[Don Draper]

How popular would you say WWE is where you live? I live in America so obviously it's pretty big, not hugely popular like the NFL or other pro sports but still well known and popular. I see kids wearing Cena and Mysterio gear a lot and past stars like Hogan, Rock and Austin are still popular today here and throughout the world.

How big is the WWE in your country?

 

[reDREDD]

I actually am starting to see original John Cena purple and orange shirts in kuwait, as well as alot of Batista and Cena knockoffs. RAW and Smackdown both have primetime TV slots and are actually pretty damn popular.

The WWE has got to try on capitilize on the Middle East market. Its growing. Fast.

 

[dxbender]

WWE should be marketing alot to non USA places because on things like twitter, I see WWE topics trending more frequently than USA or Canada.


Though in Canada, I don't know much people who regularly watch Raw, but most ppl don't really say they like wrestling but they do watch it(or at least read about it weekly).

I've never seen tv ratings for wwe in canada though so its hard to judge just how popular it is. Though its obvious the people who do like it, like it alot based on the crowds.

 

[Von Doom]

Relatively big, as proven by the sell out tours they regularly do over here.

Most people I know though, either don't watch it, have never heard of a lot of wrestlers etc.

Also it's very seldom that you see someone walking through the streets with WWE Merch on, even little kids.

 

[Cowabunga]

It started airing here in January 2004(It aired from 1991-1994 as well but it was not very popular) and it was quite popular from mid/late 2004 to early/mid 2007 being the highest rated shows on the Cable Network it aired.

There has been at least two house shows per year from 2006 to 2008 and they always sold out. WWE hasn't returned to Portugal since 2008.

Ever since 2008 it has moved into a paid channel so its popularity has decreased considerably and if you are over 12 and watch it people think you are a retard, the funny thing is that in 2004-2007 alot of 15-20 people used to watch and those smae people make of fun of those who watch it now, and no it's not because of the PG thing, most people I know stopped watching it in 2006/2007 so they have no idea what's going on on WWE nowadays.
Out of all my friends I'm the only remaining Wrestling fan.

 

[TakerBourneAgain]

Pretty dan popular. Its WWEs second biggest market outside the USA. You dont see people wearing the gear in the streets but the games sell well as do stickers and most toy shops sell the figures or give the figures a page or 2 or 3 in a catalogue with rings and tron too aswell other stuff like that doing well.
It could do better if it wasnt on Sky Sports though and was on something like channel 4 like back in the day. Aswell as not being on at 2am and drifting between 9:30pm and 11:30pm for smackdown. I guess though AM Raws good ratings lately compensate for it being on so late and smackdowns replays at 12pm or whenever it is.
They have 2 or 3 tours a year here and do a raw and smackdown on the tour too, unlike other countries where they tape it before they leave.

 

[Oh Lymping Hero!]

I live in Sydney Australia, and it's certainly not mainstream. You would only rarely see people wearing wrestlers t-shirts etc.

The last few years the E has been doing regular house show tours to the main cities and the ones I've been to I think were pretty much sold out.

I think it's popular in some circles but certainly nothing like footy, cricket, etc.

 

[Camoron]

I actually am starting to see original John Cena purple and orange shirts in kuwait, as well as alot of Batista and Cena knockoffs. RAW and Smackdown both have primetime TV slots and are actually pretty damn popular.

The WWE has got to try on capitilize on the Middle East market. Its growing. Fast.

Bring back Hassan. Nothing will grow that market like an offensive stereotype Arabic character portrayed by an Italian-American.

 

[Camoron]

Pretty dan popular. Its WWEs second biggest market outside the USA. You dont see people wearing the gear in the streets but the games sell well as do stickers and most toy shops sell the figures or give the figures a page or 2 or 3 in a catalogue with rings and tron too aswell other stuff like that doing well.
It could do better if it wasnt on Sky Sports though and was on something like channel 4 like back in the day. Aswell as not being on at 2am and drifting between 9:30pm and 11:30pm for smackdown. I guess though AM Raws good ratings lately compensate for it being on so late and smackdowns replays at 12pm or whenever it is.
They have 2 or 3 tours a year here and do a raw and smackdown on the tour too, unlike other countries where they tape it before they leave.

How well is WWE covered by newspapers/Sports media in the UK? I've seen online articles from the Sun and others detailing WWE results, and from what I've heard WWE is actually covered in the mainstream sports media (such as recaps on sports channels and things like that). In the U.S. it's not covered at all by Sports media except when there's a scandal or some "real" athlete being involved (such as Floyd Mayweather at WM24).

 

[Poppin' Fresh]

In the UK it's all still about the Attitude Era. Of the people I know, the vast majority haven't even heard of any of the new talent (including John Cena). However, as soon as you mention The Rock, Stone Cold, Triple H etc. they know exactly what you're talking about.

 

[JuanFran666]

Everybody here loved the Attitude Era, lots of my friends said that when Stone Cold and The Rock, stoped appearing, it was death for them. Right now is growing again, but kids are the fans, the fact that they've toured here twice and they are coming next year helps a lot, but because we have cutted editions of 1 hour for Raw and 1 hour for Smackdown, many people don't know neither divas or undercard. That happened at february this year, and nobody gived a fuck about Zack Ryder vs Goldust and Michelle Mccool vs Beth Phoenix.

 

[ViolenceIsGolden]

I live in the USA and the only thing I have to prove that it's popular is it gets high ratings but it's not socially acceptable. By that I don't mean you'll get fired from your job or your friends will ridicule you for being a fan or anything over it but it's not something you can say "HEY MAN DID YOU SEE WRETLEMANIA YEAH CENA CENA BLA BLA BLA" Only time I've had fun talking about wrestling or was able to carry through a conversation is talking to random friends about the wrestlers from the Attitude Era.

 

[BambiKiller]

I'd say here in the UK that the WWE isn't as popular as it once was, but then most things pick back up after a few years... They get a wrestling section once a month in the Sun newspaper on a Saturday. They do interviews on Sky Sports, random show appearances etc. Still see quit a few t-shirts worn by kids, and about 2 miles down the road from me there is a giant DX tag on a roadsign :lmao, been there for like 5 years.

 

[JakeC_91]

WWE in the UK is probably only big because they only coming here liek twice a year, what a way to get the crowd hyped up. also "The Sun" newspaper is not mainstream, it's more of a comedy paper.

 

[Poueff]

It started airing here in January 2004(It aired from 1991-1994 as well but it was not very popular) and it was quite popular from mid/late 2004 to early/mid 2007 being the highest rated shows on the Cable Network it aired.

There has been at least two house shows per year from 2006 to 2008 and they always sold out. WWE hasn't returned to Portugal since 2008.

Ever since 2008 it has moved into a paid channel so its popularity has decreased considerably and if you are over 12 and watch it people think you are a retard, the funny thing is that in 2004-2007 alot of 15-20 people used to watch and those smae people make of fun of those who watch it now, and no it's not because of the PG thing, most people I know stopped watching it in 2006/2007 so they have no idea what's going on on WWE nowadays.
Out of all my friends I'm the only remaining Wrestling fan.

Well,I am 12 so I can say that even in my age most people don't watch it. Most of my friends stopped watching after CM Punk pwned Hardy on SD! and he got released. One or two of them still were into kayfabe,and I think to most of them wrestling = WWE. Only one of them knows the existence of TNA and that's because he's a Jeff mark... thank god I'm not on that class anymore xD

Anyway,I still think everyone remembers it,even though most of them (talking about generally,not only in my age) remember the John Cena/Batista dominance era the most. The thing that ruined it was the change of RAW (and ECW sometimes) for WWE Experience...

From WWE's market standpoint,I still see alot of merch,most of it in kids,but it's all Cena/Rey merch that probably didn't fit they're older brothers anymore.

Resuming,WWE's state in here is pretty shitty right now...

 

[BambiKiller]

WWE in the UK is probably only big because they only coming here liek twice a year, what a way to get the crowd hyped up. also "The Sun" newspaper is not mainstream, it's more of a comedy paper.

The Sun isn't mainstream, what the fuck you been smoking dude. It might be a tabloid, but it's one of the biggest selling newspapers in the United Kingdom, to say it isn't mainstream is down right laughable.

 

[Cowabunga]

Well,I am 12 so I can say that even in my age most people don't watch it. Most of my friends stopped watching after CM Punk pwned Hardy on SD! and he got released. One or two of them still were into kayfabe,and I think to most of them wrestling = WWE. Only one of them knows the existence of TNA and that's because he's a Jeff mark... thank god I'm not on that class anymore xD

Anyway,I still think everyone remembers it,even though most of them (talking about generally,not only in my age) remember the John Cena/Batista dominance era the most. The thing that ruined it was the change of RAW (and ECW sometimes) for WWE Experience...

From WWE's market standpoint,I still see alot of merch,most of it in kids,but it's all Cena/Rey merch that probably didn't fit they're older brothers anymore.

Resuming,WWE's state in here is pretty shitty right now...

I knew about 30 people that watched WWE and only 2 knew about TNA's existence.

Yeah that SD! move from Sic Radical to regular Sic pretty much killed Wrestling in Portugal since alot of parents bitched "IT'S VIOLENT OH NOES~!" and now SD! is on TVI at 9.30 :lmao

WWe on Sport Tv is a good idea but Portuguese commentary? Please...

I rarely see WWE merch anymore, I haven't seen WWE (and TNA for that matter) action figures since early 2008, good thing I have about 30 of those.

 

[wrestlingfan91]

It's gone from free TV for the past Year but it is still pretty big.

 

[lic05]

It's pretty big right now because it's on free TV, and you see tons of bootleg/pirate merchandise on the streets (that's how you know a show's popular), hell they even sell bootleg belt replicas.

And the commentary is atrocious.

 

[SimplyAmazing23]

It wouldn't rank in the top 5 here in Australia, with Rugby league, Rugby Union, cricket, AFL etc. Out of all my mates only about 3 or 4 of them know more than like 5 wrestlers. It could help if the E done a bit more advertising down here but ohwell shit happens.