You know, this touches on something I've been thinking about for awhile now.
There seems to be a HUGE disparity between the fans that actually spend money on WWE through buying tickets and merch and PPVs, and the fans that just follow along on TV, with regard to what's popular.
The three people on the active roster (well, at least until tonight's injury) who get the most support from crowds by far are Punk, Ryder, and Orton. The crowd is always way into these guys, and it makes their matches better on TV because a lot of times for other guys the crowd can kinda die sometimes.
But yet they're all failing as ratings grabbers, at least recently.
Cena gets the third-biggest heat on the roster outside of Laurinaitis and Vickie. He also gets tons of support, but still, he's one of the very few people on the roster that any crowd will automatically boo lustily.
But yet he spikes the biggest ratings WWE gets on a weekly basis, not counting special stuff like Rock being on. The slight majority of the live crowd despises him, but he's the ONLY guy casuals tune in for.
Many Divas matches cause fans to sit on their hands or go for a bathroom break in the arena, but they spike ratings too. The non-paying fans at home WANT to see more Divas matches.
So now WWE has this conundrum. The tastes are split. There are millions more non-paying fans watching on TV than fans who paid to see the show, but the fans who paid to see the show are giving WWE a lot more money.
It's really a tough situation to balance, and I can't recall any other time in history like this.
--
Thank you, Eddie Guerrero.
http://bryandanielson.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/photo3.jpg