You do those things quite a lot. It might take weeks to wrangle up all the posts of you being borderline retarded. I'm up for the challenge though.

That's not what I'm claiming.

I'm claiming they're unsuccessful at what they should be most successful at, and that is, creating compelling wrestling based televised entertainment and entertainers.

I'm claiming that because they're unsuccessful at creating compelling wrestling based televised entertainment and entertainers, EVENTUALLY, they may be unsuccessful on cable. Unless they turn it around and maintain it consistently, which in theory, could happen anytime.

Seriously though, what is Raw's competition on Monday nights?

I know there are 15 year old re-runs of Family Guy on Adult Swim that usually give it a run for it's money in the key demo. And I know that Love and Hip Hop show was beating it a while back in overall viewers but I don't think it's on anymore. Pretty sure that's it. lol

They'll be okay because kids will watch anything with violence, bright lights and explosions. You don't need to actually write anything with substance. So as long as they keep it PG, they'll get by fine. The thing is, they don't just target kids. They want to appeal to a larger demographic. They want to be "accepted" by the mainstream as a legit form of entertainment. Unfortunately if you want to attract a lot of people with more than a 6th grade education to your TV show, you need to actually write something compelling. And the writing has been an ADD-riddled mess over the years.

I don't do drugs, man, but thanks for the advice. I don't have time or any desire to do any drugs, plus it's not worth the risk of me losing my law license and not be able to do what I love for a living.

Absolutely. This is what CyNick either doesn't get or just ignores it.

Drop of 600,000 viewers from hour 1 to hour 3.

<font color=goldenrod>So much this.

The roster now is the best it's ever been. There are so many talented guys on the main roster and even more down in NXT who will eventually be called up over the coming months/years. But with the writing as it is now they'll be wrestling loads of great matches that end up not amounting to anything because they can't put together a coherent storyline for anybody not in the main event (and even the main event storylines make close to no sense anymore).</font>

I guess they didn't teach you the concept of irony in the 6th grade. Should have hung in there longer, might have come in handy.

Its a long show. Not everyone wants to sit through 3 hours of sports entertsinment. A bunch of people do though, and USA keeps bringing fat cheques to WWE to pump out more content, so everyone is happy. Except the IWC. But they're never happy. But they still watch. No matter what.

Is Ambrose-Owens compelling enough?

I don't watch. More people say that each year.

Pretty sure all the compliments I've seen about Ambrose-Owens has been about the matches and not the brilliant story behind them.

Also pretty sure that was kinda Vito's point.

<font color=goldenrod>The blow off match was fun, but the feud itself felt fairly empty. Just look at a couple of weeks ago. Owens attacks Ambrose, okay cool. A pissed off Ambrose immediately says in a promo he's going to get Kevin Owens, great.

That same night Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose's "brother", is forced to wrestle just about every heel on the roster in the main event. And who does he spend 15 minutes wrestling to start off with? Kevin Owens.

The match never gets resolved as the heels all intervene and beat the piss out of Reigns. Owens then gets suplexed to hell by Brock Lesnar. Dean Ambrose is never seen.

Even if you argue that the face Ambrose was going to play fair and not interfere in Reigns/Owens (even though he's meant to be a lunatic)...couldn't he have run out when his best friend was significantly outmanned and at least went off brawling separately with Owens?

Their Rumble match was great but could have been even better had the storyline not felt disjointed.</font>

Outside of Owens losing the title, I had no idea why the hell they were fighting and didn't really care.

They had a helluva match (match of the night, easily, by far) which is unquestionably what viewers are complimenting.


On a side note, I wonder how many fellas in the back are high-fiving and congratulating them both on their "amazing plot advancement".

Let us not also forget how The Authority was "watching closely" to put people in the Fastlane main event only to give it to one person who wasn't even featured on the show.

Sorry, I meant to say "GREAT PLOT ADVANCEMENT! LET ME GO SUB TO THE NETWORK NAO!"

I'm seriously curious now about whether CyNick is actually deep enough in his WWE apologist role that he thinks Ambrose-Owens is about the writing. lol

The fact that THAT was his example to respond to Vito's post is pretty sad.

Its ALWAYS about the writing because clearly the story lines = ratings and ratings = USA Exec's high-fiving each other in the hallway.

What defines high quality programming? For years American Idol was the #1 rated show on TV, I personally felt that show was horrible. Quality is a matter of opinion, I dont think everything that gets high ratings on cable is critically acclaimed.

The so what is thats what the goal is. USA wants RAW to bring their overall ratings up. By having more viewers than anyone else on a given night, puts USA in a favourable position for advertisers. This was proven out by the recent report that suggested USA was able to gain several key advertisers for RAW. Its also evident by the ever increasing TV rights fees that WWE collects. Whether or not you or I enjoy the product is really irrelevant.

The thing is we haven't really seen an erosion of the hardcore base. I would say the hardcore base in the people who buy the network, those numbers have increased Year over Year. Overall WWE is bringing in more revenues. Their revenues are closely tied to their hardcore base, as they actually pay for the product. So if those numbers are up, then where are the indicators that WWE is alienating anyone? Aside from 10 or 20 people on a site like this saying the product is shit? In the grand scheme of things, we are irrelevant. Its important to understand that.

Going back to the change in media. Why does WWE such massive numbers on You Tube, Facebook, etc? If the product was so stagnant or so horrible, why are those numbers so massive? isnt it more likely they fans they are apparently losing on TV are just consuming the product through other avenues?

Would you have enjoyed it more if Ambrose drove into the ring apron on a Beer Truck?

Sports Entertainment isnt always a verbal battle, its letting two guys tell a story in the ring. WWE has given Ambrose and Owens the TV time to tell that story over the IC title.

What about HHH-Roman? Thats not good writing?

Feel like we just got Neil Degrasse CyNick'd

:|

I didnt care for that either. Doesnt mean the product is terrible.

Not really. It is almost a mirror of early SCSA and VKM only this one feels more forced.

They are killing themselves over the IC title. Not hard to understand that.

No, but if they are betting on the network and cannot even book a match for a network-featured event based on their own words, that sucks.

Again though, kids will forget and not care about that anyway.

Right, but where is the STORY that is being heralded?

Two guys telling a story in the ring is appealing to hardcore fans. If the characters and story aren't hashed out and there's no heat or drama behind it, why would a casual fan give a shit?

And I like that you brought up HHH-Roman. Didn't you hype Roman's title win as a huge personal victory. "I told you guys WWE knows how to build a star! Proved it tonight!" How's that momentum going?

No. The other thousand examples of the same dumb, scatterbrained shit over recent years does.

<font color=goldenrod>LOL</font>

When it happened I thought it was odd for two reasons:

1. Why did they include Lesnar? I'm sure there will be some Paul Heyman explanation to this, but they didnt cover it on TV yet.

2. Why give Hunter so many possible tough opponents? Again, could be explained. Maybe Hunter wants to prove a point to the rest of the roster.

That said, I dont think any of it hurt my interest in seeing who wins. I mean I'm pretty sure I know who will win, but how they tell the story.

We get it bud, you're not a #1 fan anymore. We get it.

Well it is building to a match on the WWE Network, which is purchased by more hardcore leaning fans. So it makes perfect sense to let the story tell itself in the ring.

For the casual viewer its about caring about the two characters - which I think WWE has effectively made fans care about both. And second they would care about the IC title. Many "hardcore" fans have complained when the IC title is an afterthought. I would say this is as close to the Savage-Steamboat/Razor-HBK/HHH-Rock days where you had guys on the cusp of main event status, who in the right match could main event, and are battling over the title. So I would say the title in itself has appeal.

Doesnt matter if the writing is good(which its not), Roman would find a way to make it all suck. Really dont see how anyone could be a fan of Roman Reigns in his current state. Honestly hope HHH beats some respect in to him at WM, that would be the only good to come of the whole thing.

Reigns isnt my favourite guy on the roster, but I think he's a solid choice to try to take Cena's spot. Whether or not he can do that is up to him.

Raw set another all-time record low for the era for a non-football season broadcast last night averaging 3.37 million viewers.

8 p.m. 3.59 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.46 million viewers
10 p.m. 3.09 million viewers

Damn, that 3rd hour drop. No one gives a shit about the main event at all.

Dropped 700,000 viewers from last week, damn.

Should I change the name of this thread to something like "RAW Ratings Thread" or just leave it as is?

Compared to last week, the show itself was pretty skippable this week since only the Divas stuff had any real advancement.

Also been a growing trend recently of main events involving Reigns having crowds leaving early and generating more poor than good 3rd hours.

LOL, CyNick is getting SPANKED!