network ratings would take a tremendous hit absent WWE programming. Its a very different universe than 5, much less 15, years ago. But given how TV money is the backbone of the company its undoubtedly a top concern with an eventual renegotiation on the horizon and no desperate suitors forcing USA to ante up.

 

 

I'm not talking about someone like Meltzer who I know actually understands the overall trend. I'm talking about the hot take kings of twitter & message boards who regularly go off about 'THE RATINGS ARE SO BAD!!! WWE IS FUCKED!' without adding anything else to the conversation. There weren't any other suitors driving the price up on the last round of negotiations with USA and they still got a significant increase. It's not like the rest of television is gonna make some big rebound while only WWE ratings continue to go down.

 

 

Yes, but what do you expect from hot take kings? Quality of discussion in those circles won't be any better than it is for sports, politics, TV or any other medium.

[goc]

WWE TV needs more swerves. There's such a thing as too much wrestling, and WWE TV currently puts out way too much wrestling per week to keep people interested.

I agree with this but then you've got people complaining that Smackdown doesn't have enough "good, long matches" on TV because they actually spend a lot of time building up multiple feuds instead of putting 90% of their focus into whatever the next PPV main event is going to be.

[stro]

 

WWE TV needs more swerves. There's such a thing as too much wrestling, and WWE TV currently puts out way too much wrestling per week to keep people interested.

I agree with this but then you've got people complaining that Smackdown doesn't have enough "good, long matches" on TV because they actually spend a lot of time building up multiple feuds instead of putting 90% of their focus into whatever the next PPV main event is going to be.

 

There should be one, maybe two "good, long matches" on TV in a 2-3 hour show. What WWE does is put two people heading into a PPV match in a 15 minute TV match, then another one, then 15 minute tag, then expect you to give a shit when they have a 15 minute match at the PPV. Smackdown's roster is so thin as it is, the last thing they need is more "good, long TV matches", since that would mean endless rematches before a PPV match.

[sek69]

The much bigger worry as far as TV goes would be the sports bubble bursting entirely, and based on how fast ESPN is shedding subscribers it's going to happen much sooner than everyone thinks.

 

Basically ESPN set the tone for everyone getting higher TV rights fees by paying billions to the NFL, NBA, NCAA, et al. They're getting dangerously close to being at the point they won't have enough subscribers to cover the costs of the checks they wrote. When that particular shit hits the fan, it's going to trickle down to companies like WWE who are going to take a bath on their next contract talks. Every network is going to be able to claim poverty and lowball the hell out of everyone looking to negotiate a new deal.

 

The cold truth is that they could be doing Attitude Era TV ratings and it probably wouldn't matter since the money most likely won't be there no matter what. If that in fact happens, Vince is going to look like a genius for having the Network to fall back on so the company would at least have a life raft to hold on to.

[stro]

The sports bubble isn't bursting, though. Live sports are the only thing that draw huge ratings.

[sek69]

The sports bubble isn't bursting, though. Live sports are the only thing that draw huge ratings.

 

 

But people are cutting the cord, ESPN is losing millions of subs, and at the rate they are losing they won't be able to afford the cost of live sports. It's not that people aren't watching, but are changing how they watch in large enough numbers to start to make an impact.

[stro]

People aren't cutting the cord nearly as fast as these articles tech sites say. There are more young people who never get cable than people that cut their cable, and it's still 85% or more of households in the US that have cable.

[sek69]

It's not just what the tech sites say, it's what the network's own numbers say. The current market of paying boatloads of money for TV rights fees is not sustainable long term. Believe me when I say TV is very much a quarter-to-quarter industry and at some point they're going to have to pay the toll for thinking things will only go up.

[stro]

600K isn't as significant as it sounds when they have 90 million house holds.

[sek69]

It's death by a thousand paper cuts. By itself it's not a big deal but month after month it adds up. Plus they can't just increase what they charge cable/sat providers to make up the difference forever, when even the sports leagues themselves are starting up options to watch games without needing to be tied to a subscription.

 

So even if you're right and the monthly loss of subscribers isn't a killer, they're the middleman that the foundation is being laid to work around soon anyway. Either way is bad news for anyone looking for a big payout from a TV network in the future.

[Grimmas]

People aren't cutting the cord nearly as fast as these articles tech sites say. There are more young people who never get cable than people that cut their cable, and it's still 85% or more of households in the US that have cable.

Cable subscribers in Canada were cut byv25% last year.

[cpst]

600K isn't as significant as it sounds when they have 90 million house holds.

In the past year they lost more than 4 million subscribers. If they lose 3 million per year then by 2021 they'll only be breaking even on their broadcasting rights fees.

[Jimmy Redman]

Alexa Bliss is the fucking World Boss.

[cpst]

Alexa Bliss is the fucking World Boss.

It's pretty great that she went back to selling the fake injury at the end.

[funkdoc]

The sports bubble isn't bursting, though. Live sports are the only thing that draw huge ratings.

 

IIRC, college football and the NFL have both experienced over a 10% drop in ratings this year. the rest of the sports world has to be scared shitless at that, considering football has been the Teflon sport in the US for decades.

[sek69]

Interesting tidbit in the new WON, apparently Randy Orton doesn't think the indy veterans in the company kiss enough ass backstage or something:

 

 

 

“They’re not coming to us, and I remember just years ago, you were always seeking out that advice. It’s almost like some of these guys that have been in the indies 15 years think they know everything. It’s not that they don’t respect the business. I think that they just don’t understand what the respect for the business should be like backstage, if that even makes sense.

[Matt D]

Well Jericho and Revival were feuding up and down on twitter today, so there's that.

[Coffey]

What is a guy like Randy Orton gonna teach a guy like A.J. Styles? How not to get fired after constantly failing wellness or getting suspended?

[The Thread Killer]

What is a guy like Randy Orton gonna teach a guy like A.J. Styles? How not to get fired after constantly failing wellness or getting suspended?

 

Exactly. I don't even like Kevin Owens one little bit, but I have so much more respect for him than I do for a guy like Orton. Owens got himself trained, and spent years and years wrestling in armories and high school gyms for next to no money, in front of next to no people. Out of love of the business. I'll never forget seeing Kevin Steen bust his ass wrestling in front of a few hundred people at a county fair, and he hustled that night. Guys like him have paid dues twice over and don't owe guys like Orton a damn thing.

 

Meanwhile Orton spends a whopping year and a half in OVW, and spends the rest of his career on the gravy train, racking up a reputation for being a Class A Douche-nozzle in the process - but guys like Owens or Styles or Zayn are supposed to going to him for advice? If anything, it should be the other way around and Orton should be asking those guys what it's like to have to really pay your dues or work for the love of it. Orton is such a damn dolt.

[stro]

Guys like Orton,Cena, Mark Henry, Kane, even Health Slater definitely have things to teach 15 year indie vets who haven't worked for a company like WWE. None of it involves the wrestling part. Working for Excalibur and Delirious is not the same as working for Vince McMahon.

[El-P]

 

Interesting tidbit in the new WON, apparently Randy Orton doesn't think the indy veterans in the company kiss enough ass backstage or something:

 

 

“They’re not coming to us, and I remember just years ago, you were always seeking out that advice. It’s almost like some of these guys that have been in the indies 15 years think they know everything. It’s not that they don’t respect the business. I think that they just don’t understand what the respect for the business should be like backstage, if that even makes sense.

 

 

Hilarious and absurd on so many level. Randy Orton. A guy who "paid his dues to da business" by working nowhere but the WWE and getting pushed to the top straight away solely because of his family name, while remaining a black hole of work, promo an charisma for his entire career, the only thing getting him over being re-doing DDP's finishing gimmick. For more, see two posts above.

[Childs]

Orton has heard nothing but people calling him a great worker for the last 12 years. So I'm sure he truly believes he has a lot to offer, no matter how deluded that is.

[goc]

Guys like Orton,Cena, Mark Henry, Kane, even Health Slater definitely have things to teach 15 year indie vets who haven't worked for a company like WWE. None of it involves the wrestling part. Working for Excalibur and Delirious is not the same as working for Vince McMahon.

Congratulations on being the only person who has commented on that Orton quote that "gets it." As if the only thing there is to learn from veterans in WWE is "what are some cool moves I can do???"