captain red dog wrote:What the hell has happened to the WWE UK ratings. Surely it can't be worth Sky keeping that deal?
What are the current ratings?
I think less that 7000 for Live Raw and not much better for the highlights. I saw it on the GRcade wrestling Twitter.
So they have flipped the Rumble event from Strowman who has gone cold, to Balor who is even colder. I get they are trying some kind of 2019 reboot but Balors booking last year made him look pure mid card and suddenly he gets a match against Brock.
Apparently they’re trying to build Balor up a bit before a “Demon” V Undertaker match at ‘Mania ......
As for ratings, I’m sure the majority of people have realized that watching the hi lights on YouTube for half an hour rather than sitting through 3 hours of shite is much better. Speaking of YouTube, say what you want about the women’s Evolution/Revolution, but the most watched clips on Raw and Smackdown this week are the segments with Alexa nearly topless on Raw, and Mandy scantily clad on Smackdown, and when I say most watched I mean like triple the average hit rate! That Alexa segment was totally pointless so they must have been testing the waters or something for more stuff like that.
Sounds like one of those TNA gimmick matches from its early years.
RAW Live ratings, UK
7th January 2019: 124,014 31st December 2018 (taped): less than 7,000 24th December 2018 (taped): 60,597 17th December 2018: 64,129 10th December 2018: 69,747 3rd December 2018: 50,246 19th November 2018: 75,338 12th November 2018: 71,260 5th November 2018: 84,232 29th October 2018: 90,090 22nd October 2018: 88,397 15th October 2018: 77,600 8th October 2018: 61,600
WWE starting off the year on Sky pretty well. Seems putting Vince McMahon, Brock Lesnar and John Cena on the show makes a difference, at least short term. Fans effectively having a week off from WWE for NYE may have helped as well. WWE could do with good ratings in the UK this year as the TV rights are up on 31st December 2019. WWE had promised to announce them by the end of 2018.
KK wrote:Sounds like one of those TNA gimmick matches from its early years.
RAW Live ratings, UK
7th January 2019: 124,014 31st December 2018 (taped): less than 7,000 24th December 2018 (taped): 60,597 17th December 2018: 64,129 10th December 2018: 69,747 3rd December 2018: 50,246 19th November 2018: 75,338 12th November 2018: 71,260 5th November 2018: 84,232 29th October 2018: 90,090 22nd October 2018: 88,397 15th October 2018: 77,600 8th October 2018: 61,600
WWE starting off the year on Sky pretty well. Seems putting Vince McMahon, Brock Lesnar and John Cena on the show makes a difference, at least short term. Fans effectively having a week off from WWE for NYE may have helped as well. WWE could do with good ratings in the UK this year as the TV rights are up on 31st December 2019. WWE had promised to announce them by the end of 2018.
That’s quite interesting to see such a rise for this week. I wonder what the go home Rumble raw scored last year.
So I watched AJ Styles on Louder With Crowder thanks to the Grcade twitter. Crowder is kind of a hardish right US Conservative comedy talk show for anyone who hasn't seen it. Chael Sonnen is a regular guest and comes across as your typical Republican dick in my opinion, but for a celebrity on the right I thought AJ came across quite well, talking about his faith and quite a grounded view of the Gillette advert (he thankfully didn't saying anything too cringeworthy like boycotting them).
Worth a listen, and it's a step up from when he came across as a massive homophobe on a previous interview!
According to this week's Observer, Omega and Jericho were very close to doing deals to appear on Impact while still staying with NJPW before AEW became a thing. That would've been awesome with some of the talent they have there.
Abyss has left TNA and it sounds like WWE have hired him for a backstage role.
A surprise appearance by Abyss in the Rumble would be pretty cool, maybe have a stare down with Kane or something. I’m sure like ‘Mania most of the crowd are pretty hardcore fans so I wouldn’t worry about people not knowing who he is. Just that though, he can go do his backstage roll after, the time for him to have an in ring run with the company came and went ten years ago.
Apparently that government shutdown in the US strawberry floated over New Japan's visa applications for their Japanese wrestlers that would've been on the US shows and the lineups look terrible Just all US wrestlers
Mafro wrote:According to this week's Observer, Omega and Jericho were very close to doing deals to appear on Impact while still staying with NJPW before AEW became a thing. That would've been awesome with some of the talent they have there.
Abyss has left TNA and it sounds like WWE have hired him for a backstage role.
Floex wrote:Ciampa/Gargano has to be one the best written stories in wrestling. So many twist and turns, LOVED the ending of Takeover.
They've done an amazing job with the long term narrative of their characters and relationship. It's kinda what Owens and Zayn should have been like on the main roster.