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Old 07-14-2017, 08:26 PM   #20
Mr. Nerfect
 
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I wouldn't say that they are in financial trouble right at this moment, but their expenditures are high and their margin of profit is quite low, and when they count so much on television to bring in that profit, and the future of television looks quite bleak, it's not a situation that the company should be sweeping under the rug.

While they were #1 or #2 for the ratings shares in the time slot, they could sit quite comfortably, but advertisers aren't going to be as interested in paying as much money on a property that is losing ground, nor is the USA Network. For a while, I was frustrated because I thought that the WWE could comfortably guarantee roughly the same deal or even a larger one with NBC Universal, based solely on where they were positioned on that leader board, but with them dropping down, I think that for the first time there is actually reason to speculate that their costs will be cut. That is when the WWE will panic.

The brand split is always a horrible idea for RAW. Always. SmackDown gets a little bit out of it, because they actually fucking try, but they often fall into the trap of using it to filter stuff into RAW, and right now is a glaring example of that. Jinder Mahal as WWE Champion? Carmella and Baron Corbin as Money in the Bank Winners? It's a Vince McMahon vanity project warm-up act. SmackDown never gets out of RAW's shadow this way. I can't think of a period where it was more obvious that the SmackDown crew was just there to create future RAW "stars." That being said, it surprises me that the WWE is already considering ending the brand split, because Vince can be god damn stubborn, and I could have seen the Universal Championship sticking around for 12 years just to prove that it could outlast the World Heavyweight Championship. That being said, if they do bring the rosters back together, I could see them keeping the Universal Title around just to spite everybody.

A lot of their foreign stuff hasn't worked out as well as they'd like it to. They got a new TV show in India or something, but it hasn't affected business domestically like you would expect an Indian WWE Champion who genuinely connected with people to. Bollywood films draw all over the world, whereas attendance during the reign of Jinder Mahal's title reign is down. They went with the TJP push with him representing the Philippines, but then the Philippines dropped their television or something. Ha.

It's like the tone-deaf nature of the WWE is finally starting to affect how they play. Ratings were always good, no matter what crap they through at people, but now they are down to #6 instead of being #1 or #2. Attendance was never perfect, but now photos are starting to circulate that affect perception. Remember TNA in the baseball field? That's the feeling I got seeing the vacant side of the building during the most recent RAW. PPV is a non-entity for them anymore, but very few people would buy their shows, and they are using the Network specials more as episodic content.

They wanted to go with more, more, more to bombard the viewer and make it seem like their Network subscription was going to be worth it based on the sheer volume of content being delivered, but now it's starting to plateau, given that the stuff that is there isn't, truthfully, very good. It can't be. Three hours is something you need to fill, not something you can artfully design each week to tell a beautiful and engaging story. Then you've got SmackDown. You are always working towards another Network special where very little is going to be able to be presented as fresh. On top of that, you have competing visions and a philosophy which has no problem admitting that everyone is just playing a character, and then can't understand why none of its heels have heat.

Merchandise might be doing well for certain stars. The video game might continue to sell well. Network subscriptions might be steady. But those will go down if the television presence of WWE continues to decrease. If <2 million people are watching RAW each week, because the show is tiring and bloated as fuck, then that is a smaller pool from which to pluck potential Roman Reigns shirt buyers, those interested in WWE 2k19 or linking themselves up to a direct debit with that company.

There definitely needs to be a correction in direction. Cynical as we as fans can be, we often overestimate the doom and gloom. I think many might be here. But it isn't nothing. For years many have spoken about "Ooh, it doesn't look good," when the WWE was actually not showing much in the way of wounds. But now they are starting to betray them a bit, and it's largely because of the stuff fans have been crowing about. It's starting to catch up to them, because you can only fatigue people for so long. The bubble won't pop, per se, but you're going to start to see things start falling off.
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