I mean, I'm starting to watch this show and I visit this page to see what discussions are taking place.... Yet there's nothing.
Is professional wrestling no longer popular in the States etc...?
Well, the last stars of the WWE were Dwayne Johnson and John Cena, that was like a decade ago. Now most male WWE wrestlers are scrubs who wouldn't have been allowed in the WWF for lack of star power and the women's division, consisting of mostly ugly chicks, features prominently now.
shareI haven't watched wrestling for years, but I remember the women's division used to have some top shelf hotties.
shareI doubt it will ever be as popular as it was in the late 90s and early 2000s. It was kind of a cultural phenomenon. You had the Monday Night Wars which was always fun to watch as you didn't know what was going to happen and it was high drama, it was PG-13 and appealed heavily to the 15-35 male demographic as it became more sexualized, and incredible/iconic wrestlers that fans loved who transcended other forms of media (TV, movies, talk shows). Social media doesn't help it either as results are announced immediately or can be leaked much more easily. Back then, you either had to go to a wrestling forum or wait until Monday night to see what happened at the PPV. I don't think the camera work is as good (sometimes it is hard for me to watch with all the zooming in) and the matches seems extremely choregraphed and less entertaining imo. Streaming also plays heavily into it. TV ratings mean very little as they used to because people have so many options now. 25 years ago you were way more limited in what you could watch.
However, WWE is still huge and doesn't need to be all these things anymore because is has essentially established itself as the king with AEW as the only competition. I think the tent pole events are still huge and widely popular, like Wrestlemania, but I doubt it will ever be as popular as it was.
Incorrect it is more popular now then it ever has been and is making a lot more money.
I suggest you do your home work and look at figures there is a reason why the company had a value of around 9 billion and 51% was sold to tko group for close to 4 billion.
WWE when it went public was worth around 150 million just after the era you mention.
I looked at ticket sales and TV ratings. Makes sense the company is much more valued now when it's the only major wrestling company around for the past 20 years and owns the tapes for all the past companies. Good investment.
Below is a link on ticket sales. I always thought the ability to convince someone to spend their hard earned money on fake "wrastling" was a good indicator of how popular it was.
https://wrestlenomics.com/2024/01/04/wwe-annual-attendance-trends-1996-2023/
Hey maybe you're right, but I don't hear people talk about it like they used to.