By Goose Mahler, Columnist
The WWE ratings free fall continues. Hell, its so bad right now the WWE is promoting a PPV Stomping Grounds and there are so many seats available its sounds more and more like an old WCW Nitro/Thunder same night taping where they make sure everyone is sitting across from the camera to make it look like a full house. If you don’t believe me go to Ticketmaster and check out all those empty seats that will be posing as fans. Why go to a live card when you can see this crap on free TV week after week?
Former WWE talent are completely crapping on the current creative process. Several insist there is no creative process under Vince right now, others say it mass chaos and has gotten worse and worse. VKM and his band of merry ass kissers might disagree, but Smackdown was under 2.0 million again while America’s Got Talent stomped a mudhole in the WWE and Raw most people didn’t even bother watching the main event or the third hour in general.
If you were unfortunate enough to watch these two shows this week you notice the patterns of why the ratings are tanking faster than the Buffalo Bills in a Super Bowl. It’s the same ole shit over and over again and people are getting tire of it.
After going over the ratings the last couple weeks and when certain wrestlers are on you can see who the fans are tuning out. And the list is pretty damning.
The envelope, please. The first victim on the ratings bomb is…
- Shane McMahon. Not so long ago the McMahon’s along with Triple H came out and said the fans were the authority. Less than a half year later Shane is running both shows into the ground. I’m honestly waiting for Vince to throw the Universal or WWE titles on him and watch the fans go absolutely ape shit. About the only thing Shane is the “Best in the World” at is lying about how Stephanie and Triple H killed the ratings when his stint has proven to be worse than the Authority at their lowest points.
- Drew McIntyre. Sorry to the Scottish Psychopath…or is it Shane’s personal bitch? You hang out with trash you’re gonna stink. The saddest thing about Drew is he has a massive upside, but since Dolph Ziggler re-introduced him, he has been a trio, sidekick, someone else’s bitch, name it. Whenever the WWE wants to recognize he is gold and not just someone’s personal bodyguard, the ratings might increase, but until then, Drew is on the bad side of the ratings plunge.
- Bobby Lashley. Even without Lio Rush Lashley just has zero charisma, but that can be said about several WWE entertainers (Don’t call this wrestling or them wrestlers because that is an insult to actual athletic wrestlers like Ricochet). Lashley as a heel made no sense. Lashley as a lacky makes no sense. Lashley needs a mouthpiece in the worst way and a make-over and less main event time until that happens. It’s sad too because he is because Lashley is a talented performer if used correctly.
- Lacey Evans. We knew the WWE prancing her out week after week and not getting her exposed in the ring was a risk. Well, it isn’t paying off. The fans have been turned off on Lacey and her performance no selling a Bayley to Belly suplex didn’t help her. Fans immediately called her out for rookie no selling. Well, Vince thought she was the next Ronda Rousey. Vince also thinks his shows are “Good Shit” which says a ton.
- Charlotte Flair. Too much, too soon, too often is killing Charlotte. Let’s get something straight here. Charlotte Flair is quite arguably the best female athlete in the WWE, maybe in all of wrestling. But the WWE is so fixated on letting her be the one to beat her dad’s world reign record that fans have tired on Charlotte and more have turned on her. The bad thing is the turn also is people changing the channel when she is on.
- The biggest rating killer should be no surprise, but the WWE will continue to push him and that is Baron Corbin. As soon as the music hits and he start’s talking the TV’s either go off to another station. People don’t want to see someone that just doesn’t have any type of “IT” factor. The higher powers paid little to no attention to the fans literally shitting on Corbin and think the booing is heel heat. It isn’t. People genuinely don’t like Baron Corbin’s character or his in-ring skills, or his mic skills. He’s just plain old boring as sin. When Cena said he didn’t have enough to cash in his money in the bank briefcase, Cena was right. And Corbin still should be cashing in chances because he will never win the crowd over.
How can the WWE save their ratings? I don’t have an answer to that because Vince will find a way to destroy whatever fans suggest. Can they slow down their ratings dive? Possibly, but with this stupid Wild Card junk the WWE has more talent sitting backstage doing nothing because we keep getting the same matches week after week after week with the same people. Reigns and McIntyre seems to have been going on since Roman returned from his cancer treatment. Strowman and Lashley also seems to be on going and never ending.
Yet, guys like Aleister Black are cutting promos and not being used in the ring. The Viking Raiders after their name changes are doing nothing, because Vince is hell bent on keeping the Revival from signing with AEW. Finn Balor has lost his luster because of misuse. Andrade seems to have fizzled out. The Best Kept Secret, Buddy Murphy…is such a good secret that the WWE won’t let him out of the bag…let alone grace a TV.
The WWE is in a sad state of affair’s when the best segments of their shows are an overpaid part time wrestler carrying around a briefcase like a boom box and demented Pee Wee Herman Show hosted by Sweet Tooth from Twisted Metal. And I’m in the minority here, I find neither one entertaining or worth spending my time watching. If I wanted to see Killer Clowns from Outer Space, I’ll hook up my VCR and pop the tape in. I don’t want to see it every week on Monday Night or the replay on Tuesday night. That’s how you kill a cult classic.
Coming off another lackluster Super-Show, when they had two 50-year old’s main eventing an event proclaiming it’s bigger than WrestleMania, you already know they are having big problems. You would think after Super Shitty Showdown the WWE would have tried to pull something bigger off to get fans interested.
The WWE has issues and anyone disputing that must be drinking Vince’s special Kool Aid from the FireFly Funhouse.
Want More? Choose another story!
Visit ProWrestlingStories.com - Your daily source of wrestling history and nostalgia!
Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!
