Hektik 0 Report post Posted May 16, 2004 An Excerpt From the 5/17 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: There has been a notable demographic change in WWE audience since its peak, and it's actually quite surprising. The average Raw viewer is a 33 year old male. During its peak of the Raw vs Nitro wars, the average Raw viewer was a 24 year old male and the average Nitro viewer was a 35 year old male. The audience change for Smackdown is similar, going from a 25 year old male to typical viewer to a 32 year old male. The oldest skewing program is Heat, which had the typical viewer be a 40 year old male. What is interesting is the WWE targets its product to the 12 to 34 age group. But the actual audience is older. What is surprising is that in 2001, it was the the over 30 wrestling audience that died a brutal death, dropping almost two-thirds after the death of the older skewing WCW product. What this seems to say is that WWE is not attracting a lot of new fans , because if you figure 2000 as the peak year, the 24 year old would now be 28. So they've retained their older fan base while losing some of the younger base they had at the time. Currently, 24% of the WWE television audience is under the age of 17. That is down from 37% at the peak of company popularity four years ago. The curent WWE television audience consists of: 3% under the age of 6 9% between 6-11 12% between 12-17 10% between 18-24 19% between 25-34 24% between 35-49 23% above the age of 50 In other words, they are they are writimg shows with the idea that their target audience is actually only half of their real audience. After running off the adult audience a few years ago, they are now keeping them, and the audience they've been writing for is the audience they've been running off to an almost incredible degree. Well, not incredible, but when you are talking about 12-23, that is the fad audience, and when the fad is over, they're going to be gone. Other Observer Notes: The USA Network announced that one of its major projects for the new TV season will be a movie called "Ring of Lies." This will make no one in the WWE happy. The movie has been described as how a 5/2, 110 pound woman brought Vince McMahon to his knees, based in Martha Hart's quest for justice after the death of her husband, based on the book "Broken Harts." The plan for October looks to be not just for two PPVs, but both Raw PPVs, one on 10/3 and one on 10/19. Foley wrote a letter to Flair and complained to Laurinaitis after reading Flair's comments about him. Foley felt that if Flair had written it in his book he would be ok with it. His complaint was that Flair was saying it on a promotional tour for Backlash, and by saying Foley wasn't that good, it would be taking heat away from the match. Kevin "Mordecai" Fertig has been told to sell a lot less than he's been doing, and to concentrate on beating people up as opposed to having a good match. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JoeDirt 0 Report post Posted May 16, 2004 Well, they want Fertig to be the next Kane for the Undertaker to beat up, so what better way to start than by no-selling? I guess the reason they're going back to the more "cartoonish" gimmicks and shit is to get younger viewers again? So Vengeance in July will be RAW, Unforgiven in September Smackdown, and both in October will be RAW PPVs? Stupid. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lil' Bitch 0 Report post Posted May 16, 2004 Two RAW PPVs in the same month? Pfft...good luck with that. SD should keep Vengeance and No Mercy. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest sanyo Report post Posted May 16, 2004 I'm not surprised about the demographic. What kid would want to be caught dead watching fake stuff? Not even me! Wrestling is so passe and they're product is reflecting that. Remember in 2000- more women in thongs, more hardcore wrestling, more fucking amazing promos is the reason kids tuned in. After the Right To Censor shit, I don't think any horny kid wants to watch women covering their asses, 54 year old men wrestling (Flair winks Flair) and "safer" wrestling like rest holds. As far as the two PPV for Raw in october...at this point I wouldn't care. Smackdown is shit and nobody cares for it. Never the less who knows? In 6 months again Smackdown could be the hot product and Raw the crapper. Two PPV's for Raw two weeks apart makes no sense. Then again this is Meltzer- when was he ever 100% right? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JoeDirt 0 Report post Posted May 16, 2004 June 13: Bad Blood - RAW June 27: The Great American Bash - SD July 11: Vengeance - RAW? Aug. 15: Summerslam - Both Sept. 12: Unforgiven - SD? Oct. 3: No Mercy - RAW Oct. 19: RAW PPV Nov. 14: Survivor Series - Both Dec. 12: Armageddon - SD? -Man, if that's true, all the PPV's are gonna be switched around this year. Weird. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Choken One Report post Posted May 16, 2004 More Raw ppvs is a good thing. Hell make Unforgiven RAW as well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
J.B. Buzzkill 0 Report post Posted May 16, 2004 The plan for October looks to be not just for two PPVs, but both Raw PPVs, one on 10/3 and one on 10/19. ??? How THE HELL are they going to build feuds for another PPV in TWO WEEKS? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Choken One Report post Posted May 16, 2004 Halloween Havoc can be a gimmick ppv... Revive the SPIN THE WHEEL gimmick! and Advertise 10 LEGIT Gimmicks The Meltzer Memorial (aka Ladder Match) Cage 2/3 Falls First Blood Coal Miners Strap Match Street Fight Last Man Standing Blindfold Match (HHHs specialty) Catch the Dwarf. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest I Got Banned for Sucking Report post Posted May 16, 2004 June 13: Bad Blood - RAW June 27: The Great American Bash - SD July 11: Vengeance - RAW? Aug. 15: Summerslam - Both Sept. 12: Unforgiven - SD? Oct. 3: No Mercy - RAW Oct. 19: RAW PPV Nov. 14: Survivor Series - Both Dec. 12: Armageddon - SD? -Man, if that's true, all the PPV's are gonna be switched around this year. Weird. Wouldn't Bad Blood and The Great American Bash just be both shows getting a PPV in June, making it Raw and the SmackDown! ?... following on as SmackDown! getting Vengeance in July, SummerSlam being joint, Unforgiven for Raw, No Mercy for SmackDown!, and so on, and so forth. I guess that it may seem somewhat unprofessional to have two consecutive PPVs from the same brand, but it's not as if it's going to alter Raw and SmackDown!'s respective PPV numbers for the year. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Use Your Illusion 0 Report post Posted May 16, 2004 YES!! Catch the dwarf!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lil' Bitch 0 Report post Posted May 16, 2004 Having the RAW roulette used as the ground idea for a PPV for RAW would be excellent. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Adam 0 Report post Posted May 16, 2004 I agree, it would add an element of unpredictibility to the whole show, and if there ended up being a huge gimmick match to end it (ie. Ladder, Cage, I Quit) then it would work perfectly. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kizzo 0 Report post Posted May 16, 2004 I'm not surprised about the demographic. What kid would want to be caught dead watching fake stuff? Not even me! Wrestling is so passe and they're product is reflecting that. Remember in 2000- more women in thongs, more hardcore wrestling, more fucking amazing promos is the reason kids tuned in. After the Right To Censor shit, I don't think any horny kid wants to watch women covering their asses, 54 year old men wrestling (Flair winks Flair) and "safer" wrestling like rest holds. You are absolutely right... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest wrestlingbs Report post Posted May 16, 2004 [Cheatum] Spin the wheel! Make the deal! [/Cheatum] My age group only makes up 10% of the audience? huh. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Choken One Report post Posted May 16, 2004 Exactly...Have the matches basically be blow off matches i.e rematches of No Mercy and settle those "grudges" in the most outlandish ways... Go ahead and set up two matches ahead of time...Like (random) Shelton Benjamin Vs Batisia on the raw a week before spin and recieve a LMS match... So the fans know we're getting 7-8 legit gimmick matches. Or they can revive.... BATTLE BOWL! 40 Wrestlers...20 Tag Teams(random)...10 Matches... Then Take the 10 winning teams...Have Five Matches...The 10 remaining workers have a 10 Man Elimination Dance... Winner wins Something (a vacant title, money etc) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Choken One Report post Posted May 16, 2004 better yet...keep the Battle bowl for Survivor Series...it's the PERFECT concept for a Interbrand show... Get 20 reps from each side and have random teams (meaning Raw/SD could team up)... Those twenty? (the World Champs should have seperate matches as the winner would recieve a title shot)...yes it's a little too Rumble like but it's a fun concept... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Choken One Report post Posted May 16, 2004 better yet...keep the Battle bowl for Survivor Series...it's the PERFECT concept for a Interbrand show... Get 20 reps from each side and have random teams (meaning Raw/SD could team up)... Those twenty? (the World Champs should have seperate matches as the winner would recieve a title shot)...yes it's a little too Rumble like but it's a fun concept... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Trivia247 Report post Posted May 16, 2004 It would be tuesday in texas all over again... the Final four... the One night only.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest I Got Banned for Sucking Report post Posted May 16, 2004 I'd love a gimmick match PPV... just as long as it's not filled with shit and we actually get matches worth watching, unlike the most recent Raw Roulette. I mean, you'd've thought that there might've been a surprise TLC match or something, but no... I don't know if there would be able to be ten legit gimmicked matches fit on that show, though. That Survivor Series concept doesn't sound bad either. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest TigerDriver91 Report post Posted May 16, 2004 Kevin "Mordecai" Fertig has been told to sell a lot less than he's been doing, and to concentrate on beating people up as opposed to having a good match. Anyone else find the above to be really funny? We wouldn't want the new guy putting on a good match, no sir. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest sanyo Report post Posted May 16, 2004 The only reason I see Raw getting two PPV's in October is the greedy little HHH who's probably missing his 12 months a year PPV payday. HHH probably wants bigger pay-days so blame Hunter, blame Hunter, blame Hunter! I'm guessing the october 19 PPV is Halloween Havoc. The only thing is to bring Starrcade back. Also why in the hell don't they change Vengence to Bash at the Beach? Bash sounds so much better than Vengence...actually why not change all the PPV names except RR, WM, SS and the other SS to WCW PPV? Like Armageddon seems to be the only other event that kinda has that yearly feel because it plays the same theme for it. If they are going with 16-18 PPV change some of the names. Backlash sounds dumb. Vengence is dumb. No Mercy sucks. Fall Brawl should replace Unforgiven. Starrcade should be the fifth inter-promotional PPV in June! Anyone agree? Starrcade technically has more history than any PPV including Wrestlemania. It should be Jan- RR Feb- SD- NWO Mar- WM Apr- Raw- Superbrawl May- SD- Spring Stempede June- Starrcade July- Raw- Bash at the Beach Smackdown- Great American Bash Aug- SS Sept- Raw-Fall Brawl Oct- SD- Slamboree Raw- Halloween Havoc Nov- SS Dec- Raw-Armageddon What do u think of this line-up, of course give or take here and there. I think this is a kick-ass PPV line-up combining WWE's main PPV and WCW's better sounding PPV names and add an extra inter-promotional PPV. This should be the 2005 line-up. Vince you reading? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
geniusMoment 0 Report post Posted May 16, 2004 Actually WWE was much tamer in 2000 than in 1997-99. It just takes the public a while to catch on, it took them over a year to catch on to the fact that raw was better than nitro. But WWE cannot use attitude anymore, not even something remotely risque. They are going back to kids stuff, expect the average age demo continue to rise. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Choken One Report post Posted May 16, 2004 Wait. This is WWE. Not WCW. In no way should there be more WCW Named PPVs then WWE Named ppvs. Get away from your nostalgic feelings for Starrcade and Bash. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SuperJerk 0 Report post Posted May 16, 2004 Coming soon: Summer Slamboree! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tetsubeav 0 Report post Posted May 16, 2004 Um... that demo "change" kinda makes sense. Wasn't the large portion of the Monday Night wars, oh, about 7 years ago? Add 7 to 24 and you're up to 31. Consider a few people dropping interest here and there and I could easily see the average going up a couple of years. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Detective Comics 0 Report post Posted May 16, 2004 [Cheatum] Spin the wheel! Make the deal! [/Cheatum] My age group only makes up 10% of the audience? huh. But 68% of smarks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest TigerDriver91 Report post Posted May 16, 2004 Oh boy. I am in the 19% section. Woohoo Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SuperJerk 0 Report post Posted May 16, 2004 [Cheatum] Spin the wheel! Make the deal! [/Cheatum] My age group only makes up 10% of the audience? huh. But 68% of smarks I thought smarks were 12 year-olds on their parents' computers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Spaceman Spiff 0 Report post Posted May 17, 2004 Wait. This is WWE. Not WCW. In no way should there be more WCW Named PPVs then WWE Named ppvs. Get away from your nostalgic feelings for Starrcade and Bash. Plus, I'm pretty sure Dusty Rhodes owns the trademarks/rights to a few of those WCW PPV names (not sure which ones, though). Kevin "Mordecai" Fertig has been told to sell a lot less than he's been doing, and to concentrate on beating people up as opposed to having a good match. Well, if the reports are to be believed, it's not like he *could* put on good matches. And those demographics are interesting. Almost 1/2 the audience is 35+. They better be careful, or all these "retro-gimmicks" (i.e. Mordecai, Booka Shango) might turn off a good portion of the audience. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
