The ratings plummeted in 2001 with that alliance garbage and kept falling until 2005 when Cena and Batista became champions. It went up a bit until 2006 where it fell again and has kept falling since.Tony Schiavone wrote: ↑Fri Jan 17, 2020 4:54 pmWWE isn't a good analogy. The ratings held pretty high through the early 2000s because you still gas some personalities and it wasn't overly corporatized. It went down since John Cena happened and Vince tried to make progressively dumber and more senile decisions (like let his daughter become creatively involved).
And Steph was involved back in 2002, when it truly went to shit. She was the one who thought it was a great idea to have a team of 10 or so Hollywood writers on the show. The corporatisation started all the way back then and has only gotten worse, and because of that they took no fucking risks creatively and do the same format of having the main Babyface or Heel cut a 10-20 minute promo at the start, Holla Holla tag team match main event Playa and some other crap in the middle.
This worked in 1998 because it meant Austin or The Rock were on TV from the get go and knowing they would be on later kept people watching. Also WCW tended to do cruiserweight matches first, so getting those initial eyeballs worked but now that shit is outdated. Just like modern capeshit comics.