Why isn't wrestling more popular?

>>2625860
You answered your own question

>>2625864
Ah! Just when you know the answer, I change the question!

Half the things you listed aren't nerdy at all, wrestling has always been considered carny shit for rednecks and smarks came after.

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you just need one guy like Austin/Hogan to catch on

WWF in 96 was close to going bankrupt then the next few years turned them into a billion dollar company

Because all those other things don't constantly spite their audience

>>2625875
literally all those he listed are geek shit
you probably collect toys

>>2625860
Here in Japan, Pro Wrestling is still regarded as something prestigious. While Wrestling itself isn't as big as decades ago in Japan, but you will not be laughed at if you watch it or discuss it. Wrestlers still appear in Japanese variety shows, do CMs, and cross-promotions, unlike in the United States.

>>2625888
I don't collect shit.
>Star Wars
>Harry Potter
>Marvel/DC shit
>GoT
Are all franchises that draw in extremely large amounts of money from mass marketed movies, books and TV shows.

>>2625860
It's not good enough. If Raw and Smackdown were exciting and engaging they could probably capture this audience pretty easily, but they are too formulaic and dull.

>>2625875
>wrestling has always been considered carny shit for rednecks
Funny how it's the complete opposite in Japan where almost all the promotions are based in Tokyo and every class of people enjoys it.

>>2625898
did you read the OP?
he says they're normal and popular
they're also geeky

>>2625898
Yeah but 20 years ago Star Wars and comics were pretty fucking nerdy and only autistic weirdos openly talked about them.

>>2625898
and it's still geeky.
having a big market doesn't exclude it from a geek stigma
at it's peak, nascar was a massive market - it was still for idiot hillbillies.

>>2625860
Because Vince ruined the business

>>2625897
Normies in Japan who know fuck all about wrestling still watch wrestling and attend wrestling shows. Americans in the other hands are either marks or smarks who watched wresting their entire life.

>>2625860
wrestling isn't a geek thing it's a redneck thing. massive difference.

It's nascar tier.

>>2625920
>people didn't talk openly about Star Wars in fucking 1997

underage pls go

>>2625899
This, they're also way too embarrassing. Often times you're so used to all the embarrassing stuff you don't even realize how embarrassing it is until you watch it with someone else in the room who isn't a wrestling fan like you. I can just envision someone saying "hmm I'll give wrestling a shot" and sitting through 3 hours and 15 minutes of most RAWs and thinking what the hell is this cringey boring shit, aside from maybe 30 minutes or so of it.

It takes someone who is okay weeding through and ignoring all the shit to enjoy the rest, and most normies don't have that sort of capability, or are too concerned with others' perception of them to do that.

Also remember that superheroes are big now because the movies they're in are actually cool these days vs being corny like they used to be.

>>2625914
He implies they were geeky first and became normal after. Normal people don't like real geek shit like anime and Star Trek.
>>2625920
>Star Wars remains one of the most financially successful films of all time. The film earned $1,554,475 through its opening weekend ($6.14 million in 2016 dollars), building up to $7 million weekends as it entered wide release ($27.7 million in 2016 dollars).

>>2625934
I disagree. Wrestling is far more of a geek thing now.

>>2625946
WWE is still bigger than any other promotion in the US and the crowds have a small amount of smarks in them.

>>2625957
Which, leads us back to the OP: why has WWE failed to capitalise on neckbeards and autists?

>>2625972
Why? Because of Vince and stockholders. While CM Punk is full of shit the 'millionaire who should be a billionaire' quote is definitely true.

>>2625972
Because the modern product is shit, the wrestling itself is mediocre and the storylines are weak and reused constantly. The overall focus on a family friendly prime time/soap opera style show puts them off. Nerds who do get into wrestling tend to prefer products that focus on good in-ring action more, but the amount who do show an interest is overall low probably because at the end of the day wrestling is just fake fighting and requires the right mindset to enjoy.

>>2625972
not him, but i think it fit to a wide demo back then
edgy, in your face, it was very 90's.
right now, the fan base caters to the fan base. it's still kind of niche
also - there is a bigger choice for viewers.
i do think though, if they went to what worked in the past - high testosterone viewing.
fast 8 just broke a ton of records, there is still a giant demand for that audience.
instead, they want to please their already viewing audience. 205 live, diva shit.
not to mention a cast that looks like dry and kevin owens.
get a guy like brian cage in a monster truck pouring beer on people waving an american flag with some porn star on his shoulders type shit.
no, they are too busy making sure they have a black female nonbinary vegan feminist getting enough minutes

>>2625860
Memes aside, there's too many smarks compared to 20 years ago when the internet wasn't as big

>>2626002
this. thanks to stephanie, they spend so much time trying to be inclusive and get new groups of people interested that don't give a shit that they end up alienating the people that actually like wrestling

>>2626002
Why the fuck does everyone on this fucking site bring everything back to 'but libruls!'?

>>2626026
don't come here if you're too fragile

>>2626026
the wwe is actively doing this though, you complete fucking idiot.
they went from fucking dead bodies, cutting off cocks- to campaigns to "stop bullying"
no matter the side- this is real life, not some meme war on /pol/

>>2626026
No one on this site can argue a point, only fingerpointing and namecalling go here.

>>2626026
because libtards ruin everything. that's a fact

>>2626038
WWE has been doing PSAs since the late 80s.

>>2626015
>smark crowds weren't around in the late 90s

I know it happened before you were born but video footage exists, son.

>>2625860
Because wrestling isn't stigmatized as geek shit. It's stigmatized as redneck/inbred shit. Even if a major demographic now is the stereotypical basement dwelling neckbeard, everyone still sees WWE as that "soap opera for hillbillies" it used to be.

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>>2625860
Because of Womens wrestling

Watch UFC women fight on Saturday night and then see Bayley do this on Monday night.

They need to tone down the comedy shit as well it is way overkill

Wrestling has always been about larger than life which means larger than average people in the ring.

Men want to be big guys.

Women want to fuck big guys.

>>2626038

quick google search
>“Our culture has gotten too mean and too rough, especially to children and teenagers,” Trump said at a sports center in Berwyn, a suburb of Philadelphia suburb. She drew cheers as she continued.
>“It is never OK when a 12-year-old girl or boy is mocked, bullied or attacked. It is terrible when that happens on the playground and it is absolutely unacceptable when it’s done by someone with no name hiding on the internet.”
>As first lady, Melania Trump said she would work to combat online bullying and harassment.

>>2626104
>It's stigmatized as redneck/inbred shit.

so is Nascar. they don't have any problem with popularity or drawing dimes

people tuned into geek culture are actually more aware of wrestling than a few years ago, but they don't watch that much product. i think it's because most wrestling shows are so long its hard for a casual to get into. like people aren't going to dedicate three hours on monday to get into a show.

lucha underground was really refreshing at one hour for its first couple seasons.

>>2626026
Because liberals are the most prominent and identifiable symptom of the real disease.

The problem is that there's nothing engaging or entertaining on WWE's tv shows. Nothing on their shows are must see. There was a lot of shit during the attitude era, but people tuned in to see Austin and Rock segments which were usually good. Today the matches are good to great but there's nothing interesting going on.

>>2626114
i said either side, you trump seething idiot

>>2626117
not him, and i'm with you
but nascar is having very similar, if not worse, decline than wwe

>comic books
Nope. It's just the movies. If you actually read the books you're still looked down on.

>>2625991
>the wrestling itself is mediocre
the wrestling is better than it's ever been in the history of wrestling

>>2626112
>WWE began declining in popularity in 2001 because of a woman that wasn't even on RAW a year ago

>>2626113
That's not what "Larger-Than-Life" means.

>>2625860
I think MMA and UFC kind of made wrestling irrelevant. If you can see people fighting for real with that much brutality, why even bother with modern day WWE?

Beacaue for a fake sport they are trying too hard to be grounded in reality. People using their real names or fake names that sound like real names. They need to be larger than life again.

I'd say that the main problem wrestling has is that it is a combination of certain aspects and issues which, when separate, cater better to a big group of people than altogether. It's a case in which the the whole isn't better than the sum of its parts.
Some of those aspects could be:
-That is "violent"
-That it caters to children
-That it caters to rednecks
-That it caters to smarks
-That is fake
-The quality of the storylines
-The quality of the wrestling

>>2626206
>the biggest draw ever was named "Steve Austin"

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Because it's fake and gay.

>>2625860
Do you really want it to be popular?
Do you want to share your hobby with the mainstream audience like how MCU and Doctor Who and Supernatural turned out?
Do you want yaoi fangirls in the arena?

>>2626226
>Supernatural

>>2626226
>implying i have a dr who and supernatural hobby
wtf are you even talking about?
and of course I would. I have no interest in sports and feel kinda left out when other dudes are talking about whatever the fuck is going on.
>share the audience like dr who
get to a gym or something, guy

>>2626226
Are you dumb? It was extremely popular in the 90s, and that was also when the product was at its best. It all depends on who is running the show.

>>2626226
>Do you want yaoi fangirls in the arena?
You realise they are already here?

>>2625860
because it's the most autistic and geeky thing out there

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>>2626255
really?

>>2626216
>every one called him Stone Cold
>had a larger than life attitude

>>2625860
You missed the point on why those things are popular. There has been a major nastalgia movement going on in every one of those mediums. Hell it probably happened with wrestling but the product is so different from when most 20 somethings were kids that they left immediately. Wrestling is an embarrassing show in its current state. It doesn't have to be le edgy but it needs ti at least make sense.

>>2626276
Bet he watches wrestling.

>>2626276
But he spends his time watching stuff he likes. Wrestling fans watch stuff they hate.

>>2626130
>Because liberals are the most prominent and identifiable symptom of the real disease.

Which is?

>>2626500
The Jews, anon. It's always the Jews.

>>2625860

Wrestling used to be fun but then smarks ruined it.

Literally all the smarks crying about the state of wrestling don't realize that they made it this way. They cheer for midget faggots who do flips but can't cut a promo so that's what Vince gives them.

>>2625860
WWE's product is just too childish and formulaic now. If wrestling does get popular again it will be NJPW, maybe LU ironically.

>>2626216
you misspelled Hulk Hogan

>>2625860
Because (((they))) don't control wrestling the way they do every other form of media.

>>2626191
In terms of athletic ability, perhaps. In terms of psychology and storytelling, no.

It just isn't, that's about all there is to it.

IF there was actual competition to WWE there might've been a second spike in wrestling popularity, but Vince put an end to that.

>>2626623
>It just isn't, that's about all there is to it.
ah such great insight

>IF there was actual competition to WWE there might've been a second spike in wrestling popularity, but Vince put an end to that.
you mean like how there's actual competition in all those things in the OP? good point

>>2626637
>there's no competition in the superhero genre

>>2626599
Let's hope a big Jew takes over WWE and makes it a normal thing to watch

>>2625860
for shits and gigs, i looked up the top 5 most viewed shows from 2016 (since this year isn't over yet so the data isn't complete)

>Game of Thrones
gore, sex and nudity, profanity, well developed storylines for all characters
>The Walking Dead
gore, profanity, implied sexual situations, pretty well developed characters
>Pretty Little Liars
chicks are hot, but other than that i'm a man so i don't see the appeal
>Westworld
Haven't seen this but i'm assuming blood, violence, bad language and sex. typical hbo stuff. probably develop their characters really well
>The Flash
literally a tv show for a comic book hero. nerd shit.

what do all of these shows have in common that wwe doesn't? they develop their characters. they don't insult the viewers intelligence. they know who their audience is and give them what they want to see. they stick to one thing and do it well instead of trying to please everyone. sex, profanity and violence is clearly not a deterrent for viewers. there's no excuse for wwe's ultra pc nonsense and stories for toddlers.

Wrestling these days is catered to nu-males, weebs, and vidya fags.

>>2625860
All that shit you mentioned is geek shit that is liked by the same autistic fucks who watch wwe/wreslting. I'll just say better marketing is why those other shits are successful.

The time is ripe for wrestling to get extremely popular. The nostalgia is there for it, but WWE is incredibly boring. Imagine the difference in a casual fan turning on Raw in 1998 and turning it on now.

Raw in 1998:

>Hyped, aggressive intro
>JR and Lawler introducing the show as the camera pans around to thousands of people holding up signs and going wild
>Austin's music hits and the crowd go nuts
>He talks about kicking someone's ass as the crowd pop like crazy with his every sentence
>A hook is dropped for later in the show, and you know something crazy is going to happen

Raw now:

>Faggoty intro music over clips of guys you've never seen before
>Michael Cole's annoying voice talking about the WWE Universe as the camera pans around to disinterested fans
>Stephanie McMahon walks to the ring and cuts a 25 minute promo discussing job performance and contracts, as she emasculates every wrestler who comes out

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>>2625860
It's too white trash

>>2626976
VKM is scared shitless that edgy content will remind people of Benoit

>>2625860
Thats why they created Finn Balor's Demon King

>>2627062

Never

The product is lousy and takes up too much time

Everything you listed is at least decent and even Marvel gives you a few months before it bombards you with another movie. WWE never stops coming at you, which'd be fine, except most of it sucks.

>>2626104
There may be something to this.

My dad was really surprised when I got into wrestling and was kinda not taking it seriously at first. We went to an episode of Raw and he fucking loved it. On the way home, he told me he was expecting the crowd to be full of rednecks but the atmosphere was completely different from what he expected and he had a really great time.

>>2626184
I mean, that's probably because most of the books are garbage. Wow, Captain America was really a nazi the whole time? That's inspired.

>>2626976
Based Big Bolts Flash drawing the dimes.

> there's no excuse for wwe's ultra pc nonsense and stories for toddlers.
Actually, there is, but it's not what you wanna hear.

The excuse is that that shit makes it easier for them to get big TV deals and big sponsorship and licensing deals. These are WWE's main revenue streams and they mean that WWE basically doesn't have to fucking care about anything because they're getting guaranteed money from these huge contracts.

The writing is shit because they don't care because they don't have to care because they've already made their money for this year.

>>2628576
kind of reminds me of certain NHL teams that have empty arenas every night like the florida panthers and new jersey devils that made their money on local tv contracts and don't care that their attendance is 3,000 every night when most other teams are 18,000. Question though. what happens when the guaranteed money dries up and it's time to renegotiate with USA?

>>2625860
"Geek culture has become popular" is a myth.

People who don't think for themselves want to be 'in' with a group, but now they don't care what the group is even about anyway.

WWE tries to get these people to watch with their usual tricks of getting celebrities and promoting the "smiles on people's faces" lie whether the show is awful or not.

It unfortunately works, just not as much as newer stuff that gets even bigger portions of the herd.

That big boxing match is an example. then people forgot about boxing again.

>>2625920

that's not true. at all. Star Wars was ALWAYS normal fag shit.


t. oldfag

>>2625860
PRO WRESTLING IS COOL AND WILL ALWAYS BE.

The WWE Creative are just HOLIDING IT IN because they're in fair weather. when the tides get rough, they'll put on a 3 hour show where every MINUTE is a surprise and a mega draw like the attitude era.

They're just chillin like a volcano.

>>2628969
Well, that happens in 2019 and there's two schools of thought right now:
1) WWE's ratings are declining, but so is the rest of TV, and that makes WWE as a live sports brand, as valuable as ever, so they'll be able to get as much or more money. This is what the stockholders believe.
2) TV is declining, but WWE is declining faster and they're not gonna get the same huge gobs of money they got last time (which is less than they wanted, anyway. For all the crowing about RECORD HIGH REVENUE, WWE signed for substantially less money than they wanted to in 2014).

We'll see what happens and if multiple bidders besides USA/NBCUniversal even want WWE. A huge indicator is gonna be what happens next year, when UFC's TV deal is up.

>>2629590
Fox and nbc both have small sports channels, they are both desperate for content, so they overpaid for nascar rights, even though the sport is fading very fast.

If the ufc were smart, they should play off abc (espn), nbc, and fox off each other to get the best deal. But if the advertisers themselves hold back cash from the entire medium of television, everyone is fucked over.

As shit as the ratings are, USA Channel has nothing else.

Wrestling isn't geek culture. It's like the cousin no one likes talking about

Because WWE dominate wrestling and they are literally a show for children.

I think they're building to a 90's Hogan status heel turn with Cena. He's "going to hollywood" but we all know he'll be back again and again.
One of the times he comes back he's going to turn heel, and it will bring the mainstream audience he has gained through his movie fame. WWE will flourish, and pro wrestling will flourish as a result.
It might last 5-10 years, and then we'll be right back here.
Cue Reigns slow build heel turn.

>>2625860
Because while everyone knew wrestling was fake before, they succeeded at making you feel like these characters were real and they had legitimate beef sometimes. You saw intense promos, blood, backstabbing, big twists, etc. They laid it all out on the line out there and you felt it. There's none of that now, it's basically like a stage play at this point. Every movement is scripted down to the footstep, there's no mystique behind it anymore. It's just lame now.

WWE is marketed towards children

>>2626045
Nah, even old wrestlers have noticed a difference and talked about it. Crowds just chant random shit now to seem smarky. Crowds have a lot to do with why the current product is shit, not just the smarks, but the dead as fuck normal crowds.

>>2625860
>no more roidfreaks
>no more mic ability
>no more fun characters to get behind
>emphasis on muh work rate instead
>no sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll culture behind the scenes in wrestling anymore
>only lame ass boring WWE remains as the sole biggest wrestling promotion

It is not too hard to see why it isn't popular anymore. The guys back then were must see tv. The wrestling cucks of today look like out of place fans that wrestle in their backyard.

Just take Andre for instance. He has been dead a long time and arguably few people watching wrestling today have even seen him in his prime. Yet normies can recongnize Andre The Giant and even have fond memories of him not in his prime yet Kevin Owens is a literal who to people today.

>>2632381
Oh yeah and one more thing I should have added.

Kevin Owens is considered a big guy by modern WWE standards. A Fat 265 pound manlet is actually "huge" size wise in today's WWE.

This is why based Stroman needs to be pushed more. Wrestling needs mastadons to make a comeback. Not 205 live flippy 5'5 vanilla midgets that can't even draw a good rating on WWE's own network.

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>>2632381
This.

There's no cool characters anymore to get behind. Everyone now is just generic Firstname Lastname bland guy. I mean, look at this faggot, is this what's considered a star now? Compare that to Hogan, Sting, Hart, Savage, etc. these guys were must see TV. Even the midcarders had distinct looks and characters for the most part. I turned on Raw for the first time in like 7 years a couple weeks ago and everyone looked exactly the fucking same. They even managed to turn Jericho into one of these forgettable no names.

>>2632388
Tall freakish bodybuilders could help but good writing and presentation is what could bring wrestling back. Right now we're stuck with a castrated literal kid's show that's absolutely terrified to offend anyone or be genuinely exciting,

>>2632396
I never thought I'd see the day where Vince McMahon was afraid to offend people. WWE is the perfect case study for why monopolies are bad. Vince bought up all his competition and immediately the product went to shit.

>>2632396
You can get all the greatest writers in the world to write great stories for the show but if people like the guy here >>2632391
are considered "superstars" in today's WWE then it isn't going to work.

Smarks and even anti-smarks on this board just need to accept the fact that today's wrestlers couldn't even hold the bags of the wrestlers from the golden years.

That includes even the more dead early 90's period to since many of them were around from the 80's to late 90's.

>>2632388
The best example that wrestling is more fun with those big hulking mastodons is just look at the Lesnar/Goldberg match at Wrestlemania.

They did what 4 different moves total over 5 minutes and got the crowd more hype and excited then all the guys who did all this workrate shit for the 8 hours before.

The only time the crowd was louder was for the Hardys and they are not exactly technical wrestlers. Hell the only reason why people cheered is cause of the broken character which is something wacky and fun. Unlike say Bray who is just wacky but takes himself serious then bores the fuck out of people.

>>2632427
>The only time the crowd was louder was for the Hardys and they are not exactly technical wrestlers.

Not to mention they're old and have been wrestling for 20 years now. It's sad that no new talent could out pop the Hardys at WrestleMania.

>>2632427
It's takes more than size for people to care about you, there's a reason Brian Cage is a literally who. Brock and Goldberg are both fully developed legends and there were 13 years of buildup to that match.

>it's a "developmentally-stunted manchildren can't move past the 90s" thread

>>2632391
>>2632405
Imagine bitching about somebody who actually has a clear, defined personality.

>>2632450
more like 13 weeks

look at their top guys

>keven owens is not a physical specimen
>dean ambrose seems sleepy and dopey
>braun strowman has huge potential, need to flesh out his character more
>aj styles has potential, but needs to gain mass, not a physical specimen
>randy orton old news
>bray wyatt not scary enough, needs a higher power level
>john cena old news
>brock cant cut a promo, part timer
>the top guy, roman reigns, cant cut a promo

Because watching people fake wrestle each other without intriguing storylines and character developement does not interest mainstream fans.

>>2625860
Because wrestling is manly.

All aspects of "Geek culture" that have become big do so by catering not to "geeks", but to left-leaning normies, who are ALMOST geeks because they're nu-males.

No matter how much wrestling gets dressed up, you're still gonna have a guy body-slamming another guy and then screaming into the hard-cam.
That kind of manly shit OFFENDS a left-leaning normie. Not just "does nothing for him", he finds it FUCKING OFFENSIVE to witness that kind of testosterone.