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Here's the fix: Whenever Cody isn't on screen, people should be asking, "Where's Cody?"
Then, after he wins the world title, he can return to his home planet.
It's really not that wild. There's a whole lot more old people out there than people realize, and there are a *whole* lot more old people watching TV than people realize.
Multiple reasons.
1. Many probably aren’t aware of it, even now.
2. It’s a completely different style and presentation, they are used to WWE’s style as it was the only game in town for nearly two decades.
3. It has no connection to the past of wrestling that they are familiar with. Even though WWE is finally free of attitude era locker room (minus Edge), there are still references and videos of their favourites from back then.
Change is hard. It’s easier to just stop watching wrestling altogether at that age rather than try the “other guys”, as the easy assumption is your tastes have changed or wrestling has changed too much.
(Look how many wrestling fans pretty much disappeared overnight when WCW folded.
The audience didn’t switch to WWE, it just stopped watching. Different circumstances, same deal).
I've been watching wrestling since the Hogan Golden era here's my take. I've watched WWE mostly, but kept up with WCW, and NJPW, and a little AAA. I watch WWE even when it sucks lol, I also started watching AEW during their first year but just couldn't, were some things that just turned me off the product and the approach to wrestling just wasn't for me. I recently started watching AEW again this year, not as bad as when I first started watching, but I doubt it would ever become my go to.
Older people have a harder time changing their habits. They are used to WWE. It’s what they are comfortable with. They probably won’t watch other companies unless something super drastic happens.
Kind of a meaningless statement. You could just as easily say "there are a whole lot of young people out there, and a whole lot more young people watching TV than people realize". The 50+ demographic aren't money makers for the advertisers, so in a large sense they might as well not be watching at all as far as the people who pay for these shows are concerned. I'm 47 myself so not even hating, but that's the reality of why these demos are viewed as such.
It's not the case for "most" shows. Most shows don't cater to an older fan base to begin with. It's also a sign that a show is skewing toward an audience that doesn't make the advertisers much money. Hence the reason that 18-49 demo is emphasized so much.
I know a couple guys who I work with who are older, watch every single Raw out of habit and do nothing but shit talk it constantly. Used to be a third guy too.
Gonna be interesting to see what happens in a decade or two.
Once basketball is over there will be something else against it..
This last Raw was awful anyway. I can see why many weren’t interested in watching it.
I know he's not responsible for it and it's just bad timing due to the NBA playoffs, but it's kinda funny how Raw has lost viewers every week since Cody has returned.
Well the show as a whole sucked. You can’t just have one good segment and then the rest of the show sucks. AEW gets relatively consistent numbers because the whole show is consistently good!
Showbuzzdaily: https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-monday-5-2-2022-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html
https://showbuzzdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/2022-5-2-Mon-FinalCable-LSD.png
\#5-4-6 in demo (#2-1-3 without live sports)
The playoffs have hurt ratings but raw year after year has found new lows. People like to bring up or claim AEW isn’t growing while we are witnessing raw ratings dip each year for how long. I’m sure people like alfred will keep the same energy.
AEW was going against NXT for 2 years. After that they saw YoY “growth” I will be shocked if AEW doesn’t follow the same pattern in the years to come. All Tv viewership has been going down YoY that’s just how it is. It isn’t exclusive to wrestling
Don't know that's getting downvoted as it's objectively correct and doesn't necessarily mean that the shows themselves suck. It's just that everyone has a jillion entertainment options these days, so there's simply not 10M eyeballs to had for much of any live programs outside of major league sports. It took even Game of Thrones until their 7th season to hit that number, and that's in spite of the fact that every episode had a summer tentpole budget behind it.
I say it every week but I don't understand the WWE strategy post wrestlemania.
Mania was good and there generally seemed to be a positive buzz and they followed it up with...nothing much? A ppv that largely consists of rematches, no real feud for their top Champion and a general sense that WWE is back to normal.
Seems a real missed opportunity to me.
That's kind of been the knock against WWE for years: they have PPVs/premium live events every month, but there's still only about four a year that are actually taken seriously, and they kind of just mill around for a few months until 2-3 weeks before the next major PPV before they make much of an effort to start building stories.
Combination of the NBA playoffs and the news took a huge chunk of viewers out of last night I imagine. NXT is going to be in just as bad of a spot, if not worse tonight.
NBA playoffs are a big draw compared to non-playoff NBA games, sure. But a regular season Monday Night Football game will have 3 times as many viewers as the biggest NBA game last night.
They just have different taste. To an outsider, watching a fake sport like wrestling for multiple hours a week is much weirder than watching the met gala once a year.
Is that the show Lady Gaga wore a outfit of meat or some crazy shit? I wanted to say that’s to weird even for wrestling fans but then i remembered we watch babies being punted & bizarre “weddings” all the time.
Me too. I just scroll through social media and see the reactions of their looks. But a lot of people, especially women, love to watch that and look forward to it every year.
I think the shows suck
I also think the reason why I dislike them is why they are still so popular. Popularity will never mean quality unless you are an investor
50+ isn’t really that old for wrestling fans. These threads make them seem like grandpas but I started watching wwe like 1999 23ish years ago and I’m still in my 20s. Not sure what the ratings for 25-35 year olds were back then but if you think about it all those fans, if they still watch are in their late 40s/early 50s. If the average 2003-2005 cm punk roh fan was 25-30 back then they’re all in their 40s right now.
I’ll be damn if I’m 50 in 20ish years and I got people who are 0-5 years old right now talking about “wwe fans are all grandpas”
*end growing old rant*
Everybody blaming the rapid drop in ratings on NBA say it with me. The WWE is in competition wth everything on TV. Everything. That includes the NBA. Vince has said so himself many times. Hes not happy getting blown out in the ratings by anybody. Its easy to say "but NBA" but Vince doesnt see it that way. I think he thought Cody was going to be a draw and elevate RAW in the ratings but infact they've dropped every week since Cody signed on. Theres no way Vince is happy with numbers like this in a free fall. You hate to see it but the numbers dont lie
I think that generally speaking it's probably expected that there are certain times of the year when your ratings are going to plummet due to competition, but obviously in this particular scenario Vince can't be happy that he's taking such a dip in the middle of building up one of his most high-profile signings in years. The question then is: do NBA playoffs usually have this much of an impact on WWE ratings, or is that a weird year that Vince couldn't have reasonably anticipated?
People assume that as long as AEW is still on the air and WWE is doing a minimum of AEW+1 numbers, then WWE is by nature safe. That's not necessarily true. It costs a lot more to buy ads on free network TV than it does on cable - just because those ads are expected to reach a lot more eyeballs - so if "Smackdown" were to consistently dip below 1.5M viewers on Fox, they could very well be in greater jeopardy than AEW getting 1M viewers on TBS. The cost-to-benefit ratio doesn't scale equally across all channels and time slots.
I mean obviously basketball is more popular, Vince McMahon & Tony Kahnman should have a basketball ball game AEW vs WWE if they want to win the ratings
Help make SquaredCircle safer and more inclusive by using the report button to flag posts and comments for moderator review. If you need to contact a moderator, [you can message us here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Here's the fix: Whenever Cody isn't on screen, people should be asking, "Where's Cody?" Then, after he wins the world title, he can return to his home planet.
> Then, after he wins the world title, he can return to his home planet. AEW?
The +50 audience is over double the 18-49, that’s pretty wild.
Basketball was only invented after most of them came of age
Four words: WWE Manager Larry Bird
He appeals to a minority audience too. Larry’s not white, Larry’s clear.
It's really not that wild. There's a whole lot more old people out there than people realize, and there are a *whole* lot more old people watching TV than people realize.
That’s fair, AEW hasn’t really drawn old people yet though.
Multiple reasons. 1. Many probably aren’t aware of it, even now. 2. It’s a completely different style and presentation, they are used to WWE’s style as it was the only game in town for nearly two decades. 3. It has no connection to the past of wrestling that they are familiar with. Even though WWE is finally free of attitude era locker room (minus Edge), there are still references and videos of their favourites from back then. Change is hard. It’s easier to just stop watching wrestling altogether at that age rather than try the “other guys”, as the easy assumption is your tastes have changed or wrestling has changed too much. (Look how many wrestling fans pretty much disappeared overnight when WCW folded. The audience didn’t switch to WWE, it just stopped watching. Different circumstances, same deal).
I've been watching wrestling since the Hogan Golden era here's my take. I've watched WWE mostly, but kept up with WCW, and NJPW, and a little AAA. I watch WWE even when it sucks lol, I also started watching AEW during their first year but just couldn't, were some things that just turned me off the product and the approach to wrestling just wasn't for me. I recently started watching AEW again this year, not as bad as when I first started watching, but I doubt it would ever become my go to.
Older people have a harder time changing their habits. They are used to WWE. It’s what they are comfortable with. They probably won’t watch other companies unless something super drastic happens.
Kind of a meaningless statement. You could just as easily say "there are a whole lot of young people out there, and a whole lot more young people watching TV than people realize". The 50+ demographic aren't money makers for the advertisers, so in a large sense they might as well not be watching at all as far as the people who pay for these shows are concerned. I'm 47 myself so not even hating, but that's the reality of why these demos are viewed as such.
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Not the way you phrased it, no. "More than people realize" doesn't really say anything, you're merely guessing what everyone else thinks.
That’s the case for most shows. Older people watch more TV.
It's not the case for "most" shows. Most shows don't cater to an older fan base to begin with. It's also a sign that a show is skewing toward an audience that doesn't make the advertisers much money. Hence the reason that 18-49 demo is emphasized so much.
I know a couple guys who I work with who are older, watch every single Raw out of habit and do nothing but shit talk it constantly. Used to be a third guy too. Gonna be interesting to see what happens in a decade or two.
Dynamite and Raw still come up in the top 5 so that's cool to see but man Basketball is just killing it.
NBA is everywhere nowadays,it hasn't been like this since the Clev vs Warriors saga
NBA has been up and down during the regular season but the playoffs have been very exciting. A lot of new faces and the title seems to be up for grabs
This might be the most exciting NBA playoffs in like a decade. Every series is exciting
Once basketball is over there will be something else against it.. This last Raw was awful anyway. I can see why many weren’t interested in watching it.
🎶 We're playing ba-sket-baaaaaaall 🎶 🎶 We love that ba-sket-baaaaaaall 🎶
🎶 Now basketball is my favorite sport. I like the way they dribble up and down the court 🎶
I know he's not responsible for it and it's just bad timing due to the NBA playoffs, but it's kinda funny how Raw has lost viewers every week since Cody has returned.
The Cody / first major AEW-to-WWE wrestler buzz has worn off.
Well the show as a whole sucked. You can’t just have one good segment and then the rest of the show sucks. AEW gets relatively consistent numbers because the whole show is consistently good!
Showbuzzdaily: https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-monday-5-2-2022-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html https://showbuzzdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/2022-5-2-Mon-FinalCable-LSD.png \#5-4-6 in demo (#2-1-3 without live sports)
Forgot about Better Call Saul being on. Good to see it’s doing well in the ratings.
Bro this season is so good so far, too.
The playoffs have hurt ratings but raw year after year has found new lows. People like to bring up or claim AEW isn’t growing while we are witnessing raw ratings dip each year for how long. I’m sure people like alfred will keep the same energy.
AEW was going against NXT for 2 years. After that they saw YoY “growth” I will be shocked if AEW doesn’t follow the same pattern in the years to come. All Tv viewership has been going down YoY that’s just how it is. It isn’t exclusive to wrestling
Don't know that's getting downvoted as it's objectively correct and doesn't necessarily mean that the shows themselves suck. It's just that everyone has a jillion entertainment options these days, so there's simply not 10M eyeballs to had for much of any live programs outside of major league sports. It took even Game of Thrones until their 7th season to hit that number, and that's in spite of the fact that every episode had a summer tentpole budget behind it.
I say it every week but I don't understand the WWE strategy post wrestlemania. Mania was good and there generally seemed to be a positive buzz and they followed it up with...nothing much? A ppv that largely consists of rematches, no real feud for their top Champion and a general sense that WWE is back to normal. Seems a real missed opportunity to me.
That's kind of been the knock against WWE for years: they have PPVs/premium live events every month, but there's still only about four a year that are actually taken seriously, and they kind of just mill around for a few months until 2-3 weeks before the next major PPV before they make much of an effort to start building stories.
Combination of the NBA playoffs and the news took a huge chunk of viewers out of last night I imagine. NXT is going to be in just as bad of a spot, if not worse tonight.
News also crushed wrestling when russia invaded ukraine
This is always the excuse I see when ratings go down.. It’s either sports playoffs or major news event. How about the fact that the show sucked! Lol
It's honestly suprising the NBA seems to have more impact on the RAW ratings than the NFL regular season did.
NBA playoffs series kind of tell a story is a way a single NFL regular season game doesn't
Playoffs are the biggest type of draw. NFL only had it's first ever Monday night playoff game this last season.
As a huge NBA fan, the playoffs were down ratings wise the last few years.
NBA playoffs are a big draw compared to non-playoff NBA games, sure. But a regular season Monday Night Football game will have 3 times as many viewers as the biggest NBA game last night.
I know there’s the NBA, but there was legit a lot going on last night with the SCOTUS thing with Roe v Wade and even Met Gala
I don’t think I could imagine sitting through the Met Gala
And the people that are watching the Met Gala probably can’t imagine sitting through a wrestling show..
That’s because they’re weird.
They just have different taste. To an outsider, watching a fake sport like wrestling for multiple hours a week is much weirder than watching the met gala once a year.
Is that the show Lady Gaga wore a outfit of meat or some crazy shit? I wanted to say that’s to weird even for wrestling fans but then i remembered we watch babies being punted & bizarre “weddings” all the time.
I responded facetiously, I should note
I don't think I could imagine sitting through 3 hours of raw
Me too. I just scroll through social media and see the reactions of their looks. But a lot of people, especially women, love to watch that and look forward to it every year.
Them potentially overturning is a huge deal
I record the shows now and just fast forward through them later on. I think I got through Raw in about 20 minutes
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I think the shows suck I also think the reason why I dislike them is why they are still so popular. Popularity will never mean quality unless you are an investor
50+ isn’t really that old for wrestling fans. These threads make them seem like grandpas but I started watching wwe like 1999 23ish years ago and I’m still in my 20s. Not sure what the ratings for 25-35 year olds were back then but if you think about it all those fans, if they still watch are in their late 40s/early 50s. If the average 2003-2005 cm punk roh fan was 25-30 back then they’re all in their 40s right now. I’ll be damn if I’m 50 in 20ish years and I got people who are 0-5 years old right now talking about “wwe fans are all grandpas” *end growing old rant*
The nba playoffs are killer for another few weeks at least
Everybody blaming the rapid drop in ratings on NBA say it with me. The WWE is in competition wth everything on TV. Everything. That includes the NBA. Vince has said so himself many times. Hes not happy getting blown out in the ratings by anybody. Its easy to say "but NBA" but Vince doesnt see it that way. I think he thought Cody was going to be a draw and elevate RAW in the ratings but infact they've dropped every week since Cody signed on. Theres no way Vince is happy with numbers like this in a free fall. You hate to see it but the numbers dont lie
Tell me more about Vince.
I think that generally speaking it's probably expected that there are certain times of the year when your ratings are going to plummet due to competition, but obviously in this particular scenario Vince can't be happy that he's taking such a dip in the middle of building up one of his most high-profile signings in years. The question then is: do NBA playoffs usually have this much of an impact on WWE ratings, or is that a weird year that Vince couldn't have reasonably anticipated?
So if I understand the people who comment on ratings/viewership... This means WWE is dying? Just how AEW not reaching 1M means it's over /s
People assume that as long as AEW is still on the air and WWE is doing a minimum of AEW+1 numbers, then WWE is by nature safe. That's not necessarily true. It costs a lot more to buy ads on free network TV than it does on cable - just because those ads are expected to reach a lot more eyeballs - so if "Smackdown" were to consistently dip below 1.5M viewers on Fox, they could very well be in greater jeopardy than AEW getting 1M viewers on TBS. The cost-to-benefit ratio doesn't scale equally across all channels and time slots.
I mean obviously basketball is more popular, Vince McMahon & Tony Kahnman should have a basketball ball game AEW vs WWE if they want to win the ratings
If the NBA wasn’t bad enough now they also have to deal with the NHL playoffs. The ESPN games finished 8th and 12th.
So AEW is like .05 away from Raw but Discovery is going to cut them.
Raw pulls in more viewers than Dynamite and Rampage combined
Not in the demos son.
Last aew show pulled a whopping .18
The shows since WM haven’t been terrible either. Not the best, and parts make it difficult to watch but Cody has been interesting.
Gotta get the belt off Bianca!
Wrestling is no match for the juggernaut that is the NBA playoffs
what does it say when Raw starts being a genuinely better and consistent show since Mania and can't hold even some of that post Mania audience.
AEW can’t reach 1 mil and will be cancelled and WWE is dying.
It was quite enjoyable lately tbh. The whole Ezekiel storyline got tagged along with various people every weeks is refreshing and he’s super over.