Hello folks. Here is one of my very rare wrestling related columns!
As I sit here watching the Smackdown! PPV, a great truth just hit me (and it probably has hit a few of you a little before right now). I think that I know why WWE is having problems getting their house show attendances up and their revenues increasing as they did during their big heyday.
The answer is quite simple, really. The fans are not being given what they want.
That’s it. Re-read what I just wrote. The fans are not being given what they want.
And it’s not really on the main event level (though I will get to that in a minute). I just watched the tag team title match between Mysterio/Kidman and Haas/Benjamin. I think that it’s safe to say that the entire crowd was on its feet and screaming after Mysterio got the near fall on Haas. And I think that their reaction after the two-count was pretty clear as to how they felt.
“Bullshit, bullshit. bullshit!”
Now, this show isn’t over and in the end the fans might have Lesnar retain the title, Undertaker smack the shit out of Cena, and all of the good guys win their remaining matches, but the feeling that maybe 50 or 100 of those fans in attendance had that will remain with them when they go home tonight is simply that they were really disappointed at the ending of that match.
And some people who are watching at home on PPV might have a similar feeling. They might say to themselves, “Why did I go and spend the money on this show when I’m not even getting my payoff?”
You see, though this was a midcard match and not a main event, the problem starts at the top and works it way down.
Who were some big winners at Wrestlemania this year? HHH didn’t lose the title and The Rock beat Steve Austin when most fans wanted to see Austin eliminate The Rock from existence.
Those fans didn’t get what they wanted.
Yeah, it works both ways. The Rock’s fans were happy and HHH’s fans were happy.
But this is wrestling. This is a sport where the good always triumph over evil. And if they don’t get them the first time, or the second time, or even the tenth time – we KNOW that they’ll get them in the end!
Too bad what we once knew to be true is no longer so.
Yeah, we’ve seen good always get the last laugh for the most part, but we’re only human – we need to see it more often. That is unless, of course, you are a wrestling fanatic and you’ll watch no matter what. Or if you are one who is intrigued by the gripping storylines that we’ve seen lately (actually, RAW hasn’t been all that bad).
Hey, if you wanna see exactly what I mean from a different light, go and rewind your tape of the show and watch The Undertaker and Cena match (just ended on my PPV) – do you see the happiness in the fans? That’s what they want to see – Lord knows that they are paying enough for it, so why not give it to them?
Oh, and I’m not interested in this whole “the young guys should be pushed” or “The Undertaker is too old” or “it’s all part of a bigger storyline.” If you don’t realize that fan satisfaction is what is bringing WWE down right now, then I don’t know if anything that is written about the falling ratings or buy-rates will convince you.
Satisfy the fans, give them what they want and watch the revenue rise, the gates get bigger, the merchandise sell, and the ratings come back.
Now all we need is someone over at Titan Towers to actually realize that the fans being happy is more important than anything else and we might have a winner here, folks!
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