Sherrif John Bunnell Posted December 15, 2020 Share Posted December 15, 2020 Those are dire numbers, especially for a go-home show. Things are only going to get worse if Rumble to Mania season has to take place in the Thunderdome. WWE is such a stale company at the moment, they need shot of Vince, Prichard and all their hangers on asap. I can barely even be arsed even reading Raw recaps anymore. This thread used to have a few pages of new posts every Tuesday morning, now it often doesn't have any since Jamie gave up the ghost. Smackdown is on some diddy channel in the States on Friday, so AEW could easily beat all 3 WWE shows in the 18-49 demo this week. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGoon Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 You do wonder how low things can go. There’ll be a bounce when fans come back and Mania feuds start building a bit, but I can’t see it being enough to fix those demo numbers. That is an entire generation that’s given up on the WWE product and I can’t really blame them. Outside of SmackDown Live in 16/17, I haven’t really been properly enthusiastic about the product since 2011, that’s nearly a full decade! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DA Baracus Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 Mind how they weren't going to ruin Keith Lee? They have so much talent but are so comically out of touch that they simply can't utilise them for some reason. They're determined to stick to the same shite that hasn't worked with the same guys who don't work. Alesteir Black, Ricochet, EC3, Shayna Bazler, Keith Lee, John Morrison, Ember Moon, Rhea Ripley, Finn Balor, Otis and so on; all talented folk, some massively so, and all utterly wasted. Worse, it's like they're being held down on purpose and not allowed to show what they can do. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameus Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 Do ratings really matter nowadays? I know back in the Monday Night Wars they really did mean something, but now? Genuine question. They have not coped well with Covid really. They started out with some decent ideas, really making use of the new situation (and a few wrestlers really took to it) but since that woeful attempt at MITB, it's been pretty dire. Feels like they're just treading water thinking "don't worry, fans'll be back soon", only they've been saying that since this began. It's morbid, and said a lot, but I expect the next big sea-change in the product is going to be when Vince snuffs it. And that's assuming Vince can actually die and won't just get put into another host body. Even then...would they just want to keep the status quo rather than change too much? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Gaines Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 Ratings will always be important when it comes to attracting advertisers, and therefore also when it comes time to negotiate contracts for TV. That's four years down the line though and a lot can happen between now and then. Ratings will always matter in US television to some extent. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodhull Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 It does not say much about AEW when WWE are struggling so much and their own ratings are still so poor. Obviously it's part of a wider trend of TV ratings in general but with so many people stopping watching WWE and most seemingly deciding to not bother watching any wrestling at all rather than the supposed new competition it has to be seen as a missed opportunity. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGoon Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 39 minutes ago, Rodhull said: It does not say much about AEW when WWE are struggling so much and their own ratings are still so poor. Obviously it's part of a wider trend of TV ratings in general but with so many people stopping watching WWE and most seemingly deciding to not bother watching any wrestling at all rather than the supposed new competition it has to be seen as a missed opportunity. Eh? AEW have literally overtaken WWE in the demos, and they’ve only been on the air 14 months. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodhull Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 Just now, TheGoon said: Eh? AEW have literally overtaken WWE in the demos, and they’ve only been on the air 14 months. The emphasis on the demos is just a crutch to hide the fact there are still very few people watching AEW at all. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FifeArab Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 If the rumours about Mania are true (Edge v Orton and Drew v Lee v Lesnar) I don’t see these feuds doing too much for raw ratings anyway. Lana beating Nia Jax and Miz and Morrison reading stories Isn’t gonna keep anyone watching. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stellaboz Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 Hold on. Lee in main event at Mania but he's not been pushed? Huh? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGoon Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 1 hour ago, Rodhull said: The emphasis on the demos is just a crutch to hide the fact there are still very few people watching AEW at all. That’s just nonsense though. For how long they’ve been about they’re doing absolutely fine, and performing well over what TNT expected of them (hence locking them into a new deal) They obviously want to increase the overall viewership and grow in the 50+ demo that WWE dominates, but to see it as a failure at this stage for them is mad. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodhull Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 5 minutes ago, TheGoon said: That’s just nonsense though. For how long they’ve been about they’re doing absolutely fine, and performing well over what TNT expected of them (hence locking them into a new deal) They obviously want to increase the overall viewership and grow in the 50+ demo that WWE dominates, but to see it as a failure at this stage for them is mad. Probably why I described it as a missed opportunity rather than a failure then. The fact that WWE has lost so many viewers and the ratings seeming to suggest few of them appear to be going to AEW can’t be a positive. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludo*1 Posted December 16, 2020 Author Share Posted December 16, 2020 Are AEW not getting fewer numbers than TNA were at their peak? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGoon Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 1 minute ago, Ludo*1 said: Are AEW not getting fewer numbers than TNA were at their peak? Yeah, but RAW was also doing well over 2x what it is at the minute. There’s less wrestling fans about. They’re also converting their viewers into actual PPV buys more than TNA ever did. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGoon Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 3 minutes ago, Rodhull said: Probably why I described it as a missed opportunity rather than a failure then. The fact that WWE has lost so many viewers and the ratings seeming to suggest few of them appear to be going to AEW can’t be a positive. 18-34 have gone, women are starting to go. I don’t know why AEW are treated as something that’s existed way, way longer than it has. WWE is still what wrestling is for many people and it’ll take a while for anyone else to establish themselves and start picking up those viewers (if they still exist) They’re well on the road to doing so. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodhull Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 11 minutes ago, TheGoon said: 18-34 have gone, women are starting to go. I don’t know why AEW are treated as something that’s existed way, way longer than it has. WWE is still what wrestling is for many people and it’ll take a while for anyone else to establish themselves and start picking up those viewers (if they still exist) They’re well on the road to doing so. I think that’s extremely optimistic. WWE will have to sort itself out eventually and if AEW is still getting less than a million viewers and having to focus on narrow demographics (I understand the importance of the 18-49 demo) to claim fairly hollow victories then I don’t think they’ll be in any position to be much more than they are already. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGoon Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 37 minutes ago, Rodhull said: I think that’s extremely optimistic. WWE will have to sort itself out eventually and if AEW is still getting less than a million viewers and having to focus on narrow demographics (I understand the importance of the 18-49 demo) to claim fairly hollow victories then I don’t think they’ll be in any position to be much more than they are already. I honestly don’t know why you’d call that 14 months into them being a television product, and I don’t think it’s a hollow victory at all given it’s what TV ad rates and rights fees are actually decided on. As I say, they absolutely do want to expand the audience but knocking them for not picking up millions of stray viewers is mad. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairWeatherFan Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 Impact's real run calendar year wise was 2008-2014 when they start the year on a Thursday with 2 hours. http://oswreview.com/history/tv-ratings-2008/ http://oswreview.com/history/tv-ratings-2009/ http://oswreview.com/history/tv-ratings-2010/ http://oswreview.com/history/tv-ratings-2011/ http://oswreview.com/history/tv-ratings-2012/ http://oswreview.com/history/tv-ratings-2013/ http://oswreview.com/history/tv-ratings-2014/ During which, apart from the couple of highs breaking 2 million, it was roughly around 1.5m on average until the decline. At the time Raw was doing 4-5 million+ trending down to 3-4million+ Keep in mind Spike was happy with Impact ratings wise. It was just the relationship with TNA that turned sour and saw them end the deal. For AEW to be getting the majority of what Impact once did 5-10 years later is no bad thing. What with cordcutting, the increase use of DVR, and the other alternatives out there. It's also been during both an election year and a pandemic with direct wrestling competition that makes it hard to judge. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGoon Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 6 minutes ago, FairWeatherFan said: Impact's real run calendar year wise was 2008-2014 when they start the year on a Thursday with 2 hours. http://oswreview.com/history/tv-ratings-2008/ http://oswreview.com/history/tv-ratings-2009/ http://oswreview.com/history/tv-ratings-2010/ http://oswreview.com/history/tv-ratings-2011/ http://oswreview.com/history/tv-ratings-2012/ http://oswreview.com/history/tv-ratings-2013/ http://oswreview.com/history/tv-ratings-2014/ During which, apart from the couple of highs breaking 2 million, it was roughly around 1.5m on average until the decline. At the time Raw was doing 4-5 million+ trending down to 3-4million+ Keep in mind Spike was happy with Impact ratings wise. It was just the relationship with TNA that turned sour and saw them end the deal. For AEW to be getting the majority of what Impact once did 5-10 years later is no bad thing. What with cordcutting, the increase use of DVR, and the other alternatives out there. It's also been during both an election year and a pandemic with direct wrestling competition that makes it hard to judge. Aye exactly, and as I said earlier actually turning it into PPV buys, ticket sales and hot merchandise is something TNA (sadly) never really achieved. For the time they’ve been around, they’re doing well. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairWeatherFan Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 The main reason Raw got hit so hard was all the news coverage of the Electoral College with Monday Night Football. Cable news has become a lot more prominent in the last 10 years as it became more divided. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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