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If one were to dip into the murky, shark infested waters of the wrestling community on the internet, and I really don’t recommend it, they would think the WWE is the worst, most un-watchable, unsuccessful endeavor since the birth of the cathode tube. “The ratings!” is their rallying cry, followed by dozens of different and at times completely contrary complaints; “they don’t wrestle anymore!” “PG!!” “we want more gimmicks like they used to have!” “it’s too gimmicky! this is 2015!” “we want wrestlers who can wrestle!” “We love Sting!” “Stop burying new talent x,y, or z!” “we love Hogan!”… You know what I am talking about; you’ve done it yourself, after all.
But the truth is, the WWE has never been better at what they do, or more successful. Aside from the fact that they are more profitable than ever, and have the greatest top to bottom roster in history, they are a bigger, more powerful global brand than ever before. So why do people think otherwise? Well first off, its because most people don’t get how ratings work, what they are used for, and how they have trended historically, which I will get into momentarily (or an hour from now, depending on how slowly you read), and secondly and in my opinion more importantly, most people don’t understand the business model of the WWE.
Once upon a time, the WWE catered to a single demographic; 18-49 year old men, who liked rasslin’, tits, and cussing bad asses, not necessarily in that order. This demographic, it was discovered, watched a LOT of TV, liked beer, and wanted to feel they were edgy. They also spent a lot of money on stupid shit they really didn’t need, in order to make themselves seem cooler, more bad ass, or whatever the current commercials told them they needed to be. Television in general discovered this untapped mother lode as well, which led to the use of younger, bigger boobed women on tv, ending the tradition of 30 year olds playing high school students, more ‘adult orientated’ type shows, which is really just a code for ‘sex drugs and cussing’, and shows like Morton Downey and Jerry Springer had. The WWE, in the thick of a ratings war with WCW, picked up on this and ran with it. And the attitude era was born. Ratings were high, crowds were wild, and if you asked people who identified as wrestling fans how happy they were, most would say ‘PUPPIES!!’, which means very.
This is because the WWE at that time aimed high; they had basically a single demographic they were shooting for, and aimed to make them very happy indeed. And they were, for a time, very, very successful; the audience at shows was raucous, like the audience of the aforementioned Springer show, and felt they were almost part of the show. Because the demographic was very specific, it was easy to manipulate them into rapture, after all, and it paid well.
But then things started to plateau, and even peter out, as things are wont to do. The coveted 18-49 market shrank some, as they discovered other content to spend their eyeballs on, or ‘grew out of it’, and the pipeline of new viewers was running dry, because the most parents wouldn’t let their kids watch wrestling, so those kids never grew up to be 18-49 year old WWE fans. The W needed to change its business model.
Diversification is an age old business strategy, tried and true, and the WWE decided to switch things up and embrace it. Instead of aiming HIGH, with one demographic, they recognized they needed to aim WIDE; to diversify their demographic. They needed to appeal to kids, to the parents of kids; to girls and women, who were spending money of their own; to wrestling fans in their 18-49 demographic, a demographic that itself had grown diversified between those who wanted old school, Bruno/Harley/Gotch style no gimmick wrestling, or those who loved the flippity flopping of high flyers. or those who loved gimmicks, or those who wanted storylines, or those who wanted brawls etc etc. By diversifying what they offered, the WWE reasoned, we can grow a broad demographic that might not be as single minded, but is an overall deeper pool of money to drink from. And remember, that is the goal of WWE; not to provide the best wrestling according to some fans, not even to entertain, which is simply a method to achieve their actual goal, which is to PROFIT. By casting a wide net to bring in diverse groups as well as attract corporate sponsors, they reasoned that profits would grow exponentially. And they were right. WWE is more profitable now than ever in history.
But there is a downside to diversification. You can NEVER make EVERYONE happy with EVERYTHING. The different groups have different things they like, and WWE needs to give them all some attention or risk losing them. For example, if you appeal to 10 different demographics, and include something in every show that appeals to that specific groups specific interest, you have 9 out of 10 of those groups potentially unhappy with that segment. Think about it; each segment of your content leaves 90% of your broad demographics dissatisfied. No group likes the entire product anymore, but they all should hopefully have SOMETHING they like. That’s the plan, and it has worked, as proven by the profits. Sure, it seems like everyone is unhappy, especially now that every chooch with a twitter account can run into the basement and whine about how everything sucks online now, and people do love to complain, but the numbers don’t lie, and the profits are rolling in for the WWE, which, as previously stated, is their top priority, far above all others. But what about the ratings, i hear you type furiously? Time to address that elephant in the room, and explain why most of you are wrong to think they matter, and why they don’t mean what you think they do.
What do ratings measure: the amount of eyes, as a percentage of population watching TV, that are attached to a specific show at a specific time. Once upon a time, in the glory days of television when the tv was pretty much the sole source of entertainment in households across the nation, advertisers knew they had a captive set of eyes to feed their products into. When, in 1941, the US government allowed TV networks to include paid commercials in their broadcasts, it was ON. Advertisers would pay networks to host their ads, based on how many households each specific show had watching it, based on ‘ratings’. In the early days, however, there were only 2 or 3 options of what to watch at a specific time, as there were very few channels, but as time went on the number of channels and options grew to a current slate of 1000s of options, as well as dozens of ways to deliver the content outside of the slotted broadcast time, or even options OTHER than television to watch on. THIS IS THE CRUX, so I will explain it again; The population of households with TV since 1999, the height of the WWE’s ratings, has grown slightly, about 30% higher in 2014. The number of networks and options to watch, however, has grown exponentially; THOUSANDS of percents higher. This means each show, each option, gets a MASSIVELY smaller piece of the household pie. This is shown most dramatically with this chart, which lists the highest rated shows by year. Note the fairly steady decline from a time there were FAR more limited options, to more recently when the options are numerous.
As you can see, in 1950-51, the highest rated show earned a 61.6 rating. This reflects how few options there really were, lol. In 2014 the highest rated show got a 12.5. More options, same basic population, equals a smaller percentage of the overall audience. For comparison’s sake, in 1999, the year of the highest rated RAW ever, the highest rated show got a an 18.6. That means that, loosely speaking, overall ratings have dropped by 33% from 1999 to 2014. Again, this is fast and loose, surely not an evaluation scientifically of all shows, all factors, etc. But basically the ratings of the highest rated shows from 1999 compared to the highest rated shows of last year are a third higher. This is a discrepancy that very few people factor in when they say how ‘terrible’ WWE ratings are now compared to the attitude era. In other words, there are far more factors involved than simply a show losing viewers. There is also the import of DVRs and torrents to consider, but the simple fact is not only is RAW viewership down, ALL TV RATINGS are down. In 1999, RAWs biggest year, ratings averaged about 5.5, and in 2014 RAW averaged about 2.95, or slightly below the average ALL television ratings dropped. Again, this is comparing THE BEST YEAR EVER for RAW to last year, and they performed only slightly below the industry average for the same period. So far from some massive ratings drop, it is in fact only a slight dip, possibly cyclical in nature, in comparison to ratings of all tv in the same period.
But what we also have to consider is how much less relevant ‘ratings’ have become over all. Advertisers, well aware of all the trends I have mentioned already, know how these numbers work. They recognize there are so many more content delivery systems now than there were, so many more ‘screens’ for eyes to be on, and that in fact the ratings system is archaic, especially the fetishistic love of ‘overnights’. In fact most advertisers ignore the overnights, and instead focus on live7, live30, and live90 figures, which include dvr and other format watching of shows in a 7,30 and 90 day period. But even more important than that is the shows RANKING over the ratings. If a show is the most watched show in its slot, regardless of the ratings, and it attracts your target demographic to sell your product to, THAT is what matters. And RAW is consistently one of the top 3 show, if not THE top, in its time slot. That is HUGE. That is what matters most to advertisers; how many more pairs of eyes in our target demographic than the other guy. They don’t compare ‘how well did your show do last year compared to this year’ they care about ‘how well does your show this week do compared to the other options’, and RAW provably does very well.
So there you have it. The ‘what about the ratings’ whine is just a load of bull shit, not just for the reason outlined above, but also because for fucks sake what do you care about ratings, or how much advertising RAW makes? Its not money in your pocket! You like what you like. And you have a right to, and a right to whine or cheer, complain or credit, as you will. But perhaps when you realize that as I stated in the first part of this really fucking long article, that you and your ‘likes’ are just a fraction of the demographic WWE is trying to appeal in some small part to, you will at the least understand that is how it is, that is why it is how it is, and honestly since they are making money hand over fist, that is how it is going to stay. You can think you have a voice, and you do, but you are just one fraction of the many demographics WWE seeks to have something for, and they aren’t changing their business model any time soon just because one whiny fraction of their audience complains a lot on the internet. Sure, they listen to their fans, but your particualr demographic doesn’t carry the hammer it used to, and they know where the money is. Besides, they know bitch all you want, its all publicity and Social Media presence for them, and you will be back next week no matter what.
But there is hope, for all of you who feel hopeless. There are hundreds of wrestling promotions out there, each with a different flavor, a more specific demographic they seek to appeal to, than WWE. You can find one very easily thanks to the aforementioned hundreds of new content delivery systems, such as YouTube, streaming etc, and enjoy what it is YOU love about wrestling, whether its WWE, ROH, Lucha Underground, NJPW, AAA, PWG, CHIKARA or just your local indy with a monthly show in an armory or high school gym in your town. Support them. Support what you like. Love the art of wrestling in all the variations it offers, and let those you especially love know you do. SUPPORT WRESTLING.
My next long article will probably be about how WWE have butt fucked women’s wrestling into complete and utter shite, despite what Mick Foley and Paul Heyman are shilling for their corporate masters, so keep an eye out for that, and if you like or hate or whatever the shit I spew, hit me up on twitter @RazorCabron. See ya there, motherfuckers.
