Have I not said that for months now?
Has Russo not said that for years now?
The wrestling fans that watch WWE will always watch WWE. They might complain, they might bitch and moan but they will always watch. Look at this thread. You see the same names crop up at 3 and 4 in the morning watching Raw and Smackdown live. These people will never stop watching. They will always pay money to watch wrestling. As long as the word WRESTLING is in the name of the company or the program synopsis they will WATCH IT.
That's why many people like myself are baffled as to why the WWE would make their TV shows glorified indy shows because the kind of people that watch that kind of wrestling are already watching Raw and Smackdown, you have them, you have their money so why not forget about the wrestling matches and focus on building characters and storylines and try and bring in outsiders because that is the only way outsiders will watch. They will only watch wrestling when there's either a big cross over star, which we don't have just now or they're drawn in by the larger than life characters and stories and more often than not that begins by word of mouth, you start hearing people talk about the wrestling and who did what to who etc.
So the whole show is focused on an audience that will always watch. As Russo says, Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel. They wont miss a second of it and I can't fault WWE for taking advantage of those people, especially if they're paying for Sky Sports and the WWE Network, at least £40 a month but my argument and many others has been, how much COULD they be making, how much money COULD they be making if they focused on bringing new viewers in. It's not about making money, they better be making money, they're the biggest wrestling company in the world, if they weren't making money i'd be worried so of course they are making money but how much better could they be?
And the ratings are still not improving. 2019 is still a long way away. I'm telling you that will be the year we see Smackdown gone altogether and not only are they getting a lot LESS money in the USA for their shows but I think that will be the time Raw finally changes timeslots and is put on a lot earlier. I think wrestling is on it's last legs as far as prime time TV is concerned, I've felt that way since 2005. I think in 2019 we'll see massive changes in how the WWE operates and how their programming is accessed and people need to remember the WWE relies on paying customers, they rely on paying customers for their live events and TV shows. They need that TV revenue and there's no way they're getting that kind of money again unless they can win back all those viewers and you all know this, once you stop watching wrestling that's it. For most people once they go they go, they don't go back.