...and in even MORE bad news for WWE...

[Guest Downhome]

The following is from The Wrestling Tribune...

 

"But in even more bad news for WWE, comparing this year's return of The Rock to last year's return, every demographic of WWE viewers are down apart from males 50 and over, which doesn't exactly make up a huge percentage of WWE viewers.

 

The 18-49 male demographic range, an important part of WWE viewership, is down a huge 31 percent. The 25-54 demographic of both sexes is down a big 30 percent. The 18-49 demographic of both sexes is down 29 percent, which means that both men and women are almost completely uninterested in WWE programming this year. However, the most shocking of all drops is the most important teenage audience, which is down by a staggering 52 percent."

 

...I don't know what to say really, other that it is just amazing how far WWE has fell in just such a short time. Anyhow, do any of you have any comments, thoughts, suggestions, or questions?

 

Sincerely,

...Downhome...

[Guest chirs3]

Wow. They last half the teenage audience?

 

Wow.

 

R-V-D! R-V-D! R-V-D!

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

I agree with chris3.

 

The choice becomes more obvious by the day.

[Guest El Psycho Diablo]

*poses, spits water*

 

Wait..that could be it..or could it be..

 

*puts hand to ear, hulks up*

 

(smirks)

[Guest M Nyland]

and could you forget...

 

*wolfpac sign*

[Guest Flyboy]

Wow. They last half the teenage audience?

 

Wow.

 

R-V-D! R-V-D! R-V-D!

*nods*

 

Yes, my friend.. yes.

[Guest Shaved Bear]

jeez it wouldnt be because any acts of poor booking, hiring of washed up hasbeens, and megapushing unover people with inflated egos...would it?

[Guest Zero_Cool]

Heh....it's funny, because in freshman year (99-00), almost everyone was a wrestling nut, spouting off Rock catchphrases in the hallway and everything. I mean, you'd see people walking around with "Have A Nice Day" inside of their binders. Then last year at school, I've run into a lot of the guys who I would talk wrestling with, and surprisingly, about half of them had stopped watching.

 

Then again, I have this crazy feeling that old R-V-D could bring some back if they market him. Hell, since the PTC is no longer on them, they can try to make Rob out to be the casual pot smoker, which would make the teens watch, because seriously, who hates a stoner? Perhaps we could see some RVD 4:20 signs in the audience.

[Guest El Psycho Diablo]

....

 

I won't EVEN get into the wrestlecrap quality of the above post.

 

Making RVD playing a "pot smoker" would just hold him back. It may have worked in ECW, but..we've seen many times..ECW was bush league compared to the WWE.

 

[Guest jester]

They need to get someone younger and new in the top spot immediately. How about uhm.... it'll come to me....begins with an "R", ends with "Van Dam"....

 

To get some women interested, they need to make some credible women wrestlers who don't strip all the time that the women can admire and look up to. They don't really have anyone like this now. This closest would be Lita, who's injured, and Ivory, who isn't seen much these days outside TE.

 

They need to keep stories and angles running a bit longer, so that they don't end just as people stop following them.

 

Instead of 20 minutes promos where we need to hear someone's ring music, see their poses, blah blah blah, save time by having less important promos pre-recorded, like they did on the old Saturday morning shows. If someone quickly needs to say "I'm mad at you and will kick your ass" but nothing more, that's a good way to do it.

 

For fug's sake, retire some of those grandpas we've got in the ring now.

 

The NWO needs to be massacred, utterly, totally, without mercy or any face-saving. I don't know if that would boost the ratings, but it would make me feel better.

 

jester

[Guest chirs3]

Plus I'm not a big fan of stoners, but that's a personal matter.

 

When's the last time the fan's had a real champion? By that I mean someone they really want to see have the title? Hogan might count, but he was just transitional. Triple H was barely over, other than those two it's been heel or tweener for a while. If the "R-V-D!" chants and the cheers that DROWN OUT HIS MUSIC, VINCE are any indication, just put the belt on Rob.

[Guest Flyboy]

Plus I'm not a big fan of stoners, but that's a personal matter.

 

When's the last time the fan's had a real champion? By that I mean someone they really want to see have the title? Hogan might count, but he was just transitional. Triple H was barely over, other than those two it's been heel or tweener for a while. If the "R-V-D!" chants and the cheers that DROWN OUT HIS MUSIC, VINCE are any indication, just put the belt on Rob.

I think that's what many people want... (myself probably being number one), but I think Vince has his eyes set on Brock...

 

And Brock is what we get.

[Guest Zero_Cool]

Ok, point taken about the pot smoking thing, bad way to try to get him over even more. But hey, the WWF was incinuating (sp?) about it earlier.

 

Jush push RVD to the moon...it may work.

[Guest chirs3]

Just push RVD to the moon...it may work.

 

Push someone the fans want to see? ... what a radical idea!

 

It's crazy... but it just might work...

[Guest Zero_Cool]

Yep, but I wonder if they fear possible fan backlash to a push like that.

 

*notices the push Brock Lesnar push*

 

nevermind...

[Guest NoCalMike]

I don't really see why people think RVD was a "stoner" character in ECW, anyways. He said in an interview once he smoked pot, and appeared in High Times once, but it wasn't like Styles kept mentioning he was getting high all the time. A few times fans brought RVD 4:20 signs......no big deal, nothing to the magnitude of holding someone down, but I agree, for the sake of the WWE, keep the pot smoking gimmick far away.......

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

I hate to say this, but I don't think Brock interests any of that group currently.

 

What Vince needs is one hell of a feud, and I don't know how he could make one. Shawn/Bret boosted ratings because the guys had such venom for each other and people had to keep guessing which comments were shoot. Austin/McMahon was hot because of the "pushing the envelope" factor, as well as the vehicular destruction and then-new sight of Vince McMahon actually getting in the ring and bumping.

 

Vince has two potential draws with RVD and Booker. People of all ages like RVD-style High Spots it seems. And a huge portion of the 18-25 demographic in America, including the white kids, seem to like acting like they're from "Da Hood." Retarded as that may be, a black guy who can mix the jive with normal English AND put on an exciting match can be a draw until that scene disappears.

 

The only problem is WWE seems so liable to screw things up. Especially the latter. Trying to make a Booker T with "street cred" marketing will likely mean more stealing food and other stupid things as though Vince is saying "haw haw! He's doing this stereotypical stuff BECAUSE HE'S BLACK!"

[Guest The Man in Blak]

RVD as a laid back alternative to the rest of the screaming and yelling...good.

 

RVD as an admitted stoner...not so much.

[Guest Vitamin X]

My mark friends (well not really marks sicne they don't watch wrestling at all, but marks nonetheless for they are uneducated in the ways of the smark) once watched RAW with me and one of them noted "Damn why are tehse guys angry at each other all the time? Can't they just be good sports?" I tried explaining heels and faces to him but he had some good arguments. Then RVD showed up and the other mark said "See this guy's cool, I don't like Austin and that whole what thing that dude with the ponytail's just like whatever. That's cool."

 

But maybe it's because I live in LA and the stoner kickback thing is the way it is out here.

[Guest cabbageboy]

I think RVD now lives in LA, so it is appropo. This might sound odd but I think RVD needs one final thing to propel him to ultra main event status:

 

New music.

 

Or at least a return to his old "Walk" theme. Seriously, "Walk" has to be one of the best entrance themes ever, the entire crowd chanted "RE--SPECT! WALK! You talking to me?"

 

It seems like RVD never quite gets as big of a pop as he should and I think it is due to the sludgy riff his music has now.

[Guest DrEvil]

Maybe they were hoping that the crowd would get into the "Hey Hey" part of RVD's new music like the did with Walk. But like all cases where you try to fix something that ain't broken, they fucked up.

 

Why they would even screw around with one of the best entrance music scenarios going is beyond me. Probably just the entire "I didn't create it, it must be crap, I can do it better" thinking that is so prevelant.

 

 

Such radical concepts brought up in this subject - pushing talent that the fans want to see, creating interesting fueds.... why, these ideas are just crazy enough to actually work.

[Guest chirs3]

RVD's got awesome music right now - the only thing wrong with his intro is the completely unecessary pyro.

[Guest BoboBrazil]

Ratings are down because of two things. #1 is that they aren't doing the violent extreme angles and storylines anymore that got them the high ratings and high teenage and young adult demographic. #2 is that they hired all of these old guys and brough them in after making fun of WCW for letting them wrestle there and then pushed them into the main event.

[Guest HartFan86]

RVD's got awesome music right now - the only thing wrong with his intro is the completely unecessary pyro.

RVD's pyro is definately something he doesn't need. It's just randomly thrown in his entrance, but oh well.

 

RVD's theme music rules right now...he gets as big, if not bigger pops with it than he would with "Walk" and it would cost them more money to get the rights to play "Walk", and I doubt Vince wants to waste the money.

 

You also have to realize they have a music deal with Breaking Point (The band who did RVD's music right now) to use "One of a Kind" for a certain time.

 

RVD doesn't need new music or whatever, he needs to be a main eventer.

[Guest SuperTonyJaymz]

this isn't that suprisng, it is summer.

[Guest Mole]

This is just the downward spiral in wrestling. There is nothing that they can do about it, if it is going to happen, its gonna happen.