http://www.justin.tv/wrestling_lwhdtv#r=9EeSq0o

Showing ECW at 10pm EST so not until 3am here.

Cheers Michelle :)

You're welcome m'dear ;)

At it's best it's amazing physical drama in a one take, no stuntmen scenario involving some genuinly amazing athletics being used to tell a story as opposed to fight a contest. At it's worse it's fantastic comedy in that oh-so-bad-it's-good way.

The business is endlessly fascinating to follow. The real life characters that surround the industry are better than most fictional characters that grace TV shows.

I can understand the comedy value but can't see the drama really when it's populated by the hammiest of actors and followed - in America anyway- by either kids or hicks.

The best acting is done in the ring in front of tens of thousands without a retake. If you know someone in Hollywood who can pull that off better, give me their number because I have a makeshift ring out the back I have been waiting to use.

Kids will always like wrestling. Hicks also love Boxing, motorsports and Deadliest Catch. That does not mean they are the only audience who watch those products.

Before WWE's recent switch to a PG rating, Monday Night Raw's core demographic was upmarket 18-24 year olds.

I'll name you one anyway.... the great Mickey Rourke. Have you seen The Wrestler? Magnificent film.

All you have to do is look at the stadiums they play to in the States and the people in the crowd and you'll know what I'm talking about: rednecks or children. Yes, hicks love other sports too, but I'm just saying that a large proportion of the people who follow wrestling religiously would be classified as such. Or, as I said, kids. It's the fanaticism that I'll never understand.

Are you being serious? Mickey Rourke did not wrestle professional wrestling matches during The Wrestler. He shot them in the manner movie action scenes are shot. They didn't focus a hard camera on him and show him having a full thirty minuet match will all associated building of tension and drama without any cutaways, did they?

I have been watching the product for ten years. I have a very, very good idea of who you would find in a wrestling crowd. Thousands of 'regular people' - whoever the hell they are. Hicks? Yes. Children? Yes. Just like any other spectator sport event in any other corner of the globe.

Most people who follow it religiously are nerds, the socially alienated and societies oddballs. Yours truley being case in point.

Don't be dissing Rourke in my company please lol. He was a boxer so I'm sure it wouldn't have been too much of a stretch for him.

I'll just never understand the fascination with it that's all, or the sub culture that's developed from it. Sure you get a mix of people who get interested in any form of entertainment and the organizers will plan their schedule accordingly, but for the most part they play in the south or midwestern area of the U.S.A - the YEE Haww states, as I like to refer to them.

The only simmilarities boxing and wrestling share is that they involve athletes, rings and fixing.

What are you basing these findings of yours off? Do you conduct surveys in your spare time? Like I already said, Monday Night Raw's key demographic was upmarket 18-24 year olds. WWE put on shows all over America and the world with no bias to particular regions. The fact that hicks seem to have a serious hard on for 'rasslin is just .. well ... just what it is. Knackers have a hard on for dog breeding. Is that an entirely fair, balanced representitive of the dog breeding culture?

Now for some wiki action ...

Royal Rumble 2008 - Detroit, Michigan
No Way Out 2008 - Seattle, Washington.
WrestleMania XXV - Houston, Texas.
Backlash 2008 - Providence, Rhode Island.
Judgement Day 2008 - Rosemont, Illinois.
Extreme Rules 2008 - New Orleans, Louisiana.
The Bash 2008 - Sacramento, California.
Night Of Champions 2008 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Summerslam 2008 - Los Angeles, California.
Breaking Point 2008 - Montreal, Quebec.
Hell In A Cell 2008 - Newark, New Jersey.
Bragging Rights 2008 - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Survivor Series 2008 - Washington D.C.
Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2008 - San Antonio, Texas.

I'm actually looking at where they're playing this year and the line up is predominantly the midwest or south, plus the British Isles, with a few gigs in California too.

They obviously stop off in other big states but there's far more being performed in the south and middle.

If you are looking at the next set of dates they always follow along a certain route. Like bands do, for instance. They will reach the north in due course. The lack of zig zagging up and down the country I'm guessing saves them quiet a lot of gas and ****.

http://www.wwe.com/schedules/events/

Seems perfectley fair to me. Besides which the PPV list I posted above are the most important, marquee events of the year. Meaning the most important television and business wise. The vast majority of which are in the north.

Yep, that's what I'm reading too. You have to admit though, places like Texas, Tennessee and Louisiana get hit a fair few times a year. And, lets not forget, hicks can be found everywhere in the States. Every state has them, just like we do.

LOL at the old women on that link that michelle posted...

Apparently they used to be wrestlers :eek:

Is Mae Young one of them by any chance? :laugh:

And Fabulous Moolah is more than likely the other, and she is a wrestling legend, god rest her soul. :)

What do they look like now? In the bits?

Which sort of invalidates your point somewhat, given the lenghts you have gone to prove that WWE bias the touring towards the south. Every state has trendy young white middle class suburban dwellers too.

Did you see the huge chunk of dates in the California area right below that Texas spree?

Texas is a very large state, you know. The largest in fact. It makes sense to tour it a lot.

Yeah Gav says thats who they are. What messes :eek:

RIP Moolah I guess...

Yes, trendy young... that's the key. And anyway, I think you're overestimating their contribution here. By and large wrestling is derided in the more affluent areas of the States. My cousins and their friends can't stand the fecking show, as well as anybody else I've crossed paths with who doesn't wear a baseball cap and has a full set of teeth. I'm generalizing obviously but that's how I feel about it.

And California is a hugely populated area so they'd obviously go there.

They are both in their 80's :laugh: Well was in the case of Moolah of course.

Amazing really when you think about it!

Wrestling is derided everywhere. Your right, you are generalizing. To a scary degree. Not like you at all.

Your arguing from assumption and generalization, I'm arguing from the all too educated standpoint of being a passionate follower of the product and the business behind it for the past decade. Of course hicks contribute a lot but the main body of the audience is fairly ordinary people.

The USA Network don't want a show aimed at people driving pick up trucks that are fifteen years old. They have advertising space to sell and wrestling seems to work as a pretty stellar model to build a trendy, young to late twenties audience to flog **** to. It would not have been in a prime time slot every Monday night for the past 17 years had this not been the case.

Over 70% of the audience are over 18 years of age. That's from Nielsen, by the way. The dudes who compile rating information.

Hicks contribute hugely to this product, and it can be seen by the amount of touring they're doing in the south and midwest, which should be more difficult for people to get to compared to places that are most accessible and contain a larger population density.

Of course they're trying to revamp it but they still have the bible belt and midwest to fall back on. And as for young people following it - look at the state of the shitty films that Hollywood are producing. Same story. Anyway, I just don't get it. Never will.

*Yawn*

-WWE Corporate

But that's an online source.... goes out to the whole world. I was just talking about the States here.

No - It is just the States. Nielsen does not handle WWE rating business across the pond.

I doubt the Hispanic viewership outside the U.S. counts for ****. And it's nowhere near as popular with female viewers outside the States.