Rated_R(ob)KO

STATE OF THE 'E: Saturate The Nation

6 Comments

, 09-28-2012 at 12:03 AM (4467 Views)

Yeah... WOW!! Almost 3,000 views for my first SOT'E back! I only got six comments but, I digress. My new blog, #RAWTALK! is doing pretty good as well with over 1,900 views... still only six comments but, can't get blood from stone I guess. Either way, I'm back.

It felt real good to write another SOT'E and I'll be continuing both series regularly. #RAWTALK! will go through cosmetic changes as I keep rolling out the blogs but, I don't really know what format I want to use yet so, I'll keep tweaking that one if you keep reading.

Now, lets get on to what this blog is really about. And that will be one solid topic this time. SOT'E will become my opinion based blog on current events while #RAWTALK! will be all about well, that week's wrestling. Now, considering I'm going back to opinion based formatting for this blog I would like to take a moment to point something out. I don't know if anyone has noticed it but, it’s happening. One of my dreams and worst nightmare alike is finally happening. And I wonder, what will it to for the world of not only THE 'E but also for Professional Wrestling in general. That is one word and one word only:

Saturation

Point blank, THE 'E is pretty much dominating all aspects of television right now. Want to know what I'm talking about? Lets take a look, shall we?

Monday: RAW
Tuesday: NXT
Wednesday: MAIN EVENT
Thursday:
Friday: SMACKDOWN!
Saturday: SATURDAY MORNING SLAM
Sunday: PPV Pre-Show, PPV (Monthly)

Literally almost every single day we are seeing THE 'E on our TV screens. Crazy, right? And they have to be working a way for them to get a show on Thursday and a full time show for every Sunday that's not a PPV. I'm going to take a moment to look at the positive and negative effects of going seven days a week will have not only in the minds of advertisement but also in fan and general consensus as well.

POSITIVE:
This is exactly what THE 'E needs IMO. They need to be a force not only to adults and teens but, to kids as well. I welcome "SATURDAY MORNING SLAM" simply because its a show I can really get behind for my seven year old to watch. It's fun, goofy and entertaining all at the same time. It also drops knowledge to the small ones about performers from the past so the lineage can continue.

I know a couple months ago someone made a joke about THE 'E being on Nickelodeon (Nick) and truthfully, if they could land that, they'd be stupid to not take it on. They could use the teenage crowd considering they're not fully reaching them on SyFy or USA with SMACKDOWN! and RAW respectively. That would be a tool for them to utilize with in ring action, music videos and whatever else they felt like doing for an hour on either Thursday or Sunday.

Ad companies will eat that up too. Being able to shill their product on a show like that would make it an instant success. Make Sunday night seem interesting on Nick... they typically start Nick@Nite around 9pm. So, 6pm until 7pm... WWE: WHATEVER WE'LL CALL IT followed by the new TMNT series at 7pm, 7:30pm do Power Rangers, 8pm DBZ: KAI and 8:30pm end it with Victorious or iCarly. Instant success. Now, I know it will never happen but, the money coming in from that block would be absolutely insane.

Not only would it get the teenagers involved more but in turn it would get more viewers for RAW the next night which in the words of DDP is "A Good Thing". *Flashes toothy smile and stares awkwardly at the audience for a minute or so.* Realistically, I could talk all day about the positive effects but, I have to talk about the negative as well. Sooooooooo......

NEGATIVE:
What are they thinking? Seriously. Wrestling is becoming like a slow seething poison that is going everywhere. But the thing is, it's losing viewers weekly. How can they sustain not only their flagship shows but keep adding new shows if the viewers aren't there?

Their core demographic of teenagers and adults is dwindling every week because for 16 weeks out of the year, people care more about NFL. For 5 more weeks out of the year, people care more about the NBA Finals, for four weeks out of the year, people care more about March Madness, for 3 weeks out of the year, people care more about the MLB Playoffs, and for 2 weeks out of the year people care more about the NHL Playoffs. It happens to be 26WKS out of the year. And by my estimation, that's half the year. HALF of the year, people watch other things on Monday night OTHER than THE'E.

How can they justify spending ONE MILLION DOLLARS an episode on RAW and SMACKDOWN! and also the extra tape or digital ware for the rest of the shows. NXT is recorded at Full Sail so it costs them the space but, not the filming. That is done by interns. The problem is the alienation of the fans. People don't want to see kids shows. They could care less about them.

They want the hard, sexual, bloody and fast action from 1996-2002 known as THE ATTITUDE ERA!!! Those six... yes SIX years defined a company for generations to come. Forgetting wrestlings history for a moment the negative effects for this would be one major... MAJOR problem. THE 'E begins to hemorrhage money. They lose everything and they go belly up.

IN CONCLUSION:
Truth be told, it would be good and bad both at the same time for them to continue to expand. If they can't even reach final negotiations for a full on network to launch, how can they continually support shows on multiple networks at the same time? I think in theory expansion is a great idea but it should be taken with the fact that if they lose too much from it and don't pull out quick enough, we could honestly lose them as a company in general.

Not to mention they need to completely overhaul WWE Studios because lets face it... not one single movie from there has gotten good reviews. Except for SEE NO EVIL and truthful for a horror movie, it itself was lackluster. I'm nowhere near saying expansion is a bad idea or a move that will cause check mate. I'm sure they have their plans in place. They have to have battle plans for "What if" but I hope that VKM in his stubbornness won't effectively kill the company before Haitch takes over.

Who knows, maybe that's what he wants? He did say a few years ago that if anyone would be killing THE 'E it would be him. Now, I know he said it Kayfabe but there's a lot of the REAL VKM in the VKM character played on TV. We all know this and its been proven time and time again. Now, I leave this up to you, the viewers. How does THE 'E possibly expanding to seven days a week and saturating the already saturated market even further bolster the outcome of all of this? Will/Could they survive a bubble explosion? Let me know in the Q&C comments below. Hopefully I can provide A's and banter along with you.

As always, thanks for reading and leave your name and phone number after the beep. I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks and have a blessedly satanic day!

See Ya' Soon Space Cowboy...

Updated 09-28-2012 at 12:14 AM by Rated_R(ob)KO

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Comments

Xosanj - 09-28-2012 01:43 AM
Where the Superstars show at xD. Thinking you left that with SD since they are recorded together. Well isnt Superstars and Sat morn slam all dont on tues? So that kinda helps the Es case a lil but not much. Im no business major but i been in retail for a long long time. And one thing rules true with any product anyone sells. You dont expand if your numbers are weak.

My manager at Walgreens (of all the places to get great info from >< ) told me something that i thought was the smartest thing anyone ever told me, and show me why he was a very good manager. He told me "Customer are the most important thing to our company, but also its workers. In order for me to make my Customers 100% happy. I must make sure my Employees are happy. If i take care and listen to my employees there production is better so therefore my product is running smooth and customers are happy"

And that shit worked. He cared and made sure we all where happy if there was something going on not making ppl happy that he could take care of hed take care of it. And we worked our asses off everyday.

Alot of the E's customers are not happy with alot of things too many to count, it doesn't not help the E if they have workers that are unhappy. Tis why Beth is looking to be on the way out and many from the Diva division are as well. They anit gonna put in any extra work that way. Is why i think you see alot of miss steps in some of there matches.

Your really only good as your weakness same for everything. The E has alot of em and they really shouldnt be as bad as they are. If they had a solid Divas Division, more interest in U.S and IC titles, a lil more action with Tag Teams, and happy workers, expanding is easy to do and to it well. Funny thing is it is not like they dont have any of that. They are just not used at all and not well if they are. Maybe a good thing is maybe with all this some ppl will get some time to shine and get better but we all don't see that happening.

I want them to expand but only if it is good product. I would like to see Raw push all of the Es shows. They only really do for SD which is ok but SD in general is weak. No real storyline which you would think would be better for SD since it is recorded. Best way to be spoilers is to have great storyline so when we read it we have it say......man i need to see this live. But they dont show any storylines for Superstars or Nxt. Which i think they should.

To end my long post that makes no sense (i tend to do that) Its smart for them to do expanding. Only is the product is of good which is has to be in the PG era. You have to be smart and clever with everything not 20% of what you do
Thunderlips - 09-28-2012 03:04 AM
Just wanted to make sure you had more comments up this time Rob!

Yep will survive a bubble, the more exposure you have the increased likelihood of retaining a following. Hell tell me one of us that hasnt drifted away for period and come back at some stage. They have a succesful product that has been in the mainstream for 25 years. These shows will fall away and others replace but it will always tick along.

Keep up the good work
Poot-Hair - 09-28-2012 04:48 PM
Great blog as always R(ob). I agree and disagree with you at the same time. Amazing how often that happens ehh? Let me preach on it

The cons of expanding to 7 days a week outweight the pros in my opinion for the simple fact that people would get burned out by it. When you constantly have the exact same programming shoved in front of your face every single day, you eventually get to where you're like "ugh THIS again?!?"

It's like this; House is one of my favorite shows of all time, but after sitting and watching a 12 hour marathon of it on U.S.A, I'm ready to take a good lengthy break from watching it. I feel that overexposure of their product by going to a daily format would simply burn out alot of their fanbase.

Stick to 2 weekly shows, your "Flagship" and Friday.
BabyKoala - 09-28-2012 08:34 PM
Nice blog.
TheGreatBlueski - 09-29-2012 09:12 AM
Nice blog Rob. I kinda agree with Poot-Hair on this one in regards to oversaturation and burnout. I like the fact there's gonna be more spots open for more guys to feed their families you know but it's a lot of TV to fill. But if they want to do a whole network I suppose this is good practice.
The only way I can see to counter the repetition would be to have different ratings on different nights. They could use one of their slots to be edgier and bloodier for a mature audience in the same way they're using Slam for the kids, which I agree with you Rob is a good thing.
And they're going to have to make/push new stars quickly to fill all the time. Unless they just never have Smackdown guys on Raw or vice versa and the only time they meet is on the other programming to give it a unique feel.
Hopefully they might give Paul E an hour of TV to do his own thing with without any E creative control... hey I can dream right?
thegame2119 - 09-29-2012 02:14 PM
Excellent blog. I am often of the opinion that less is more and I find that this is true in regards to the WWE. I've actually been feeling kind of burned out on wrestling for a while now. I've actually stopped watching Smackdown and Superstars all together. Also, I've gone to DVRing Raw only to find myself fast forwarding through most of it these days (though this all might have more to do with the quality of their shows rather than the quantity of them).

What I think they should do is have Raw and Smackdown while keeping the wrestlers from each show on their own shows, have a Superstars type show to showcase low-to-mid carders, and finally have NXT (in my opinion, other than CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, the best WWE has to offer these days) to showcase the up-and-coming talent. They should also cut down on the number of PPVs to about 5-6 a year rather than once a month. Oh, and focus more on wrestling while also getting/pushing more talented wrestlers as well. Throwing in more quality, entertaining storylines wouldn't hurt either.

Updated 09-29-2012 at 02:17 PM by thegame2119