Today the WWE held a first Quarter Conference Call to go over their earnings for the Fiscal Year of 2020, and Vince McMahon, the chairman and CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, went into detail regarding why, despite ratings going up for the recent Wrestlemania, are the ratings for the weekly television show Raw currently not doing as well. With a large percentage of the population held at home thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and quaranting measures, the only live sporting event company has gained benefits from being “the only game in town” when all is said and done.
WWE has received some push back from fans and wrestlers alike as they have remained open despite so many other companies and organizations closing as a result of COVID-19. With Wrestlemania still taking place this year, a number of changes had to be made in order to have the biggest wrestling event of the year take place. Spread over two nights, the biggest event for the WWE had to cancel a number of matches that were originally set to take place such as the Andre the Giant Battle Royale. A number of matches also had to be changed with the likes of Roman Reigns and Rey Mysterio having to bow out from their original schedules in order to quarantine.
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On the conference call, the current chairman believes that the reason behind Raw’s slacking ratings is due to the fact that audiences are having to get used to “the empty auditoriums” and come to grips with matches that don’t have a rowdy crowd behind them. McMahon noted that the event itself will see an uptick in ratings as the weeks move on, diving into detail about plans for the company moving into the future. With viewership up for the most part with the WWE, we’ll have to see if any changes are made to Raw each week!
The Coronavirus has changed the landscape of entertainment across the board, and the WWE has been no exception with the events and scheduled matches of the company having to be changed significantly as a result. As per the latest conference call, it’s clear that the heads of the World Wrestling Entertainment are going to have to take a number of different plans in the future.
What do you think of Vince McMahon‘s thoughts on Raw’s weaker viewership? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the WWE!
