Why WWE Has Lost 1 Million Viewers

The usual factors behind WWE's long-standing ratings crisis feed into this as well.

The key issue is that Vince McMahon is selling a product as cold as VHS tapes, Google+, and Doritos 3D. His audience is down to the hardcores. WrestleMania remains a destination event that attracts tens of thousands to whatever host city the Chairman chooses, but the zeitgeist moved on from professional wrestling decades ago. It isn't "cool" or "hip" anymore, and it'll never be that again.

WWE's propensity for spoiling surprises by advertising them ahead of time has destroyed the idea that "anything can happen." Raw's colossal runtime remains a valuable ad revenue money-spinner, but a weekly third-hour viewership drop-off shows that it still wears viewers out. Established flaws in the company's storytelling mechanisms, a dearth of star power, stale formulae, and a host of other problems also play roles.

This is a Vince McMahon problem. His company has a $1 billion TV deal on the horizon, and their new benefactors won't be happy if SmackDown can't improve on its weekly 2 million viewers. Vince must find ways not only to stop the rot, but to reverse it, boost his numbers by 50%, and deliver a return on Fox's investment.

Q4 2019 will tell us whether or not he is successful in what looks like a hopeless endeavour. If he is, it should go down as one of his career's greatest triumphs.