Jeremy said:The New Day's promo on country music is the greatest thing I have ever seen.![]()
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The quality of the show pretty much reflects the ratings. Hour 1 was fun, but it was pretty bad after that. To be fair, they are down a lot of talent. Not only did they have to change all their plans on a dime when Rollins got hurt, but they really miss Cena as well. Orton still has star power and Cesaro is the internet darling. And they're not around either. Having Sheamus take Rollins' place is like Brandon Weeden taking over for Tony Romo.Craig_MiamiFL said:Looks like they're in for a rough ride FELLA.
Monday's 11/23 edition of WWE RAW averaged 2.964 million viewers, down approximately 10% from last week. This is the first time RAW has dipped below 3 million viewers since the show expanded to 3 hours back in July 2012. Here's the hourly breakdown:
- Hour 1: 3,190,000
- Hour 2: 2,990,000
- Hour 3: 2,712,000
To be fair, they have horrible writers and they should all be fired. Between NXT and the main roster they probably have more talent than at any point since WCW died, and they have no clue how to use any of them.The quality of the show pretty much reflects the ratings. Hour 1 was fun, but it was pretty bad after that. To be fair, they are down a lot of talent. Not only did they have to change all their plans on a dime when Rollins got hurt, but they really miss Cena as well. Orton still has star power and Cesaro is the internet darling. And they're not around either. Having Sheamus take Rollins' place is like Brandon Weeden taking over for Tony Romo.Craig_MiamiFL said:Looks like they're in for a rough ride FELLA.
Monday's 11/23 edition of WWE RAW averaged 2.964 million viewers, down approximately 10% from last week. This is the first time RAW has dipped below 3 million viewers since the show expanded to 3 hours back in July 2012. Here's the hourly breakdown:
- Hour 1: 3,190,000
- Hour 2: 2,990,000
- Hour 3: 2,712,000
To be fair, they have horrible writers and they should all be fired. Between NXT and the main roster they probably have more talent than at any point since WCW died, and they have no clue how to use any of them.The quality of the show pretty much reflects the ratings. Hour 1 was fun, but it was pretty bad after that. To be fair, they are down a lot of talent. Not only did they have to change all their plans on a dime when Rollins got hurt, but they really miss Cena as well. Orton still has star power and Cesaro is the internet darling. And they're not around either. Having Sheamus take Rollins' place is like Brandon Weeden taking over for Tony Romo.Craig_MiamiFL said:Looks like they're in for a rough ride FELLA.
Monday's 11/23 edition of WWE RAW averaged 2.964 million viewers, down approximately 10% from last week. This is the first time RAW has dipped below 3 million viewers since the show expanded to 3 hours back in July 2012. Here's the hourly breakdown:
- Hour 1: 3,190,000
- Hour 2: 2,990,000
- Hour 3: 2,712,000
Don't matter whether those guys are healthy or not. Ratings were plummeting anyway. Will only expedite the downward spiral. Until they overhaul the writing team, they'll continue to go down.
Texas natives Austin/HBK indicate they won't wrestle, Rock reportedly unavailable, HHH isn't that type of draw, Hogan can barely walk, Cena/Lesnar's already been done, Taker should be done. You know things are getting thin when Goldberg's name gets brought up. The guy was a flop in WWE over a decade ago. Batista's last return was a flop & simply isn't a wrestling draw at that level.Two words... David ArquetteSo WWE wants 100k in Dallas for Mania....
I get just the Mania experience is going to bring in a significant amount of people but how the #### will they ever bring in anything close to that?Texas natives Austin/HBK indicate they won't wrestle, Rock reportedly unavailable, HHH isn't that type of draw, Hogan can barely walk, Cena/Lesnar's already been done, Taker should be done. You know things are getting thin when Goldberg's name gets brought up. The guy was a flop in WWE over a decade ago. Batista's last return was a flop & simply isn't a wrestling draw at that level.
Hell they just drew only 8k for a RAW this past week & lowest rating in 20 years. I don't think they could paper the whole thing and get 100k. I hope those big screens in the stadium are great because you aren't gonna see the ring action from 1/2 that stadium. Watching wrestling from stadium venues is absolutely awful. Wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
At least he never submitted to the Fingerpoke of Doom.Two words... David ArquetteSo WWE wants 100k in Dallas for Mania....
I get just the Mania experience is going to bring in a significant amount of people but how the #### will they ever bring in anything close to that?Texas natives Austin/HBK indicate they won't wrestle, Rock reportedly unavailable, HHH isn't that type of draw, Hogan can barely walk, Cena/Lesnar's already been done, Taker should be done. You know things are getting thin when Goldberg's name gets brought up. The guy was a flop in WWE over a decade ago. Batista's last return was a flop & simply isn't a wrestling draw at that level.
Hell they just drew only 8k for a RAW this past week & lowest rating in 20 years. I don't think they could paper the whole thing and get 100k. I hope those big screens in the stadium are great because you aren't gonna see the ring action from 1/2 that stadium. Watching wrestling from stadium venues is absolutely awful. Wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
There's a feeling within WWE that some fans see Reigns as the corporate pick, so he gets booed by some of them at WWE TV tapings and pay-per-view events. The solution appears to be to keep having The Authority screw Reigns and keep him from the title, which they hope will cause the same fans to get behind Reigns and want him to win the title.
WWE officials hope fans get behind Reigns and support him before they "pull the trigger" on his big push as the centerpiece of the company, which you could say they have already done based on how he's booked.
It's just not going to work. People will never sympathy cheer for a 6'3 270 monster. The Corporate/Authority heel way was the way to get him cheered outta the building down the road. Every single top face of the past 20 years made his way as a top face by establishing himself as a heel.....with the crowd then pushing them face. Why for some reason they think Reigns will be different is beyond me.WWE still wants to put the strap on Reigns
There's a feeling within WWE that some fans see Reigns as the corporate pick, so he gets booed by some of them at WWE TV tapings and pay-per-view events. The solution appears to be to keep having The Authority screw Reigns and keep him from the title, which they hope will cause the same fans to get behind Reigns and want him to win the title.WWE officials hope fans get behind Reigns and support him before they "pull the trigger" on his big push as the centerpiece of the company, which you could say they have already done based on how he's booked.
It's like Vince is still booking like he's trying to put the AWA out of business.It's just not going to work. People will never sympathy cheer for a 6'3 270 monster. The Corporate/Authority heel way was the way to get him cheered outta the building down the road. Every single top face of the past 20 years made his way as a top face by establishing himself as a heel.....with the crowd then pushing them face. Why for some reason they think Reigns will be different is beyond me.WWE still wants to put the strap on Reigns
There's a feeling within WWE that some fans see Reigns as the corporate pick, so he gets booed by some of them at WWE TV tapings and pay-per-view events. The solution appears to be to keep having The Authority screw Reigns and keep him from the title, which they hope will cause the same fans to get behind Reigns and want him to win the title.WWE officials hope fans get behind Reigns and support him before they "pull the trigger" on his big push as the centerpiece of the company, which you could say they have already done based on how he's booked.
Sad to see how awful the writing is. Product is just overexposed and unwatchable with the amount of terrible writing (and you can go months w/o watching a show and still have not missed anything).. I had hope they'd turn it around with a tournament. If anything, it got worse after it.
There's nothing talent can do with bad writing and no freedom to do anything on their own.
Vince: * bangs on table * THAT'S IT! GOTTABE, THAT'S EFFIN' GENIUS! WANNA COME ON STAFF AND WRITE FOR US???Maybe the ratings will get so bad we'll get TV-14 again and more New Day skits amped up further. Doubt it. I bet we see smackdown live on Tuesday.
Regarding the "30 For 30" special that Ric Flair has been filming, Vince McMahon reportedly signed off on allowing ESPN to use their archival footage for the special. Flair spent four hours being interviewed earlier this month and they were filming backstage at WWE Survivor Series in Atlanta.
The piece will reportedly cover Flair's entire career, his personal life, financial issues, Reid Flair's death, the 1975 plane crash and more. There will be a focus on the 1980s when he was at the peak of his career as NWA World Heavyweight Champion with the Four Horsemen.
Straight Shoot was talking about "sleeper MVPs" for 2016. Those wrestlers that come out of nowhere and really do something big. It got me to thinking, and my pick is going to be Corey Graves. They are giving him a ton of content on the Network, and I wouldn't be surprised if he is doing Smackdown and/or RAW by this time next year. I'm sure Vince hates his style, but it's obvious that he is a HHH guy, and as that exchange of power continues to happen, I would expect to see more Graves on the big shows going forward.What the WWE needs as much as they need wrestling talent and better writing is another Jim Ross. I've been watching all the WWE PPVs since I got the network about a year ago and I'm up to 1998 now. He was so good at making every match sound like the fate of the world was at stake. As I was watching I tried to image Michael Cole calling some of those matches. :X I don't think the attitude era would have been half as successful without Jim Ross (though still a lot better than today's product, obviously). Ross has said that he didn't know the script ahead of time, so he could call the match spontaneously like he was a real sports announcer. I don't believe they do that anymore, which I think is a mistake.
Obviously that's just 1 of many areas they need to improve, but it struck me how different it used to be. Now you just wait for the buzz words. "Lunatic Fringe (or "unhinged") "Lass kicker" "Vintage Orton" "Uso Crazy". It never stops sounding like you're watching a commercial. Stop trying to sell me T-shirts in the middle of a match.
But he will never be the play by play guy. Agree though he's great as an analyst and should be in the JBL chair very soon.Straight Shoot was talking about "sleeper MVPs" for 2016. Those wrestlers that come out of nowhere and really do something big. It got me to thinking, and my pick is going to be Corey Graves. They are giving him a ton of content on the Network, and I wouldn't be surprised if he is doing Smackdown and/or RAW by this time next year. I'm sure Vince hates his style, but it's obvious that he is a HHH guy, and as that exchange of power continues to happen, I would expect to see more Graves on the big shows going forward.What the WWE needs as much as they need wrestling talent and better writing is another Jim Ross. I've been watching all the WWE PPVs since I got the network about a year ago and I'm up to 1998 now. He was so good at making every match sound like the fate of the world was at stake. As I was watching I tried to image Michael Cole calling some of those matches. :X I don't think the attitude era would have been half as successful without Jim Ross (though still a lot better than today's product, obviously). Ross has said that he didn't know the script ahead of time, so he could call the match spontaneously like he was a real sports announcer. I don't believe they do that anymore, which I think is a mistake.
Obviously that's just 1 of many areas they need to improve, but it struck me how different it used to be. Now you just wait for the buzz words. "Lunatic Fringe (or "unhinged") "Lass kicker" "Vintage Orton" "Uso Crazy". It never stops sounding like you're watching a commercial. Stop trying to sell me T-shirts in the middle of a match.
"He calls them his fireflies!"What the WWE needs as much as they need wrestling talent and better writing is another Jim Ross. I've been watching all the WWE PPVs since I got the network about a year ago and I'm up to 1998 now. He was so good at making every match sound like the fate of the world was at stake. As I was watching I tried to image Michael Cole calling some of those matches. :X I don't think the attitude era would have been half as successful without Jim Ross (though still a lot better than today's product, obviously). Ross has said that he didn't know the script ahead of time, so he could call the match spontaneously like he was a real sports announcer. I don't believe they do that anymore, which I think is a mistake.
Obviously that's just 1 of many areas they need to improve, but it struck me how different it used to be. Now you just wait for the buzz words. "Lunatic Fringe (or "unhinged") "Lass kicker" "Vintage Orton" "Uso Crazy". It never stops sounding like you're watching a commercial. Stop trying to sell me T-shirts in the middle of a match.
If they can't improve ratings tonight, they might be in bigger trouble than they thought.You guys do realize that RAW has a chance to pull a decent number tonight, don't you? The Browns are on MNF.
If they started the show with Triple H spouting nonsense and 'Cult of Personality' started playing I would lose my mind. I'd definitely be back as an every week watcher.Yeah, unfortunately I think Punk really is done with wrestling. He would be one of the only people who can save this mess, though.In "That'll Never Happen Land", I'd like to see McMahon get so desperate that he buries things with CM Punk and he saves him from an embarrassing MMA run, all while bringing back one of the only people who has a possibility to save the ratings disaster they have going for them.
Now Cesaro is out 4 to 6 months with a shoulder injury. Just gets worse and worse for the WWE.
FINAL RAW FOR FOLEY?WWE is at a real crossroads. Allow me to paraphrase Albert Einstein, who said "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results". Wrestling historians can argue about when the #AttitudeEra in wrestling officially began. But for me, it will always be at a meeting called by Mr McMahon in the Spring of 1997, where he admitted that what had worked for them for so long in the past (I interpreted that to mean one-dimensional characters that tended to be job-related) was no longer working, and that if they were going to survive, the wrestlers themselves were going to have to step up, and help create those dimensions that would establish the emotional bond between the wrestlers and the fans - part of the lifeblood of professional wrestling.
Today's WWE Superstars (I'm including the women here, since the term "Diva" had its time, and that time is done) are at a distinct disadvantage in some ways. They can't flip birds, and use the colorful language. They can't bleed - even when the situation seems ripe for it. Man, Roman Reigns's life would be so much easier if he could survive vicious assaults the way guys in my era did. But all the blood, the language and the violence paled in comparison to the real secret weapon of the Attitude Era; the FREEDOM TO CREATE...THE FREEDOM TO TRY...THE FREEDOM TO FAIL - the idea that going down swinging (I hope I'm not losing you guys in all the non-baseball playing countries) was almost as important as hitting the ball out of the park - as long as you took your best swings. There's a difference between playing to win, and playing not to lose: one breeds confidence, the other breeds fear.It's the difference between cutting the type of promos Stone Cold Steve Austin and Dwayne The Rock Johnson gave, and the cookie-cutter approach all too often employed these days by WWE creative. One style allowed for creativity and emotion. The other calls for memorization and recitation.
I hope I don't sound like I'm picking on WWE. There is a big part of me that loves this company, and always will. Why else would I be up at 4:15 am, writing things that are likely to banish me deeper and deeper into the WWE doghouse? One of my favorite wrestlers proposed a storyline that would allow me a four of five week storyline that would allow me to dig in deep, and swing for the fences - and in the process, maybe advance a few of the super-talented but underutilized athletes on the roster. I would love to do it....but I doubt it's going to happen. After all, I might want to do something crazy like go out there without a script, and try to create some real emotion - in other words, the type of thing that saved WWE in the late 90's.
The talent pool has never been deeper. But the creative flow is stagnant...and it's been stinking for a while. I quoted Einstein to begin this thing. Let me conclude with the immortal words of Owen Heart: "Enough's enough: it's time for a change!"
i'm still flipping back and forth. I need 7.7 points from Buck Allen tonight. WWE needs to find a way to make fantasy wrestling...er..."sports entertainment" a thing.You guys do realize that RAW has a chance to pull a decent number tonight, don't you? The Browns are on MNF.
How can you forget the CLASSIC TNA vs GFW Feud of 2015?????Seriously, when was the last time JJ jobbed to anyone?
That just played out on Twitter right? There were no actual matches, correct?How can you forget the CLASSIC TNA vs GFW Feud of 2015?????Seriously, when was the last time JJ jobbed to anyone?
They allegedly aired on something called "Destination America".That just played out on Twitter right? There were no actual matches, correct?How can you forget the CLASSIC TNA vs GFW Feud of 2015?????Seriously, when was the last time JJ jobbed to anyone?
If you have a match, and no one sees it, does it still suck?They allegedly aired on something called "Destination America".That just played out on Twitter right? There were no actual matches, correct?How can you forget the CLASSIC TNA vs GFW Feud of 2015?????Seriously, when was the last time JJ jobbed to anyone?
New Day annoyed me a great deal when they started getting some real time. Now they are one of my favorite things. The trombone is the best thing ever. It's not a sax or a trumpet, which is a more attractive instrument and easier to carry. It's a ####### trombone. Awesome.I loved New Day going for the cheap heat by wiping the sweat off their bodies using a Terrible Towel.![]()
This.New Day annoyed me a great deal when they started getting some real time. Now they are one of my favorite things. The trombone is the best thing ever. It's not a sax or a trumpet, which is a more attractive instrument and easier to carry. It's a ####### trombone. Awesome.I loved New Day going for the cheap heat by wiping the sweat off their bodies using a Terrible Towel.![]()