Importance of Ratings

Every week after Raw and Impact (other shows as well, but mainly these two) I and a lot of others await to see just how well did the shows do in the ratings.
Were they up? Down? The same? Are they bringing in new viewers? losing a certain demo?

I work a lot of back shifts as of late, which has resulted in me listening to a huge amount of archived Wrestling Observer Radio shows, and I heard the ratings for RAW a few years ago being in the high 3's. Today the average rating seems to be a 3.3 which is roughly 4-5 million viewers. (I'm horrible with guessing numbers like that.)

Then I got curious about what the highest rating was and looked back to see that in September of 1999, which had the "This is your life" segment featuring The Rock and Mankind pulled in an 8.4 rating with 11.5 million viewers.

What the hell happened? Where did all of those "loyal" viewers go? What made them stop watching the product?

WWE has become so obsessed with the weekly ratings, that as soon as they a drop in the ratings and analyze where they lost most viewers, that can have a dramatic effect on a Superstars push and storyline.
I can see where they're coming from, but aren't they acting too fast?

Is a weekly rating what they should be focused on mainly anyways?

I get curious when it comes to PPV buys too. WWE averages 80-100 thousand on an average B level PPV and anywheres from 350-1 million buys on a major show like Royal Rumble or Wrestlemania. What leads to a good buy rate, one would think, would be how well did they sell the event. Did they make it worth paying money for?

UFC fight night on Spike had one of their highest ratings in March of this year, with a 1.5!! Averaging 2.2 million viewers. Can you imagine if Monday Night Raw did that?? They would be re-formatting the whole show, pushes would be stalled and extreme measures would be taken.
For UFC that was a reason to celebrate. You know why? It's a free event that on paper an average fan would see as "Meh, I'm not too sure about the card. I may or may not watch." and when it comes to UFC Pay Per View, they give you the top fights you want to see, that have not been watered down, and PROMOTE THE HELL OUT OF IT like it's the biggest event you'll ever see.

UFC has had no problem breaking one million buys more than once a year. They have the promoting down. WWE could learn from them. Don't focus on weekly ratings for FREE TV!! Instead take those hours that viewers are tuning in for free and sell them on the idea that "if you think what you're seeing here is intriguing, you're going to not even want to think about not paying to see where these angles go and the matches involved."

This is all common sense that anyone can figure out, but for some reason the offices at WWE can't seem to wrap their head around it.

Ratings do not equal money.

A good way to put it is, I have nothing but free stuff on this site. No matter how many people come to this site, or click on a link to come here, I receive no money whatsoever. If I were to try and make money, I would use the free entries to promote why you should spend your hard earned money on me and whatever it is I'm selling, and make it worthwhile that the word starts to spread about it and boom! I'm making money.

That's my general thoughts on the whole idea.
As for TNA....well...they're satisfied with a 1.2 rating. Probably because UFC pulls in similar ratings, now if they could pull in UFC like PPV numbers? Well then I'll be the guy that shits golden eggs.

Just for the record, I'm aware that some of my average numbers may be a little off, but I hope you get the idea ;)
Follow me on twitter @bradfordml

Until next time, keep it rockin'

Ready to Ramble 3

Podcasting has been put on hold.

Welcome back to the blog. This segment is called Ready To Ramble, which is where I ramble about a few things going on pro wrestling.


As of writing this, there have only been four matches announced for Summerslam. I imagine at the Smackdown tapings there could be a couple of more matches announced for the card, but I am hoping that maybe they will be giving longer times to the top matches, or maybe even all of them. Realistically though, it could mean more time for stupid comedy sketches and backstage moments.

CM Punk is a gold mine. What more can I say? I've been a big Punk fan for years and years and I am so happy to see where his character is at and I hope they continue to do good business and not drop the ball as usual.

Triple H's character as the COO has been entertaining. Usually I don't care to see H show up, but now he adds to the intrigue and interest I have for WWE programming. Also, if rumors are true and there is a Triple H and CM Punk match at Survivor Series, I say Bravo!

When I think about TNA, I think wasted talent. Althought Beer Money and Austin Aries have been doing great. I want to see Samoa Joe as champ, or at least a top contender.

News Flash! Just being a big guy, doesn't mean he's championship material. I fucking hate Crimson, and do not buy into Matt Morgan. WWE has it right with this new reality era, while TNA is stuck in...well..god knows what, but they're stuck in bullshit thinking.

The recent string of talent releases put a sour taste in my mouth. But then again, I never like to see anyone lose their job. The one I hated to see the most, but knew it was coming was DH, er...excuse me, Harry Smith.
He's so talented. It's when talent like that slips through the cracks I can't help but want to scream out, "Fuck you, WWE!" I wish nothing but the best for Harry though, and I really hope he tries his hand at MMA. He would do a phenomenal job in the octagon, and I pray he does NOT go to TNA.

Colt Cabana had a dark match at last weeks Smackdown tapings. I haven't heard what the reaction to it was, but the guy is going to stay positive no matter what. I hope it isn't a one time deal, and maybe, just maybe he'll go on the road with the Smackdown crew and I'll be lucky enough to see him when they come here in September.

Be sure to check out his Art of Wrestling podcast every Thursday on welovecolt.com or on iTunes.

Daniel Bryan's new theme, Freefall by Two Steps From Hell is the theme of a champion. That's all I'm going to say about that. (Fingers crossed)

That's gonna do it for this brief segment of Ready To Ramble.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on these topics or anything else. Comment below, or follow on twitter @bradfordml

Until next time, keep it rockin'

In My Coma

I love twitter! What a bold, blunt way to start this off, but I really do.
There's so many interesting people I've met. So many interesting things to find out about and connections that can be made.

I don't know how in the blue hell someone randomly finds me and starts following me, but it happens, and one day I received a message saying that @IMCJasperJames was following me. So I checked it out and it turned out that this was the singer and guitarist from a Toronto based band, In My Coma.

They consist of  Vocalist/Guitarist, Jasper James (@IMCJasperJames). Vocalist/Bassist, Laura doll (@IMCLauraDoll) and drummer, Mike Paterson (@MikePaterson)

Not sure how this connection was made, but I'm glad it was, I checked out the group on YouTube and fell in love with this band.

Their debut album , "Magnets+Miracles" will be released at the end of the month, August 10th, available in iTunes. I've got an iTunes card ready for it.

This is their debut video for their song, Losing Sleep



I hope you dig this group as much as I do.

You can check out their myspace page here

Their facebook page here

Follow the group on twitter @InMyComa

I also came across a cool article on them from thepitmusic.com here

I wish nothing but big success for them, and really hope they play some shows out on the east coast. Show your support in any way you can.

you can follow me on twitter @bradfordml

Until next time, keep it rockin'