Comments and Complaints

[Guest thefrenchargel]

Well, it's now halfway into the year, and what an unspectacular year it has been in the world of wrestling. With the WWE in a slump, it's often easy to criticize the product that they're putting out. Both in terms of making money and keeping fans happy, the current mainstream american wrestling scene leaves quite a bit to be desired. Ratings are currently lower than they have been since the WWF was getting sand kicked in their faces by arch nemesis WCW. Vince and co. overcame that obstacle; the question now is this: can they overcome this one? The answer, in my opinion is yes. If the federal governement, Ted Turner, and the PTC couldn't derail the WWE, a sudden business downturn shouldn't be a problem, right? Sometimes it's hard to say, when the company is basically alienating many of its customers. As an example, I'll use the general net opinion, (and Chris Jericho's, apparently) of, "If you don't like it, then don't watch it." That statement is absolutely stupid in a business sense. I say business because, above all else, pro wrestling is a business, and Vince is a businessman. Sure, it's nice to think of wrestling as a performance art, or source of pure entertainment, or however you look at it, but if wrestling didn't make promoters' pockets a bit more full, it wouldn't be around. That, as the recent topic of discussion Steve Austin would say, is the bottom line. So, now that it's pretty clear the point of running a 'rasslin' company is to make some cash, doesn't it seem pretty stupid to basically tell your loyal customers to eat shit?

 

In my opinion the WWE has adopted the wrong "attitude." They shouldn't be saying "Don't watch this show if you don't like it." because fans are actually taking that advice and realizing, "Hey, this shit sucks...I think I'll watch something else." The result of this: TV ratings circling the drain, buyrates tanking, lower attendance, and most importantly, smaller profits. Instead of saying "Go watch something else," they should adopt something more along the lines of, "This will get better, stay tuned to see what happens next." The casual fan is a fickle creature that needs to be catered to in order for them to continue watching. As soon as wrestling starts to get intolerably stupid, the remote gets utilized, and Vince has to get some other shmuck to order the pay per view. The internet crowd is something that the WWE absolutely never ever ever has to worry about. Most of us, like it or not, are going to watch Smackdown and RAW week in and week out, no matter how much it sucks. This recent appearance of quasi-shoot "smart" material is just going to cater to that core 2.1 TV rating the WWE would get regardless of what they're producing. Those wonderful 1.0+ buyrates and 6.0+ TV ratings are where the casual fan comes in. THOSE fans are the ones to worry about, not Joe Smark who doesn't like how the shows are booked. Give the guy channel surfing a reason to stay tuned for more than five minutes, hell, he might even like what's on and lay down 35 bucks for a PPV if they're lucky.

 

-Argel Out.