This fuckin sucks!

[Guest Dangerous A]

According to this weeks Observer, Benoit vs Booker from 2 weeks ago LOST 698,000 viewers. This is not a good omen for these 2, especially if the writers and Vince see it and give up on them(like they already haven't?)What the hell is there to do about this? These are 2 guys that WWE needs to develop into draws and it's not happening. A win over Taker or HHH is not gonna solve it. These guys need to get over. Instead they are making people tune out in droves. 698,000 is a lot of fucking people. Even though us die-hards were cool with the match and the show as a whole, that particular number has gotta hurt. What do they do?

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

That's a lot of people.

 

What was on the segment before it?

[Guest thebigjig]

What did you expect? It's a known fact that the average wrestling fan has the intelligence of the average NASCAR fan... and that pretty much explains it all. I don't think I have to ellaborate

[Guest Dangerous A]

I am not sure. It was the second match of the second hour, I know that. I think there was an interview or skit or something. But still, the viewers were tuning out. I think there is a bigger problem because no one should be tuning out those two.

[Guest claydude14]

and thats why benoit got kicked off raw

[Guest HartFan86]

Man....that sucks...I'd like to see the numbers of HHH's segments.

[Guest Fook_Hing_Ho]

I think the Moolah/Mae Young beating was the angle right before it.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

No...

 

Moolah's angle was last week

 

Benoit/Booker wsa 2 weeks ago

[Guest Dangerous A]

Unfortunately for HHHaters (I'm trying to not assume BretHart4ever) HHH's quarter numbers are good. He and HBK's quarter numbers have been drawing anywhere between 200,000 to 500,000 viewers. HHH is still one of the money players(that's funny because no one is money right now in WWE) that WWE has. That's why they still put him out there. If you went with the reaction that everyone on this board goes with, HHH would be on Velocity right now. But since he does draw viewers, he gets on tv. If he was tuning viewers out by more than half a million, even Vince would start to think about putting him on tv less, no matter what spiel Steph could give him.

[Guest Fook_Hing_Ho]

No...

 

Moolah's angle was last week

 

Benoit/Booker wsa 2 weeks ago

My mistake.

[Guest HartFan86]

Unfortunately for HHHaters (I'm trying to not assume BretHart4ever) HHH's quarter numbers are good. He and HBK's quarter numbers have been drawing anywhere between 200,000 to 500,000 viewers. HHH is still one of the money players(that's funny because no one is money right now in WWE) that WWE has. That's why they still put him out there. If you went with the reaction that everyone on this board goes with, HHH would be on Velocity right now. But since he does draw viewers, he gets on tv. If he was tuning viewers out by more than half a million, even Vince would start to think about putting him on tv less, no matter what spiel Steph could give him.

I for one am not a HHH hater. I don't like the guy's BS stuff backstage and his ring preformance has sucked lately...but I don't dislike him at the point where I*hate* the guy. I just was intrested in what he was getting.

 

That's intresting numbers. I'd be intrested in seeing what the final segment got and what RVD vs. Jericho did tonight. I wouldn't be surprised if RVD/Jericho lost viewers and gained them back for the main segment.

 

Thanks for the numbers, though

[Guest Dangerous A]

Because I live in Sacramento,CA and Meltzer is outside of Oakland, I usually get the new Observer on Friday. He should have quarter hour numbers for tonight's show on the upcoming issue. However, he usually only posts numbers that are peculiar like the numbers I just gave. I will try to get smarksboard quarter numbers on weekends. How's about them apples?

[Guest gwf0704]

I think its a pretty clear indication that what a Smark wants to see and what the fans want to see are two very different things, ie HHH, Hogan, NWO, Goldberg......

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Considering that all the build up for the match was 'Hey, you guys were good in WCW' I can see why it did poorly... Not to mention they have completely buried Benoit to depths that are near unsalvagable.

[Guest gwf0704]

Considering that all the build up for the match was 'Hey, you guys were good in WCW' I can see why it did poorly... Not to mention they have completely buried Benoit to depths that are near unsalvagable.

Sorry but you need to explain that.... Is it because they are both from WCW? or is it because they mentioned once on tv that they had a best of 7 series? Not putting you down, just want clarification on your comment....

[Guest HartFan86]

Considering that all the build up for the match was 'Hey, you guys were good in WCW' I can see why it did poorly... Not to mention they have completely buried Benoit to depths that are near unsalvagable.

Solid point. They build it up as a WCW match....and of course, this coming after months of burying WCW on TV.

 

I'm not trying to make excuses or anything (losing that number of viewers...well, that's a problem)....but RavishingRick has a good point.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Actually I meant that they didn't hype the match at all. I thought 'Considering all the build up was...' would make that clear...

 

Fans don't know or really care how good their matches were in WCW, so why should they watch Booker/Benoit??? They could have done a video montage or something to hype it up, but they just said 'I remember the series of matches you had back in WCW'...

 

People don't care about Benoit because they have no reason to, aka the wwf doesn't give them a reason to... This all goes back to how poorly his comeback was handled...sigh

[Guest The Czech Republic]

Why can't Benoit be a face? They always insist on having him be a heel that loses a lot. He's been getting screwed over since Janurary 2000.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

There is no logical explanation for turning Benoit, in his hometown, on his return. It was just mindnumbingly stupid.

[Guest Strike Force!]

I see a lot of smarks and show recappers make the same but wrong assumption. They act as if most people never watched WCW and wouldn't know who Booker T and Benoit are. That is wrong....I would say the majority of people who are watching RAW now watched Nitro enough to know who the two guys are. I don't know why that assumption is made all the time.

[Guest candie45]

The only reason for Benoit to turn heel was to fued with Austin. The jackass left therefore heel Benoit = midcard.

 

If he stayed face there would have been a greater chance of him getting over, dammit.

[Guest The Superstar]

Awesome sig, Candie, but sad at the same time. Anyway...

 

Those numbers are sad.

[Guest Brian]

First off, opening segment runs long doesn't it? Second, the match was like six minutes of the entire segment. I'd say You'd need to look at how many people stayed on because of the match, or vice versa, and especially that early in the show in nearly a curtain jerker match that it's not that big of a deal. The Meltzer numbers aren't that important.

[Guest Big McLargeHuge]

Well the segments that preceded Benoit/Booker were Stasiak/D'lo in a Bischoff 3 minute special and a BookerDust skit. Before those segments was a Singapore Cane match between Brock and Dreamer. Not the most inspiring lead-ins here.

[Guest candie45]

Awesome sig, Candie, but sad at the same time. Anyway...

*sigh* Isn't it? A depressing thought indeed. Oh, and thanks btw.

[Guest Dangerous A]

"First off, opening segment runs long doesn't it? Second, the match was like six minutes of the entire segment. I'd say You'd need to look at how many people stayed on because of the match, or vice versa, and especially that early in the show in nearly a curtain jerker match that it's not that big of a deal. The Meltzer numbers aren't that important."

 

 

Actually, Benoit/Booker was the second match of the second hour, well into the show. And yes, while Meltzer's numbers aren't important to smarks, they are important to Vince McMahon and the writing team. You don't think they don't go over those numbers and try to adjust? I think not.

[Guest Brian]

Point is they probably shouldn't be that important to anyone. Quarter numbers, and ratings as a whole are based on so many tangibles and factors that they're not worth putting too much stock into. Worry more about trends, buyrates, and attendance. But single numbers are so unreliable.

[Guest mister foozel]

everyone is watching:

 

that slut Anna Nicole Smith on a reality show

[Guest Dangerous A]

Unfortunately the trend is no one is attending house shows and they are losing viewers. I've heard the bad economy excuse, but if that were the case, then the ratings shouldn't be down because more people are at home watching tv. They are just not watching WWE. My point was that here are 2 prominent guys on the Raw brand that had a bad quarter. It probrably was the lead in. But that is also a problem as only a handful of people are over as tv draws. The fact that buyrates haven't been over 1.0 since WM is a bad trend. I think the only profitable things they've done are go overseas and they are still selling merchandise at an ok pace. Once that goes, then there is big trouble. Unfortunately I think certain people who are on the writing team *coughGerwertzcoughStephcoughVincecough* put a lot of stock in quarter hours since tv is the lifeblood of the WWE. With things down now, you are right, they should forget about quarters and bad numbers and just concentrate on getting people over. But when you are gearing your tv towards popping quarters (a Russo trait) then you start pulling plugs on the stuff that you should be pushing and start hotshotting and bringing in cheap pop acts like the NWO or Ric Flair. Novelties that will pop a curiosity rating or buyrate, but nothing you can build on for the future cause once the novelty is over your left with nothing but your dick in your hand and nothing to show for it.