Source: EricBischoff.com
In a recent blog entry on his personal website, Eric Bischoff took a direct aim at recent comments by Paul Heyman that anyone over the age of 40 would be in trouble if he was given control of the company. Bischoff cited some of WWE’s recent ratings and some comments from Vince McMahon regarding a “lousy” quarter to offer proof that the majority of wrestling fans want to see established stars (i.e. the “over 40” crowd) when they watch wrestling.
Forget about the fact that I’m an admitted mark for TNA Wrestling (and most of you are, too, even though you incorrectly think this term is an insult), but Bischoff’s comments are dead on accurate – especially his summation that the current team at TNA has used a good mix of the over 40 crowd and young stars to elevate new talent and bring national attention to the growing promotion. As far as this fan goes, TNA Wrestling is on the right track!
Read Bischoff’s entire blog entry either at the link above or directly below.
FACTS HURT!
On the heels of the big “youth push” in WWE during the past several weeks, here are some facts from this week in the business:
“Raw’s demographic ratings among males 18-34 and 18-49 were the lowest in seven weeks.”
“Raw scored a 1.86 rating among males 18-34, which was down from a 2.03 rating last week.”
And during this months conference call to investors Vince McMahon admitted that:
“Basically, we had a lousy quarter,” and then when on to pin the loss of Shawn Michaels, Batista, Triple H, and Undertaker (all 40 + years old) as the reason for the hit to PPV and live event revenue.
Now one could suggest that McMahon is insane enough to be intentionally misleading Wall Street with excuses that are not substantiated by financials that wouldn’t hold up under either SEC or Sarbanes Oxley Act 404 scrutiny, or maybe that he has no idea what he’s talking about despite the massive success of his business model.
Or one could recognize the direct connect between what TV ratings, PPV buy rates, and ticket sales have proven time and time again, as well as what legitimate focus groups conducted by credible media companies in the business of such have clearly identified: the TV audience (including 18-34 males) rate with ESTABLISHED (and yes older) stars!
Admittedly, these facts are kind of dry compared to the subjective opinion of those with their own agenda or the inflamed rhetoric that appeals to those perpetually pre-pubescent, parasitic internet “experts” who neither have any legitimate experience or success as executives in the television or wrestling industry, and the rants of the terminally irrelevant trying desperately to hold on to their last 200 fans.
But they are facts non-the-less.
In my opinion Vine Russo, Dixie Carter and the team at TNA have done a great job of utilizing veteran stars to help elevate some of the young emerging talent in TNA and at the same time gaining awareness and credibility within the media industry.
That’s just my opinion. And my opinion is backed up by facts.
OUCH!
Sorry.
You missed one thing from your Facts section about ratings demographic. I saw RAW scored a 4.09 in the 12-17 yr old demo (their target audience). That’s pretty good.
@Reid
TNA’s target audience is not kids though 😉 Besides, overall ratings count IMO. Anyways, Eric is indeed dead on with the “over 40” claim. Looks as if Paul Heymen is not as smart as he thinks he is.
Perhaps your post is slightly biased because it’s a TNA-fan website, but regardless, TNA has not elevated any of its younger stars — for example, MMG v. Beer Money had some of the best tag team matches in any promotion for a long time during their best of 5 series; yet the matches were often buried in the mid-card and cut-short with horrible endings. The least they could have done was featured the final one in a main event (I would have preferred PPV) – but no, it was buried underneath a horrible brawl between ‘EV 2.0’ and Flair’s Fortune group.
Similarly, Desmond Wolf and Generation Me were very hot w/the crowd when they came into TNA from ROH – Wolfe even had his first string of high profile matches against none other than Kurt Angle. Now, both are essentially being relegated to jobber roles.
TNA has no clue as to how to ‘elevate’ its talent as you claim in your post. It’s just the same guys over and over in the main event picture, and once they get stale, Dixie opens her wallet to another big name from outside the company to freshen things up. WWE is at least trying to develop new talent and put them in the spotlight. Many of them are still very green, but at least there is some foresight as to how to build a company/roster going forward.
You guys are marks for the Bisch… Yeah, WWE wasn’t winning the Monday Night Wars with the biggest ratings ever with a 20 something Rock and young Steve Austin… Young and cool DX, 30 something Undertaker and stealing a young Chris Jericho, Big Show, Benoit and Eddie Guerrero from Bischoff’s old ass WCW… Do I need to go on? Vince wasn’t winning the ratings war with Roddy Piper and Mr T. reliving their rivalry from the 80’s… Its good that WWE is going with the youth movement, their booking is just not great.
Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman have forgotten more about wrestling than I will ever know. that being said they both have valid points.
Bisch is on the money as to what draws an existence audience, but I think Heyman is on the money as to what would grow a new audience.
The WWE has the bulk of the established pro wrestling audience. If TNA is to grow it needs to continue to emphasis things that set them apart to draw in fans that want an alternative to the WWE. You aren’t going to steal their audience, you have to create your own.
Established stars help in creating new stars, the challenge is creating the new stars.
@Radiitz
You’re right TNA’s target audience isn’t kids, but perhaps going after the older demographic isn’t the best thing right now.
I think MMA has taken away a large portion of the older audience from pro wrestling, so is it wise to compete for a fan base that may have tuned out pro wrestling in general?
Meanwhile I rarely see kids if any at MMA events, but they do watch WWE shows. That being said, would it be better long term thinking to go after the younger fan base and hook them into pro wrestling now? I know that’s how I got interested in wrestling by watching it on Saturday afternoons. Back in the 80’s the WWE was very PG.
I find Paul Heyman’s comments funny considering he used Terry Funk to do exactly what TNA is asking Ric Flair to do. Paul knows the model works but is doing what he does best – hyping the situation around his return.
If the WWE wants to be successful just be like the CMLL! They might be getting not a lot of viewers but if you look on youtube I see GREAT Wrestling and REAL GOOD comments if you scroll down the page!