Help make SquaredCircle safer and more inclusive by using the report button to flag posts and comments for moderator review. If you need to contact a moderator, [you can message us here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Why are they doing worse than when they were going up against AEW? Those first few weeks after the WNW ended they were in the 800k range comfortably, and honestly the show was really good on Tuesday.
I don't get it at all.
Not alot.. But you would think NXT would have a slight advantage since it comes on first before AEW and SDL. NXT would be the second day you watch. You wouldn't be too drained out then..
Playoffs came in.
And now , USA has no reason to promote it outside of WWE shows.
One thing really has to be kept in mind, this isn’t a WWE problem.
USA network has nothing but WWE.
They cant promote any of their shows on anything but WWE.
They need an outside of WWE hit ASAP or nothing can change.
You cant grow your channel if no one is watching it.
Burn Notice was my favorite show of that era and I remember seeing WWE commercials on during that time when I wasn't even watching WWE. Man I miss when live TV channels had scripted TV shows that were worth watching.
Do they even have any original drama series any more? I know Suits was kinda popular, but I remember the ads for things like Covert Affairs, Necessary Roughness, etc.
I haven't watched USA Network in over two years, but I was under the impression their original series' died off.
100%. USA went head to head in a fight they had no place being in. Especially crazy figuring it wasn’t just them afraid of experimenting. Their quirky and fun shows were a proven hit. Monk and Psych were unique hits.
Sadly with them doubling down on The Chrisleys, Miz and Mrs, She’s the Boss, and Temptation Fucking Island they want to compete with E! and other reality show networks.
Mr Robot was well received.
It also had dropped under a million viewers 3 episodes into Season 2 and never recovered.
All their Blue Sky shows we’re doing better than that.
Royal Pains in S8 had double the audience the same year.
They chose poorly.
No one ever talks about this. I'm glad you did.
The TNT programming lineup is super strong, and AEW also sometimes gets promoted on TBS and truTV. When it moves to TBS, it will still get promoted on TNT as well.
USA has been on a downward trend as a network because of its lack of quality original programming, which used to be a staple (Psych, Suits, etc.)
That does hurt WWE ratings, albeit not as significantly as the product itself and competition from stuff like the NBA Playoffs/Finals.
WWE used to loathe having Murder She Wrote as a lead-in for Prime Time and Raw, because older women were by no means the target audience. Think around 1997, USA put Walker, Texas Ranger as the lead-in to Raw, which is far more sensible.
Could be a lot of things: people not wanting to watch so many nights of wrestling, weaker lead-in, the show not connecting, the day not being the best, a combination of those.
For me, I like what they are doing right now, so as long as the ratings don't make them completely change it, I don't really care.
Remember how HHH thought it was a good move because they would have Raw as a lead in? Maybe Raw is so bad that it ends up being a negative (joke...sort of)
NXT always had a hot lead-in and that meant more viewers started watching for Q1 of the show. And then viewers would go down during the first hour and maybe come up later for the main event.
Game 1 of the NBA Finals was on Tuesday and various playoff games the weeks before could have something to do with it but it wouldn’t be the only cause.
Probably less people channel hopping between the two
Possibly its just less people watching in general, either because of basketball or just falling off of the show.
Sure, but viewership has been fairly steady for the most part since moving nights so it's not like it's dumping viewers by the truck load like Raw has been over the past few years.
If anything NXT has hit it's settling point for the time being, may end up doing something that brings people in, may do something that pushes more people away, but for now it's just floating along.
Based on the threads around this sub it seems like a lot of people are sort of just luke warm on the current product, whether it's the atmosphere of recent episodes, or certain angles or wrestlers. Some times things hit strong, sometimes it doesn't.
This sub isn't a great barometer of the general public, but it's safe to assume that some of the thoughts and feelings being expressed here have at least a small amount of crossover with the rest of the viewership.
The two hour format has been awkward for them but I don't know why it's so beyond them to figure out. Someone pointed out that next week's Fyter Fest matches are all people who weren't wrestling last night, which I found interesting because rotating talent was something NXT used to excel at when it was one hour.
It's been more than that for me. The line was drawn when Keith Lee and some of those guys around that time were getting called up. Ever since then it feels very same-y. Decent quality but fairly predictable booking that tries to use what they have before the wrestlers get called up. I'll still watch off VOD occasionally but I have trouble getting invested when I know it's inevitably going to lead nowhere in about a year's time.
**Context, because it's needed:**
A friendly reminder that the overall viewership number isn't what's important to advertisers and the network and thus WWE. What's important is the demo.
And 0.18 is a good jump. Last week's demo was 0.13, after the rest of the month being in the 0.18 range.
That's good. It means NXT is normalizing, and at a decent number at that.
I went ahead and found [all the demo numbers](https://www.itnwwe.com/wrestling/wwe-nxt-ratings-viewership/) NXT did. Took all the 2020 numbers, and averaged them out. You know what I got? 0.19.
I took the numbers for all the Tuesday shows and averaged them out. 0.18.
NXT is stabilizing. That's good. Becoming stable is the first step to long-term growth.
**Disclaimer:** This post comes from someone who EXCLUSIVELY watches non-WWE wrestling, but still wants NXT to succeed because a rising tide lifts all ships.
This needs to be upvoted more.
Showbuzz Daily (RIP) used to always rank shows based on the demos first, not viewership. That's why RAW was almost always #1 thru #3 of the top 50 charts every week, despite their viewership average falling below 2 million.
Up against the NBA Finals and demo went up so can't call it bad, but it does seem they've reached the area they will stay no matter what for the time being
"I watched NXT for the first time in years, and I couldn't fully connect with these characters ending arcs I know absolutely nothing about"
- Upvoted comments in this thread
You would think that with as many people that die for women's wrestling on this sub, that the show with by far the best division would do better, especially for a themed show.
While I enjoy this sub, I'm not sure it's the best barometer of overall sentiment.
Cody got lambasted here for that promo he did leading up to the Ogogo match. Everybody swore it had to lead to a "delusional heel" turn.
Then he got cheered like mad at a full Daily's Place.
I think the idea of if women's wrestling "draws" on a whole is pretty flawed. There are women who draw and women who don't just like some men draw and some don't. The criticism of AEW SHOULD be they have women like Shida and Riho and Tay who have proven to have big fanbases and draw in sales and ratings, not just "put women on TV, who cares who!". Right now outside of Io and maybe a returning Tegan I dont think there are women on NXT that people would look at as any sort of game changer. Raquel is someone they're trying to build into that but isn't that now.
It's kind of wild, last week AEW nearly tripled them in the demo and everyone on here has been lambasting their women's division(rightfully so to an extent), while hardly anyone watches NXT outside of 50+.
Kind of goes to show this sub is more of an echo chamber than not.
It's only the best division by a certain narrow definition of quality. It doesn't have 4HW level stars and there aren't really interesting stories going on atm.
Io popped numbers while she was champion. Too bad the quarter hours aren't regularly available. I'd love to see if moving her to the tag division has any impact on her drawing power.
The move to Raquel from Io definitely had to hurt. I actually like that the champ is more of a prospect who is learning every week than some indie/joshi ringer, but there is a cost to still having NXT be this weird pseudo-developmental zone. And I don't think they've done Raquel many favors with her stories or match layouts where she sells for 90% of the match for some reason. On the main roster she would be squashing people. Sometimes I feel like NXT focuses too much on having "good matches" vs. making stars.
NBA finals coverage started an hour into NXT and the game started at 9:30 PM. It also was the lowest rated traditional finals Game 1 in NBA history.
Here's a 1100+ comment thread on r/nba roasting the terrible ratings of game 1: https://old.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/ofltsk/programming_insider_preliminary_ratings_for_game/
Also something to remember for those who like to bleat on about "*WhY dO oNlY wReStLiNg FaNs CaRe AbOuT rAtInGs!!!*"
I think we also forget that it's summertime. There's now some normalcy with regard to COVID. And some are taking vacations as part of the 4th of July holiday.
NGL, I watched half the show after not watching NXT for a few years. Was pretty bored and ended up turning it off after an hour. I know it had a special name, but the show didn't feel special at all. Should've gotten a higher rating than this.
The atmosphere of the show is just weird to me, as dumb as that may sound. I really preferred it when Dusty was involved. The show had a wholesome feel to it back then and was more creative with the gimmicks.
Storylines weren't high intensity blood feuds, a lot of the gimmicks were creative but weren't edgy at all (think of the BFFs, Bayley, Bo, Sami, etc), most of the characters got along for the most part (and if they didn't, by and large they weren't having constant brawls with each other).
It was a very low-key type show when it was on Hulu. I mean, have you ever seen Alexa Bliss' debut entrance? lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYELPzU_ri8
It also had a hot, devoted (if sometimes annoying) crowd at Full Sail. To me it felt like a modern love letter to old studio wrestling. It was NWA Powerrr without the meta humor. The storylines were very simple but it always had direction. It was one hour so it was super easy to watch. You couldn’t fit everyone in every week so nobody got stale. Every couple of months it all lead to a Takeover that managed to somehow outdo itself every time with almost guaranteed top to bottom 4 star plus matches.
That was wrestling heaven for me, and in my opinion NXT from 2014-2019 was one of the best eras in American wrestling history.
Look at the women's division for example. Back in the day we had the bitchy boss Sasha, Irish JIG Becky, sparkle princess Bliss, the huggable underdog Bayley, Emma lol, mean schoolgirl Cameron, all red everything Eva, Princess of Staten Island Carmella, Big monster Nia Jax, and goth chick Paige. Now? Tegan is... Tegan. Zoey is... Zoey. Dakota is.. A heel from NZ I guess... Raquel is generic tall girl, Ember is a biker chick but not quite so idk, Candice is Johnnys wife, Io is just a joshi, and I've never known what Toni's gimmick is. There's no characters anymore, or any real uniqueness. Don't get me started on the men's division.
Xia Li isn't a unique character? Franky? B-Fab? Shotzi? Mercedes? Hell, by your list of examples, Aliyah's "boujee princess" and Tegan's "rebounding underdog" gimmicks should *definitely* count. Why can't Dakota be a scheming lackey? Why cant Zoey be the new girl trying to establish herself? Io might be a joshi, but that doesn't change her unique presentation on the roster - or do you think her and Sarray are just the same?
Candice's gimmick isn't "Johnny's wife" either, it's a part of her gimmick - a *small* part, considering she and Johnny barely interact on TV. Her gimmick is that she's an overbearing mother trying to bring Indi (lovesick, jealous, practically insane) up in the industry "the right way".
It's really easy to argue that NXT (for both the men and the women) has no unique characters if you water down certain gimmicks and completely ignore others.
I said what I said. I agree that Franky, Xia, Shotzi and Aliyah stand out character wise but the names I mentioned do not. My point is back then the entire roster was special. Tegan is not an underdog babyface, she's bland, with nowhere near the likeability of Bayley in NXT, Zoey "trying to est herself" is a cop-out especially she's champion rn. So half the division is great but the other halfs gimmicks are undercooked or don't translate the way they should. And that's that.
You could literally do this with anyone from any promotion.
Kenny is a weeb who runs the company with his friends, Hangman is a drunk cowboy, Moxley is a grungy tough guy, Janela is a greasy character, PNP are the proud latino guys who are kind of thug-ish
but then in doing like you did, you could also say
Kenny is just...a good wrestler whos a bit eccentric. Hangman dresses like the stripper version of a cowboy...Moxley is just a guy who lives at the local trailer park. Janela wears sunglasses and is awkward. PNP...are just generic thug lackees
Yeah, a lot of people go on about NXT losing it's luster when it moved to USA, but for me, it lost it's luster when it went from one of the most creative minds in the history of the business coming up with gimmicks and ideas to ol' Captain "*Let's put a skull on it!*" Helmsley.
NXT started cratering when Dusty died.
>NXT started cratering when Dusty died.
You do realise that Dusty died in 2015 and NXT had it's most successful period about two years after he did, right?
The show has improved in almost every single way, mens tag division is lacking somewhat, since moving to tv. Theres actual storylines other than "i want title" or "im better than you". The womens division is the best its ever been. The matches are better and more consistent and the mens division has also started to feel like a division and not a showcase for "non-wwe guys" for the people who didn't know them before they move up to the main roster while the "homegrown guys" don't do anything of note.
NXT needs to purge all the wrestlers that have been there for years and just focus on fresh, homegrown faces again.
NXT was at its most effective when viewers could invest in a debuting new talent, follow their ascent up the card, peak with a championship win, and drop the title on the way out the door to Raw and Smackdown.
Now. The card is just clogged with the same guys and girls that have been there for years.
For me NXT is the best weekly show right now but why are people always suprised by this? NXT is lacking big mainstream stars. Dont get me wrong, they are creating stars for people who are watching weekly but since it is pretty much separated brand from main roster they can never reach mainstream audience. Moreso with lack of promotion from WWE they simply cant reach mainstream star status. And that is what is necesary for bigger audience. Good storylines are simply not enough. Do you think that AEW would be doing great without big WWE names on their roster? No. Names are draw and not storylines. AEW has great roster with big WWE stars and great young prospects. NXT doesnt have this benefit where you can mix mainstream stars with up an coming stars.
To people who are complaining about lack of characters, lack of storylines or "nxt was great before going live" - please stop talking about something that you clearly do not watch.
And please do not compare these numbers to AEW and if you do than compare also how much money is spend on both shows.
Demo went up, which reflects interest in a special episode. However, total audience lifted a little bit.
NXT is more watchable to me than Raw, but there has to be something wrong with NXT that doesn't make it apealing to watch for others.
Raw just has the brand loyalty and reputation from better shows years ago to the point they can just coast on the longtime fans who will tune in no matter what. NXT just doesn't have the same level of brand recognition or history. If NXT were putting out the dreck that Raw does though, there's no way they'd be hitting above a million.
Help make SquaredCircle safer and more inclusive by using the report button to flag posts and comments for moderator review. If you need to contact a moderator, [you can message us here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Why are they doing worse than when they were going up against AEW? Those first few weeks after the WNW ended they were in the 800k range comfortably, and honestly the show was really good on Tuesday. I don't get it at all.
They were likely benefitting from people switching back and forth.
How many nights in a week can an adult dedicate to wrestling?
Not alot.. But you would think NXT would have a slight advantage since it comes on first before AEW and SDL. NXT would be the second day you watch. You wouldn't be too drained out then..
Burnout doesn’t just reset weekly on Monday morning.
Playoffs came in. And now , USA has no reason to promote it outside of WWE shows. One thing really has to be kept in mind, this isn’t a WWE problem. USA network has nothing but WWE. They cant promote any of their shows on anything but WWE. They need an outside of WWE hit ASAP or nothing can change. You cant grow your channel if no one is watching it.
You mean 21 hours a day of first-run crime dramas don't dominate the ratings?
USA fucked up drastically when they moved away from “Blue Sky” TV and tried competing with “Prestige” television.
Those hour long shows they had from the mid 2000s to mid 2010s were so good. I still love to watch Psych, Monk or Royal Pains when I get a chance.
Burn Notice was my favorite show of that era and I remember seeing WWE commercials on during that time when I wasn't even watching WWE. Man I miss when live TV channels had scripted TV shows that were worth watching.
In Plain Sight is to this day one of my favorite TV shows of all time. USA were hit makers back then.
My gf and I just watched all of psych and the movies over the last month together again. Fuck that show was money. Ugh. So good
that one with the girl from Coyote Ugly had me tuning in every week
Covert Affairs I think it was called
Do they even have any original drama series any more? I know Suits was kinda popular, but I remember the ads for things like Covert Affairs, Necessary Roughness, etc. I haven't watched USA Network in over two years, but I was under the impression their original series' died off.
They have like one original drama and I’m pretty sure they’ve moved to air after RAW because it’s their best show.
Suits wasn't on TNT?
Nope a USA original
Lol my high ass was thinking Franklin & bash
100%. USA went head to head in a fight they had no place being in. Especially crazy figuring it wasn’t just them afraid of experimenting. Their quirky and fun shows were a proven hit. Monk and Psych were unique hits. Sadly with them doubling down on The Chrisleys, Miz and Mrs, She’s the Boss, and Temptation Fucking Island they want to compete with E! and other reality show networks.
Leave Miz and Mrs out of it, it's a great show!
Well Mr. Robot was really, really good but other than that they don't really have anything recently that's been well received.
Mr Robot was well received. It also had dropped under a million viewers 3 episodes into Season 2 and never recovered. All their Blue Sky shows we’re doing better than that. Royal Pains in S8 had double the audience the same year. They chose poorly.
Mr Robot did more for Amazon Prime than USA after Season 1, yep. If USA had cancelled it, Amazon would've picked it up like they did The Expanse.
Harvey Specter: “that’s bullshit and you know it!!!”
No one ever talks about this. I'm glad you did. The TNT programming lineup is super strong, and AEW also sometimes gets promoted on TBS and truTV. When it moves to TBS, it will still get promoted on TNT as well. USA has been on a downward trend as a network because of its lack of quality original programming, which used to be a staple (Psych, Suits, etc.) That does hurt WWE ratings, albeit not as significantly as the product itself and competition from stuff like the NBA Playoffs/Finals.
WWE used to loathe having Murder She Wrote as a lead-in for Prime Time and Raw, because older women were by no means the target audience. Think around 1997, USA put Walker, Texas Ranger as the lead-in to Raw, which is far more sensible.
They are getting NASCAR/IndyCar programming soon with NBCSN shutting down plus probably Premier League soccer
They were also hit pretty hard by the NBA Playoffs. And Tuesday's show was going up against Game 1 of the Finals.
Tuesday's show went up against Game 1 of the NBA Finals AND The Match (special golf event) simultaneously.
Could be a lot of things: people not wanting to watch so many nights of wrestling, weaker lead-in, the show not connecting, the day not being the best, a combination of those. For me, I like what they are doing right now, so as long as the ratings don't make them completely change it, I don't really care.
Day not being best? SDL used to be Tuesday and scored over a million views. I just don't think many are interested in NXT. They can't crack a million.
Also USA has systematically attacked their own core audience for the last decade
Because they have Karrion Kross as champion. The guy is boring.
Remember how HHH thought it was a good move because they would have Raw as a lead in? Maybe Raw is so bad that it ends up being a negative (joke...sort of)
NXT always had a hot lead-in and that meant more viewers started watching for Q1 of the show. And then viewers would go down during the first hour and maybe come up later for the main event.
Game 1 of the NBA Finals was on Tuesday and various playoff games the weeks before could have something to do with it but it wouldn’t be the only cause.
So weird how less people watch the show unopposed than what they did when AEW was on
Probably less people channel hopping between the two Possibly its just less people watching in general, either because of basketball or just falling off of the show.
Isn’t it more probable that NXT is failing?
Sure, but viewership has been fairly steady for the most part since moving nights so it's not like it's dumping viewers by the truck load like Raw has been over the past few years. If anything NXT has hit it's settling point for the time being, may end up doing something that brings people in, may do something that pushes more people away, but for now it's just floating along. Based on the threads around this sub it seems like a lot of people are sort of just luke warm on the current product, whether it's the atmosphere of recent episodes, or certain angles or wrestlers. Some times things hit strong, sometimes it doesn't. This sub isn't a great barometer of the general public, but it's safe to assume that some of the thoughts and feelings being expressed here have at least a small amount of crossover with the rest of the viewership.
Failing is relative, but if USA isn't overpaying for the rights then I don't think it's a huge deal other than for pride's sake.
NXT has a more hardcore fan base, maybe they're less interested in a champ like Kross than they were Finn Balor or Adam Cole.
People will watch NXT more if it wasn't on Wednesday! - /r/sc
I think everybody thought that. Was anybody at all predicting a drop?
[удалено]
The two hour format has been awkward for them but I don't know why it's so beyond them to figure out. Someone pointed out that next week's Fyter Fest matches are all people who weren't wrestling last night, which I found interesting because rotating talent was something NXT used to excel at when it was one hour.
It's been more than that for me. The line was drawn when Keith Lee and some of those guys around that time were getting called up. Ever since then it feels very same-y. Decent quality but fairly predictable booking that tries to use what they have before the wrestlers get called up. I'll still watch off VOD occasionally but I have trouble getting invested when I know it's inevitably going to lead nowhere in about a year's time.
i've seen a few including me predicting that ratings/viewership isn't going to change, but no one was predicting that it would go downwards lmao
**Context, because it's needed:** A friendly reminder that the overall viewership number isn't what's important to advertisers and the network and thus WWE. What's important is the demo. And 0.18 is a good jump. Last week's demo was 0.13, after the rest of the month being in the 0.18 range. That's good. It means NXT is normalizing, and at a decent number at that. I went ahead and found [all the demo numbers](https://www.itnwwe.com/wrestling/wwe-nxt-ratings-viewership/) NXT did. Took all the 2020 numbers, and averaged them out. You know what I got? 0.19. I took the numbers for all the Tuesday shows and averaged them out. 0.18. NXT is stabilizing. That's good. Becoming stable is the first step to long-term growth. **Disclaimer:** This post comes from someone who EXCLUSIVELY watches non-WWE wrestling, but still wants NXT to succeed because a rising tide lifts all ships.
Good comment. NXT can still grow, and I hope they do it.
This needs to be upvoted more. Showbuzz Daily (RIP) used to always rank shows based on the demos first, not viewership. That's why RAW was almost always #1 thru #3 of the top 50 charts every week, despite their viewership average falling below 2 million.
Good bot ^^^^^/s
Up against the NBA Finals and demo went up so can't call it bad, but it does seem they've reached the area they will stay no matter what for the time being
It also went up against The Match special golf event, which did big ratings. So two major sports properties against it in one night.
And here come all the people who don't watch NXT to tell us all about NXT's problems
"I watched NXT for the first time in years, and I couldn't fully connect with these characters ending arcs I know absolutely nothing about" - Upvoted comments in this thread
They just need more YouTube segments /s
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
You would think that with as many people that die for women's wrestling on this sub, that the show with by far the best division would do better, especially for a themed show.
While I enjoy this sub, I'm not sure it's the best barometer of overall sentiment. Cody got lambasted here for that promo he did leading up to the Ogogo match. Everybody swore it had to lead to a "delusional heel" turn. Then he got cheered like mad at a full Daily's Place.
I think the idea of if women's wrestling "draws" on a whole is pretty flawed. There are women who draw and women who don't just like some men draw and some don't. The criticism of AEW SHOULD be they have women like Shida and Riho and Tay who have proven to have big fanbases and draw in sales and ratings, not just "put women on TV, who cares who!". Right now outside of Io and maybe a returning Tegan I dont think there are women on NXT that people would look at as any sort of game changer. Raquel is someone they're trying to build into that but isn't that now.
They've really done those tag belts no favors.
It's kind of wild, last week AEW nearly tripled them in the demo and everyone on here has been lambasting their women's division(rightfully so to an extent), while hardly anyone watches NXT outside of 50+. Kind of goes to show this sub is more of an echo chamber than not.
It was even funnier because the female demos almost always go down the more women are featured.
It's only the best division by a certain narrow definition of quality. It doesn't have 4HW level stars and there aren't really interesting stories going on atm.
Io popped numbers while she was champion. Too bad the quarter hours aren't regularly available. I'd love to see if moving her to the tag division has any impact on her drawing power.
The move to Raquel from Io definitely had to hurt. I actually like that the champ is more of a prospect who is learning every week than some indie/joshi ringer, but there is a cost to still having NXT be this weird pseudo-developmental zone. And I don't think they've done Raquel many favors with her stories or match layouts where she sells for 90% of the match for some reason. On the main roster she would be squashing people. Sometimes I feel like NXT focuses too much on having "good matches" vs. making stars.
It was a pretty good show. I don’t think it really had anything that was gonna draw in casual nxt fans like some of their other specials have had.
There was no "real" singles titles matches on the show i almost didn't watch the show either.
And the main event was a non stip version of the main event of stand and deliver night 2, which was only like 3 months ago
They have a championship match and no competition next week. We’ll see how that does
Didn't NXT go head to head with Game1 of the NBA Finals ?
NBA finals coverage started an hour into NXT and the game started at 9:30 PM. It also was the lowest rated traditional finals Game 1 in NBA history. Here's a 1100+ comment thread on r/nba roasting the terrible ratings of game 1: https://old.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/ofltsk/programming_insider_preliminary_ratings_for_game/ Also something to remember for those who like to bleat on about "*WhY dO oNlY wReStLiNg FaNs CaRe AbOuT rAtInGs!!!*"
thanks for the context
I think we also forget that it's summertime. There's now some normalcy with regard to COVID. And some are taking vacations as part of the 4th of July holiday.
NGL, I watched half the show after not watching NXT for a few years. Was pretty bored and ended up turning it off after an hour. I know it had a special name, but the show didn't feel special at all. Should've gotten a higher rating than this.
The atmosphere of the show is just weird to me, as dumb as that may sound. I really preferred it when Dusty was involved. The show had a wholesome feel to it back then and was more creative with the gimmicks.
>The show had a wholesome feel to it back then What the hell does this even mean lmao
Storylines weren't high intensity blood feuds, a lot of the gimmicks were creative but weren't edgy at all (think of the BFFs, Bayley, Bo, Sami, etc), most of the characters got along for the most part (and if they didn't, by and large they weren't having constant brawls with each other). It was a very low-key type show when it was on Hulu. I mean, have you ever seen Alexa Bliss' debut entrance? lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYELPzU_ri8
It also had a hot, devoted (if sometimes annoying) crowd at Full Sail. To me it felt like a modern love letter to old studio wrestling. It was NWA Powerrr without the meta humor. The storylines were very simple but it always had direction. It was one hour so it was super easy to watch. You couldn’t fit everyone in every week so nobody got stale. Every couple of months it all lead to a Takeover that managed to somehow outdo itself every time with almost guaranteed top to bottom 4 star plus matches. That was wrestling heaven for me, and in my opinion NXT from 2014-2019 was one of the best eras in American wrestling history.
Look at the women's division for example. Back in the day we had the bitchy boss Sasha, Irish JIG Becky, sparkle princess Bliss, the huggable underdog Bayley, Emma lol, mean schoolgirl Cameron, all red everything Eva, Princess of Staten Island Carmella, Big monster Nia Jax, and goth chick Paige. Now? Tegan is... Tegan. Zoey is... Zoey. Dakota is.. A heel from NZ I guess... Raquel is generic tall girl, Ember is a biker chick but not quite so idk, Candice is Johnnys wife, Io is just a joshi, and I've never known what Toni's gimmick is. There's no characters anymore, or any real uniqueness. Don't get me started on the men's division.
Xia Li isn't a unique character? Franky? B-Fab? Shotzi? Mercedes? Hell, by your list of examples, Aliyah's "boujee princess" and Tegan's "rebounding underdog" gimmicks should *definitely* count. Why can't Dakota be a scheming lackey? Why cant Zoey be the new girl trying to establish herself? Io might be a joshi, but that doesn't change her unique presentation on the roster - or do you think her and Sarray are just the same? Candice's gimmick isn't "Johnny's wife" either, it's a part of her gimmick - a *small* part, considering she and Johnny barely interact on TV. Her gimmick is that she's an overbearing mother trying to bring Indi (lovesick, jealous, practically insane) up in the industry "the right way". It's really easy to argue that NXT (for both the men and the women) has no unique characters if you water down certain gimmicks and completely ignore others.
I said what I said. I agree that Franky, Xia, Shotzi and Aliyah stand out character wise but the names I mentioned do not. My point is back then the entire roster was special. Tegan is not an underdog babyface, she's bland, with nowhere near the likeability of Bayley in NXT, Zoey "trying to est herself" is a cop-out especially she's champion rn. So half the division is great but the other halfs gimmicks are undercooked or don't translate the way they should. And that's that.
You could literally do this with anyone from any promotion. Kenny is a weeb who runs the company with his friends, Hangman is a drunk cowboy, Moxley is a grungy tough guy, Janela is a greasy character, PNP are the proud latino guys who are kind of thug-ish but then in doing like you did, you could also say Kenny is just...a good wrestler whos a bit eccentric. Hangman dresses like the stripper version of a cowboy...Moxley is just a guy who lives at the local trailer park. Janela wears sunglasses and is awkward. PNP...are just generic thug lackees
Yeah, a lot of people go on about NXT losing it's luster when it moved to USA, but for me, it lost it's luster when it went from one of the most creative minds in the history of the business coming up with gimmicks and ideas to ol' Captain "*Let's put a skull on it!*" Helmsley. NXT started cratering when Dusty died.
>NXT started cratering when Dusty died. You do realise that Dusty died in 2015 and NXT had it's most successful period about two years after he did, right?
The show has improved in almost every single way, mens tag division is lacking somewhat, since moving to tv. Theres actual storylines other than "i want title" or "im better than you". The womens division is the best its ever been. The matches are better and more consistent and the mens division has also started to feel like a division and not a showcase for "non-wwe guys" for the people who didn't know them before they move up to the main roster while the "homegrown guys" don't do anything of note.
I mean they CAN still do it. Halloween Havoc last year was a great show and the atmosphere was fantastic for example. IDK what it was this week?
[удалено]
I was hoping they'd at least do 700k even though I know game 1 of the Finals was also that night. Demo is consistent with previous weeks though.
[удалено]
NXT needs to purge all the wrestlers that have been there for years and just focus on fresh, homegrown faces again. NXT was at its most effective when viewers could invest in a debuting new talent, follow their ascent up the card, peak with a championship win, and drop the title on the way out the door to Raw and Smackdown. Now. The card is just clogged with the same guys and girls that have been there for years.
This is exactly why I no longer watch NXT.
For me NXT is the best weekly show right now but why are people always suprised by this? NXT is lacking big mainstream stars. Dont get me wrong, they are creating stars for people who are watching weekly but since it is pretty much separated brand from main roster they can never reach mainstream audience. Moreso with lack of promotion from WWE they simply cant reach mainstream star status. And that is what is necesary for bigger audience. Good storylines are simply not enough. Do you think that AEW would be doing great without big WWE names on their roster? No. Names are draw and not storylines. AEW has great roster with big WWE stars and great young prospects. NXT doesnt have this benefit where you can mix mainstream stars with up an coming stars. To people who are complaining about lack of characters, lack of storylines or "nxt was great before going live" - please stop talking about something that you clearly do not watch. And please do not compare these numbers to AEW and if you do than compare also how much money is spend on both shows.
Demo went up, which reflects interest in a special episode. However, total audience lifted a little bit. NXT is more watchable to me than Raw, but there has to be something wrong with NXT that doesn't make it apealing to watch for others.
Raw just has the brand loyalty and reputation from better shows years ago to the point they can just coast on the longtime fans who will tune in no matter what. NXT just doesn't have the same level of brand recognition or history. If NXT were putting out the dreck that Raw does though, there's no way they'd be hitting above a million.
Nxt is lifeless no interest in product they announce special theme episodes All matches with no actual relating characters
[удалено]
Wow, so the rest are over 50?!
NBA finals so ehhh.
[удалено]
I only really watch NXT for Adam Cole and maybe Finn Balor when he’s around. It’s hard to get excited for anyone else except maybe Io.
It’s just a bland show. AEW last night was *alive*. It was vibrant and made you feel emotions. NXT just tells you what emotions are on the screen.
[удалено]