What the fuck's going on?

Even though this shit has been happening for years, has it ever been this bad? It honestly looks like 1999-mid 2000 WCW crowds to me. I don't think they're in trouble like WCW was though.

>>3145203
Not quite there but if this continues it will be with 5-10 years. Maybe that's what's up with the shoot promos and blood returning. Vince is shook. He's gonna have to pull out the big guns

They need engaging storylines. People doesnt turn up to watch repetitive matches and segments

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Could NJPW's recent surge in popularity in the United States have anything to do with it? Have people just given up on the product, no matter how great their storylines are? The vibe that wrestling consumers are expressing is fatigue, people seem to just be tired of the WWE. Think about it, if you watch the WWE, you're a dedicated wrestling fan, they've ran off all the casual fans. If you're a dedicated wrestling fan, you've definitely heard of NJPW. Could wrestling fans (The only ones still watching and going to attend the shows live) have seen NJPW and thought they no longer needed to watch the WWE? Considering the fact that the Bullet Club shirt sales in America have been confirmed to be around 5,000,000, could a sizable portion of wrestling fans have simply gotten tired or given up on the WWE when exposed to a hotter, edgier product with far more momentum? It's certainly worth a thought.

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Here's another picture of last night's Smackdown. Not good at all!

I've been getting a WCW 2000 vibe from 2017 WWE except with the direct opposite of rapid fire crash TV booking, and that's one of many problems. Booking is sterile with repetitive matches and promos, nobody's allowed to break script or develop their own character on the owner and head booker has his mind trapped in an 80's bubble. Fans have had enough of having certain guys pushed down their throats and being told their opinions don't matter.

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>mfw paid $50 and bought a $14 beer to watch Goldust vs Bray, Kalisto vs Drifter, and some dumb clusterfuck tag match as the main event

at least I got to boo Nicki Bella's shitty Dancing With the Stars plug.

>>3145227

Why? You idiot. Let the company burn. It's getting exactly what it deserves.

>>3145233
I don't care about WWE dying or not dying, makes no difference to me.

AJ vs Cena vs Bray was the main event last time I went out to Anaheim in February and that show was great.

This on the other hand was the worst wrassling card I've seen all year, and I've been to numerous bingo hall shows with only a couple 100 in attendance.

How hard do you think the WWE going out of their way to make sure nobody gets too over has curtailed them? There's no breakout stars, Cena got lucky because he became a literal meme, Batista made it in Hollywood on his own, and Austin has mentioned WWE went out of their way to keep him from accepting certain TV roles. Now nobody cares about their stars outside their audience, and the brand has suffered for it.

>>3145212
This. Also let wrestlers do something outside of their 5 moves of doom.

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>>3145216
>Could NJPW's recent surge in popularity in the United States have anything to do with it?
No, but thanks for the laugh.

>>3145216
njpw has like 10k subs to njpwworld outside of japan. njpw is taking nothing from WWE

>>3145251
>Have the greatest matches in the world right now
>Do the job to Bobby Lashley and Low-ki

State.

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>>3145200
>Which begs the question...
Didn't read your bullshit, but this phrase is incorrect. Begging the question is a logical fallacy, while you mean, "This raises the question." You gigantic faggot

>>3145216
>Could NJPW's recent surge in popularity in the United States have anything to do with it?
This is like saying Dell laptop sales are down because people are getting into Rasberry Pi's

>>3145200
That's not what "begs the question" means.

>>3145318
Lowki is leaving apparently lol.

But hey, at least Little Poppa Pump is back from retirement.

>>3145200
I'm gonna be honest, for the past few weeks wwe has been looking like tna level company, I just can't feel it anymore, it all started with them having heat with talent and punishing them and then after that it's like they got some saturnine curse put on their company and everything seem to be going downwards all of a sudden, maybe they're time is coming to an end.

>>3145200
>Merchandise is obviously way down.
it's way up actually

>>3145200
Merch sales are doing well actually. They're just hemorrhaging money everywhere else.

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>>3145353
Holy shit I just did a tarot reading for what's going to happen with wwe and this is the card I got, I swear

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>>3145355
Too bad it's not doing well enough to buy them a live audience or pyro. Tick Tock E-drone

I also have a theory for this, perhaps Vince doesn't want haitch and steph to ruin wwe's legacy with sjw and Indy geeks and want to end the company by the time he dies? It's very much possible, considering he knows haitch married steph only so he can have the company and he probably hates him for it.

>>3145370
He could just give it to someone else if that were the case

>>3145382
I know Conor is pretty young, but what if he hands it to him? They're both irish too, and Conor has mad respect for Vince

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Everyone focuses on wwe ratings. But you are seeing the Forrest for the trees. If you notice cable tv is being fucked by cord cutting and streaming. Ratings are virtually down for every network.
Some networks think they can get an audience back by being hardcore sjw's (ESPN, MTV), but this just alienates the original fan base and doesnt gain any new viewers, because sjw's dont actually support a product and are part of that wave that only uses the internet and streaming.
Really, i think culture is going to have to shift into being edgy again, like the 90's. Its the final plan, act outrageous and in your face and people might tune in?
Look, we need to leave that shitty obama years culture of sjw's being offended at everything.
Trump won, time to get sleazy and edgy and have every comic book use the letter X again.

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>>3145216

>>3145415
basically this, gotta step it up if you want people to sit down and waste their life watching.

>>3145418
Of you want to have people put down that smart phone you have to shock them, you have to punch them in the face.

This sjw shit was always cancer to the profit motive. And there are so many things you have to compete with nowadays, like streaming, internet, videogames, etc. You have to make people go "holy shit what the fuck is this why am i not watching"!

>>3145428
people will never put down their phones, even if the show is good they will be recording those moments so they can show their retard friends how close they were. Only way to get the plebs to put their phones away is to blast them with water, ive seen a few dj's that will spray water at the crowd and break all their phones.

>>3145438
Nah, they will. You have to be punk rock about it.
Thats what they used to do at old punk shows when people were trying to act too cool for school, they would literally get up and start shoving and punching the crowd

>>3145203
WWE attendance has been way down in the last couple of years

Local Anaheimer here. I honestly didn't know they were in town until the day of. They simply don't advertise around the area and I'm not going to check on their website constantly to see if they're coming.

This is also our slowest time of the year of going out unless the Angels got a hot run.

And tickets are expensive. They're priced over twice as much as a Ducks game. Fuck that.

As tor Vegas, besides the locals, it's currently overrun by Mexicans as its Mexican independence week and they do all sorts of Mexi shows and concerts.

>>3145216
NJPW hasn't had a "surge in popularity" in the US, just online in wrestling communities. You're really overestimating it's appeal, no matter how good you think the product is. To the average American, wrestling will always equal WWE.

>>3145415
Go look up how ratings work edrone. The raw number in millions doesn't matter. The WWEs share is down, which shows that even though TV viewership for everything is down, Raw/Smackdowns is down proportionally higher than other shows.

What gives? Well when you force feed your consumers shit for over 10 years people kinda get sick of it. Roman was the final straw I'd say. I'm actually giddy from how terrible WWE is doing. Finally, it's all come full circle. I cannot wait til this shit company dies off and someone else can take over and rebuild american professional wrestling to what it should be. I also hope Stephanie McMahon kills herself.

>>3145415
Who's Forrest?

>"sjw's"
>Obama

Oh.

>>3145501
>not knowing what context clues are
>obama sjw drone

Oh.

Clearly the solution is to bring back the rock and hogan

>>3145324
Have a (You)

>>3145415
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAAH

>>3145508
>getting worked by obvious flippancy
>REEEE THE ENEMY
>copycatting

Pathetic.

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>>3145363
> UprightDeath Tarot Card Meanings. ... The cardofDeathcan be one of the most fruitful and positivecardsin the deck.Deathis symbolic of the ending of a major phase or aspect of your life that may bring about the beginning of something far more valuable and important. You must close one door in order to open another.

>>3145355
Citation Needed

>>3145363
Eh.

The major card of Death means "Transformation", not "actual death". In Tarot, the "10 of Swords" means "actual death".

So, "Death" showing up for the present for a reading for the WWE would mean that it is currently going through a tremendous transformation, and that's just pure bullshit, as anyone who has watched more than 1 show this past year can tell you.

The roster fucking sucks and the product is cringe. Bring back the shit that made wrestling cool in the first place and people will care again. But no, internet wrestling fans have convinced themselves that faggot ass fake fighting with absolutely no spectacle is a-ok and you're a dumbass if you say otherwise. They should've never started catering to smarks because it's going to be the downfall of the company.

>>3145509
Rock could stay on the company for years along with his movie career but Gaytch used politics to take him out of the company because he's a jealous cuck. Gayth couldn't stand Hollywood was focusing on Dwayne while all he could get was a side role on Blade Trinity

>>3145200
>Which begs the question... What the fuck is going on?

People who moved on and stopped watching don't come back easily. They were complacent and lazy (and they often still are, specially creatively) so now they are paying the price.

The women's divisions are still booked like shit and almost exclusively are going for looks, turning away female viewers. Jinder is champ on SD drawing some youtube views at best.

And even Cena and Brock don't really draw anymore. It hardly seems to matter, who they are putting on and to what time. Ratings will almost exclusively be influenced by external reasons (like football, a holiday and so on) and never by internal "WWE reasons".

WWE is doing great tho. Better than ufc. Average raw or SD you get 13,000 people and as high as 30,000 for ppvs

>>3145222
>>3145200
THIS IS THE FUCKING HARD CAM SIDE DUMBASS

>>3146135
>Average raw or SD you get 13,000 people and as high as 30,000 for ppvs
no you don't

average TV show you get 2-5k now, most PPVs are 11-15k except for big four

>>3146135
>Average raw or SD you get 13,000 people and as high as 30,000 for ppvs

In what Universe is this supposed to be true?

>>3146108
Never forget that HHH is the guy who cut his hair because he was so hurt over the fact Marvel didn't choose him to play Thor. Also how laughable it is that he thought he would end up with the role.

>>3146162
>In what Universe is this supposed to be true?

Look at the guy you're replying to, and what Universe he is in.

THAT, is the cult of WWE

>>3146205
Source?

>>3146214
My ass. Why ?

>>3145200
>>3146138
And it's a dark match on top and no one is in the ring on the bottom.

>>3145726
They dont cater to smarks dude. If they did Roman Reigns wouldnt be the top guy and they'd push the people who get cheered. The only entity they actually cater to is Vince.

>>3145200
>What the fuck is going on?
The business is no longer mainstream
>Why are ratings down?
WWE doesn't appeal to casuals anymore
>Why are ticket sales way down?
Current product and characters are boring. A bunch of literally who's on the roster. Every segment except for one or two is filler.
>Does anyone on the current WWE roster have drawing power?
For casuals? Maybe Bork but that's about it
>Does anyone have the ability to move the needle anymore?
Probably a few guys, but we'll never know because none of their personality or creativity comes through. Everything is scripted and it's all just stale garbage

>>3145200
Also I forgot to reply to this. It's because the ticket prices are really high and over the years all the bait and switch promotions for the shows. I remember last time my friend went he paid 90 bucks for a seat because he thought Brock would be there. Well Brock was there on the titantron for a total of four minutes after being advertised all week being there live and in the ring. He also noted it would be impossible to enjoy that show if he had a family of four because he would've spent close to five hundred bucks. So it just gave me the thought that the high prices has probably turned off a good chunk of the people who would actually go to WWE shows.

Already enough words have been spent on the shit booking and decisions on who to push.

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>>3146133

>>3146268
>The business is no longer mainstream

Believing wrestling was ever mainstream...

>>3146287
>not being around for Austin 3:16 and NWO

>>3146287
18+ grow up junior. Normies had watch parties for raw and nitro during the MNW. It was must watch tv and life was good.

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>>3146276
>>3146278
> K-k-kids s-s-still love m-m-m-m-ee

>>3146138
They don't need to tarp off half an arena for a camera. If there were enough asses to fill seats, those tarps would be gone.

>>3146292
They were never mainstream, you pinhead.

They were a lot larger than the guys are now, but the only guy who was ever mainstream on a global level was Hogan.

>>3146311
You're out of your mind.

>>3146309
This is true. Raw sells out in my city whenever they come through. There's a tiny section tapped off behind the main camera, but everything else is full. If they could sell the seats they'd never tarp them off. In the 90s they'd even sell tickets for the seats with obstructed views and people would buy

>>3145428
>sjw
its the advertisers that are pushing the PG anon. They don't want their product associated with anything controversial. See also: Daniel Bryan's brief firing in 2010 and Finley's short firing a few years later. Both because advertisers got mad and wanted heads for what weren't big deals realistically. Its why when they were at their hottest ever, 2000, the royal rumble was sponsered by a collect call service instead of a big name.

It means by chasing the profits they have they lose out on potentially generating more.

>>3146162
THE WWE UNIVERSE MAGGLE THIS IS CRAZY

>>3146313
They weren't, not compared to big sport stars and specially not on a global level.

>>3146345
They were up there with the roided era of baseball stars that got the country to care about baseball during the regular seasons one last time.

Also that era of WWF and baseball followed the same peak and downfall.

>>3145200
Unless an actually decent rival promotion starts up, WWE will just keep at a slow decline but never actually die. They won't go out of business because they have no one to put them out of business.

>>3146400
>They won't go out of business because they have no one to put them out of business.

But themselves...

>>3146311
References to Stone Cold Stunners are dropped regularly by people between 25-40.

>>3146429
They need someone to threaten and take their spot. There is no someone to do that. They'll keep a static wrestling audience off of the US and keep varying between Youtube views, WWE Network subscriptions and ratings draws (lmao good luck on the last one)

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>>3146311
Holy fucking RA babby. Wrestling was as mainstream as mainstream can get back in the late 90s, early 2000s. Rock and Austin especially were legit crossover stars.

I went to RAW in Tampa this Jan, and the place was sold out, and I went to the smackdown in Jacksonville and the entire top was topped off, but the lower bowl was full. After Wrestlemania it got really shitty for 90% of the shows. Not surprised.

>>3146345
You must have just been born when all this shit went own or you flat out didn't exist until much later. WWF was GLOBAL. I say that as an irishman from a small irish town that had a sell out for a wwf parody wrestling event. Fake rock, fake kane, fake stone cold. A sell out. Everyone my age had worn/seen an Austin 3:16 shirt at some point and knew exactly what it was from. That's mainstream.

>>3145200
>What the fuck's going on?

Turns out doing the opposite of what fans want is not a good idea.

Neither is pandering to children and women when most of your audience is 40+ y/o males.

>>3145200

>The company feels "hot" and active again

The fuck are you talking about? The company feels like they're trying to shove any wrestler than can find into their current formula, hoping one will actually get over, without ever realizing that it's the formula that's the fucking problem, not the wrestlers.

The Formula being long winded scripted promos that ALL SOUND THE SAME because they were all written by the same reject virgin "Creative" team, convoluted Days of Our Lives angles, a strong de-emphasis on the actual wrestling, and a strong emphasis on non-wrestlers like buttfucking Stephanie.

>>3145222

Bruh there's nobody in there. So these guys are literally talking to chairs

>>3146516

No one in my high school class knew who "Stone Cold" was. Hell, I only knew because my cousin was a wrestling fan and he brought me into it back then.

Then again, pretty much everybody in my class was coming from a white-collar family.

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>>3146616
>Mormons

>>3146628
Don't exist here...

In no way is the company "hot". We're getting the same types of angles and the same type of booking wwe has been giving us for a decade with some roots of it being as old as bruno samartino. There's nothing to set it apart from any other wrestling product either. The talent may indeed have "talent" but that's on paper. Matches are signature moves strung together and people are frankly sick of it. There are also real fighting alternatives as well as other wrestling promotions that just frankly do the job better.

>>3146616
where you from, pinhead?

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ITZ JUS TEH HARD CAMERA

>>3145216
you really are a simp

>>3145408

Cringe.

>>3145509

The Rock is gone, son. There's only Dwayne "self help guru" Johnson now.

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>>3145200
>What the fuck's going on?
Vanilla midgets, smark catering (normal fans have no idea what the fuck Roman and Cena were talking about last RAW) Roman being overexposed and constantly overpraised by the commentators and by himself during promos "btw I ended the streak" despite Roman being a pretty good wrestler, lack of quality talkers like Samson and Cena, garbage storylines even by wrestling standards, wrestling not being as mainstream as it once was.

Just an overall change in demographic where autismo fans get what they want with the womens revolution and most of the uppercard wrestlers who would be midcarders in the RA era. I simply watch out of habit now and because my gf likes Cena

>>3147147

I was with you until you started bitching about the womens revolution.

The UFC womens division draw better than WWE. In 2017 casuals clearly prefer badass female fighters to divashit.

>>3147147
>my gf

post ur gf's hands

>>3147168
Whilst alienating normal male fans who want tits and ass, the reason women seem more relevant now is because they focus alot more time on the division with more screen time. Badass women in UFC works because they really are trading blows and they can't strip to their panties after a fight, instead of subpar suplexes in WWE and what seems to be the ultimate diva move, a moonsault. On the other hand real men like Lesnar and Braun work because they showcase their strength/great skill. The women's division is basically 205 lite for SJW's

>>3147244
She has incredibly small hands, not much else going on

>>3147361
so small they are non-existent

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>>3147371
I see what you did there