Post by Jake Seven on Jun 26, 2008 2:35:47 GMT -5
The difference between now and then (late 90s)..was the aim to the male demographic. That and fighting for survival against a very powerful WCW. When you're down and out, you put out good product to lure viewers away from the competition.
WWF humbled .. HUMBLED..at the feet of WCW in 1995 after Hogan, Hall, and Nash left the company. They had already grabbed Naitch, Lugar, and Savage. Soon to follow was Bret Hart. (And let go of Steve Austin and Brian Pillman, oops). Stole the cruiserweights and luchadors from ECW.
WWF had an up and comer by the name of Shawn Michaels, Mankind, HHH (fighting for the European Title and getting jobbed to Warrior Warrior), The Rock and The Nation, and The Undertaker who wasn't at full stardom..just yet.
The departure of Bret Hart in my eyes was the crowned jewel in WCW. That's when WWF really hit rock bottom. You lose you current Heavyweight Champion to your rival promotion. That really hurts.
What happens?
Vince finds a small promotion in Philly called ECW. They're drawing more people to their live events than WWF was at once point in late 1997. That's pathetic. What happens? WWF starts to get this attitude. They start to develop hardcore. They start to swear. The characters like Doink, Papa Shango, Hawaiian Crush,..they all road side. They get rid of "In Your House" and really start to darken the product with shows like Judgement Day and Summerslam: Highway to Hell.
They introduce blood, and swearing. They bring in women and have them strip half naked on live tv, and more so on pay per view. That's what the male demo of 18-49 wants to see. We want to see blood, cussing, and naked women. Can it get any better than that? When your own network, who asks for ratings to go up, asks you to tone it down because of the viewer complaints thats a sign things are good.
Once WCW went out of business, well,.. Vince decided he didnt need to be edgy anymore. He developed the Olympic Hero Kurt Angle, and The Right to Censor. Both aiming to bring down the most successful angles you ever ran on your program. DGeneration X and naked women. They bring in the Hurricane who is a colorful super hero. You phase out hardcore slowly but surely to the point Divas are holding the title.
But then there's hope! JOHN CENA STARTS TO RAP. He cusses, and offends! The people love him. He's a heel who offends the crowd and gets major heat. You set him up against your worlds champion Brock Lesnar. You throw him in an angle against the legendary Undertaker. He's a huge success. You turn him face, give him the US Title...and he doesn't swear anymore because he's supposed to be a face.
You disgrace the legendary United States Title, put him in a feud with Booker T, Rene Dupree, (And the other jobbers he had) and it all goes to hell. Young women and children love this guy. He's great! You put the world title on him because his merchandise is selling out. He's the biggest face on the roster and the next coming of Hulk Hogan, The Rock, and Steve Austin all in one. BUT THERES A PROBLEM! He's turned off so many of your 18-49 male demo's because they can't stand the fact that he doesn't rap anymore, and his fan friendly demeanor that ratings are surely plummeting. Bad thing.
So you put this guy on your flagship show. Still, no ratings increase. What is wrong? You push him through the roof, you give him a momentous world title run. Nine months to be exact.
Suddenly Edge wins the World Title in shock and awe, defeating the super hero Hurr--John Cena after he fended off five other men in a Elimination Chamber match.
RATINGS GO THROUGH THE ROOF! Good sign.
How do you celebrate? You make Lita get naked at the end of the show..
YOU GET ATTITUDE LIKE RATINGS!
OMG~!!!~
Naked women and a new heel champion! RATINGS ARE TOPPING 6.0!
NEW, FLASHY, CUTTING EDGE (no pun intended) MATERIAL!
John Cena beats Edge at Royal Rumble. Ratings go down the tube. Uh-oh!
Wrestlemania 22. RVD wins Money in the Bank. Everyone knows what's coming next. Things are about to get a little extreme..
ECW Presents One Night Stand. RVD vs John Cena in the Hammerstine Ballroom. YOUR UBER FACE WORLD CHAMPION COMES OUT TO THUNDEROURS BOOS BECAUSE THE BALLROOM IS FILLED WITH 18-49 MALES. They spit at him. They throw trash at him. No face has ever received this type of heat since ..well..umm.. heel Sgt Slaughter. No face has ever received this type of reaction. They threaten a riot if John Cena retains. John Cena loses.
Ratings go back up!
You give the fans what they want when you bring back Extreme Championship Wrestling. The promotion that saved your federation from certain demise in the mid 90s. You bring back all the ECW legends. Things are good. ECW pulls a 3.0 rating it's first night.
Eh okay, RVD gets busted with pot. Jobs the title. Edge wins! ratings are staying up, This is a good thing..
Here comes Summerslam 2006. Edge defends against John Cena in John Cena's home town. The crowd is chanting "LETS GO EDGE!" .. Edge wins. Place goes nuts. (Expression on Edge's face is priceless because he knows it)
Ratings still high. Things are good.
We go to Toronto, Unforgiven. Edge vs John Cena rematch. This is Edge's hometown. Crowd is going nuts. Crowd chants "LETS GO EDGE"...John Cena wins? Wait.
Ratings go down. FUUUUCK!
And there is your history lesson of why ratings are down.
Edge's nickname the "R Rated Superstar" is for a reason. He draws in people. He makes you hate him. His reign as champion was higher than anything in eight years!!! Yet, he didn't get a monster run. (Granted he has one now, but, it's on a second if not third tier show, and he's not offending anyone just being generally annoying)
So, in the end. People want to be offended. They want to be shocked. They want to be at suspense. Ratings are not there because they're more concerned with giving the kids what they want. Last time checked,...18-49 males ..are NOT children or young women.
You said it yourself Dylan. You re not impressed and you fall in their demographic. I am not impressed, and I fall in their demo. MANY MANY MANY people are not impressed.
So you give away money and you get a slim margin of hope, because your ratings are as HALF as high as when Edge had his live sex celebration. HALF AS HIGH! And this is good news apparently.
We want new and original. We want a true heel. We want someone that will give us things we have never seen before. And they need to listen to their fans.
Jericho vs Shawn Michaels could very well be their #1 feud right now. With this Draft shaking everything up, and starting new feuds that don't have any back bone to them right now, I could very well see this feud possibly be the beginning of something spectacular. Jericho is an edgy heel, very capable of offending a crowd and drawing massive amounts of heat. This needs to be booked right, and pushed,..and we could be in for an entertaining summer.
That, and "who crippled the boss" angle could be good.
And they need that new break out star, because we're all getting bored with the same guys from 2005. CM Punk could be that guy. He's on the flagship promotion. The fans love him (And not just because the WWE said so, he's had a cult following for almost what, 8 years?). And he has a World Title shot whenever he wants it. Give him the title, and fucking let him run WILD. Give him a microphone, 15 minutes, the right opponent and they could very well be back topping 5.0 ratings.
I really think a face John Cena against a heel CM Punk, or a heel John Cena against a face CM Punk could be the way to go there. Maybe I'm just pulling at straws, but, one of them need to be heel. One of them needs to be champ. And I can always imagine, because we know it's never going to happen in the near future.
I really feel this summer could break the company's back if this doesn't happen. And there's no competitor in sight, so they have no excuse for going belly up, this time.
WWF humbled .. HUMBLED..at the feet of WCW in 1995 after Hogan, Hall, and Nash left the company. They had already grabbed Naitch, Lugar, and Savage. Soon to follow was Bret Hart. (And let go of Steve Austin and Brian Pillman, oops). Stole the cruiserweights and luchadors from ECW.
WWF had an up and comer by the name of Shawn Michaels, Mankind, HHH (fighting for the European Title and getting jobbed to Warrior Warrior), The Rock and The Nation, and The Undertaker who wasn't at full stardom..just yet.
The departure of Bret Hart in my eyes was the crowned jewel in WCW. That's when WWF really hit rock bottom. You lose you current Heavyweight Champion to your rival promotion. That really hurts.
What happens?
Vince finds a small promotion in Philly called ECW. They're drawing more people to their live events than WWF was at once point in late 1997. That's pathetic. What happens? WWF starts to get this attitude. They start to develop hardcore. They start to swear. The characters like Doink, Papa Shango, Hawaiian Crush,..they all road side. They get rid of "In Your House" and really start to darken the product with shows like Judgement Day and Summerslam: Highway to Hell.
They introduce blood, and swearing. They bring in women and have them strip half naked on live tv, and more so on pay per view. That's what the male demo of 18-49 wants to see. We want to see blood, cussing, and naked women. Can it get any better than that? When your own network, who asks for ratings to go up, asks you to tone it down because of the viewer complaints thats a sign things are good.
Once WCW went out of business, well,.. Vince decided he didnt need to be edgy anymore. He developed the Olympic Hero Kurt Angle, and The Right to Censor. Both aiming to bring down the most successful angles you ever ran on your program. DGeneration X and naked women. They bring in the Hurricane who is a colorful super hero. You phase out hardcore slowly but surely to the point Divas are holding the title.
But then there's hope! JOHN CENA STARTS TO RAP. He cusses, and offends! The people love him. He's a heel who offends the crowd and gets major heat. You set him up against your worlds champion Brock Lesnar. You throw him in an angle against the legendary Undertaker. He's a huge success. You turn him face, give him the US Title...and he doesn't swear anymore because he's supposed to be a face.
You disgrace the legendary United States Title, put him in a feud with Booker T, Rene Dupree, (And the other jobbers he had) and it all goes to hell. Young women and children love this guy. He's great! You put the world title on him because his merchandise is selling out. He's the biggest face on the roster and the next coming of Hulk Hogan, The Rock, and Steve Austin all in one. BUT THERES A PROBLEM! He's turned off so many of your 18-49 male demo's because they can't stand the fact that he doesn't rap anymore, and his fan friendly demeanor that ratings are surely plummeting. Bad thing.
So you put this guy on your flagship show. Still, no ratings increase. What is wrong? You push him through the roof, you give him a momentous world title run. Nine months to be exact.
Suddenly Edge wins the World Title in shock and awe, defeating the super hero Hurr--John Cena after he fended off five other men in a Elimination Chamber match.
RATINGS GO THROUGH THE ROOF! Good sign.
How do you celebrate? You make Lita get naked at the end of the show..
YOU GET ATTITUDE LIKE RATINGS!
OMG~!!!~
Naked women and a new heel champion! RATINGS ARE TOPPING 6.0!
NEW, FLASHY, CUTTING EDGE (no pun intended) MATERIAL!
John Cena beats Edge at Royal Rumble. Ratings go down the tube. Uh-oh!
Wrestlemania 22. RVD wins Money in the Bank. Everyone knows what's coming next. Things are about to get a little extreme..
ECW Presents One Night Stand. RVD vs John Cena in the Hammerstine Ballroom. YOUR UBER FACE WORLD CHAMPION COMES OUT TO THUNDEROURS BOOS BECAUSE THE BALLROOM IS FILLED WITH 18-49 MALES. They spit at him. They throw trash at him. No face has ever received this type of heat since ..well..umm.. heel Sgt Slaughter. No face has ever received this type of reaction. They threaten a riot if John Cena retains. John Cena loses.
Ratings go back up!
You give the fans what they want when you bring back Extreme Championship Wrestling. The promotion that saved your federation from certain demise in the mid 90s. You bring back all the ECW legends. Things are good. ECW pulls a 3.0 rating it's first night.
Eh okay, RVD gets busted with pot. Jobs the title. Edge wins! ratings are staying up, This is a good thing..
Here comes Summerslam 2006. Edge defends against John Cena in John Cena's home town. The crowd is chanting "LETS GO EDGE!" .. Edge wins. Place goes nuts. (Expression on Edge's face is priceless because he knows it)
Ratings still high. Things are good.
We go to Toronto, Unforgiven. Edge vs John Cena rematch. This is Edge's hometown. Crowd is going nuts. Crowd chants "LETS GO EDGE"...John Cena wins? Wait.
Ratings go down. FUUUUCK!
And there is your history lesson of why ratings are down.
Edge's nickname the "R Rated Superstar" is for a reason. He draws in people. He makes you hate him. His reign as champion was higher than anything in eight years!!! Yet, he didn't get a monster run. (Granted he has one now, but, it's on a second if not third tier show, and he's not offending anyone just being generally annoying)
So, in the end. People want to be offended. They want to be shocked. They want to be at suspense. Ratings are not there because they're more concerned with giving the kids what they want. Last time checked,...18-49 males ..are NOT children or young women.
You said it yourself Dylan. You re not impressed and you fall in their demographic. I am not impressed, and I fall in their demo. MANY MANY MANY people are not impressed.
So you give away money and you get a slim margin of hope, because your ratings are as HALF as high as when Edge had his live sex celebration. HALF AS HIGH! And this is good news apparently.
We want new and original. We want a true heel. We want someone that will give us things we have never seen before. And they need to listen to their fans.
Jericho vs Shawn Michaels could very well be their #1 feud right now. With this Draft shaking everything up, and starting new feuds that don't have any back bone to them right now, I could very well see this feud possibly be the beginning of something spectacular. Jericho is an edgy heel, very capable of offending a crowd and drawing massive amounts of heat. This needs to be booked right, and pushed,..and we could be in for an entertaining summer.
That, and "who crippled the boss" angle could be good.
And they need that new break out star, because we're all getting bored with the same guys from 2005. CM Punk could be that guy. He's on the flagship promotion. The fans love him (And not just because the WWE said so, he's had a cult following for almost what, 8 years?). And he has a World Title shot whenever he wants it. Give him the title, and fucking let him run WILD. Give him a microphone, 15 minutes, the right opponent and they could very well be back topping 5.0 ratings.
I really think a face John Cena against a heel CM Punk, or a heel John Cena against a face CM Punk could be the way to go there. Maybe I'm just pulling at straws, but, one of them need to be heel. One of them needs to be champ. And I can always imagine, because we know it's never going to happen in the near future.
I really feel this summer could break the company's back if this doesn't happen. And there's no competitor in sight, so they have no excuse for going belly up, this time.