Big Smackdown! Ratings Drop

[Guest El Luchadore Magnifico]

WWF Smackdown finished with a 3.8 rating and a 6 share this week, a huge drop from the 4.5 the show did last week. The low rating is not a good sign for the nWo or WrestleMania.

 

Credit: 411wrestling.com

 

Well, whattya think? Has the nWo angle lost its steam already? And will the WWF be able to get fan interest back up before Wrestlemania?

[Guest Tony149]

The nWo angle has lost steam from the attack on The Rock. The blame goes on the writers for that. The nWo angle went from being hot to going stupid ie. Austin's net gun.

[Guest Big Poppa Smurf]

Or it could be that people have gotten hip to the fact that Smackdown is no longer the show that focuses on wrestling and instead has become almost totally sports entertainment and bad sports entertainment at that.

[Guest XXXXXXXXXXXXXXSXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX]

Probably cause Austin no sells all of Hall's and the rest of the nWo's punches unless they team up on him. I used to be a huge Austin mark till he beat up nWo on Smackdown. Good way to make monster heels......

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Probably because the fans realized that the NWO sucks.

[Guest Big McLargeHuge]

probably because the angle is going nowhere, fast. OH and the writing sucks.

[Guest Will Scarlet]

I think it is because Smackdown has pretty sucked lately.  I cannot remember the last time I saw the Smackdown spoilers and thought, "Wow!  This is going to be a great show!  I will have to make time to watch it." Most of the time, it is like, "Well, this show looks like it sucks."

 

It seems as if Smackdown for the past month or two has ranged from "boring" to "worst Smackdown ever." to "Worst Smackdown if you are not counting last week's show." Hardly makes me what to tune into the show.  I would have to say that casual fans probably feel the same way...

[Guest the living legend]

Normally I don't fuss over ratings, but a near point decrease is farely major. Perhaps last weeks episode was so bad it made people tune out or RAW sucked or even this show sucked well all are true. Its not the fault of the NWO or Steve Austin or Chris Jericho or HHH  or who ever the smark punching bag of the week is. Its the horrificly terrible WWF writers. They can not book a good angle plain and simple, their terrible. Considering the biggest show of the year is in 2 weeks and its gotten the worst build up in a long time, it says something. How can they screw this up so bad?

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

I'd point out now that about 2/3 of the board predicted that ratings would rise for about 2 weeks and 1 ppv buyrate.

 

WrestleMania will do huge.

 

There time after that is over.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Just imagine how horrible Backlash will be.

[Guest teke184]

It's a given that Backlash will suck.  The question is whether Backlash 2002 can outdo Backlash 2001 for the worst post-Wrestlemania booking in the past 5 years.  

 

 

Last year was a great example of the lack of original ideas for the main event scene and was only saved by Benoit-Angle and Rhyno-Raven.  This year is going to be worse because Jericho is set to drop back to the midcard after a WM X-8 loss to HHH, Rhyno and Benoit are still out due to injuries, Austin quit giving a rat's ass about his in-ring performances, HHH hasn't put on a good match since his return, and the nWo and Goldust are just adding to the amount of dead weight that the WWF is carrying.  The only positive is that a bunch of HWA and OVW talent should be called up after the split, along with former ECW and WCW wrestlers, meaning means that fresh faces will be seen on TV and PPV.

[Guest Me]

I still anticipating the split.

[Guest Army Eye]

The shows have been terrible.  That's all there is to it. There was clearly interest in the NWO with the big Smackdown rating last week , but they failed to capitalize on that big audience, the show was horrible.  It reminds me of Nitro from mid-'98 on forward.  They would do a great show once in a while, and you'd think they might be able to start a run, but next week the show would be right back to sucking, and all momentum was lost.

[Guest Big Poppa Smurf]

If it ever actually happens.

What they really need is to do something about the so-called creative people who write the crap that on tv every week because until they do all a split will guarantee is twice as much bad tv.

[Guest Brian]

The booking isn't there, so it's not really the NWO's fault.

[Guest Tony149]

Vince needs to hire writers or have Heyman write the split off fed. NO WAY should the same writing team write both shows.

[Guest goodhelmet]

it is the writers fault, not the dinosaurs. People can't realize the dinos suck because they haven't wrestled yet. In all fairness to the NWO, i don't blame them for this drought. If the ratings continue to stay down, hopefully vince can realize he needs to make some drastic changes, including booting his daughter out of her position.

 

As a legend once said, "Enough's enough and it's time for a change!"

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

I'm sorry.

 

I had to read hundreds of Hogan is God posts.

 

Hogan couldn't boost ratings for more than a week.

 

Hogan is over.

[Guest Tony149]

Geez, when the writing can't make the shows any good, ALL the characters suffer. The WWF could Sting, Flair, Hart, Goldberg, all in their primes, but if the writing sucked. Ratings won't go anywhere.

[Guest Army Eye]

You can't watch those shows and then turn around and blame Hogan.  No way in hell.  Sorry.

[Guest goodhelmet]

"I had to read hundreds of Hogan is God posts.

Hogan couldn't boost ratings for more than a week.

Hogan is over."

 

i don't know if you remember bps, but I think it was you and I battling the NWOites saying we hoped the angle would fail so that Hogan's days in the ring would be over once and for all. If Mania doesn't turn out to be a classic and deliver one hell of a payoff, then we may see our wish come true.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

According to all the crap that some people were spewing...they should be pulling 10's right now...just because Hogan is there.

[Guest Tony149]

Anybody read/hear when Hogan's boy Bubba "The Love Sponage" said ratings would double the week after Hogan arrives? Well, that didn't happen.

[Guest Vern Gagne]

Hogan doesn't cut full time anymore. When I told people Hogan was back, their reaction was either "how old his he...60" or "he's still around".

[Guest The Vanilla Midget]

who really cares about the ratings though (this borders on antismark ideas from a few weeks ago), but ratings are *not* really a concern for me.  the ratings dont affect my enjoyment of the shows, and are really only relevant for advertising concerns.  sure its nice to know that the wwf is doing nice when ratings are high, though the humongous panic when they are low is unwarranted.  and now after all, he has brought back the 3 amigos, what other things could vince do that could possibly be any worse in order to pop ratings.

[Guest Army Eye]

That's why the ratings are important.  If they're bad, then Vince will panic and keep trying for the next big thing.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

"Hogan is over. "

 

No he's not.  That is the problem.

[Guest goodhelmet]

"what other things could vince do that could possibly be any worse in order to pop ratings."

 

you've heard the warrior rumours right?

[Guest Tony149]

If it's not the Warrior, then it's trying to get Sting, Hart or Goldberg.

[Guest Rabies]

Who the fuck are these writers anyways? Does Vince get these people right off the street? I bet these are the same people that couldn't even make it writing movie scripts in the porn industry. SHEESH!!! :C