WWE Doomsday Clock

[Guest Anglesault]

My Date: WM 19. I hope the WHOLE crowd walks out on the Brock/Edge main event. That would make my day.

[Guest Brian]

Vince stop promoting wrestling? Are you guys kidding me.

[Guest deadbeater]

Look at Lawler for a clue as to what they want to promote. Who cares about the fatal 4-way?? Hot Lesbian Action!!"

[Guest Brian]

Vince stop promoting sports entertainment is what you wanted to hear, than fine.

 

Vince will start putting out of his own pocket before he stops. His ego will get the best of him. He's worth over half a billion.

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

As long as Vince is alive, he will beg, borrow, or steal to keep WWE going. He's feeds off the attention & publicity. Without the WWE, Vince won't get that attention.

 

Vince is a apparently healthy and in great shape. I can't see him dropping dead anytime soon.

 

After that, all bets are off. But if the WWE ever does go out of business, it will be the death of pro wrestling in North America.

 

Ratings will continue to gradually fall, and eventually TNN and UPN will pull the plug on them

They'd have to fall pretty far for that to happen. I don't know for certain, but I'd be willing to guess the WWE gets higher ratings than any other show on TNN, and possibly UPN. It's more likely that the WWE would do something too risque or outrageous, and TNN/UPN would drop them.

 

WWE has just as big of a fanbase as WCW (the 1999 version of WCW). In a couple of years, the ratings for WWE will be just like the 2001 ratings for WCW.

You have no way of knowing that. For all we know, ratings over the next couple years could rise.

[Guest goodhelmet]

ok, the ratings don't matter. it's the advertising dollars that matter. if the fed's horrible image doesn't correct itself, then it might not be financially capable of pulling in the ad money needed for the networks to keep them on the air. so while i personally don't feel the fed will go out of business, i would NOT be shocked if they lost their tv time slots. so it might be around but the action we see will be the house shows, while relying on the net to keep us fans up to date on our favorite stars instead of being able to see them with our own eyes on monday or thursday nights.

 

as for vince being worth a half a billion, if that is all he is worth that is a hell of a loss from being worth a BILLION legit just two short years ago.

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

Edge, RVD, Lesnar, etc will not make wrestling "cool" again and bring back the former audience that stopped watching in the past 2 years. After an Attitude era there is NOTHING that will cause the next big era and draw back people.

We don't know where the next big star will come from. Rock was a green rookie that everybody hated, but look how he turned out. HHH was feuding w/ the Godwins at one point, and he became world champ, an awesome heel, and the best in the business (albeit for only 1 year). Who knew "Ringmaster" Steve Austin would become one of the biggest draws *EVER* in the history of the sport.

 

For all we know, Shane Helms could become the next superstar by shedding the Hurricane gimmick. Or Jamie Knoble. Or Bautista. Or ::insert unknown wrestler's name:: Or another promotion could spring up & provide competition to the WWE, thus creating another boom.

 

You just don't know in the wrestling business, so it's ludicrous to say there will never be another boom in the business.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

Except that it always requires a level of timing.

 

Shawn Michaels put on awesome matches, but he wasn't getting ratings gold. Hulk Hogan was putting on crappy matches, and he practically defined the company.

 

This is why saying "push RVD" or "put Benoit higher up the card" is not the real answer to this thing. Hogan drew fans because of the kid-friendly image and the Rah Rah USA shit, which was always popular (except at WM7, when everyone was too busy to care.)

 

Austin was, well, a consumption of the family-friendly stuff was remembered for, even after Hogan left. This wasn't your little brother's wrestling program anymore. The whole shock scene, plus Austin vs McMahon is what made the money.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

The only thing that will kill the WWF is the loss of Vince. The only reason WCW is dead, is because Turner lost all of his power after the AOL merger. He would have kept it around no matter how much money it lost.

[Guest Hogan Made Wrestling]

as for vince being worth a half a billion, if that is all he is worth that is a hell of a loss from being worth a BILLION legit just two short years ago.

Gates is worth 43 billion down from close to 100 at one point. Larry Ellison dropped from 50 to 15. Some billionaires have lost basically everything (bet you can guess what companies they are from...). Vince isn't really doing that much worse than the typical US big businessman whose company is traded on the stock market.

[Guest IMarkForD'Lo]

A few people beat me to it, but I'll speak my peace anyways.

 

NOTHING goes on forever. Everything has a beginning, everything has an end. WWE will end, eventually. No one knows when, but it will. To say otherwise is foolish. Hell, to say wrestling itself will be around forever is foolish. It may not be soon, but EVERYthing will leave. Maybe even Mark Henry.

[Guest Akeem]

>if the WWE ever does go out of business, it will be the death of pro wrestling in North America.

 

It will just be the end of mainstream wrestling, not the death of pro wrestling (there will still be independent shows).

 

>it's ludicrous to say there will never be another boom in the business.

 

No it's not. There have only been two booms in pro wrestling, Hogan and attitude. As I said before, after attitude, there is nothing. And everything with attitude has been done. Everything in rebeling against authority has been done. There is NOTHING WWE can do for wrestling to be hot again.

[Guest nikowwf]

They are still profitable. Even with the downturn they are still in the red.

 

Also:

The cash they have in reserve could last for 20 years at their highest loss level. It could last for a few years at WCW's loss level, and they are NOWHERE near that.

 

It's not going nowhere. Which is a shame, because I think people here would enjoy talking about how they were right and WWE was wrong and it died more than they enjoy watching the wrestling.

 

Niko

[Guest Downhome]

First off, I think WWE will "always" be around, as long as there are wrestling fans out there, period, but I must say this...

 

...back in 96, 97, and 98 not many were saying that WCW would die in a mere 3 years. Anything is possible, we can only wait and see folks.

[Guest Brian]

You could have seen it coming then with WCW. I'm sure anyone who watched religiously in 1998 and 1999 and was on the net saw the bad decisions play out that were far worse than anything the WWE did, coupled with the fact that they were paying guys far too much and were losing, what tens of millions of dollars by the time 2000 rolled around. And they failed to make good decisions.

 

The WWE will be around just because when it comes down to it, there's enough "hardcore" fans (and probably enough that they picked up) to keep business afloat. They haven't even begun down-sizing yet in terms of using smaller venues which will always help.

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

>if the WWE ever does go out of business, it will be the death of pro wrestling in North America.

 

It will just be the end of mainstream wrestling, not the death of pro wrestling (there will still be independent shows).

 

>it's ludicrous to say there will never be another boom in the business.

 

No it's not. There have only been two booms in pro wrestling, Hogan and attitude. As I said before, after attitude, there is nothing. And everything with attitude has been done. Everything in rebeling against authority has been done. There is NOTHING WWE can do for wrestling to be hot again.

If the WWE goes under, it will be a *long* time before any person/network/etc. would agree to back a promotion or give it a TV deal, if ever. And if there is no big promotion around, what would be the motivation for indy wrestlers to continue in the business? Love, sure, but you can't spend love at the grocery store. There will be no hope of "making it big", since there will be no big promotion around. Thusly, pro wrestling in North America would be dead.

 

And *everything* in wrestling has been done before numerous times. What was the last original idea in the world of wrestling? It's all about timing, execution, the right wrestler(s), and luck.

[Guest Brian]

Actually, just to reply there have been more than two boom periods. Anyone who knows someone around during the budding days of television and wrestling that wrestling got a huge wave of popularity, especially out in the West Coast where I think Portland became pretty big for a local. Antoher period was with ESPN and AWA, which actually gave a little boost to the WWF at the time.

[Guest nikowwf]

Great Analysis guys. You took one of the worst quarters, and assume that nothing will ever change and it will continue to spiral down at the same rate.

 

Are you sure that none of you work for NWA / TNA?

 

Niko

[Guest razazteca]

has anybody used this date yet? January 2 2003? thats 01-02-03!!!