Well first off, the wrestling viewership is down, and that's BAD. A total 7.0 rating for the viewers, as you can conclude you'll have channel flippers like myself in that mix as well, so it's probably lower. This isn't good after the Olympics go. Now Nitro is just slightly down, but what about RAW? I think with RAW, the 5s are the best thing they will get. My feelings are that the WWF lost a handful of casual fans, not hardcore fans, during the TNN switch. Those casual fans are also the ones who stop watching the WWF, thanks to the boring storylines as of late. That's the truth, because the WWF's ratings were higher a year ago, even before they left USA Networks. The casual fans are the reason!
I can't believe WCW's numbers. A 2.2 in the second hour? It just goes to show you that with Vince Russo in charge of the company does not deliver. Nuff said. I think many viewers were turned off by last week's EGO filled show. Last week's show had too much hype going on and not much to deliver. This week's show didn't have the hype as the last, but it was much better. I enjoyed Nitro because all of the matches were pretty good and the only Russo we saw was the booking of the main event.
But with RAW, maybe their lower first hour isn't excusable. Their precious 25 MINUTE INTERVIEW did a 4.4 for the first 15 minutes of it. That's the lowest rated segment of the night for RAW!!! HELLO!?!?! Even better, I just want to hand a few APPLES to the ones who keep telling me that these interviews are the highest rated segments on the show. Yeah right. I find it funny that viewers start tuning in for the final part of the interview, as it took them 25 minutes to get to the good point.
Since we are now talking about head to head numbers, what went wrong with Nitro? For one, Kevin Nash isn't the drawing man he once was, as proven in his low numbers with Mike Sanders against Elix Skipper. I'm hoping that somebody backstage recognizes that fact in case he gets on his knees and asks for another World Title reign.
THEN, the Bill Goldberg squash against the Harris Boyz, along with the David Flair angle didn't do too well. Who the hell wants to tune in to see the Harris Boys wrestle, or to easily get destroyed by Goldberg? You could say Goldberg doesn't draw either, but if you give him a legit opponent, maybe those numbers could rise. Harris Boys are just garbage, and the funny thing is, as reported, that the Harris Boyz complained to Russo about having to do that job. With the "Who Knocked up Ms. Hancock" case, Buff Bagwell under the mask didn't do much. Yeah, Russo says that this is the hottest angle around, when he doesn't realize nobody give a flying.....or that nobody cares. :)
The main event for Nitro did pretty well, considering that the two quarter hours before it were way down. Plus, it was going against a tough WWF match of Rock/Rikishi vs. Kane/Benoit. So that's pretty good. Their second best head to head was with the Steiner/Jarrett vs. Sting/Booker T match, although it did drop from the quarter hour before that, which was unopposed.
WWF just mainly struggled for the first 15 BORING minutes of the interview, and then went on for good ratings for the rest of the night, except for one segment. The Benoit/Kane vs. Rock/Rikishi match barely beat out the low rating for the interview. Of course, that was against "WCW's best" of Booker T vs. Jeff Jarrett. Of course, the WWF tag match was scripted with the interview, so go figure.
What REALLY scares me is that the Stone Cold Steve Austin segments drew the highest ratings of the night! You know what that means? More Austin. Now I've always thought that Stone Cold was a great performer, but too much Austin is a bad Austin. Plus, I'm not much for other wrestlers like Benoit, Angle, Regal, and MANY MANY MORE having to put Austin over in his so called investigation. Especially those who weren't even in the WWF for last November of 99.
On the lower end of things, WWF Sunday Night Heat drew a very low number on Mtv. Now keep in mind that the WWF was hyping this all week on their shows, and that Mtv is still, one of the most popular channels on television. Viewership of Heat has been down for the WWF, yes, as last week's show did a 2.6 in the ratings. I'm thinking that many wrestling fans just don't like Mtv, or when they tuned in, they got tired of seeing Disturbed two times, and hearing Rebecca's screeching voice. Not like the matches were spectacular anyway, besides the table match at the end.
ECW on TNN did a poor 0.7 this week, as I blame that on no advertising from TNN and for it being a hype show, and not a wrestling show. The goal of the show was to somehow get you to buy Anarchy Rulz, and to tell you the truth, I would have been more likely to do it if I saw some hot matches to help further that decision. I was really hoping for a good number on ECW on TNN because I wanted them to beat Superstars and Livewire since they would be fairly new to the network...
Well, Superstars did it's lowest rating possible from their days on the USA Networks, and Livewire did a rating which ECW on TNN could have defeated. Getting back to ECW, their show on TNN, if you didn't know it, is their #2 show now. If you look at the Hardcore show, it's stacked to the roof with good matches. Instead of that, we get more 'hype' or highlights, and not the best matches, but just matches involving Justin Credible. But never fear, that USA deal should be coming sometime now, right Paul Heyman?
One spot left on the Phat Pharm! Email PhatPharm@lordsofpain.net to send your tryout columns. Keep in mind that thanks to time constraints, I'm only responding to the ones I'm interested. Sorry about that.
If you've seen me on the wonderful Free For All message board here at LoP, you'll know that I try to keep up on presidential candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush. Yes, I watched that debate last night, and since this is a WRESTLING column, I'll use a WRESTLING analogy to tell you who won in the form of Jim Ross. "Gore Wins!! Gore Wins!! Gore Wins!! Who's your daddy George W. Bush???"
@That's all for today's PDC. I shall return tomorrow to give you my knowledge, or at least opinion, on the world of WCW. Be sure to check out a BRAND NEW column added to the Phat Pharm called Kicking Ass and Taking Names Later.
Phat Pharm: BRAND NEW COLUMN debuting entitled "Kicking Ass and Taking Names Later" to Read! Click Here!!!!!!
Take Care, and Thanks for Reading.