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What's the story?
According to photos that have emerged online, it looks like RAW and SmackDown Live both suffered from poor attendance this week, especially the latter show. despite being more built and stacked.
In case you didn't know...
RAW and SmackDown Live have reportedly been suffering from low attendance for a while now. Obviously, big episodes such as the RAW after WrestleMania are sellouts, but in most cases, the weekly television show tapings are far from sold out.
Naturally, the TV audience doesn't get note of this because the hard cam is always focused on the larger audience. However, the latest photos show that the low attendance might be concerning to WWE.
The irony of it all is that in the latest Roman Reigns-John Cena promo war this past Monday on RAW, Reigns bragged about how he sells the tickets, and to his right, there were several seats that were empty, not visible on camera. John Cena's baffled response seemed evident given the empty side of the arena but he didn't actually mention it out loud. You can see the part of the segment after the 3-minute mark in the video below:
The heart of the matter
According to F4Wonline.com, RAW drew in 7,000 fans despite putting on a solid show with several stars. Here is a picture of the empty side of the arena
SmackDown Live in Las Vegas was even worse, drawing in just 4,000 fans. This was despite 3 title matches, the return of Vince McMahon and the Mae Young Classic finals after the show. Here is a picture of the attendance:
Although SmackDown Live increased significantly in viewership, the attendance was clearly a huge problem.
What's next?
Although RAW and SmackDown Live the past many weeks have been fairly consistent, it looks like there is still a lot of work to do to draw back the live audience for the shows. House show attendance hasn't been the best for WWE either.
Author's Take
It's truly a shame that the attendance hasn't been good for WWE shows, but the latest SmackDown Live attendance comes as a real surprise. One would think that Mr McMahon's appearance alone would draw in people to pay for tickets.
However, it tells the story about overall fan interest in the product right now. SmackDown Live has undoubtedly cooled down significantly since the superstar shake-up, and the interest levels have gone down, contrary to RAW, where the quality of the show has seemingly gone up.
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