Wrestling Ratings Thread

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Big Boss Man
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Re: Wrestling Ratings Thread

Post by Big Boss Man »

WWE really have had the upper hand since the beginning since they can bring in any of their established names to bring up the ratings. I can see that trend continuing now on a weekly basis since it's proven the formula worked. Plus they have another Ace card up their sleeve as if Punk does come back to wrestle I can see him being on NXT since it fits in more with his whole ethos.

Depending on what goes down at Survivor Serires NXT could stay ahead but if they essentially reset and go back to being the normal show AEW will go back in pole position. I think the whole Wars concept is outmoded since it's already splitting a niche audience. If there is a clear AEW fan base who doesn't watch NXT or WWE then there was no need to directly compete with them anyway.

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Dr. Zoidberg
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Re: Wrestling Ratings Thread

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I think NXT will go up and down. They should stay up next week post-PPV/Takeover but will drop a fair bit the week after.

If Punk does wrestle again it will be on a Saudi show for $millions or a short run on Smackdown with Fox paying for most of it, also for millions.

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Re: Wrestling Ratings Thread

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Hot shotting has a limited shelf life. They can only make main roster wrestlers on NXT special so many times before people get bored with it. Plus they make NXT wrestlers out to be jabronis when the big TV star comes in. NXT should be about building for the future. Those people look bad enough when they do get called to the main roster and get whatever they had in NXT ruined, you shouldn't be making them look second rate on NXT too. So nobody gets a fame rub from the main roster people by doing it this way. And that's the goal of trying to do this, to not need to do it all of the time because you exposed Raw viewers to NXT people they now like. Otherwise it's just that Wild Card Rule thing they tried that didn't draw.

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Re: Wrestling Ratings Thread

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Re: Wrestling Ratings Thread

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It's not like NXT trashed them in the ratings either, with added star power there was only a 23,000 viewer difference. That's with them loading up on star power too. AEW have in like 7/8 weeks made new stars out already of Private Party, Orange Cassidy, Sammy G, Jungle Boy, Luchasarus, Marko, Riho to name only a few. So give them six months to a year I can see the whole dynamic shift where NXT rely on established names (think WWEs version of ECW) will be pushed ahead of guys like Adam Cole. It's already started and if the ratings continue that way they'll stick to that formula to the detriment of creating new stars.

With Punk, I can't really see him wanting to be part of SmackDown since he'd be no doubt feuding with Baron Corbin and him knocking his 0-2 MMA record in every promo. Saudi Arabi is another place where I don't think he'll go because it doesn't fit in with his whole ethos like I said. He said on Backstage he likes what they are doing with NXT and him feuding with Adam Cole would be more entertaining than one with Corbin or Rollins. Plus if he can get Joe and his other buddies over there I think he'll actually enjoy wrestling there. NXT is essentially mid to late 2000s Ring of Honor roster wise so I think he'd be better suited there. Plus it gives him a lighter schedule and he doesn't have to be too overly produced & micro managed like he'd be on SmackDown which is now really the A show in WWEs mind. Because say AJ comes in, they'd go all in on a Punk/AJ v Becky/Seth mixed tag main event for WrestleMania and in the current WWE that would be a chore to sit through. With NXT he can be the Punk of old and I think he'd actually prefer that and I don't really think money is a motivator either since I imagine WWE have already put a huge offer on the table for him to go to Saudi Arabia etc.

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Re: Wrestling Ratings Thread

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Yeah, Punk has said he'd never work in Saudi Arabia on his Starrcast show. He said he'd only take a Wrestlemania pay day.

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Re: Wrestling Ratings Thread

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Bryan saying what I have that he's thinking they'll turn NXT into a WWECW type brand.

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Re: Wrestling Ratings Thread

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WWECW was a failure. They can only claim CM Punk and Kofi Kingston as success stories. But Kofi wasn't over until he went to the main roster. One of the last WWE shows I attended had him on it and he just got heckled as a fake Jamaican the whole match. Other than that they had a bunch of WWE cast offs like Kane, Mark Henry, Chavo Guerrero and Christian. And Bobby Lashley was over from the Trump-McMahon angle, not WWECW. So if NXT becomes a show where they stick Zack Ryder, Elias and Bo Dallas it will be another failure. NXT was over to a select audience like AEW is, it should never be anything more.

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Re: Wrestling Ratings Thread

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Yes, considering the hype surrounding the relaunch of ECW it did fail. Had Vince let Paul E have total control over the product and they didn't do the hokey gimmicks that Sci-Fi wanted (I still think it was a rib on Paul that they wanted the Zombie and Vampire characters) then it could have been a success. I do see Vince getting his hooks into NXT and them detracting from what made that the best wrestling show out of the WWE brands. There's guys and girls on the NXT roster who are TV ready now so I don't really see it as a developmental brand and it hasn't been for a long time. When you've got like a veteran like Roderick Strong how much development does he need?. NXT ideally has to be the best of the indies type of show so your bringing in that audience so you've got all the bases covered. As soon as it becomes just another WWE style product I think AEW will have a cakewalk in regards to ratings since the core NXT fanbase will tune out.

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Re: Wrestling Ratings Thread

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Image


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Re: Wrestling Ratings Thread

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Wednesday ratings are finally out after the holiday delay.

NXT: 810,000

AEW 663,000

AEW deserved it because that show sucked until the Omega vs Pac match.

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Re: Wrestling Ratings Thread

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On Thanksgiving Eve, both AEW Dynamite and NXT were down -- but AEW's ratings fell far more.

Dynamite averaged just 663,000 viewers, down 26 percent and by far the show's lowest viewership total since its debut in October. In the key 18-49 demo, Dynamite finished with a 0.26, 15th for the night on cable, down 33 percent from the previous week.

NXT held up much better. The show averaged 810,000 viewers, down 12 percent. It's actually up from what NXT has been averaging for the last 10 weeks. In the 18-49 category, NXT finished just behind AEW with a 0.24 rating, finishing 19th on the night. The number in the demo was down 20 percent from the November 20 episode.

Looking at all of the demos, Dynamite beat NXT in every demo except persons over 50, as it does every week. They were much closer, however, with a less than 0.05 gap between the shows across the board, except for a huge advantage of of 0.4 to 0.25 in 50+, so it was obviously that demo that carried NXT to victory on the night.

AEW's strongest demo was men 18-49 with a 0.35 rating. NXT had a 0.33 in that category.

Here's a look at the last 10 weeks of Wednesday Night War ratings, along with the 10-week average as a comparison:

Image

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Re: Wrestling Ratings Thread

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Huge drop for AEW since the first episode. Still early days so there's no need for them to do much (except put on a better show than last week) but they need to build it back up to the 1m mark and improve the demos.

NXT is doing OK. Probably should be bigger with the stars that have been on the show but at the end of the day it's still just WWE's number 3 brand.

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Re: Wrestling Ratings Thread

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Yes it's a very significant drop from the 1.4m+. I've heard TNT were anticipating 500,000 viewers per week so they are doing better than expected. But if they do dip under 600,000 viewers it is cause for concern and TNT could put them on B/R live instead. Then you can imagine WWE chalking that up as a "win".

They've loaded up this weeks card so in theory the ratings should bounce back up. Unless there's a certain section of their audience who've switched to NXT now. When AEW was announced it was a huge deal and all the hype has fizzled out more quickly than expected. Which is a shame since outside of past Wednesdays show being a swing & a miss (outside of Kenny/Pac and Scorp/Jericho was OK too) the rest of the shows have been really good.

They do need a more clear direction too - are they a more serious wrestling centric show or a mixture of different elements & more of a sports entertainment style presentation. Booking wide, Cody should have beat Chris Jericho since the fans wanted it and it's not the same as Double J and TNA. Vanity booking when it comes to The Elite is a moot point as they are arguably the best, most over wrestlers in AEW. So having them losing and putting others over in that context is counter productive & it devalues the whole premise of them being elite.

So I think they need to reevaluate what their overall goal(s) for AEW are. They are only nearly a year in and considering they've had some great matches, sold out arenas it can be seen overall as a success. I don't know if AEW has lived up to the fans expectations 100%, but considering what they've accomplished in one year you can say they have certainly tried.

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Re: Wrestling Ratings Thread

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Re: Wrestling Ratings Thread

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-- The Wednesday Night Ratings battle stayed neck-and-neck last night (12/4) with AEW drawing 851,000 viewers and NXT drawing 845,000 viewers, a mere 6,000 difference in viewers.

In the key 18-49 demographic, AEW landed in the no. 8 spot and NXT in the no. 12 spot.

Last week, NXT beat AEW in the live-and-same-night viewership, but in the next three days, AEW virtually caught up. AEW gained 304,000 viewers for a total of 972,000 viewers, with NXT gaining 173,000 viewers for a total of 986,000.

So, the ratings battle almost couldn’t be closer at this point.

Among the male 18-49 demo, AEW drew a 0.41 compared to NXT’s 0.36, so AEW still has a lead but it’s not close to what it was in October.

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Re: Wrestling Ratings Thread

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It's like the first year of the Monday night wars.

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Re: Wrestling Ratings Thread

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Even with an appearance by CM Punk, Tuesday's episode of WWE Backstage on FS1 fell in viewership.

The show averaged 127,000 viewers, drawing a .06 rating in the 18-49 demo, down from last week's .08. That marked a drop of 11,000 from last week's 138,000 viewers which was the second highest in the history of the show thus far.

The episode featured an interview with Baron Corbin where he discussed last Friday's dog food segment on SmackDown. Punk also gave his thoughts on Seth Rollins' heel turn.

This was Punk's second appearance on the show. His first on November 19th remains Backstage's most-viewed airing at 180,000 viewers and a .10 in the key 18-49 demo.

Here's a look at Backstage viewership since debuting in its normal time slot:

November 5 -- 49,000 viewers
November 12 -- 100,000 viewers
November 19 -- 180,000 viewers
November 26 -- 121,000 viewers
December 3 --138,000 viewers
December 10 -- 127,000 viewers

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Re: Wrestling Ratings Thread

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AEW and NXT tied with 778,000 viewers each.

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