My boys, the Shining Wizards, of Shining Wizards Wrestling Podcast fame; check them out at www.shiningwizards.com got a pretty good convo going on their Facebook page www.facebook.com/shiningwizards about the state of the wrestling business today, particularly WWE. I was going to respond to it, but the more I wrote, the more I wrote. So rather than blow up their Wall, I decided to post my thoughts here.
The funny thing is, I don't think casual fans who care to see the Rock or Brock Lesnar are going to tune in to Raw or Smackdown for the following reasons:
-There are so many shows on tv now and most people don't watch them when they air. I never do. First showings of anything I care to see, I always have to DVR and watch later. So if you've got a DVR full of things to watch, unless you're a diehard wrestling fan, are you really going to spend what little time you have getting caught up on the WWE? Unless something really makes headlines, most casual fans aren't going to care.
-Another reason casual fans don't care enough to watch wrestling every week, the shows are TERRIBLE! Bringing in these returning guys is a great gimmick that could really be used to increase viewership but if I didn't love wrestling and tuned in just to see Dwayne Johnson or Brock, I'd say, "What the hell is THIS crap??" and change the channel!
Clearly, the Rock produced pay per view buyrates for WrestleMania but with the economy the way it is, that's one of the few shows casual fans are going to shell out for because everyone still regards WrestleMania as a big deal, even if they don't watch wrestling on a regular basis.
I don't think Brock is going to help pay per view numbers. Maybe for Extreme Rules, but casual fans aren't going to keep shelling out $60 every freaking month just to see Brock Lesnar fake fighting, especially when NOTHING on the rest of the card gets them hooked.
The WWE has its fanbase which consists of probably mostly kids and a few diehard adults who are wrestling fans but I don't see that fanbase growing at all. In fact, I could easily see it shrinking, just like it has for the past several years. The numbers are down across the board, pay per view buys (with the exception of this year's WrestleMania), viewership of their weekly tv shows, ticket sales, merchandise sales, etc, etc.
Now we get to the title of this post. THE TIME IS NOW for a renegade promotion to step up and revolutionize the business the way ECW did in the mid 90's. Independent wrestling promotions are springing up all over the country and any one of them could hit on the right mix of talent, creativity, cultural relevance, and savvy promotional strategy to enjoy that same type of success.
World Wrestling Entertainment is what it is. And without competition, a rival pressing them to think outside the box, and forcing them to listen to their fans (#YesYesYes) who are perfectly capable of making up their own minds about what constitutes ENTERTAINMENT, things are not going to change.
Which is why I say THE TIME IS NOW! Dedicated fans of the art of professional wrestling like myself, and most likely you if you've chosen to read this blog, are clamoring for something MORE. From there it becomes a simple case of supply and demand.
Demand is in abundance, now we're just waiting on the supply.
THE TIME IS NOW.
It's amazing, and we talked about it on the show with Justin Credible, that the time is now, it's just a matter of what the next thing is going to be. And there are a TON of indies vying for your dollars at this point. But who is going to have the new revolutionary concept?
ReplyDeleteI guess we have to wait and see, but hopefully it's sooner than later.
-Tony