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'

Cl(ass) Acts

One thing I find very awkward to watch is when an interview just goes south. The more south it goes, the more I cringe, but at times they can be funny, and even justified as you'll see in the top two here.

You could say other ones are as well, but the top two stood out to me.

Trying to break into an industry where I will be conducting interviews at some point (at least I hope anyways) these are some examples of what can happen when you have that finger in the eye approach to interviewing, or just blatant stupidity.



Remember, when kids play sports we're teaching them to have fun and cooperation. When the media takes a shot at someones kid in such cheap fashion it makes me wonder why Gundy didn't punch them out.

Pretty crazy stuff.

Is there any interviews you've seen or heard that have just gone bad?

Drop me a line down below or on twitter @bradfordml

Until next time, keep it rockin'

Boyfriend? F**k you!

Guy or girl, who has not encountered a moment like this before? Come on you know you have. We ALL have.

But how did you react? Were you nice on the outside, brushed it off and moved on? Or did you have reactions like some of these?



I love it!

Let's see how you handle it next time now.

Drop me a line on twitter @bradfordml

Until next time, keep it rockin'

Rejected

Holy shit, I forgot how funny this is.

Depending on your sense of humor you'll either find this hilarious, or completely stupid. All that aside, the ending is pretty cool too.

And keep in mind, this has won awards.




Is YOUR spoon too big?!

drop me a line on twitter @bradfordml

Until next time, keep it rockin'

Brand New Era

As a fan of WWE how can you complain with what has been going on as of late. Okay, okay, I understand that there is always something to be complained about.
But as for myself, I am really excited with the way everything is playing out on all fields of WWE.

Let's start with the obvious. After an awesome match on Sunday, CM Punk is the "unemployed" WWE Champion. He's playing it up big on twitter with the pictures from the Cubs game with the title, and over the next few months it'll only get better. If you are not on twitter or do not follow Punk, do so now if you want to keep up with this storyline.

Vince has been "relieved of his duties". A guy on CNBC is saying this could hurt their stock....are you kidding me? It's a storyline. Then again I guess the whole Donald Trump story hurt their stock a bit...I don't get finances. Anyway, Triple H is in his place. My dream thing is to see a Corporation/Evolution like stable led by Helmsley. Bring The Miz on board, maybe Drew McIntyre to give his career a jump start...again. Punk comes back, gets established as the big anti-corporate/Austin like face and have a good ol money feud there. I'm probably way off, but we'll see how it all plays out.

The WWE championship tournament finals are next week on Raw, with Rey Mysterio facing off against The Miz. I see Mysterio winning and Alberto Del Rio cashing in and winning. They need that quick briefcase cash in but couldn't do it at the PPV. If Miz wins, then all the power to him, I'll also be happy about that.

Christian is the World Heavyweight Champion and got it in such a sleazy fashion. Orton looked awesome when he snapped, realizing what had happened. I like the idea of Orton chasing the title, they say there's money in the chase, and these two have had great chemistry. Some people say, "another match? really?" I say bring it on. Love the matches and now the dynamic has changed.
We can't forget about the guy holding the briefcase though. Daniel Bryan. I hate to think that this could be the first guy who cashes in and loses, and I really hope that that is not the case here.
I actually marked out when I saw him grab the case as I really thought Wade Barret was going to get it towards the ends there.

With Punk as the WWE Champion, the WHC scene has been highlighted with great wrestling and Daniel Bryan holding the MITB briefcase, this could be the comeback of the in ring talent being more of a factor again.

I hope so.

Are you excited with there the WWE is right now? Are you not? Where do you want to see it all go from here?
Drop me a line on twitter @BradMichaelPunk or @Bradfordml.

Until next time, keep it rockin'