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WWE TV 12/03 - 12/09 Bolsonaro made me abandon my sports team


KawadaSmile

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After last week's death by a thousand papercuts to my eyeballs, I'm officially sitting out Raw this week and next.  Will watch some recent shows from Japan on Monday nights, whether DG, Stardom or AJPW.  I'll be back in 2 weeks post-TLC for the Rumble build heading into Mania season.  Still tuning into Smackdown every week, and I've got this on DVR so if by chance something gets rave reviews I can always catch it but this feels like a well earned break.

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1 hour ago, NintendoLogic said:

When I read the show recaps, it seems like 90% of the segments end with a babyface being laid out by the heels. I don't know why anyone would want to watch a show that's a constant bummer.

This week they seemed to go out of their way to do the opposite, with the exception of Roode getting squashed 3 on 1.

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2 hours ago, Jmare007 said:

Houston did not care much for RAW it seems.

Yeah, the images that are going around (just google "RAW Houston Attendance") are reminiscent of some of those really sparsely attended SD shows from years back. They should absolutely be worried. By my estimate, its look like they had maybe 6k-7k people in an arena that can hold 18k.

While Vince and Co. may have been able to turn a blind eye to those because SD has always been the "B-show," is taped, and doesn't have the brand power of RAW, this show's failure to sell tickets is (at least) "half inexcusable" - which is to say that when you build your whole late summer/fall programming of your show around guys you knew wouldn't be around in November/December (namely DX, Undertaker, and Lesnar), you're running a big risk for when those guys aren't around. Then, when unforeseen instances take away your next biggest names (Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman), you're left with big gaps on top. 

As has been said countless times, the entirety of the brand is what seems to be driving the ticket sales more than one specific act (hasn't it been confirmed that Lesnar's advertised presence doesn't generate that much of a boost compared to non-Lesnar shows?), so it can't be interpolated that RAW attendance has do with any failure on the part of Rousey or Rollins or any other specific talent. What I think it does show is that these bigger names (Rousey, Rollins, Ambrose) are not big enough on their own to entice people to RAW and the rest of the roster - even acts I personally love - have been made to be such "small potatoes" that the sum of the parts are worthless. Considering that Banks, Bayley, Balor, AOP, and The Revival were, at different times, key parts of NXT shows that had no problem filling 2-3k auditoriums without a TV show or anything more than print/radio advertisements, this just goes to show how poorly the Creative team has done in making any of these acts worth watching/supporting.

And the fact that this was in Houston matters too. The greater Houston population is something like 6.5 million people. I live in Cleveland, where the area population is closer to 2 million people. We both have indoor arenas that seat 18k. That tells me that filling an 18k seat arena in Houston in December shouldn't be that tough if you've got 3 times the population.

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Plus, Houston is usually one of WWE's stronger cities.

It really is astounding that this company has managed to achieve record profitability when interest in the product has never been lower by most metrics (to wit, they actually lost money on house shows last quarter). Maybe the contrarian take that Vince fell into success is spot on. Maybe not entirely, more like 75%.

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And it wasn't just Houston that didn't turn up last night. RAW posted its worst ever rating (an average of 2.29 across 3 hours) ratings this week.

I'm not sure if Vince is in panic mode or not. We'll find out on Monday if we get some sort of "shake up." I wouldn't be surprised to see Vince himself on the show or maybe Shane. Maybe they bring back Owens or Strowman early (not to wrestle, but just to appear and lend some spark). Is Wyatt still around? What brand is he even on? Cena's due to come back soon, right? To promote Bumblebee?

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7 hours ago, NintendoLogic said:

Plus, Houston is usually one of WWE's stronger cities.

It really is astounding that this company has managed to achieve record profitability when interest in the product has never been lower by most metrics (to wit, they actually lost money on house shows last quarter). Maybe the contrarian take that Vince fell into success is spot on. Maybe not entirely, more like 75%.

Holy crap, I didn't know that.

4 hours ago, SirEdger said:

. It's kind of surreal that Vince actually isn't in panic mode over poor attendance for RAW.

I remember being shocked when he didn't panic when Rollins and Owens did bad ratings (and didn't help house show business either), specially because those were the kind of guys  - specially Owens - he would try to course correct ASAP when any metric didn't went in their favor. At this point I think he either believes the TV deals are in no danger whatsoever no matter what, and/or he's too focused on the new XFL :lol:

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The last time they were in this situation - Raw sucked, SD consistently delivered - was the Fall/Spring of 2016/17. And their brilliant solution was to "shake up" the rosters just enough to make sure both shows sucked again.

... So those of you holding out hope for a shakeup may want to be careful what you wish for. I mean, at least SmackDown is good for now. Enjoy that and let Raw continue to dog it. If one show has to be a total mess for the other to be serviceable, then so be it.

Just please, for the love of god, keep Seth Rollins and your fantasy booking of him in the Mania main event far, far away from the actual A-show.

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  • paul sosnowski changed the title to WWE TV 12/03 - 12/09 Bolsonaro made me abandon my sports team

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