Posted in: Mr. Tito
MR. TITO STRIKES BACK - WWE Hell in a Cell Pay Per View Predictions and My Struggles to Watch the RAW Brand
By Mr. Tito
Oct 26, 2016 - 12:11:05 AM

Follow Mr. Tito on Twitter.com: @titowrestling

I've had a rough year... I spent several months this year driving up to Pittsburgh during the evenings to spend time in an Intensive Care Unit and then endured a major loss to my family. Add that on top of how hard I push myself at work... Often, I put on the Mr. Tito mask here exclusively at LordsofPain.net / WrestlingHeadlines.com as a means to escape reality. However, it can get out of hand and become a vehicle for venting. I was tending to use Social Media outlets for venting as well... Dare you post a sports, political, entertainment, or economics thread on your wall and I'd jump down your throat.

A few months ago, I had a talk with my brother in which, given recent family events, I was probably getting out of hand online with the smack talk and the Mr. Tito character... Too negative and forceful on opinion, I was told... I took his advice, as I respect my brother and his word, and I have tried to scale down the negativity and the swagger that are usually in Mr. Tito columns. Many of you in the Comments section below have noticed and are thumping their chests as if you changed me. Nope... Hell, I wrote many of my columns to spite you... But I took my brother's advice and attempted to change-up the tone of my columns. I sincerely believe that I've put together my best stuff in years for the past few months as a result.

But I can't help but bring back some major negativity today... I just have to say it.

RAW STINKS.

Yes it does.

I legitimately cannot stand Monday Night RAW, even in its condensed 1.5 hours form on Hulu. It has become a chore to watch and it's only my Mr. Tito column that keeps me watching this show. And the declining ratings since 2015 agree with me.

In my opinion, we've witness the WEAKEST 12 month run for Monday Night RAW through October 2016. If you recall during late October 2016, the Roman Reigns WWE Title push began as he was completing his feud with Bray Wyatt and was going to wrestle Seth Rollins at Survivor Series 2015. Rollins tore up his ACL and that's when we had the awful WWE Title tournament. Sheamus title reign happened, Roman won the WWE Title back, and then we were building towards Triple H vs. Roman Reigns to sadly headline Wrestlemania 32. Seth Rollins comes back, John Cena/AJ Styles were moved to Smackdown via the draft, and now we're left with a bloated Monday Night RAW that has become the Seth & Roman show with Stephanie McMahon still acting as an authority figure. It SUCKS.

RAW during October 2015 was averaging around 3.4 million... Now, we're at 2.8 million. Earlier during 2015, RAW was doing 4 million.

And STOP giving me the crap about "more ways to watch RAW". I have already proven that DVR replay viewings are actually down about 100,000 views from 5 years ago to change from a weekly range of 400,000 to 500,000 views to 300,000 to 400,000 views. Hulu? LOL... Let's apply the same math of viewership on USA Network... Of the 95.6 million homes that have USA Network, 2.8 million now watch RAW. That is 2.9% of homes with USA Networks actually watching RAW. Apply that same 2.9% to the 10 million Hulu subscribers. About 293,000. We're not getting anywhere, folks... YouTube numbers provide a decent argument, but at the same time, that barely gives the WWE any revenue. But only the really big moments pop big 500,000+ views. There are many RAW segments that completely underwhelm on FREE Youtube.

Let me point out a few valid facts... The Walking Dead just did 17 Million viewers on Sunday Night for its season premiere on AMC. AMC is on about the same amount of televisions as the USA Network at just under 95 million. Do the math, and the Walking Dead was on about 18% of households that have access to the AMC channel. That's absurd. FOX News and CNN are doing absurd numbers for Presidential Debates, as FOX News and their several GOP Primary debates pulled between 15-30 million viewers each. NFL Monday Night Football consistently does 10+ million. The 2016 NBA Playoffs on Cable were pushing 10 million viewers itself.

What's my point? Walking Dead, Political Events, NFL, and NBA all face similar alternative media competition that the WWE has. Hell, I watched the Walking Dead via iTunes last night and that didn't hurt AMC's business. Enough viewers DEMANDED to watch the Walking Dead on Cable/Satellite AS IT HAPPENED. 17 million viewers... People are captivated by the trainwreck known as Donald Trump, NFL remains popular even though ESPN has the worst games, and NBA is rising in popularity. Fans WANT to watch those on television and those television events keep people subscribing to the price gouging Cable/Satellite companies. 95 million housesholds, folks... That's just slightly down from the 98 million or so households seen through 2013.

Bill Goldberg can appear on a random edition of Monday Night RAW and pop the ratings by 400,000 viewers versus the previous week. He's a guy who had his PEAK year for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) during 1998 and didn't help WWE numbers during 2003-2004. Seriously, RAW ratings were DOWN during those years. But Goldberg has enough past star power that he can put more eyeballs on the television screens for 1 week. That includes the 3rd hour beating the first 2 hours for the first time in a long time. Then, with a show headlined by the returning Brock Lesnar, the show drops 300,000 viewers and the 3rd hour is once again the worst hour.

You tell me what's wrong with RAW because I'll insist that (a) Brock Lesnar's character peaked during 2015, (b) Stephanie McMahon is a weak draw as authority figure, and (c) I already proved that Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins were WEAK draws as World Champion with my 10/3/2016 Column where I statistically proved that they reduce RAW's rating as WWE Champions (by up to 1.0 point!). When we had the 2016 DRAFT to create the RAW and Smackdown brand extensions... Smackdown has 2 new authority figures and actually changed up its Creative Team (several NXT implants). RAW kept the same show, authority figure, look & feel, and Main Eventers in place while losing John Cena, AJ Styles, and Dean Ambrose. Oh, and I statistically proved that RAW's ratings decline are affecting Smackdown in another column.

You know what RAW hasn't had in the past 12 months? Hell, for much of 2015-2016? John Cena as a MAIN EVENTER and/or World Champion. If we go by early 2015, RAW has lost about 1.3 million viewers. Consider that for much of 2015, John Cena was US Champion and wrestling either on the 1st or 2nd hour of RAW. During much of that time, Seth Rollins was main eventing RAW. Then, John Cena left the WWE following October 2015, briefly came back during early 2016, and got injured to miss Wrestlemania 32 season. Then, he was Drafted and moved to the Smackdown roster. Can many of you HATERS within the Internet Wrestling Community finally give the guy credit? Does it take the fact that he put over AJ Styles 100% clean at SummerSlam 2016 for you to give Cena some love? You have been putting all of your hate towards John Cena when you should have been placing it towards WWE Creative, Vince McMahon, and the rest of the roster. Lord knows that Cena has tried to put other wrestlers over and clean (Punk, Bryan, Owens, Styles, Del Rio, etc.).

RAW lacks STAR POWER and it has proven that Roman Reigns as a #1 babyface and Seth Rollins as a crybaby heel and a tweener is not drawing. So change it up... If they can't draw individually, put them back together. Wasn't the Shield fun with them together? Make them heels and consider flipping the 2 guys getting actual babyface reactions despite being heels: Kevin Owens & Chris Jericho. Something...

I believe that the National Football League is following the same path... My interest as a football fan has diminished lately and in my opinion, it boils down to two things: (a) reduced star power and (b) arrogant management.

If you look at the NFL, they've seen serious erosion in star power... The Quarterback position, for example, appeared to be loaded with Peyton Manning, Big Ben, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Phillip Rivers, Eli Manning, etc. Well, Peyton retired, Brady was suspended and surrounded by controversy, Rivers is on bad Chargers teams, Eli has struggled, Big Ben's team has struggled to be consistent, and Rodgers may be on the downslide. Runningback position has really lacked star power with the game becoming more of a vertical passing league. Wide Receivers has somewhat become a "dime a dozen" thanks to NFL Rule changes becoming very accommodative towards Receivers and becoming anti-Defense. Nobody can standout... Thanks to the NFL rule changes where you pretty much cannot touch Quarterbacks or Wide Receivers while defenders get blamed for ever helmet-to-helmet hit (even when the offensive player crouches into it), the "draw" of a strong defense is gone. Many teams were identified by their strong defenses.

Just as the WWE has bad Creative decisions, NFL has many from Roger Goodell who has blanket power over the NFL Players and the Rulebook. He's inconsistent on his suspensions and fines while seeming to have weird problems assessing domestic violence. Goodell has been too reactionary towards certain types of player incidents or allegations. The rule changes have weakened the quality of the games. Furthermore, the NFL's attempt to sweep the concussion matter under the rug has blown up in their faces and it has caused the "feeder system" of high school and college football to thin out with many parents holding back their kids from playing football. When you have a reduction in quality of your product that tends to make overpaid players like Colin Kaepernick to become more controversial with his protest. Do you think fans would be outraged if Kaepernick was actually good? He's eroded quickly without good coach, like Jim Harbaugh, to help him along. If he was still playing well, he probably wouldn't be as polarizing.

Surprise, surprise... NFL's ratings are down during 2016 across the board. But I think it's due to a lack of star power to replenish the veterans and the culture of the NFL reducing the demand of its consumers.

Gotta have STAR POWER... If you want to blame the RAW and the NFL reduction in ratings on the 2016 Elections, ask yourself what happened in previous years. After all, for every 4 years, there exists a Presidential election. Obama vs. Romney actually had a reduced voter count from 2012 versus 2008. I didn't quite hear the NFL or WWE crying about their ratings numbers due to the Election season then... So why not? Well, this election has a former first lady, Hillary Clinton, possibly becoming the 1st ever female President of the United States. Her opponent? A billionaire who has been a celebrity in the public eye for the last 30 years. Donald Trump is outspoken, carries a rich guy swagger, charismatic, and he has the guts to do or say anything. He is a legit A-Lister celebrity and he was bold enough to run for President when the other candidates were former Governors or were in Congress. FOX, CNN, and MSNBC 24 hour Cable TV numbers are through the roof.

RAW is just NOT appealing with Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins as its top guys while part-time Brock Lesnar isn't helping. Meanwhile, the show-runner and consistent Authority figure Stephanie McMahon is NOT DRAWING.

But you'd figure that the rest of the show would be there, right? Have you seen that Cruiserweight Division? Could we stop jobbing out Bayley, please? Pretty sure that she has paid a lot of dues on NXT... Tag team division is New Day and ? Can you get me the milk carton that asks where the rest of the missing division is? And way to go with that Sheamus/Cesaro feud... The have a great 7th match and the best we can do following that is a Tag Team that has no chemistry?

RAW STINKS... Plain and simple. The past 12 months are easily the most depressing WWE product that I have ever seen in my life and I lived through the mid-1990s.

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Mr. Tito's PHAT WWE Hell in a Cell Predictions

"You'll have to excuse me as I plaster on a fake smile and plow through this sh** one more time!" -Bill Hicks

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I always laugh when some of my repeat trolls try to mock my predictions. For one, I'm not in WWE Creative Meetings. What they decide on the day of the event, as it's well documented that they are booking daily on the fly, is out of my control. I give you my opinion on WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN based on my tastes while I attempt to predict WHAT WILL HAPPEN based on the trends I'm seeing with the storyline. If I'm wrong on a prediction, I don't care... In fact, I'd rather have a WWE that wasn't predictable.

By the way, I only see FOUR matches listed WWE.com (unless I'm blind)... I'm wondering where the criticism of this event is compared to Smackdown's Backlash that had just a few matches booked beforehand. Seems like the Internet is quicker to bash Smackdown than RAW. Smackdown has a much thinner roster and yet it maximizes its talent much more than RAW.

Anderson/Gallows vs. Enzo/Big Cass
Should be an entertaining match. I just have a continuous worry that Anderson and Gallows just aren't fitting into the WWE like AJ Styles or Nakamura have. Personally, I would have placed them on the Smackdown roster as AJ Styles's muscle. They need to make a bigger impact as badasses and do less sports entertainment (like the doctor crap). A big win this Sunday could make a difference although with the WWE striving to make the New Day BEAT Demolition's tag title record, there really isn't much to win here.

WHO SHOULD WIN / WHO WILL WIN: Enzo & Big Cass. They are the more "over" of the two.

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US Title: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Rusev
Eh, I'm getting tired of this match-up. It's basically the heavier Rusev, who is in superb aerobic shape, carrying Reigns on his back for a match. Seriously, just watch the energy levels of each wrestler in this match. There HAS to be something physically wrong with Roman Reigns for him to be sucking wind so much during his matches. And he played football, too! How can he get so winded? Anyway, my prediction to this match is somewhat dependent on what I think happens in the WWE Universal Title match. In other words, loser of this match moves on to the WWE Universal Title feud.

WHO SHOULD WIN: Roman Reigns. Midcard is the perfect place for him.

WHO WILL WIN: Rusev. Why? Because Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns will be the next feud for the Universal Title.

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Women's Title: Sasha Banks (c) vs. Charlotte
Hopefully, these two have learned that "less is more" and do not attempt stupid stunts like what we saw in their SummerSlam 2016 match. Let the CAGE do the storytelling... Have we ever seen a female rub her opponent's face on the cage walls like a cheese grater? Nope... And sell that Charlotte cannot escape the cage or rely on Dana Brooke for help. Easy to sell... But PLEASE do not let either one drop from the top of the cage. No thank you. Safety first.

WHO SHOULD WIN / WHO WILL WIN: Sasha Banks. Too much title inflation here with many, many title switches between the 2. I vote for stability and I believe we'll see that with Sasha retaining.

Know what would be a cool ending, though? Sasha has the match won and Nia Jax arrives, rips the cage door off like Kane's debut from Badd Blood 1997 (first ever Hell in a Cell match), and costs Sasha the match. I've said it for a while now... Let Nia Jax be the muscle for Charlotte and thus the struggle will be Bayley/Sasha going up against Jax/Charlotte/Brooke... And then Emma joins the fold. Not bad...

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WWE Universal Title: Kevin Owens(c) vs. Seth Rollins
I just don't know about this match-up... I don't know how the WWE internally feels about Kevin Owens as World Champion and there still exists the Triple H factor. HHH has yet to appear since helping Owens win the Universal Title. In my opinion, the confusion and uncertainty over that angle has hurt Seth Rollins as a character. Is he a heel, as he still tries to sympathize with Stephanie McMahon. Or is he a babyface as he goes up against Owens/Jericho. My thinking is that the WWE might try to STACK Survivor Series and pull the trigger on a big match-up.

WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN / WHAT WILL HAPPEN: Kevin Owens wins or there will be a No Contest due to Triple H interfering. This will set-up Seth Rollins vs. Triple H at Survivor Series 2016.

SO JUST CHILL... 'TIL THE NEXT EPISODE!

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