RAW after Wrestlemania....

[sMark]

There are asually a 1 night after WrestleMania, when the whole world is still watching - RAW right after it, casual fans watch it to see the fallout from Mania, and then only return for like SummerSlam, not paying attention between these 2 PPVs.

I wonder why WWE still didn't try to catch these viewers attention that very night right after WM for the whole year...

Let try...

So WrestleMania 2019 goes with Taker taking Hall of Fame induction, in civil (ABA like) clothes and not actually having a match there...

Then on RAW "Bom!!” – the gong hits and Undertaker fully dressed up as his Deadman character says – despite he is in Hall of Fame now, someone will Rest in Peace, because he will wrestle at Backlash... and throws a “GraveYard” challenge to anybody strong enough to fight him, but this “anybody” can’t be a guy he already wrestled before…on a contorary, this guy must beat couple of his previous WM opponents to get an opportunity to face him…whoever lose to his previous victims and out of the challenge...so the next guy can step in and try to defeat this opponent...“GraveYard” challenge will go on both RAW and Smackdown and challenge begins right now…Mark Henry’s music hits as a atep 1 in Taker’s challenge…

So Now a programming until Backlash is set and there something important is already going, and usual feuds still continues as always.

McMahons appears then and announce that there will be a slight change in PPVs schedule for the year:

- May will still have Backlash,

- June will get the reborn of King of the Ring – and “the King” will be able to challenge any champion any time any place until next WM (just as MitB winners do right now – the change here is a classic tournament instead of 1 match)

- July is TLC – where the main event will be a multyperson TLC match for one of main titles WWE have

- August is still Summerslam

- September is Night of Champions – where every WWE championship should be defended and every match is a title match.

- October is a rebirth of Halloween Havoc – remember these Halloween editions of SD and RAW back in early 2002s and WCW PPV with the same name? Get the autmosphere here, cause every guy on the card should be in a special Halloween attire…additionally the main event is Championship Scramble match

- November – Survivor Series War Games – where both Survivor Series tags and Wargames matches takes place

- December is – Cyber Sunday’s comeback, with 3 stages of hell as main event, the fans can vote (this time for real) on opponents and rules for all matches – this ppv should be not only a present for the fans but also to show WWE a direction right before road to WM hits.

 

[d_henderson1810]

Oh, the RAW after Wrestlemania.

You mean that night where the fans hijack the night, make it about them, cheer names of wrestlers while other wrestlers (whose names aren't getting cheered) are having a match?

The night where casuals, who never follow the product the rest of the year, so are therefore irrelevant, and boozy Attitude Era smarks who piss on the product, act like soccer hooligans, and instead of cheering those who performed well and entertained you at Wrestlemania, they cheer random things which mean nothing?

The night where Michael Cole says that the WWE welcomes the post-Wrestlemania crowds' voices, through gritted teeth, when really, he is seething inside over the disrespect and ingratitude of fans who scream over his commentary all night?

Yeah, that's the night I turn the sound down when I watch RAW, so that I don't have to heard morons cheer for unrelated things.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

The weird Thing is that the fact that wwe is embracing the behavior of the crowd is slowly making that crowd get less vocal because they were doing this because it was the cool thing to do, now when granpa is saying thay is it's cool to chant what you want and making wwe specials and dvd about it, it's not as cool all of a sudden and the crowd isn't as willing to do it anymore.

The fact is that right now, they are booking the show for that crowd instead of booking it for the viewers, the crowd is the biggest problem that will turn off any casual fans because the fans are your guide into getting who is the good guy and who's the bad guy. If you cheer for everybody and even go out and try to take over the show, fans will just switch the channel and won't come back.

That's the reality, wwe isn't doing anything wrong on that night but you when you have a annoying crowd doing everything outside of reacting to what is happening in the ring, you really not going to get any new fans watching.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

Anyways to answer the OP, I don't see Taker doing his speech in what's technically street clothes. He'll probably show more respect to his induction than that. Besides the induction and maybe the Cyber Sunday bit (I'm on the fence - would love to see it work, but I can't do another non-choice like picking between No DQ, Street Fight, and No Holds Barred, ya know?) this all seems plausible.

It makes sense for WWE to throw a bone to fans the night after Mania. Big stories usually finish up that Sunday so everything has that "new" feeling. I love the night after Mania personally. More than any other Monday and part of that is the audience. If there's a pocket of the crowd cheering on people who aren't even on the show...I'm more in the "who cares" category of the wrestling fandom. People are excited. It's okay to be excited.

Believe me it's not the people at ringside that makes me want to turn the product off usually.

 

[JoeMallard]

The weird Thing is that the fact that wwe is embracing the behavior of the crowd is slowly making that crowd get less vocal because they were doing this because it was the cool thing to do, now when granpa is saying thay is it's cool to chant what you want and making wwe specials and dvd about it, it's not as cool all of a sudden and the crowd isn't as willing to do it anymore.

The fact is that right now, they are booking the show for that crowd instead of booking it for the viewers, the crowd is the biggest problem that will turn off any casual fans because the fans are your guide into getting who is the good guy and who's the bad guy. If you cheer for everybody and even go out and try to take over the show, fans will just switch the channel and won't come back.

That's the reality, wwe isn't doing anything wrong on that night but you when you have a annoying crowd doing everything outside of reacting to what is happening in the ring, you really not going to get any new fans watching.

At least they're making noise instead of sitting on their fat asses like every casual fan does when something entertaining is happening...

 

[Psykohurricane55]

The biggest problem with the WWE product as a whole right now is that they are booking more for the loyal fan base instead of trying to book to try and get new fans.

I listened to Jim cornette's podcast this week mostly because he watch Raw and was going to review it. Has you know, they not a more casual WWE viewer then Jim cornette so i thought it would be both funny and interesting to hear is thought on the show.

So the first point he made was the fact that you didn't introduce the commentating team right at the beginning which they have a tendency to do on Raw and Smackdown, As a casual viewer, you really need to know who is going to guide you through the story.

I will use the example of WWF superstars during the golden era as a example throughout since i've been watching a lot of episode of the show lately. On superstars, They would always open with Vince Mcmahon and whoever was his color guy and go and tell you what you would see as far as matches are concern threw the night and if they was something important that happened on last weeks episode, they would always have a video package ready to explain to new viewers what they miss on last weeks episode so that you wouldn't be lost while watching the show. They don't do that anymore, most of the time, they don't even have a video intro anymore, it's pretty much the signature video and then straight to the ring with whoever is doing the opening promo segment. As a casual viewer, if you don't know the characters or what the story is about, how can you be interested in what's going on. So that's something that they should change on the first raw after mania. It'S simple stuff but it's little things like that that will get more people interested in the product, If you introduce who's the voice of the program is and give new fans a way to understand who the characters are and what'S the story is, fans will stick with it.

Second, he pointed out something that i've kind agree with him, nothing against the Women's but lately, they been poorly booked. You don't put your hottest act in the women's division in the opening segment and then go right into a women's match. If you want to expose the audience to the women's division, mix and match better. After the becky segment last week, you should have done a men's match instead of the triple threat women's match and put that match latter on the card. that way they get more focus on the women's intead of just feeling like a afterthought and speaking of afterthought, what was the point of the ruby riott vs nikki cross match? Really, if i'm a casual fans and i watch this match and you use it to go backstage for a becky segment during the match it isn't helping me in getting involve in the match, I already don't know who these girls are and now you're pretty much telling me that they don't matter anyway. So i will change the channel.

Third, the pacing of the matches on raw is really shitty. They have a tendency of cutting all the best part of the matches out to go to commercial, Imagine just for a minute that long and boring six men match from last monday, instead of doing what they did they would

a) did the announcement of the six man tag on camera instead of doing it during the commercial break
b) comeback from the break with a exciting part of the match instead of use a rest hold like they always do
c) Cut the time of the match in half

Again simple little thing but you will get the audience engage for the match instead of boring them to death.

Also let's talk about the matches, they have so much talent on the raw rosters that you could use some of the time of the show to give time to some of the lower card guys. Not every match need to be story oriented, you have 3 hours every week and most week they waste a lot of time on long drag out matches. again let's use last week finn balor vs drew mcintyre that change into a six men tag match. you take half of the time that this match got and give it to guys that don't normally gets time like a Mojo rawley or a Zack ryder & curt hawkins and let them wrestled for 4 or five minutes and fans will get interested in thoses character if they get expose to them on a regular bases. You could even use the old squash match mentality to put over guys with the casual crowd that aren't necessarily watching for the long matches. That's how i got hook to wrestling and a lot of fans got hook to wrestling that way, with the short tv matches. Keep the long matches for PPV.

Again simple little stuff that WWE have forgotten has they use to do that when they were super popular.

Finally, just give fans something they can care about, if you book just for you current audience, you will only keep your current audience, the reason why somebody like a Becky Lynch is super over with the WWE crowd but she doesn'T translate into a ratings draw is quite simple, casual don't know who she is and what's her motivation are. They know she popular but they don'T know why she is so they just she another faceless character they don't know and won't bother researching who she is so they will tune out of the show, which leads me to the raw after mania.

That's the perfect example of a show that's booked for the hardcore fanbase. First of all the call ups, you don't give any background on who they are and what's the characters are. You just know they will get a big pop from the mania crowd and that because of that the casual fans that is tuning in will get being them because the mentality is that everybody that watch Raw and Smackdown also watch the network brands like NXT which isn't the case. So they get on, get a huge pop and fail because they intro isn't done. Personally if i was them, i would stop doing call ups on the raw and smackdown after mania unless it's a big draw that is well known to everybody. Also, i would move the superstar shake up to those episodes as well since these are the shows that are the beginning of the new season so that's the perfect way to get the new season started plus if you do some sort of profile on all the wrestlers that are changing brand to introduce them to new viewers, it will get fans more interested in the product as a whole.

The thing is that you need to produce your show with the mentality that you will always get new fans that will try your product and newer fans especially casual fans won't follow wrestling on the internet or try to catch every little wrestling show that's playing outside the WWE. They won't watch NXT or 205 live or Anything other niche product WWE is producing, they will only watch WWE. If they don't know who the annouce them are or who the characters are, you can throw them any story or matches you want they won't care. You need to take them by the hand and guide them through the show and that's with little thing like having a proper opening, have the announce team be the first thing they see, have a video package ready to explain the story to them and all the other little things that Cornette mention in his podcast this week. So the raw after mania should be that, a way to get new fans to watch the product after mania and a way to change how the production of the show is done. Because no matter how loud the crowd is, no matter how much surprise debut you have on that show, it won't matter to casual because they just don'T care enough about the wrestling product in general to follow it on the internet and that's why the Raw after mania isn't able to keep casual viewers interested.

 

[Wwefansdontknowanything]

I love how pretty much everyone that thinks they’re an expert and thinks they have all the answers Bury fans for their behavior when it doesn’t support their favorite people or their opinions of what they believe should happen. Yes the product isn’t good yes the wrong people are getting pushes and the powers that be care way to much about mainstream fans and pushing people like Brock and Ronda because they believe they’re the only people on the roster that can attract an audience. Another issue they have is creative control by the actual talent they muzzle them to much and inhibit people based on size and gimmicks. Not saying they should go the aew route and give the guys almost total creative freedom but they need to loosen the ropes a bit. Also stop relying so much on part timers or legends to be the focal point of shows they’re a nice change every once in awhile but they shouldn’t showcase any show. These are my opinions other people may not agree with them and I respect that I also live to hear and conversation with people who have different views of what they like a good debate without name calling or slander is always fun. And I’m the end I’ll say I hope aew succeeds and gives wwe some competition to hopefully push wwe to improve and think of new and different stuff instead of always recycled gimmicks that are out of date or that can never be recreated.

 

[OYDK]

The best part about the Raw after Mania is watching how mad internet fans get about the crowd reactions. Seriously, get over it.

And let's not act like the shows dedicated to the smark fanbase aren't 50x more enjoyable than the crap we usually get on a week-to-week basis. I don't give two twinkies about whether WWE's booking brings in new viewers or not. They've been trying to cater their product towards everybody for years now and it's led to a mass exodus of viewers so let's not act like pushing Becky Lynch or Finn Balor is the problem (yes I'm talking to you Mr. mod). In fact, WWE should try to book EVERY show like they do the Raw after Mania because at least you can tell they're actually friggin trying.

As for what I want to happen, I don't really care as long as it's fun. And it almost always is. The tears of dhenderson will just be an added bonus.

 

[Aquaman6686]

Oh, the RAW after Wrestlemania.

You mean that night where the fans hijack the night, make it about them, cheer names of wrestlers while other wrestlers (whose names aren't getting cheered) are having a match?

The night where casuals, who never follow the product the rest of the year, so are therefore irrelevant, and boozy Attitude Era smarks who piss on the product, act like soccer hooligans, and instead of cheering those who performed well and entertained you at Wrestlemania, they cheer random things which mean nothing?

The night where Michael Cole says that the WWE welcomes the post-Wrestlemania crowds' voices, through gritted teeth, when really, he is seething inside over the disrespect and ingratitude of fans who scream over his commentary all night?

Yeah, that's the night I turn the sound down when I watch RAW, so that I don't have to heard morons cheer for unrelated things.

You LITERALLY just described every NXT crowd, ever. They're the ones hijacking and ruining shows.

 

[JoeMallard]

You LITERALLY just described every NXT crowd, ever. They're the ones hijacking and ruining shows.

They don't hijack entertaining shows you fucking ret@rd!

 

[FoleyIsGod]

I personally love the post Raw/Smackdown after mania.

As for the whining about smart fans ruining the show/s, they are the ones to fork out thousands of dollars/pounds(I'm British) to go to America and watch the show.

Ratings in the US mean jack to me but the Wwe has always had a loyal following over here, its just not that following now has the income now we are not 8 years old anymore and cheering on hulk, bret, cena, stone cold(trying to get all those eras and I'm only 33!) because we are told to.

Kayabe is dead and buried nowadays, we cheer/boo those who we do respect/dislike. Deal with it.

If any of you want to have a look at into how much wrestling is engrained into British blood, at least for the mid 30s generation, have a look at old World of Sport. Kaybe was alive and well, grannies used to hit heels with their handbags etcetc. And this was shown on prime time TV. Regal, Davey, Dynamite Kud, even Finlay made an appearance at one time or another

 

[Spencesc11]

What I would like to see on the Raw after Wrestlemania.......

This is with wins by Lynch & Rollins

Raw opens with Becky Lynch celebrating her big win. Then out comes Charlotte Flair saying you may have gotten lucky last night but I will end "The Man" once and for all at Backlash. Then Nia & Tamina hit the ring from the crowd and attack Becky. Charlotte gets in for a 3 on 1 beatdown until Banks & Bailey make the save. 6 woman tag match for the Main Event on Raw.

1st Match
Finn Balor (I-C Champ) vs. Alester Black
* Great back and forth match where Balor retains

2nd Match
The Revival (Tag Champs) vs. Owens/Zayn
* Rematch from Mania where Revival won via DQ. Owens & Zayn claim gold and are the new tag team champions!!!!

Backstage Segment
* Rollins being congratulated by the guys in the back for beating Lesnar. He's heading to the ring. Rollins thanks all the fans for believing that he could slay the beast. Then Paul Heyman comes out and offers a half hearted congrats to Rollins. Heyman says he's seen the Beast grow complacent so he's decided to move onto the next Big Thing. Drew McIntyre's music hits!!! Heyman says you may have slayed the beast at Mania but at Backlash you will be destroyed by the Scottish Psychopath.

3rd Match
Ruby Riott vs. Ember Moon
* great back and forth match. Riott gets the win with some help from the Riott Squat.

4th Match
Braun Stroman and ??? vs. Lashley & Corbin
* After Braun, Cena, & Angle defeat Lashley, Corbin, & McIntyre at Mania you get a tag match the next night where Stroman will have a mystery partner. Lashley & Corbin wait in the ring and after Stroman comes down Bray Wyatt's music hits. The crowd erupts. Stroman & Wyatt get the win after Bray hits sister abigail on Corbin.

5th Match
Ricochet vs. EC3
* Great back and forth match with Ricochet picking up the win.

Main Event
Charlotte, Tamina, & Nia vs. Becky, Sasha, & Bailey
* The heels win when Charlotte pins Bailey. Charlotte & the heels say they will all be champions at Backlash.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

The post Mania crowd can get annoying during parts of the show but can also be pretty great at times. I know people pay money and should be able to do what they want but there are plenty of other people (e.g. kids) there who are there for the actual show, not the rowdy fans.

Maybe WWE should add a smark section.

 

[Aquaman6686]

They don't hijack entertaining shows you fucking ret@rd!

They're a huge part of what makes NXT so unbearable. Every headlock and suplex is met with chants of "THIS IS AWESOME", "NXT! NXT! NXT!" and "FIGHT FOREVER!!!". Take the EXACT same match happening on RAW or SmackDown, and that same crowd will be chanting "BORING!!!" "SAME OLD SHIT!!!!" or, of course, "NXT! NXT! NXT!".

 

[Psykohurricane55]

Plus i want to add that they are the reason why so many NXT call ups failed on the main roster. How can you booked somebody properly when fans are cheering everybody like they are babyface and megastars.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

NXT call ups are too well-liked to be booked properly on the main shows. A mod actually said that.

Christ. I quit.

 

[d_henderson1810]

The biggest problem with the WWE product as a whole right now is that they are booking more for the loyal fan base instead of trying to book to try and get new fans.

I listened to Jim cornette's podcast this week mostly because he watch Raw and was going to review it. Has you know, they not a more casual WWE viewer then Jim cornette so i thought it would be both funny and interesting to hear is thought on the show.

So the first point he made was the fact that you didn't introduce the commentating team right at the beginning which they have a tendency to do on Raw and Smackdown, As a casual viewer, you really need to know who is going to guide you through the story.

I will use the example of WWF superstars during the golden era as a example throughout since i've been watching a lot of episode of the show lately. On superstars, They would always open with Vince Mcmahon and whoever was his color guy and go and tell you what you would see as far as matches are concern threw the night and if they was something important that happened on last weeks episode, they would always have a video package ready to explain to new viewers what they miss on last weeks episode so that you wouldn't be lost while watching the show. They don't do that anymore, most of the time, they don't even have a video intro anymore, it's pretty much the signature video and then straight to the ring with whoever is doing the opening promo segment. As a casual viewer, if you don't know the characters or what the story is about, how can you be interested in what's going on. So that's something that they should change on the first raw after mania. It'S simple stuff but it's little things like that that will get more people interested in the product, If you introduce who's the voice of the program is and give new fans a way to understand who the characters are and what'S the story is, fans will stick with it.

Second, he pointed out something that i've kind agree with him, nothing against the Women's but lately, they been poorly booked. You don't put your hottest act in the women's division in the opening segment and then go right into a women's match. If you want to expose the audience to the women's division, mix and match better. After the becky segment last week, you should have done a men's match instead of the triple threat women's match and put that match latter on the card. that way they get more focus on the women's intead of just feeling like a afterthought and speaking of afterthought, what was the point of the ruby riott vs nikki cross match? Really, if i'm a casual fans and i watch this match and you use it to go backstage for a becky segment during the match it isn't helping me in getting involve in the match, I already don't know who these girls are and now you're pretty much telling me that they don't matter anyway. So i will change the channel.

Third, the pacing of the matches on raw is really shitty. They have a tendency of cutting all the best part of the matches out to go to commercial, Imagine just for a minute that long and boring six men match from last monday, instead of doing what they did they would

a) did the announcement of the six man tag on camera instead of doing it during the commercial break
b) comeback from the break with a exciting part of the match instead of use a rest hold like they always do
c) Cut the time of the match in half

Again simple little thing but you will get the audience engage for the match instead of boring them to death.

Also let's talk about the matches, they have so much talent on the raw rosters that you could use some of the time of the show to give time to some of the lower card guys. Not every match need to be story oriented, you have 3 hours every week and most week they waste a lot of time on long drag out matches. again let's use last week finn balor vs drew mcintyre that change into a six men tag match. you take half of the time that this match got and give it to guys that don't normally gets time like a Mojo rawley or a Zack ryder & curt hawkins and let them wrestled for 4 or five minutes and fans will get interested in thoses character if they get expose to them on a regular bases. You could even use the old squash match mentality to put over guys with the casual crowd that aren't necessarily watching for the long matches. That's how i got hook to wrestling and a lot of fans got hook to wrestling that way, with the short tv matches. Keep the long matches for PPV.

Again simple little stuff that WWE have forgotten has they use to do that when they were super popular.

Finally, just give fans something they can care about, if you book just for you current audience, you will only keep your current audience, the reason why somebody like a Becky Lynch is super over with the WWE crowd but she doesn'T translate into a ratings draw is quite simple, casual don't know who she is and what's her motivation are. They know she popular but they don'T know why she is so they just she another faceless character they don't know and won't bother researching who she is so they will tune out of the show, which leads me to the raw after mania.

That's the perfect example of a show that's booked for the hardcore fanbase. First of all the call ups, you don't give any background on who they are and what's the characters are. You just know they will get a big pop from the mania crowd and that because of that the casual fans that is tuning in will get being them because the mentality is that everybody that watch Raw and Smackdown also watch the network brands like NXT which isn't the case. So they get on, get a huge pop and fail because they intro isn't done. Personally if i was them, i would stop doing call ups on the raw and smackdown after mania unless it's a big draw that is well known to everybody. Also, i would move the superstar shake up to those episodes as well since these are the shows that are the beginning of the new season so that's the perfect way to get the new season started plus if you do some sort of profile on all the wrestlers that are changing brand to introduce them to new viewers, it will get fans more interested in the product as a whole.

The thing is that you need to produce your show with the mentality that you will always get new fans that will try your product and newer fans especially casual fans won't follow wrestling on the internet or try to catch every little wrestling show that's playing outside the WWE. They won't watch NXT or 205 live or Anything other niche product WWE is producing, they will only watch WWE. If they don't know who the annouce them are or who the characters are, you can throw them any story or matches you want they won't care. You need to take them by the hand and guide them through the show and that's with little thing like having a proper opening, have the announce team be the first thing they see, have a video package ready to explain the story to them and all the other little things that Cornette mention in his podcast this week. So the raw after mania should be that, a way to get new fans to watch the product after mania and a way to change how the production of the show is done. Because no matter how loud the crowd is, no matter how much surprise debut you have on that show, it won't matter to casual because they just don'T care enough about the wrestling product in general to follow it on the internet and that's why the Raw after mania isn't able to keep casual viewers interested.

I agree with most of what you are saying.

I would be one of the few on here who would though. Because most people who post here ARE the hardcore fanbase, who don't care about casual fans, but only what they want.

Whenever someone (like myself or yourself) has posted an idea in the past that would include bringing in more casual fans, the diehards don't care and want it all directed towards who they want to see.

For example, most people who post here don't care that many don't watch NXT. They watch NXT, and watch other indy leagues, and so believe that WWE should be booked like ROH.

A perfect example of what I am saying is how people bitch and moan how WWE isn't like the Attitude Era anymore, where there was swearing, edgy stories and scantily-clad women. They don't want a G rated version, even though that will bring in children, who studies have shown, that if you sell to kids, you double or triple your ticket sales, because children don't have money and can't drive to a venue, so they need a parent to accompany them. Presto, suddenly you have sold TWO tickets instead of one. Disney and Pixar have been successful with this business-proven principle for years, and Vince has caught onto it, but the hardcore fan base don't care about kids or future fans, they want what they want, and damn the consequences.

Don't forget, many of these people hijacked the 2014 Royal Rumble, booed and spat at Rey Mysterio for not being Daniel Bryan, and threatened to boycott if their boy Bryan didn't main event WMXXX, even though I have yet to see proof of WWE ever announcing Daniel Bryan being in the 2014 RR match.

So, while you and I agree, many here would be happy that Vince is being their bitch, and giving into their whining.