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Will there be another boom period?


garynysmon

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Wwe is so up their own arse these days it's tough to see how they'll ever take any risks needed to create a boom period. It's been a downhill slope since they went public ironically and while their financials are always between steady and impressive the stuff that happens on telly is tame and often tedious.

 

Look at the bloke in charge of hiring talent at the moment for eff sake. Canyon seaman!! I assume he's responsible for the return of "game changing stars" like curt Hawkins and jinder mahal.

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Lucha Underground to spark a wrestling boom? Have you been on the sauce tonight, pal?

 

Wrestling is niche. And LU is niche within wrestling.

 

Not even in that Netflix scenario you presented does it in anyway become mainstream. There aren't enough hipster Netflix subscribers anything like interested in wrestling to create a ripple, let alone a boom.

I had been drinking, but my head only hurts a little bit now so couldn't have been that bad.

 

I do genuinely think it's possible for LU to become super popular in that scenario. It is niche amoung wrestling fans because it is so different to what we are used to, but I think a mainstream audience would lap it up.

 

Whenever I tattoo someone who used to watch wrestling back in the day we end up chatting about it and I talk about Lucha Underground. Usually show them some clips or chuck an episode on. Most of the time those people come back to me saying they've gotten hooked on it and binge watched loads of it. If every episode was easily accessible and advertised on a big platform like Netflix it would blow up.

 

I can see it being everywhere like Stranger Things was recently. Hundreds of memes, characters appearing on talk shows and everyone losing their shit when a new series is announced. That is what I refer to when I saw modern boom period. It wouldn't be anything like the previous two because that isn't possible

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Lucha Underground to spark a wrestling boom? Have you been on the sauce tonight, pal?

 

Wrestling is niche. And LU is niche within wrestling.

 

Not even in that Netflix scenario you presented does it in anyway become mainstream. There aren't enough hipster Netflix subscribers anything like interested in wrestling to create a ripple, let alone a boom.

I can see it being everywhere like Stranger Things was recently. Hundreds of memes, characters appearing on talk shows and everyone losing their shit when a new series is announced. That is what I refer to when I saw modern boom period. It wouldn't be anything like the previous two because that isn't possible

 

 

C'mon man - get a grip! LU is still pro wrestling no matter how "hip" it looks. Pro Wrestling itself has niche appeal, and LU is niche in the world of wrestling. Stranger Things was a great drama that had mass appeal.

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I have the belief that there will never be another boom but not because I am pessimistic about the product or the company. 

 

The Network may actually cause the decline in the WWE. With so much to choose from and so much content every week there is a risk that fans won't tune in every week when they can pick and choose what they want to watch the network. 

 

If you know you can watch the product a few weeks later on the network why would you stick rigidly to the schedule and why would you sit through half of the show if it looks the pits. Back in the day you were able to catch RAW on a friday and a monday - no other time unless you recorded it. You had to sit through the whole show so you got to see the character progression - there was no skip button. 

 

Societies have generally been spoilt and with new technology (advances in streaming etc) over the past 15 years there is no wonder that niche products like WWE are doing badly. 

 

Plus we have to remember that wrestling IS a niche product but the WWE want to turn it into a mainstream entertainment powerhouse. Unfortunately with a million crime, historical, fantasy and science series available on Netflix etc and live sports taking the lead it is likely that WWE will continue to decline.

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Saying it is a niche within a niche is redundant because I feel we wrestling fans consider it niche because it isn't suited to us, it is suited to mainstream audience.

 

I disagree. They may be trying to target a broader audience, but it's still wrestling. And wrestling has a limited audience as its starting point. And to wrestling fans, LU is niche. I don't think that mainstream audience you reference exists for LU, even with more exposure. They can make it cool & edgy & grungy all they want, with bizarre storylines outside of the WWE norm & wilder characters with magic powers - but it's still fake fighting in a ring with mostly bad acting in the skits. And most people hate that.

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Most people view wrestling as just WWE, so if wrestling isn't cool it is fair to assume the majority of people just assume WWE isn't cool. It's what they watched as kids and grew out of. A new outside brand could avoid the connotations WWE has built up over the last 30 years.

 

As far as the "fake fighting" issue, LU easily avoid that because their presentation isn't that of a legitmate sport. It's a crazy alternate fantasy world, not people pretending to hit each other

 

It probably won't happen, but Lucha Underground have a far better chance at catching on with mainstream audiences than WWE does

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While Vince is running WWE then no there won't be another boom period. But Triple H has shown he can create compelling and enjoyable telly shows with NXT and the Cruiserweight Classic. So hopefully once he's running the show, we might get an improvement. Alternatively we might get one of these bored billionaires who decide their next venture is professional wrestling and they make their promotion into a world wide phenomenon causing WWE to up their game. There's more and more moving into sports and buying up clubs, only takes one of them to love wrestling to say "go ed we'll make a go of that"

 

I agree with those who say it's difficult to increase viewing figures, given how easy it is to watch things at a later date nowadays. But if the product being produced was more compelling then more people would want the Network. They could use that as proof of the viewing figures going up. 

 

One thing they could try for is to ask the USA Network for a John Cena talk show. Where he has guests from all over the entertainment world so it's not a wrestling show per se but every show he has one wrestler on it to give the wrestler and the company some mainstream exposure. Cena obviously wants to move into the entertainment side next, he's comfortable in front of the cameras and has hosted shows already. It keeps him in the wrestling industry of sorts without a full time schedule in the ring. And it also gets the current wrestlers rubbing shoulders with some big names.

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Look at the bloke in charge of hiring talent at the moment for eff sake. Canyon seaman!! I assume he's responsible for the return of "game changing stars" like curt Hawkins and jinder mahal.

Which old jobber that can still take bumps would you have given Jinder's contract to?

 

Colin Delaney

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For there to be another boom period I'm guessing WWE would need some legit compettion as opposed to trying to compete with itself as the Brand Extension is another attempt to do. The way for this would be somebody to suddenly throw a LOT of money at TNA, Lucha Underground to break into the mainstream or New Japan to decide they want to compete. A bloody nose in the ratings from another wrestling company might spurn Vince into making the effort again and creating more compelling TV. I think getting those local job guys and girls in on Raw is a bit of a start to trying to make things feel special again and to be honest since I got Sky Sports and have been series linking Raw & Smackdown I've been enjoying the product more than I have in recent years when I've just been reading the 'sheets for news and resultsand occasionally watching a PPV because it's recommended to me. I don't think we'll get those glory days back, but as long as we can relive them vicariously on the Network where's the incentive to try and recreate it with the current roster/creative team?

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WWE has had the same style of TV for years, and I think when we fail to envision another boom, it's mostly because we all realise their method of star making and content creation doesn't lend to it any more and just think it'll never change. We've had 15 years of a slow decline, so it gets harder to believe the business will do anything else.

 

I've been watching Raw's and Smackdown's around the time of Fully Loaded 2000 lately, and it's not the nostalgia talking, but in a breaking news piece for everybody I'm sure, the television is awesome. Even when there is stuff you can fast forward on (Steph's long promos), or matches that don't blow you away (Bull Buchanan I'm looking at you), the structure of the company is so perfect that you can deal with it. When different guys interact with each other, it's interesting because everything feels like it is evolving before your eyes. So many different characters are on their own journeys and the interplay between them as they cross over is just so dynamic to watch unfold.

 

One segment you have Shane and Benoit chasing a match with the Rock, next you've got RTC becoming hotter heels and powerbombing a Ho through a table, then you have Kurt Angle playing shit disturber with Steph and HHH, then you cut to Trish getting involved as a rivalry with Lita and Steph is bubbling under, HHH is still focused on the belt as well but Chris Jericho wants to kick his ass. Road Dogg and X-Pac matches are assisted by the "friendly rivalry" narrative and the commentators stirring the pot. Then we get Edge and Christian trying to fight off the Hardyz and Dudleyz, acting as chickenshits and then take drastic measures (with chairs) when the opportunity strikes. Tazz is running in randomly and attacking fan favourites. All supplemented by damn good matches and Mick Foley doing great promos to tie everything together and keep the chaos in line.

 

And then you watch Raw today, with endless meaningless matches (even if they can be good), and nobody's on a journey at all. It's the wrestling equivalent of everybody milling around at the bus stop until the driver, Triple H, shows up and lets somebody on.

 

When all we see is that, it's hard to think there can be a boom again, because we're now conditioned not to feel the things wrestling is supposed to make us feel. Here's a question - is there anybody on Raw that hates anybody else? The closest you have to Roman and Rusev, but they don't create much suspense by having a 25 minute countout as a Raw opener.

 

One of the things that made the Cruiserweight Classic awesome was that they took the time and bothered to actually get everybody's individual story over, and shockingly, people gave a shit when guys won and lost.

 

I think there absolutely can be a boom again. They have enormous potential exposure with their TV deal and it's never been easier to access the product or spend money on it. But the show isn't written in a way to make it interesting to follow.

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It's hard to seeing anything in TV land having a big boom anymore. Sure there will be successes but compared to years gone by the ratings are slipping everywhere.

 

The Walking Dead was the highest rated show in 2015 and scored an average of 9.6 compare that to Friends which was doing an average of 16.2 in the last 5 seasons!

 

Numbers on down everywhere because there are just so many things to watch and so many ways to watch them.

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It's hard to seeing anything in TV land having a big boom anymore. 

I don't think things have gone that far yet. I know there are loads of Netflix exclusives doing well, but you still get hits like Game of Thrones (even though I've never seen an episode). Because of the nature of live sport and news, there will always be an audience for traditional TV.

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It's hard to seeing anything in TV land having a big boom anymore. Sure there will be successes but compared to years gone by the ratings are slipping everywhere.

 

The Walking Dead was the highest rated show in 2015 and scored an average of 9.6 compare that to Friends which was doing an average of 16.2 in the last 5 seasons!

 

Numbers on down everywhere because there are just so many things to watch and so many ways to watch them.

 

You've got your rating stats mixed up a bit I think - Walking Dead averaged around 14 million in 2015 and that dipped a bit this year. You are using the 18-49 (key advertising) stats, not total viewership. 

 

The top shows can still get 16 million or so watching most weeks in the USA. The drop due to digital/streaming does exist, but if the show is good enough and enough people are talking about it - the figures can still be very high. NCIS and Big Bang Theory both got just under 16 millions TV viewers this week.

 

WWE just don't do a good enough job.

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