[Loudness]

Originally Posted by Choke2Death

I don't think the internet excuse can work anymore. Streams and all that technological shit has been around for years now (7 at least) and yet the amount of money made off fans becomes lower and lower with each passing year. The show just sucks, I don't blame one person in specific, it's just uninteresting and horrible.

I wonder how low they can set the bar for ratings before they realize it's time to change something. A while back, 3.0 was considered 'panic zone' and now it seems like it's a miracle if the ratings reach that area.

With all that said, I have to laugh at Punk's bitterness in regards to the horrible ratings. Like most people that defend him, his response is "Why do you care?", which means no excuses.

The ironic part is that despite the internet streams and DVR, general TV viewership is MUCH higher than it was in the past, there's just far more people into medias than in the past as a whole. For example during the AE, a 5.0 meant 5million viewers, nowadays a 3.5 means around the same number of viewers on mondays which means that there's more people watching TV overall. You can say that DVRs and youtube affect all TV shows equally, so it creates an even playing field, you can't really make those excuses for WWE but pretend like other shows aren't affected by it.

I'm a regular viewer and the show is simply not interesting, the only thing that gets my interest is the Bryan/Punk/Kane storyline ( the only interesting storyline atm) and the ME and even that is getting my attention for all the wrong reasons. I lold how Ziggler went from becoming a badass one week to returning to the showoff gimmick on Monday for no reason, way to drop the ball WWE. VERY disappointing character progression, I guess WWE have no idea what to do with the poor guy now, I actually got slightly pissed at this since I wanted to see intense Ziggler more.

[King_Of_This_World]

The internet/streaming/downloading/torrents have been around for nearly a decade now, its not an excuse that can be used.

The product is poor and people are simply turning off.

Wrestling just isn't hot anymore, people are not interested. TNA has exactly the same problems, and impact has been mostly rather good in 2012.

[just1988]

Originally Posted by King_Of_This_World

The internet/streaming/downloading/torrents have been around for nearly a decade now, its not an excuse that can be used.

The product is poor and people are simply turning off.

Wrestling just isn't hot anymore, people are not interested. TNA has exactly the same problems, and impact has been mostly rather good in 2012.

It's still a valid excuse for the poor ratings because there's a whole generation of fans who are learning to watch the shows online from the comfort of wherever they want. Rather than sit and watch the shows on television.

[Choke2Death]

When exactly did streams start to exist? I first got internet back in 2005 (Survivor Series time) and found streams here and there but the ones I used (for other things as I wasn't into wrestling then) were low quality. Did they exist before 2005?

And I agree with wrestling simply losing popularity. It seems to have become less and less popular since 2002 when they became WWE and Austin/Rock stopped being around all that much. Then the PG rating drove away even more traditional fans, evidenced by the (lack of) Cena hate that was toned down immensely compared to 2006 and 2007.

[Rock316AE]

Torrents, Streams etc were all there when RAW was drawing 3.5-4.0 on a weekly basis just in 2009. So this is not even worth discussion. The people who aren't able to watch on TV, aren't going to affect the number anyway. It's just the worst roster of all time with a bunch of horrible, boring, uncharismatic, unappealing performers in a stale environment. Not that hard to figure.

Imagine a tremendous talent like Bully Ray on RAW? working with big crowds? so much potential. Bully Ray vs Randy Orton for a big PPV would have been amazing.

[Bob the Jobber]

Originally Posted by Rock316AE

Imagine a tremendous talent like Bully Ray on RAW? working with big crowds? so much potential. Bully Ray vs Randy Orton for a big PPV would have been amazing.

Bully Ray wouldn't be Bully Ray in this WWE. His promos would be less intense so as to not scare the kids and he'd have to resort to typical crappy chickenshit heel tactics.

[Marv95]

Streams existed in 2006-2007 and Raw ratings were in the 4s. It's NOT an excuse especially when the 2nd hour rating is down from the first. Didn't the Super Bowl get a 47.8 rating? Streams a-plenty back in February.

The product just sucks. It's too childish, bland and boring. The presentation is sterile. The format is too formulaic. The booking is absolutely moronic. Storylines are dropped and forgotten for no good reason. There's too much filler and pointless comedy. The same people(Cena) are always the focal point of the show. The star-power isn't there. The wrestlers aren't trying hard enough. It needs an overhaul because the ratings aren't going to jump to a 5 overnight.

[JasonLives]

Despite the falling rating im still impressed that they are still drawing somewhat decent crowds. Its not like back in 2004 when not even guys like Triple H, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, Goldberg, Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle etc couldnt get people to come to the arena and watch them wrestle.

[Loudness]

Originally Posted by Bob the Jobber

Bully Ray wouldn't be Bully Ray in this WWE. His promos would be less intense so as to not scare the kids and he'd have to resort to typical crappy chickenshit heel tactics.

Probably, WWE have lost the art of building personalities that are actually hateable. Guys like Kevin Steen and Bully Ray would get extremely stripped down and useless versions of their characters, fed to Cena who cuts smiling promos and doesn't take them seriously, then get released for "not getting over".

[Bob the Jobber]

Originally Posted by Loudness

Probably, WWE have lost the art of building personalities that are actually hateable. Guys like Kevin Steen and Bully Ray would get extremely stripped down and useless versions of their characters, fed to Cena who cuts smiling promos and doesn't take them seriously, then get released for "not getting over".

Hell, they couldn't even do Lesnar right. That entire storyline wrote itself and they managed to even fuck it up.