What’s the story?
Based on a report from F4WOnline, WWE is fully aware that its audience is nearing record-low numbers and believes that hardcore fans will watch anything.
In case you didn’t know...
At one point, WWE’s ratings were incredible. During the height of the Monday Night Wars between WWE and WCW, ratings would regularly go over 6.0, with high ratings of over 8.0! However, ratings have been nearing all-time low numbers recently, and the report states that WWE is well aware of this.
The heart of the matter
According to F4WOnline, recently WWE Chief Strategy and Financial Officer, George Barrios, admitted that casual fans are largely non-existant and most WWE fans are of the “hardcore,” variety.
He said that the WWE’s new goal is about serving the most passionate fans, and something that they’ve learned is that those fans will consume just about everything that WWE throws at them from a programming standpoint.
He also admitted that it doesn’t matter what kind of product is being delivered because those hardcore fans will watch all of it, no matter how poor the quality.
“It’s both good and bad. The nature of the business is that this will stay this way. It’s become too difficult and time consuming to the old casual fan, who would watch an hour of television every now and then, perhaps attend one or two big blow-off shows per year, to keep up, and perhaps too silly or unimportant to them as well. But for the people who love wrestling, the amount of product is endless, and it’s going to stay that way.”
What’s next?
Apparently, we’re in for more of the same of what we’ve been getting, as WWE knows about the record-low ratings and doesn’t seem to be in too much of a hurry to do anything about it.
Sportskeeda’s take
It’s not exactly refreshing to hear this news, as the hope that low ratings would cause WWE to make drastic changes in the way that their product is presented is nothing more than a pipe dream. No matter what we as wrestling fans think, there are not enough fans who crave change in the product in order for their voices to be heard.
Kids are impressionable. They will like who they are told to like, for the most part, or believe in who they are being told should be at the top of the card on these shows. That’s where a large portion of WWE’s audience comes from and it is the portion of the audience that dictates what’s on the WWE television programs.
Adults want to see guys rewarded with main event spots for hard work and incredible ability in the ring. Adults want to see guys like Cesaro get pushed to the moon, but he might not connect with the kids because he sounds funny, so he’s left to languish in the mid-card or as a part of a tag team.
The hope that adults can cause WWE to change direction like they did at WrestleMania 30 is a thing of the past. And so are good ratings.
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