RAW drops below 3 million viewers

[C.M. Shaddix]

Because burying this company is somehow so amusing, lets pile on now, shall we?

Brilliant

 

[CFCrusader]

This is what Vince gets for only giving a shit about Reigns and trying to recreate Bryan's success with him, despite the fact that Bryan was already one of the best performers in the world (if not THE) already, he was so over fans would hijack shows, the Authority screwing him over wasn't some magical thing that got everyone behind him and the fact that at this moment, we have so many great wrestlers such as Cesaro, Cody, Dean ect. that a lot of people would rather see them get the spotlight for once.

And besides, if they want for Reigns to get an organic face push, they should have turned him feel, done a Rollins by turning on Dean and then his "I'ma punch you in the mouth lol" shtick would've been bearable.

 

[alexb]

Well, Sheamus as champion now, poor stories overall, creative not being excactly...creative and a bunch of guys out through various reasons pretty much sums it up as to why ratings are dropping. RAW (and WWE overall) just ain't as fun as it used to be and I myself am not as faithful as I used to be, tuning in every Monday and Friday (not to mention every PPV of course).

Now, at some point some of the guys will start coming back (Cena, Orton etc) and perhaps a couple of decent returnings could boost things a bit. I, for one, am still hoping for one more run from Kurt Angle (in a recent interview he said he felt good and healthy) and why not even Jeff Hardy? Imagine, for example, one of those two just showed up, say, at the Royal Rumble?

And how about even...Vince himself get back on the show with some TV appearences? How? I dunno, let them figure it out themselves cause we all are aware of the "Vince Effect" and how numbers always rise when he himself is around.

Just thinking out loud I guess but one thing is for sure: WWE got to get their shit together...

 

[Roadster]

Well, Sheamus as champion now, poor stories overall, creative not being excactly...creative and a bunch of guys out through various reasons pretty much sums it up as to why ratings are dropping. RAW (and WWE overall) just ain't as fun as it used to be and I myself am not as faithful as I used to be, tuning in every Monday and Friday (not to mention every PPV of course).

Now, at some point some of the guys will start coming back (Cena, Orton etc) and perhaps a couple of decent returnings could boost things a bit. I, for one, am still hoping for one more run from Kurt Angle (in a recent interview he said he felt good and healthy) and why not even Jeff Hardy? Imagine, for example, one of those two just showed up, say, at the Royal Rumble?

And how about even...Vince himself get back on the show with some TV appearences? How? I dunno, let them figure it out themselves cause we all are aware of the "Vince Effect" and how numbers always rise when he himself is around.

Just thinking out loud I guess but one thing is for sure: WWE got to get their shit together...

Sadly, WWE has needed to get it's shit together for the better part of a decade. Fans have been leaving in droves, over the last decade. WWE needed to get their act together during the fall of the wrestling industry, but they instead, fueled that fire. Fans are going to leave, and are going to check in to see nothing has changed for the better. They will leave and the wrestling industry will fall even deeper into a trench of unfaithfulness.

If the WWE continues to act like this, I have a deep feeling that mainstream wrestling, will die a slow and miserable death. The WWE will be around, but it will be like SNL. It's around but no one gives a flying monkey's ass.

As to how they fueled the fire? Instead of offering a viable competitor to RAW, with SmackDown. They made it a B-Show. It was always the ugly step-sister between the two brands. RAW was always favored with the big stars, star-studded roster, big networks, live broadcasts etc. Then they ruin the careers of countless stars. Both past and present. With slow and miserable deaths to the careers of Scott Steiner, Mark Jindrak, Sean O'Haire, Chuck Palumbo, Shawn Stasiak and even Goldberg. They follow that up with a one-man burial machine in Triple H. No compelling storylines or ideas past the 1st year of the brand split. All under the banner of "Sex Sells."

The WWE is the only company in history to fuck it's own industry in the ass, hard.

 

[Aids Johnson]

Oh, shit, they put the strap on Ginger Snap? Fuck WWE altogether now lol, him vs Reigns has to be the hair on top of dogshit.

 

[Snowman1]

Dean on top would not cause a ratings boost. Because Vince wouldn't allow it. Vince has his mind set on one guy, and you all know who I am talking about. And only that guy is going to be allowed any focus going forward. Vince thinks he can force this guy's overness and create something, unlike letting something grow organically. There are, as of this writing according to what few sources I have, no wrestlemania plan for Dean (and there hasn't been one since they started putting together the card) of note. And there wasn't even one for Seth either. They had a guy get an 8 month run with the belt, put on some of the best matches in a while and really grow and get over, but Vince refused to plan him into anything meaningful at mania 32 in favor of his guy.

TLDR: Vince doesn't care who we want on top or like or are willing to watch. He only cares about who he wants on top and is trying to force a ratings increase through him.

And that's not going to work, it never has and never will.

Well lets play devil's advocate here though, if the plan at Wrestlemania 30 was to spin off Reigns as a huge babyface by having Lesnar end the streak and destroy Bryan Cena while Reigns (possibly) ends the Authority before finally taken down Lesnar, at the time, we would have agreed, no? The guy was getting good reactions until Rebellion at the Rumble II happened, he's got charisma and a badass vibe about him that sets him apart from the rest of the roster... Not hard to see why Vince sees so much money in him. I don't hate Roman and wonder how many of us, deep down, really think he's as untalented as we make him out to be. Hell, a casual fan friend of mine who lives out in the country and doesn't have internet said he's a huge fan of Roman, just because most of his offense is so dynamic and credible. I'd argue he's had the MOTN at several PPVs this year, and you can't argue against his track record at the big shows this year. Obviously they need to go about it a different way, but in theory it was a good idea.

As Chris Jericho said, though, what gets over is what gets over. There's no formula to it - the most over thing on Raw right now is a bunch of dudes running out on stick horses in the post-Hornswoggle era.
And what else is over right now is hating this company who turns a blind eye to their fans and pushes their "golden boy" regardless.

As you said, he's gotta have a story to get to the top. We need reasons to get behind Roman to put this "next golden boy" stuff behind him. and... Again, in theory this feud with Triple H was an excellent idea. Triple H can carry the mic work and make it feel personal about being butthurt that Reigns turned down his amazing offer to be "the man of the Authority". Shame they already killed it with the Daniel Bryan vs the Authority comparisons.

Also, "Sufferin' Succotash, Son" has to be a WWE record for most damage done to a career with a single line. Has to be. Is there one that's worse?

 

[Prince Bálor]

Well lets play devil's advocate here though, if the plan at Wrestlemania 30 was to spin off Reigns as a huge babyface by having Lesnar end the streak and destroy Bryan Cena while Reigns (possibly) ends the Authority before finally taken down Lesnar, at the time, we would have agreed, no? The guy was getting good reactions until Rebellion at the Rumble II happened, he's got charisma and a badass vibe about him that sets him apart from the rest of the roster... Not hard to see why Vince sees so much money in him. I don't hate Roman and wonder how many of us, deep down, really think he's as untalented as we make him out to be. Hell, a casual fan friend of mine who lives out in the country and doesn't have internet said he's a huge fan of Roman, just because most of his offense is so dynamic and credible. I'd argue he's had the MOTN at several PPVs this year, and you can't argue against his track record at the big shows this year. Obviously they need to go about it a different way, but in theory it was a good idea.

As Chris Jericho said, though, what gets over is what gets over. There's no formula to it - the most over thing on Raw right now is a bunch of dudes running out on stick horses in the post-Hornswoggle era.
And what else is over right now is hating this company who turns a blind eye to their fans and pushes their "golden boy" regardless.

As you said, he's gotta have a story to get to the top. We need reasons to get behind Roman to put this "next golden boy" stuff behind him. and... Again, in theory this feud with Triple H was an excellent idea. Triple H can carry the mic work and make it feel personal about being butthurt that Reigns turned down his amazing offer to be "the man of the Authority". Shame they already killed it with the Daniel Bryan vs the Authority comparisons.

Also, "Sufferin' Succotash, Son" has to be a WWE record for most damage done to a career with a single line. Has to be. Is there one that's worse?

Roman IS talented, it's just that Vince is too hands on with him and most of the time, Roman comes off as Vince's speaking through him, see: "Sufferin' Succotash". Vince refused to turn him heel at SS because this is his way of thinking: HE'S GONNA WORK AS A FACE AND GET CHEERED OR HE AIN'T GONNA WORK AT ALL, GOD DAMMIT! But, you can't tell people who to like.

Reigns could flop because of Vince's buffoonery. Remember that episode in Chicago a few weeks back? Well, Vince set his pet project to get roasted out there with long, rehashed material. Plus, there was a line that was close to being as bad as "Sufferin' Succotash" and that was "This ain't boring. This is real life." Roman's promos need to be straightforward. He ain't gonna get over as the machine wants him to if he's out there cutting 20 minute long promos.

I want Roman to succeed, but I fear this whole "Reigns vs Authority" storyline might go wrong, since you know, they did it with Bryan.

 

[diamdrforever]

Network numbers are steadily rising tho, especially during PPVs. That's where WWE makes a lot of its money now. Vince cares more about network subs than TV ratings. Because it is the high number of network subs that pleases said sponsors and investors.

I think that part of the problem is the way they screwed #RomanReigns at #Wrestlemania31 and #SurvivorSeries this irritated the fans. Twitter got wild during and after #SurvivorSeries.
They really got to get their act together and stop screwing up the matches.

 

[Stopspot]

I think that part of the problem is the way they screwed #RomanReigns at #Wrestlemania31 and #SurvivorSeries this irritated the fans. Twitter got wild during and after #SurvivorSeries.
They really got to get their act together and stop screwing up the matches.

Fans hated Roman before Mania. Rollins cashing in made the fans go home happy.

 

[Roadster]

Fans wanted Reigns to lose to Lesnar. The majority wanted Reigns to be in the same line of fate as Cena. They're more happy than unhappy fans, due to the booking of that match.