scotswizard

Steve Austin was the one that got him the job at Podcast One, Austin had him on his show 3 times and after the 3rd time had a word with his people at Podcast One and then they contacted Russo. He owes a lot to Steve Austin. One thing I did find fascinating was he said the money doesn't come in till 6 months later. So he done 5 shows a week Monday - Friday for 6 months before getting paid. Apparantly that's the way Podcast One works, the sponsors pay them for 6 months and then they start paying out monthly afterwards. Seems like a good gig. I'm sure Austin has more listeners and makes more money though. But it shows Steve is a good person when he wants to be.

He had a good interview with Ryback too I thought. I heard the Lions Tigers Bears and Disco which comes out on Podcast One tomorrow, Konnan is on it too and it's a bit wild. I'll need to check out Bruce Prichard's too.

Is he actually Autistic?

 

Just as someone that has Aspergers it's a little uneasy for me seeing it used as a insult to someone.

 

Maybe just me being over sensitive apologies if so but just yeah little uneasy

 

 

You had no problem insulting me a few weeks back but now I know a little bit more about you  I wont say anymore. I too am very sensitive about other people, I don't want people to think I'm a bad person or anything.

Vince Russo's Podcast One shows are now doing 250,000 a week. Great news.

I think the only reason they got the belt on Jericho is so he can take it up into the shark cage and throw it down during the main event to cost Reigns. 

 

Raw was much of the same really, I can't help but feel that Bailey/Zayn and to an extent Sasha Banks are being made to look small time in a way that you can't even get behind them, its almost true whats being said and how bad they are. I get that they are going for underdog stories but nothing about Bailey or Zayn makes me root for them. The way Nia Jax made Sasha look small time as well just adds to it, although Nia Jax is growing on me week by week. 

 

 

What's happened is you've spent a lot of time on this forum and you've been brainwashed and now it's starting to wear off, you're starting to realise what you once knew which is that wrestling was always and always should be built around real men and women. Men and women that could take you in a real fight. They look the part. They act the part. They talk the part. It's totally natural what you're feeling just now, you're starting to come around and realise things aren't what they used to be anymore.

How do I use it?

 

 

You can't even use the forum properly. Away you go and sort yourself out.

 

 

And I would never use a ignore feature. I like to get everyone's opinion not cut people off which is usually what people do when they don't want to hear the truth.

 

 

And if the forum doesn't have one, maybe we could get a wee fundraiser going on here to upgrade the forum software lol.

$15,0000 is enough for anyone to get a decent place and pay rent on it for a good while and still feed themselves and in that time try their best to find work and his case he can do the conventions and do signings at indy shows and with a lot of those shows the promotors fly them in. He could be doing stuff like that just now. I don't know about the medical bills or how that works but that's when people should be telling him to go to the WWE and getting them to foot that bill because they will do it. They pay for all that, he uses the money he gets now to get himself a place and get the rent paid for a while, maybe even a years rent and then in that time either get a job or try and get signing gigs and convention appearances and if Jericho is really his friend Jericho could put that word in to WWE, straight to McMahon and get him the rehab or medical attention he needs. It's not like some others that have no connections in WWE, Chris Jericho is a good connection to have and I think Jericho would fight his corner.

That's not your problem. That's his problem. Lots of people in America have medical bills. They don't go online and ask other people to pay for it.

I haven't been in serious pain but that's no excuse to go and take hard drugs. I'm not saying some people haven't had hard lives and they do that stuff to escape it just like some do with alcohol, I know that happens but when you have someone like Perry Saturn who earned a lot of money and he was already homeless for 5 years and then seemed ok for a few years, he got himself together again and now it's happened again.....it just seems like history repeating itself. Why didn't he save all that money he earned in WCW and WWF. Is it not enough? Hundreds of thousands not enough?

 

When I looked at his fundraiser at the start of the week It was at $15,000. That is more than enough for anyone, homeless or not to go and pay many months rent on a flat and get food in the fridge. $15,000 is a lot of money. There are people in this country living in council houses that are on benefits that manage to get by, they manage to feed themselves and pay their bills. Fans have given this man $15,000 and then Jericho adds another $5k to it and who knows what it's at now and is it gonna change his life? Or is it gonna go on drugs and drink and a year down the line the beggin bowl gets handed out again. For some people they can't be fixed.

 

I have sympathy for the man but money doesn't fix the issues he has. If money solved these problems then rich people wouldn't die. You can't solve those problems with money. I will say this about wrestling fans, they really do love handing their money over. £30 for Sky Sports, another £10 on the WWE Network, whatever the cost they pay it and sure enough they will make sure Perry gets his $100k. I certainly wont be part of it. Money does not fix drug addicts, money does not fix alcoholics, Money does not cure illnesses. That's an issue all of society has, everyone wanting more and more money thinking that money is gonna fix everything when it really doesn't.

 

 

It's a shame this thing happens all the time now online. Wrestlers wanting fans to pay for things for them and they've made more money than all of us combined will see in our lifetimes and I think it's fair to say, I don't know any of you but I think all of us have it pretty good compared to some of them.

 

It's true. I wont have that kind of money in my lifetime and neither will any of you.

Nah fuck off, my goal is to be a millionaire before 30. When I am I'm going to give Perry Saturn £5k just because you are a dick

 

 

 

You're not even 30 years old yet?

 

 

Best of luck to you lol.

It's true. I wont have that kind of money in my lifetime and neither will any of you. Personally I think Perry Saturn is shite, he was shite in WCW, shite in WWF much like Malenko and Benoit and Guerrero. Never liked them in wrestling but when it comes to the drugs and drink it's their own fault. No magic pill can cure that. He's most likely a chancer like most wrestlers are, trying to scrape every penny they can get. What he forgets is the wrestling audience now is kids. It's a kids show. The kids don't know who he is so the only people he's getting money from are the older fans that haven't grew out of the wrestling. He doesn't need $100k. $5k at the most would get him somewhere to live and pay his rent for at least a few months and give him food. What he needs to do is want to fix himself and go get a real job, just like all of you on here, all of you either work real jobs or your'e on the dole and you're aiming for a working life. That's what he needs to do. The fake fighting is over. No more fakey fighty to make penny pennies in the pocket. It's over with. Time to go into the real world and work. 8 hours a day for a fixed wage.

 

All the bubbling and running to the camera to turn it off yes Perry, you're living in a house and you can afford a camera and you already had thousands donated before Jericho came along. That's enough money to rent a flat and feed yourself. But you know what, i'm not even gonna get angry with him because it doesn't look like he's gonna fix himself anytime soon so I'll leave it to life to fix that. Let the Universe handle him. Throwing money at him wont fix him.

 

 

And yes if i had millions I would help people. People that need it, people that would actually use the money to feed themselves and keep a roof over their heads. There are people in this country living on dole money that can quite happily manage to pay their electricity and heating bills and keep food in the fridge, there's no reason why Perry Saturn can't. Where I am in Scotland there are many soup kitchens that feed the homeless and I'm happy to say are well attended. Regular people, like myself donating time and food to feed the homeless. That's what matters. That's what anyone who give money to him should be doing, give your money to peolpe that you know you are going to help, that you know that money is going to make a difference in their life.

At the end of the day he's a millionaire so he can afford to do it. He's not a regular person like any of you or even me. $5000 is a drop in the ocean to him but good on him, if I had his money I'd be using it to help others too.

The inring part is,, wrestling hasn't moved with the times, it did briefly in the 90s then in the 00s WWE and TNA regressed back to what they knew, wrestling, because the owners only knew wrestling.

 

 

Same with Dutch and Jeff now, all they know is what they were brought up on and with that we can go back at least 20, 30 years right? WWE is the same. People that only ever know one thing. They only know wrestling. TNA will never change because there is no one new in charge, it's wrestling people running it and wrestling does not draw, television does so it'll just be the same old stuff. People arguing over belts, climbing ladders, climbing cages, nothing new to see and the wrestlers will just be regular looking guys in trunks and boots. Who's gonna sit and watch that? Wrestling fans. How many wrestling fans are there in the world? Not very many. Therefore it's only ever gonna reach a small audience.

 

 

 

And why is Jeff there? Cause no one wanted his GFW. Why don't they want his GFW? Cause it's wrestling and wrestling doesn't draw anymore and hasn't for 20 years. TNA is Jeff's only shot at getting involved in a wrestling product on TV. If he had gotten his GFW on TV, he would never have went back to TNA.

Just wrestling then? That's all Jeff and Dutch know. Be the exact same as WWE. Average looking white men with beards and speedos and boots wrestling for belts.

 

Then they sign contracts to fight for belts.

 

They climb ladders for belts.

 

They talk trash because they want a belt.

 

 

 

 

I think we have enough 1970s wrestling on TV as it is. Maybe get some TV writers in and start writing wrestling for 2017. Maybe go get some proper wrestlers that look like wrestlers and not the morons that take their kids to school at 8.55 every morning that are too busy trying to rush back home and sit in front of the TV. And get some decent looking women while they're at it.

What I think doesn't matter, when a TV show draws the kinds of numbers the Big Bang Theory does opinions don't matter. The only thing that matters is all those people sitting watching it. That's the reason why the main actors get paid $1 million per episode. Whether I or you think it's mature doesn't matter. They get paid more in one day than many wrestlers will get in their lifetime of fake fights that they'll probably end up getting hurt in cause they can't work properly or throw a worked punch correctly.

 

 

I know which acting job I'd take. I know which paycheque I'd be setting my eyes on.

I never said it wasn't good money they were getting. It's damn good money but are USA Network making that money back?

 

 

Far more money to be made on the likes of NCIS and Big Bang Theory. Walking Dead is on basic cable just like Raw and it's going between 10 and 17 million viewers. So on one hand the wrestling fans want to spin this jargon of people don't watch TV anymore and they watch in other ways when the truth of the matter is other shows on Network TV and cable TV have viewers in the millions, some well over 10 million.And the other thing is, all those shows are put together by production companies, the TV channels don't really own those shows or produce them, many people do. The WWE is a standalone entity, the WWE pays for everything out of it's own pocket.

 

That's why I said WWE will never go out of business. They might not be on mainstream TV in a few years but they can still exist by being a touring company like The X Factor Tour and Dancing On Ice. Even without TV, the WWE would still be able to rent an arena for the night and sell enough tickets to cover the cost of the rent and pay the wrestlers a wage and pay the rest of the staffs flights and hotels. They could still exist that way just not on a big worldwide level.

 

 

And the PG thing has nothing to do with it. Granted there's no way any PG show should be on TV at that time of night. Adults should be watching TV after 9 not children and it is very much aimed at children. I did mention them making the show more about wrestling matches and you thought that was a good decision. Wrestling is very niche. Not many people are going to sit and watch wrestling matches because everyone knows it's fake and the belts mean nothing and no one really wins or loses, everyone is friends backstage, it's an act. The only people that are going to sit and watch that are real die hard wrestling fans and the thing is there's not many of them in the world. Take a look at the indy companies in America, take a look at the indy companies here in Britain. Look at the audiences they draw compared to other entertainment shows. Even the circus when they come to your town. Bands. Comedy shows. Theatre shows. Wrestling draws a small crowd because the only people that will pay to go and watch it are wrestling fans, the general public wont do it. Compare it to sport if you want, football, cricket, snooker, tennis, it's a small crowd in comparison. Wrestling has always had a hard time getting people who aren't fans involved because you have to overcome a lot of stigma and for many people it will not matter, they will never change their minds about wrestling or give it a chance.

 

 

When we look at the big boom periods of wrestling. These periods involved larger than life characters, you can't deny that, the 80s Golden Era and The Attitude Era, the early days of WCW Nitro. Go back and look at those shows and look at the star power. Everyone looks and acts like a star. I'm not saying they can't aim the show at a straight pro wrestling crowd but what I am saying is when you aim the show ONLY at wrestling fans, you alienate everyone else because what those eras did was prove that you can bring outsiders into wrestling, you can get men and women and kids to watch but you need to give them a reason to watch, you need to give them wrestlers that are over the top, you need scary people, you need the big guys, you need your blue collar guys, the guys that your Dad could sit and watch and happily watch them fight and pummel the other guy, you need the guys that are like showmen, the kind your Mum or sister would like. It really does need to be like a panto, like a big show, you have a bit of everything for everyone and most importantly you need stories. You need a reason for all these people to dislike each other.

 

The WWE has basic wrestlers. First name last name. Nearly everyone has a realistic name. They all wear boots and speedos. The men have beards and short hair. They just look like regular people and there are very few storylines. Everyone argues over belts. Very few matches last less than 5 minutes, they drag on and on. Now if you're a pure wrestling fan, you'll love all this. You'll love it to bits but if you're used to wrestling being a SHOW, at least for 30 years, you're gonna turn that on and turn it right off. The WWE are trying to play it like a sport and it's not, people are turning off. There's no doubt in my mind the reason people are tuning out in their droves is because the WWE is doing a 1970s wrestling product and the mass audience don't want that, they want a show. They want soap opera. They want violence. They want a laugh. It should be fun to watch and what the WWE are finding out is people in America aren't gonna sit and watch anything they put out. I don't know how far the numbers will fall but it's not getting higher, they're heading the wrong way. And to tie all that back to everything else, the WWE relies on paying customers, to cover the rent for the arenas, to cover the cost of the wrestlers wages, they need to put live shows on every week. Other TV shows don't and it's only natural to assume that if there are less eyeballs watching your show on TV then that will have a domino effect on everything else like house shows and merchandise sales. People might think ratings are old fashioned and out of date but TV shows still live and die by their ratings. Every year in America there are loads of new pilots and loads of shows cancelled, all by their ratings and with wrestling it's the only thing we have. It's the only way we can measure who is watching and when they're watching and what age group and sex is watching. It might not be accurate, it might not be perfect but it's all we have until they come out with something that is 100% accurate and I believe they have it, I believe they've had it for well over 10 years, they have chips in those boxes, believe me they know exactly what channel you're watching and at what time and for how long but until that stuff is made public all we have is Barb and NIelson.

lol guys.

 

 

Watching WWE on Youtube doesn't matter to Sky Sports or USA Network. They don't make any money from that, only WWE does and it's literally pennies.

Watching WWE on Hulu doesn't matter to Sky Sports or USA Network. They don't make any money from that.

Watching WWE on the WWE Network doesn't matter to Sky Sports or USA Network. They don't make any money from that.

 

It doesn't matter how you consume your TV programmes. The WWE was doing well over 4 million viewers on Monday nights for Raw alone just a few years ago when that contract was signed. In the space of 2 years they've dropped from well over 4 million viewers to 2.7 million viewers. That's a big drop in just 2 years.

 

 

And if you wanna nitpick what I said about FOX then nitpick, FOX make a ton of money from advertising, ads during wrestling have never sold for a lot of money and it has been that way for many years. That is a fact and whatever companies do pay to advertise during Raw in America, they're not paying as much as they did 2 years ago. Why pay the money you were paying when the show had over 4 million viewers and now it's edging closer to 2.5 million? Of course that third hour is gonna stay. USA Network is paying $160 million a year for Raw, there's no way they could scrape that money back over 2 hours, they NEED those extra advert breaks. I'll tell you one thing, FOX certainly don't pay $160 million a year for their shows. Nowhere near it and they have actual actors and script writers, the real deal.

 

And WWE on TV needs TV revenue but if they lost their TV deals they could still exist as a touring company. It's no different than Dancing On Ice or the X Factor tours. Come and see the local wrestlers.

There's the dark skinned man with dark hair and tattoos Randy Orton.

There's the white skinned surfer dude with blonde hair Dolph ZIggler.

There's the Action Man John Cena that loves the army and loves charity and helping the kids and making sure the Troops get their dinner at Christmas.

There's the panto villain The Miz.

The Barbie Doll Alexa Bliss.

There's the midgets in masks.

The bad ass Mexican dudes that walk with a swagger.

You got your natural every day looking women like Charlotte Flair representing the women in the audience there with their boyfriends.

There's the fat guy next door with the 3 kids and the wife on the dole that thinks he can fight but could never win a real fight Kevin Owens.

There's your English wrestlers that talk funny and think they're tough.

There's the foreigners that can't speak English.

There's the black wrestlers that try and act talk like their Eddie Murphy, Will Smith and Chris Rock all rolled into one.

 

 

You got all your characters there. All the ones you'd expect to see. GIve them a few hundred quid a night and they would be happy with that. And yes I did see the brilliance in Brock/Goldberg because that was how wrestling used to be. I don't give a shit about AJ Styles or any of these midgets jumping through tables. I could less what happens to them, they shouldn't be on TV making a mockery of a business that was once loved by millions. A business where the men were real men and the women were real women. They were people you could look at and respect. Even look at AJ, a middle aged man in his 40s and they try and dress him up younger.

 

 

Have none of you done that? I get the whole BSing thing on here, you like to fool around with each other but have any of you sat your friends or family down to WWE in the past few years? Go and do it. Go and sit your parents down to the New Day or Neville or Kevin Owens and come back and tell me their reaction. I know what the reaction is. What is this shower of shite you're watching son? I can't even say anymore, I know what the reaction would be and it wouldn't be good.

 

 

And if anyone tells me I'm wrong then I have to question your reality. You must be living inside that wrestling bubble too and I welcome you to join the rest of us in the real world, in 2016 cause it's kinda fun. You should get Netflix, you should look at Sky One and Sky Atlantic and FOX and AMC. Some of the best actors in the world are on TV. TV used to be a bad thing for actors. The big time was always the cinema. If you were a big deal or you wanted to be a big deal then the cinema is where you wanted to be, that's the where the real actors were. Not anymore. Some of the best actors in the world aren't in your local cinema. They're on your TV every night of the week. TV has changed so much in the last 20 years and is so sophisticated now that when you look at WWE and all wrestling for that matter, you see just how hokey it is. How old fashioned it looks. You wanna talk about people consuming TV? Why don't you look at what they're watching cause it ain't child's play. It ain't kiddy shows. It's GOTHAM. Walking Dead. Game Of Thrones. Scream Queens. The Big Bang Theory.  American Horror Story. Agents of SHIELD. Empire. Criminal Minds. NCIS. One of my favourite shows The Leftovers is coming back soon. Twin Peaks is returning. What about Stranger Things on Netflix? Man In The High Castle on Amazon Prime? That's what people are watching. They're watching some of the best actors in the world portraying some of the most interesting characters in the world and they're performing some of the best written scripts in the world. That's what's on TV and that's without talking about real live sport that's on TV at night.

 

You have TV that GOOD every day and WWE is doing Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens acting silly at 9pm at night? Can you imagine what a 16 year old or 20 year old or 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 year old flicking through their cable channels or Netflix or Amazon Prime accounts are coming across and then flicking that on? Forget about it. And i don't pay Sky any money so it doesn't affect me in anyway but it might not matter to any of you but the people WWE money it matters to them how many people are watching the show. DVR means nothing. Why? Cause people fast forward the adverts. Sponsors and advertisers don't care how many people tape wrestling and watch it the next day, they only care about the live number because when you watch something live YOU CANT FAST FORWARD THROUGH THE ADVERTS lol.I can't even get annoyed at all of you. You're all just fans and as just fans you shouldn't care too much but WWE should care. They should worry about those live attendances, they should worry about how many eyeballs are watching their shows LIVE, not taped, not DVRd and watched 4 days later, LIVE cause it's the live number that brings in the money.

 

 

That's why in 2020 I think you'll see massive changes in wrestling on TV. I think the same with football too. Far too much football on TV and the ratings are down big time, most people just follow their local clubs now and watch their games only. I think you'll see Raw on Sky and that's it. I don't see WWE footing the bill for Smackdown in America from 2020 going onwards, and I definately don't see Raw being on TV in America from 8pm till 11.15pm at night. It's a kids show. it should be on in the afternoons and it certainly wont be for $160 million a year. No chance at getting that kind of money again. They're on fault and I'm telling you, with Vince McMahon turning 75 in 2020 I think that is his plan. That'll be the WWE's end and I like i said earlier it's gonna happen eventually. All the good years have already happened and I'm glad I got to to see it for so long. I seen 30 good years of wrestling. Some of the best actors in wrestling like Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan and Jake Roberts and Shawn Michaels and Undertaker and Mick Foley. Those memories will live on forever on video. It's not like we can't watch them again. It's had it's day. Its time has been and gone and if any of you really took a step back and seen the whole picture you'd agree with me. Wrestling just isn't wrestling anymore and it hasn't been for many many years. It's just not the same and in the next 3 years until those contracts are negotiated, which is when I think the real big changes will happen, I hope they do bring back some of the legends, the real wrestlers like Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart, get King Kong Bundy back, I've seen a lot of interviews from him recently, he's doing great, get Bret Hart back and if these are the last few years of WWE on mainstream TV, get the big guns back on TV and let it go out with a bang, not a load of fake matches with people no one cares about. Forget the wrestling matches. Get the big stars on TV talking and entertaining us. Let it go off the air with one big hurrah.

 

So what happens in 2020 when NBC and all these big sponsors they have look at the contracts and they say ok Vince.....your show Raw was doing over 4 million viewers at the last contract and we paid you X amount of dollars.

 

 

Now Raw is doing 2.7 million viewers, almost 1.5 million LESS and you want us to give you MORE money?

 

 

But TV Ratings across the board ARE DOWN, Its not just Wrestling shows, I follow the US Tv Ratings and every show this year is down on previous years

 

Viewers aren't always the best measure either, In the US its all about the demos watching the Show more then the amount of eyeballs on the product

 

Just This past Thursday Smackdown was Tied for the no1 show on all of Cable in terms of demos and no 2 in actual Viewers, I'd think USA would be pretty happy about that  

 

Are the Ratings what they once were of course not but no show is, You can argue they could be better and I wouldn't disagree but in the grand scheme of things they aren't too bad in comparison with other TV shows and its the year 2016 to be expecting a show to be doing the same numbers it was doing in 2000 or even 2010 is virtually impossible.

 

 

 

But Smackdown doesn't cost USA anything, the WWE are footing the bill on their own for Smackdown. USA doesn't pay for Smackdown, they pay for Raw, they paid $100 million per year for the first year and then every year after it increases, this year alone was $160 million just for Raw.

 

I know ratings are down across the board but what I'm saying is, the WWE isn't like other TV shows that run for 13 weeks or 16 weeks and then it's done. The WWE is 52 weeks a year and it costs them money to do those shows. How much do you think WWE pay to rent those arenas? Pay for the flights? Pay for all the staff to fly in? Pay for all the camera crews and make up ladies and the production truck and then the people to work in the production trucks? After all that is paid and the rent for the arena that night is paid and all the wrestlers get their share of the takings what is left? And then on Tuesday they need to do the same but foot the bill for the whole thing on their own because they need to.

 

And people will watch TV if they want to. 17 million watched the premiere of The Walking Dead and since then has hovered around 10 million and that is on AMC which is a cable channel just like USA Network. Basic cable. Live football regularly gets well over 10 million viewers, many times over 15 million. Game Of Thrones on HBO. Big Bang Theory on CBS. FOX? FX has some of the best show in America and that is a basic cable channel.

 

What that says is, if people want to sit and watch TV, they will. They don't do that with other live sport. They don't do that with The Walking Dead or Game Of Thrones or Big Bang Theory. They don't say, we'll DVR it and watch it later on in the week. No. They sit and watch it as it's happening because it's that good. It's that unmissable. Wrestling unfortunately is not that way anymore.

 

 

We'll see what happens. There's still 3 years left on the contract and in the space of 2 years they've went from 4.3 million viewers down to 2.7 million viewers. That's over 1.5 million people gone in the space of 2 years and there's 3 years left and I don't see the numbers going up. I don't know what sponsors pay, I don't know what they charge in America to advertise during Raw but I'm sure at 4.3 million they could charge enough money to cover that initial $100 million they paid WWE. 5 years down the line if that number is a lot lower, which it already is I don't know if they are making a profit with WWE. And whatever sponsors are paying for their ads, I can't see them agreeing to pay the same kind of money to a show that USED to draw 4.3 million and now is well under 3 million. The only thing keeping WWE going is their TV revenue. People say ratings don't matter? Believe me they do when you're relying on it 52 weeks a year. I think at the very least in 2020 we will see WWE Raw on at a different time, i think they will move it to an early evening time. Wrestling has had it's day on prime time TV in America, it will have had at that point a good 25 year on TV on Monday nights. That's when you'll see the next big change in the wrestling business I feel. When those contracts need renewed and the numbers are back to rock bottom. I don't know what Sky Sports will do but I do think in America the WWE are in for a big shock in a few years. VInce McMahon will be 73 by then. If i was them I'd either start winding the company down, think about selling it or downsizing the whole operation because they are bleeding viewers every week and losing more and more fans. I think in 2020 there wont be enough wrestling fans in America or anywhere to sustain any company for 52 weeks a year. It's went on too long. Just watch Raw now. Still the stage. Still the fireworks. The same format. Nothing's changed. Everything else on TV has moved on so much. Wrestling has had it's time.

And Pitcos has it spot on. The WWE cannot survive without the TV revenue. They can't afford to take their shows off TV and put them on the Network.

 

 

 

So what happens in 2020 when NBC and all these big sponsors they have look at the contracts and they say ok Vince.....your show Raw was doing over 4 million viewers at the last contract and we paid you X amount of dollars.

 

 

Now Raw is doing 2.7 million viewers, almost 1.5 million LESS and you want us to give you MORE money?

 

 

 

I can see how the conversations gonna go. No way will they be paying them the $160 million a year they're getting a year now for a show drawing less than 3 million viewers. No chance. I don't know what Sky Sports will do, whatever they do is up to them, if people still wanna pay £30 a month to watch wrestling that's up to them but with Kodi and FIresticks and Roku sticks being available so cheap I can't see it. Every TV is a smart TV now. Plug it right in and you can watch any channel you want for nothing. Good luck to them though. Keep making the show and indy show, keep driving people away, keep losing viewers. That's what they want.

Oh I agree with you there. Chris Benoit going loopy changed everything. Now don't get me wrong. I didn't care about Benoit one bit, I was not a fan at all but you are right, that caused a lot of changes and they were good changes. You're right a lot of guys were roided up and that's not always a good thing. I can't argue with that at all. All i meant was wrestling was always built on guys being larger than life. When I said that I didn't mean muscle mass, I just meant people with big personalities, people that walked and talked and acted different. They were like cartoon characters. Like Enzo in WWE, he's not a big guy but I would say he's larger than life. That's what I meant. People that you wouldn't normally see in everyday life.

 

And the thing is with the steroids, wrestling is a show. It's not a real sport so it's not like any wrestlers are benefitting from it. It really is just for show so I'm not against guys looking that way because it's a work. There's no real competition involved.

 

 

I look at Smackdown getting less than 5,000 paying fans for their TV tapings in arenas setup for 10,000 and 15,000 fans. I see house shows drawing as little as 3 and 4,000 fans. I see less than 3 million people watching Raw in America when 15 years ago we had around 10 million watching WWF and WCW on the same night at the same time. I see live sports in America regularly drawing over 10 million viewers, Walking Dead drew 17 million viewers for it's premiere, so it's not like people are watching TV on their phones like Triple H wants you to believe, no no  Americans are more than capable of sitting in front of their big screen TVs when they can be arsed to. My opinion is only my opinion, all the numbers back me up. Wrestling viewers have fallen off a cliff. All that backs me up.

 

 

Do you want to know why that is? Because out of all the millions of people in this world only a tiny amount will sit and watch fake scripted wrestling matches for longer than 5 minutes. But here's the thing, when you start giving them characters, and larger than life personalities and a REASON to fight, in other words they do a bit of acting, guess what? Now you have people interested. It's like the cinema. Many people don't believe in aliens or ghosts or monsters under the bed and time travel and science fiction and mobsters and gangsters but....if you give them good actors and a good storyline and you dress it up well? Millions of people will not only be interested in watching it but they will PAY MONEY to go watch it. Wrestling is the same way. When you dress it up with wrestlers with personality and they can talk and act and they have all these storylines making them all interact with each other and they're against each other and backstabbing and taking sides it makes the whole thing more interesting, all of a sudden people wanna see that match, see who wins, see what happens to the loser of the match cause they're so interested in these people that it doesn't matter if the match isn't real, they want to know what's gonna happen when they get in the ring. That's what wrestling was always about.

 

And the WWE has stripped that away and when you strip all that away what are you left with? Just regular looking guys that have mostly realistic sounding names, in speedos and boots in a scripted match. Nothing dressing it up. Who's gonna watch that? Wrestling fans. How many wrestling fans are there in the world? Not very many that's how many. But it's just like the movies and any other TV show, you take a story that is completely fictional and you have good actors and you open the whole thing up to everyone. But just don't basic 1970s wrestling? The only people that will watch are wrestling fans and they are few and far between but you all know that right? Most of you work right? You have family right? You know that. Do they talk to you about wrestling? What names do they throw at you? Rock? Austin? McMahon? The last time wrestling was really good? Yeah I thought so. No Kevin Owens or Nevilles no? Didn't think so. Facts are facts guys.

 

 

It's already a niche product and some of you are holding it back further, you are killing it. Do you know that? Do any of you even realise that? You are literally killing and ruining a business that millions of people loved watched. Millions of us loved watching wrestling and you've watered it right down to acrobatics and encouraged, how it happened I don't know but somehow Vince McMahon has allowed that indy style onto his main programming and less and less people are watching. Wrestling used to be enjoyed by many many people and it saddens me to see where it is now. It's like you have to ruin a good thing. Like the NXT crowd wanting to keep NXT to themselves, that's what it's like. It's like all the wrestling fans wanting to keep wrestling for themselves and no else can enjoy it, no one else is allowed to enjoy it or watch it. Shawn Michaels was spot on. There's a reason why you don't see him on WWE TV anymore or Steve Austin or the Undertaker or many other legends, they know the score, they know how far it's fallen. It's not wrestling. It's acrobatics. They're well away from it.

I'm not talking about eras having high or low spots. The thing is with all those eras, wrestling was still wrestling. They didn't try and change what wrestling was, it was either bad or good depending on the gimmicks and wrestlers and storylines, the actual wrestling portion of it never changed.

 

 

What WWE has done now is they haven't just stripped away the focus being on characters and storylines but the actual inring wrestling is just people no selling moves and jumping through the middle ropes and kicking out of finishers. It's like changing the fundamentals of wrestling. Heels don't get heat. Babyfaces don't do anything to make you like them. Everyone looks like regular people on the street. They've changed everything.

There are little glimpses here and there of talent doing the right things but the whole show is a mess.

 

 

With less and less people watching in America and the Sky Sports ratings being down significantly from last year, I really think that wrestling's time has been and gone. There's no chance of another boom period happening again. The talent just isn't good enough and it's not even booked like a wrestling show, they're trying to make it look like a real sport when it's not. The WWE is so far away from what wrestling used to be.

 

And i was listening to Vince Russo's podcast and I agree with what he he said about Mick Foley and Jericho last week, when it gets to the stage where 2 legends are starting to look stupid and not in a good way, like legit stupid then you have to wonder how far it will go. Obviously Mick and Jericho are putting the money first, there's absolutely legit reasons as to why The Undertaker and Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels and The Rock only dip in and out rather than be there on any kind of regular basis, they just would leave the money on the table. When you have guys in the business for 20, 25, 30 years and they've not only put the time in but in Mick's case their body to the point where they can't walk without being in pain, to give them those scrips that do nothing but make them look stupid is insulting and obviously Mick's family is there and obviously he's looking after his son and daughter but to lower yourself like that on a weekly basis is just sad. There's other legends that clearly don't mind leaving money on the table because their reputation means that much to them and I think as time goes on the more we see of Mick and Jericho and a few others, that good feeling we had, those good memories are starting to waste away. The way we seen them in their prime and the way they used to be portrayed when they did make a big return unfortunately is being wiped away each passing week.

 

 

I know some of you on here obviously take wrestling very seriously. Some of you will never stop watching and that's cool too, it's obviously played a part in your upbringing and stayed with you throughout childhood but I just find it painful to see where wrestling once was and where it is now and it's not even getting any better. A glorified kids show. Who over the age of 12 is sitting laughing at Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens? Goldust? The Usos? Neville? Sami Zayn? I'd love to meet a man or woman over the age of 18 that is seriously sitting at home laughing and smiling at all this? Really? Who in their right mind is sitting watching this drivel laughing and smiling and enjoying it over the age of 12? Don't call it wrestling. Call it Cirque Du Soleil. It's not wrestlling. That's what Shawn Michaels says. It's not wrestling. What they do in WWE now isn't what I used to do, I used to do wrestling, I don't what WWE does now and he's right.

 

 

We'll see what happens in 2020 with Sky Sports and USA Network. Nothing lasts forever. The Simpsons will no doubt be done after their contract runs out. Cheers was the same. Happy Days lasted 11 years. The Twilight Zone. The X Files. Desperate Housewives. Friends. Some of the best TV shows in the world had their time, they came, they existed, they made us happy, then they finished. I think wrestling has been pushing it's luck since 2005 and it's taken that long for some of the wrestlers to not only die off but to retire and I can just say this, I'm glad to have watched it for as long as I did. I'm so happy that I can say I got to see some of the best wrestlers in history wrestle live in person in their prime. Like seeing the original Beatles, Elvis Presley, seeing Mohammad Ali box, there's people in this world that you can say it's a privelidge to have seen them in person in their prime when they could do their job and I've seen the best wrestling has to offer. I've the best actors wrestling has ever had and in their prime, when they could do the acting and the fighting in the ring. I don't see it getting better at all. It's not even close to what it once was.

 

An absolute shame is what it is when I think back to how good wrestling used to be. How enjoyable it used to be. And of course there will be people that want to nit pick at me and hate me but you know it's true. What about your families? Friends? Do they talk to you about wrestling without you bringing it up? Do they heck. It's had it's time. Then you see Mick Foley acting the fool. Jericho with the silly talking. And I sit here and think back on how Mick and Jericho used to talk. Some of the most well spoken people to ever step in a ring. Could make you feel all kinds of emotions and now it's acting the fool. I'd love to meet an adult man or woman and have them explain to me why that is funny or enjoyable. I'd love to hear that explanation.