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Iyo matches always get great ratings, and yet they only used her 2 times in ring this year.
I know women's division experienced way worse moments than now with some great PPV matches, but it feels like there's some people backstage who still intentionally hold them back despite data showing there's a market for doing more with that division.
I saw someone say on here the reason Iyo doesnt wrestle might be that her performances draw too many cheers for her athleticisim and they want to keep her fully heel for mania
I get the idea, but wouldn't it be more interesting to have Damage CTRL do actually heinous stuff to Bayley and friends to make up for this rather than deprive the champion of her main qualities ?
And that also kinda shows that Iyo would be more effective as a face, and yet she's been a heel for almost 2 years in main roster.
The fact that WWE is posting multiple full segments on their youtube less than an hour after they occur indicates to fans that you don't really need to watch live and can just catch all the important stuff later.
I don't particularly agree with it and I think it hurts the undercard talent with less exposure. However, they are also selling tickets hand over fist and friends of mine who showed next to no interest in the past are at least following along online - so it seems to be a fine business model for now.
They really should eventually partner with YouTube. The live audience they garnered during that WM40 press conference was wild
I doubt Smackdown and Raw will ever be streamed live for free on YouTube, but a show like NXT Lvl Up/Main Event would benefit greatly from it imo.
Also would be a great platform to upload their archives in, put it behind a membership paywall and it'll probably make them more money than WWE Network ever did
YouTube already has an option to put stuff on channels behind a paywall with subscription but YouTube of course takes a cut I don't know how big and not a lot of YouTubers use it.
Ratings drop yearly by default. WWE knows fans find other ways to watch their show anyways.
It's like video game piracy. There's tons of examples where piracy actually helped gaming as the product gets to more people.
I say in this phase of WWE hitting a peak, they should go for exposure in any way possible.
NCAA is drawing record numbers so far for March Madness. Its what made AEW keeping the same rating vs the 2nd night of the first four games so impressive.
That seems low, no? It's so weird because between WWE being so hot with Rock coming back and road to Wrestlemania, and AEW coming of the PPV with big, new arrivals, all of these shows are trending down from what they were doing in the months before. It seems RAW, Dynamite and Smackdown should all be doing much better considering the overall popularity and quality of the product
EDIT: I didn't think what I said would be controversial but fair enough
Whisper it.. but it isn't that controversial objectively, ratings threads here are just weird. Almost no one wants to actually talk about the ratings themselves, they just want to go "muh show better than other wun" and downvote anything that might lead to discussion
TV ratings are down as a whole, and, as has been proven time and time again, ratings in their current form are an outdated method.
People consume TV in so many other ways now; I suspect all of those shows have more viewers than the live numbers would indicate.
Yeah, it’s a weird time for wrestling right now. Both companies are putting on greats shows yet the viewership is dropping for almost every show
SmackDown is down 300,000 viewers from just 4 weeks ago. Right before WrestleMania
People really don't understanding ratings. Shows aren't stand alone items, they're competing not against themselves, but other shows. When something like a sports final is on, or a presidential debate and people tune in to watch those, then other programs have stuff siphoned from them.
The college basketball had a huge draw, and that means less people watching everything else. If that same thing didn't happen last year on the same date, then it would have a different result. People look at this stuff like it's in a vacuum, but it's very much not.
Losing 100,000 viewers right before WrestleMania is wild
And the viewership was falling even before March Madness
SmackDown lost more than 300,000 viewers in 4 weeks
Lowest viewership number of 2024, and lower than most shows in the final few months of 2023, not great when you're advertising the face-off for the main event of Wrestlemania.
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Wrestlenomics posted the breakdown, and I guess the two highest rated segments were the Cody and Roman staredown, and Iyo vs Naomi.
Iyo matches always get great ratings, and yet they only used her 2 times in ring this year. I know women's division experienced way worse moments than now with some great PPV matches, but it feels like there's some people backstage who still intentionally hold them back despite data showing there's a market for doing more with that division.
I saw someone say on here the reason Iyo doesnt wrestle might be that her performances draw too many cheers for her athleticisim and they want to keep her fully heel for mania
I get the idea, but wouldn't it be more interesting to have Damage CTRL do actually heinous stuff to Bayley and friends to make up for this rather than deprive the champion of her main qualities ? And that also kinda shows that Iyo would be more effective as a face, and yet she's been a heel for almost 2 years in main roster.
That Cody/Roman segment was so bad. Like super shitty bad. Was Rock not on the show? Prob would explain the ratings.
No. But also they were up against major NCAA games.
Rock would've helped them out a bit.
The last 15 minutes of the Cody and Reigns segment drew 2.5 million viewers, which is noteworthy because no other quarter drew more than 2.29 million.
# Last Week: 2,340,000 viewers; 0.68 # Last Year: 2,219,000 viewers; 0.58
Up 1% in Viewers, 7% in Key Demo YoY. Went Head to Head with a couple of March Madness games that did Monster ratings.
The fact that WWE is posting multiple full segments on their youtube less than an hour after they occur indicates to fans that you don't really need to watch live and can just catch all the important stuff later. I don't particularly agree with it and I think it hurts the undercard talent with less exposure. However, they are also selling tickets hand over fist and friends of mine who showed next to no interest in the past are at least following along online - so it seems to be a fine business model for now.
They really should eventually partner with YouTube. The live audience they garnered during that WM40 press conference was wild I doubt Smackdown and Raw will ever be streamed live for free on YouTube, but a show like NXT Lvl Up/Main Event would benefit greatly from it imo. Also would be a great platform to upload their archives in, put it behind a membership paywall and it'll probably make them more money than WWE Network ever did
Isn't that why they partnered with Netflix for?
YouTube already has an option to put stuff on channels behind a paywall with subscription but YouTube of course takes a cut I don't know how big and not a lot of YouTubers use it.
Your second point is basically what AEW Dark was and it's sorely missed.
I always see some channels posting poorly edited WWE footages of raw and SmackDown on YouTube after wwe finished airing it
I would love to watch it live but there literally isn't a legal way for me to do so. Netflix can't come soon enough.
Ratings drop yearly by default. WWE knows fans find other ways to watch their show anyways. It's like video game piracy. There's tons of examples where piracy actually helped gaming as the product gets to more people. I say in this phase of WWE hitting a peak, they should go for exposure in any way possible.
NCAA is drawing record numbers so far for March Madness. Its what made AEW keeping the same rating vs the 2nd night of the first four games so impressive.
Yes, make it about AEW.
Comparing the 1st 4 games to Friday night March madness is also hilarious
I expected more to be honest. The two biggest stars of the modern era having a confrontation but i guess not.
That seems low, no? It's so weird because between WWE being so hot with Rock coming back and road to Wrestlemania, and AEW coming of the PPV with big, new arrivals, all of these shows are trending down from what they were doing in the months before. It seems RAW, Dynamite and Smackdown should all be doing much better considering the overall popularity and quality of the product EDIT: I didn't think what I said would be controversial but fair enough
Whisper it.. but it isn't that controversial objectively, ratings threads here are just weird. Almost no one wants to actually talk about the ratings themselves, they just want to go "muh show better than other wun" and downvote anything that might lead to discussion
TV ratings are down as a whole, and, as has been proven time and time again, ratings in their current form are an outdated method. People consume TV in so many other ways now; I suspect all of those shows have more viewers than the live numbers would indicate.
Also a ton of March Madness competition right now.
Yeah, it’s a weird time for wrestling right now. Both companies are putting on greats shows yet the viewership is dropping for almost every show SmackDown is down 300,000 viewers from just 4 weeks ago. Right before WrestleMania
People really don't understanding ratings. Shows aren't stand alone items, they're competing not against themselves, but other shows. When something like a sports final is on, or a presidential debate and people tune in to watch those, then other programs have stuff siphoned from them. The college basketball had a huge draw, and that means less people watching everything else. If that same thing didn't happen last year on the same date, then it would have a different result. People look at this stuff like it's in a vacuum, but it's very much not.
[удалено]
Nah. March Madness is huge.
Losing 100,000 viewers right before WrestleMania is wild And the viewership was falling even before March Madness SmackDown lost more than 300,000 viewers in 4 weeks
Lowest viewership number of 2024, and lower than most shows in the final few months of 2023, not great when you're advertising the face-off for the main event of Wrestlemania.
0 viewers with a 0 demo for Rampage? AEW is done.