Stop it. Viewers aren’t cutting the chord, they just don’t like the WWE. That’s the problem. Why? Fuck you Simon from What Culture, here’s why.
RAW In Trouble? – Blame Game Five of the NBA Finals all you want, but even in the first hour when they aired unopposed by the NBA, the ratings were bad. The WWE’s flagship show only lost 200k viewers between the 8 and 9 o’clock hours. Game Five didn’t start airing until after 9 o’clock, thus negating the argument that “game five took away ratings”. It didn’t. People weren’t interested. The show ended up getting 2.542 million viewers for the night, the worst of the year, and nearing the all time low.
Vince Russo Finally Says Something Right – Vince Russo is often times, off the mark when it comes to his views on pro wrestling. Russo though, finally pointed out the reason why the ratings are tanking; the characters are very interchangeable. Below he talks to some dip about the perceived issues of the booking. Russo goes on to say;
There’s a basic problem with the WWE, I’ll you what it is and this is what’s happening. We used to spend a lot of Monday Night RAW and a lot of SmackDown building characters and developing storylines. So by the time we got to the match, it was a big deal. What happened now is they don’t know how to make characters anymore, there are no storylines. Everybody just wants to fight each other. So when you take away the character building and when you take away the storylines, all you have are matches.
So every week bro, as you’re working towards the pay-per-view, these guys are in the same ring. Whether it’s a six-man or a tag or an eight-man, by the time you get the pay-per-view, you’ve seen these guys mix it up like three or four times before and it doesn’t mean anything.
And Nakamura, as unique as the guy is, bro, what have they done. I saw a vignette of a guy yesterday painting. That’s the character build of Nakamura. I mean, that’s supposed to get me excited about this freaking guy?
Jesse Ventura: Traitor? – Jesse Ventura is bringing his show “The World According to Jesse” to t.v. after all, thanks to Russia. Russian Dictator Vladimir Putin has apparently given his own personal assurance to Ventura that the show will air on RT unedited or uncensored. Ventura is quoted as to why he’s working with the Russian channel, saying;
I can’t get a job in the U.S. No one will touch me. My United States union throws me in the dirt and who comes to the rescue? Russia.
I’m perplexed why Ventura would even risk this endeavor with the tension between the U.S. and Russia. It should be noted that despite Ventura’s ex-military experience for the U.S., he’s currently not living in the country anymore.
Quick Hits – John Cena returning to t.v. as ‘free agent’. Braun Strowman has been cleared to return to in ring action. Mauro Ranallo will join former UFC commentator Mike Goldberg in Bellator for major events.