Anyone who says wrestling is more popular than ever was born in the mid 90s or later. Forget ratings. If I go outside right now and show 1000 random people pictures of wrestlers, I'd bet maybe 1-2 would be able to identify someone (other than Jericho) who currently wrestles. During the Attitude Era, my middle school was a sea of wrestling shirts, we all had the figures, our parents watched it... You could go to Walmart and it would be nothing but wrestling shirts. Wrestling is more profitable than ever, but it's not very popular at all with a mass audience.
I was born in 98, started watching in 06 and I can clearly see that wrestling isn't as popular. One time you would hear people talking about wrestling in school, barbershops and other casual settings. Now, wrestling discussions are mostly restricted to its online community. As they say, this is gaslighting at its finest.
You’re ignoring the larger worldwide reach, the increased amount of younger viewers, the increased amount of female viewers etc. It’s not as cult like between 18-30 year old men as it was before but overall it’s more popular/viewed. The world is more populated for a start.
I think because there is more media coverage for wrestling via social media and RU-vid etc that people assume it's more popular than ever. If we had social media and RU-vid during the Attitude era wrestling would be trending a lot more than it does now.
I tried telling people who swore Daniel Bryan winning the championship at WrestleMania 30 was a big boom period for pro wrestling even with evidence that it wasn't They argued "But his match got record views on Twitter and RU-vid" That doesn't mean drawing Lots of marks equate reactions and views online as a draw That's why when you show evidence that the Miz , R Truth and Bray Wyatt outsold Daniel Bryan before and after WrestleMania 30 they claim you're a mark and hate anyone who is a "good in ring worker" despite I am a huge Daniel Bryan/Bryan Danielson fan
@thepubknight6144 You are correct because once 2015 hit, the hype from 2014 died down. Heck, the 2010s, in general, was not a good decade for WWE. Early 2016 was awful, 2017 was forgettable, 2019 was horrible, 2020 was horrendous, and 2021 was terrible. Has it gotten better in the past 2 years? Yes. But we are still a long way off from the late 90s/early 00s days.
I wouldn't say more popular than ever but it is in a very good position right now. They always maintain a consistent tv audience which is great when competing against NFL games on Monday nights, they are the 10th most subscribed channel on RU-vid, and the Netflix is gonna make WWE accessible in UK and Latin America. We can see the next boom pretty soon.
The last part is facts! Thing is that due to this accesibility in social media, wrestling is indeed more popular outside the States. Once more people have more access to weekly shows, the change will be evident
What type of crack are you smoking? WWE has *always* been accessible in the UK. Or have you never heard of SummerSlam '92? Ditto Latin America. WWE has had television contracts over there for many years. Do you *really* think that WWE has Spanish announcers just for the sake of a few Puerto Ricans living in New York? For crying out loud, *NEW ZEALAND* has been receiving WWE programming since the company was call the WWF in the '80s! Netflix means nothing. There is plenty of other stuff to watch on Netflix. People aren't going to start watching wrestling just because Netflix picks it up. Put down the crack pipe, please. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-l60MnDJklnM.html
Wrestling sells well but it’s hell no mainstream at all, especially when you compare the attitude era. Except hardcore fans, nobody knows who’s Kenny omega if you ask a random.
Absolutely true. Omega could walk through any shopping centre in Canada and go largely unnoticed. Even if you mention most WWE wrestlers...blank stares. A lot of kids don't even know of John Cena. People forget that Cena is 47. He's from the previous generation of entertainers--and I defy anyone to name one John Cena vehicle (i.e. a film in which he was the driving star, not just a supporting player) that didn't flop. Most wrestling fans live inside a bloody echo chamber--it's embarrassing.
In my opinion, Wrestling goes in cycles. 1984: Hulkamania & Starcade '83 1996: Austin 3:16 & the nWo 2008: Cenation & TNA X-Division 2020: Birth of Bloodline & Birth of AEW, (Unfortunately the pandemic hit) Usually by the 4th year Wrestling hits it peak.
Great video Dave, having lived through many “eras” of wrestling, it is nowhere near as popular as it has been in the past, that ship has sailed and everybody who likes wrestling now should just be happy that there is lots available to choose from, and many ways to find it. people need to remember wrestlers and wrestling companies are carnies at heart, never take their hype too seriously
I would say no it’s not as mainstream as it used to be. The ratings have never been lower on TV and a lot of people I talk to think wrestling is stupid
The answer is no. But the IWC will try to gaslight you into believing it is. When you look at other TV shows & sports, ratings are either consistent or up like the Superbowl example you used. While wrestling ratings are down across the board. Or specifically, not what they used to be.
Hell no 😂 for those of you that weren’t around for Monday night wars,listen…If you weren’t watching then there was something wrong with you! People that never gave a fuck about wrestling were watching regularly. Austin shirts,nwo shirts,Dx shirts were everywhere.
In the 80's people commonly used to reference guys like Hogan, Savage, Dibiase ect. and even wrestlers like Hillbilly Jim and the Bushwackers. I'm not aware of anyone I know even knowing who Cody Rhodes or Roman Reigns is.
@@DaveKnowsWrestling Well, it's actually not sad at all that your average young person doesn't know Cody Rhodes and Roman Rings. WWE sucks, so it warms my heart whenever I see young folks ignoring WWE in favour of going to a classic movie, visiting the ballet or spending time reading a book somewhere.
There is way more tv, entertainment and media in general competing for viewership today than in 98. Most people also have access to the internet to occupy their time, which wasn't the case in 98, back then if you missed a show you probably weren't going to be able to see it again, now if you miss it you can see whenever you want. A lot of people just watch through highlights/clips rather than watch the whole show on TV. All of this contributes wrestling "not being as popular as it once was". Considering everything I just mentioned it's doing damn fine.
Good point. People tend to forget how different things are today compared to 1998, for example. That's like comparing cellphones from the 80s to cellphones today. It's not even close to being similar.
Total crap. The net was already common in the late '90s. I hear that "there are more things competing, blah blah blah" excuse so often, it's garbage. No, no, no. We had a tonne of cable channels in the 1990s, just like today. We had *more* cinemas in the 1990s than we have now. In my city, we had far more live music venues in the 1990s than we do now. So, that "more entertainment options these days" thing is rubbish. All that's happened is that some options have replaced others. Like I've said elsewhere, talk to the person on the street. He or she likely has no idea about wrestling. Here's another thing to consider: people worked harder back in the 1930s, had less "free time" as they say, there was The Great Depression, yet some wrestling shows would draw more than 30,000 people, a trend that continued through to the 1960s. Additionally, more people watched on television. But again, ask the person on the street. There's your answer.
@@markv1274 Only thing I disagree with is the notion that the net was common. Not everyone had a computer back in the day because they weren't a necessity like they are nowadays. If you grew up in the country like I did, you didn't have good internet reception like those in the city.
@@markv1274 Oh boy, you really wrote this? The internet was not common and was not as accessible to the majority of the population in the 90's, stop with the lie saying it was. There's way more channels and streaming services today than in the 90's, hell streaming services weren't even a thing back then. So we had more cinemas and venues in the 90's, but a much lower population, here's the real kicker: the majority of people who were watching Raw and Nitro had to either go to school or work in the morning so who the hell was going to a movie and/or concert on a Monday night when they had to get up early? They weren't, they were at home watching wrestling. Going to the movies/music concert has always been a weekend thing, hence why new movies release on the weekend and the biggest music shows are on the weekends. In the late 90's if you walked around in the mall or basically any public place, schools even, you would see a shit ton of Austin 3:16 shirts as well as others, today not so much. Yeah, I'll walk down the street and ask a random person if they know wrestler A or wrestler B, they won't because of the many reasons I listed, if I did this in the 90's you bet your ass they'll know some wrestlers because it was a giant fish in the much smaller pond of entertainment/tv/media than that of today. This concept shouldn't be this hard to understand, but there are some that just can't comprehend. *Mic drop*
My notion is basically your take expect I didn’t know the numbers of ratings. Wrestling is getting more buzz than it has in years and WWE is printing money right now but being alive during the Attitude Era and the Monday Night Wars, you couldn’t escape wrestling. I mean that’s part of the reason why Dwayne Johnson is where he is at now.
No wrestling isn't more popular. Too many fans from decades past have been run off. But it is more accessible then ever I think fans get mixed up between the two. Live attendance is breaking records but media viewership is way down from a few decades ago.
Wrestling is definitely not more popular than ever i do think wwe especially has started to penetrate the mainstream more so than in the last bunch of years but no where near 2000 when as you point out the wrestler was the celebrity I think between the bloodline story the rock and the regime change some fans have come back but i dont think we'll ever be back in the attitude era when wrestling popularity wise was maybe at it's all time peak
And that's OK. As an Attitude Era kid, I think we need to look forward and not back. I think our generation is very nostalgic for the past because the world today sucks. So, we love going back to when life was simple and not complicated like it is today.
Great video, as always, Dave. I will say that I agree with you on the notion of wrestling not being as popular as it was when I was a kid in the 90s. That being said, I can understand why other fans say that it is more popular compared to recent years. Furthermore, how many of those people who were watching back then were actual fans rather than just watching it because it was the cool thing to do at that time? My controversial take is that wrestling was just a fad during our childhood days that fizzled out by the time that the Monday Night Wars were over. Like any other fad, it was cool for the time being, but once it's over, then that's it. Now, am I saying that wrestling(particularly WWE) will never be as popular as it was in the past? Yes & No. There is not going to be another Ruthless Aggression Era, let alone Attitude Era of WWE. But that doesn't mean it won't become popular in the future. As they say in wrestling, never say never.
I don't think that wrestling is more popular than what it was in the attitude era of the 1990s or the golden era of 1980s. But it does seem that it is much more popular than what it was in the last decade. While some may argue that this is a low bar to attribute success to, after so many years of hearing how wrestling is on the decline it can only be positive if it is moving in the right direction. Whether this could be sustained is another question altogether. I hope that wresting as a whole continues to rise in popularity. I'm not saying that it will become the attitude era 2.0 but it could become something in a decade or so that a lot more people will look back fondly for all the moments that it creates.
Same thing I was saying. I think we can agree that the Attitude Era and even the Ruthless Aggression Era were some unique times to be a wrestling fan. No matter how popular wrestling will be, it will never go back to how things were. But that's OK. No Era of Wrestling is the same as another.
If you interact with WWE on tiktok, you'll even notice they use a ridiculous amount of comment bots. I don't even think it's popular on social media. When a 'topic trends' you will never see it surpass 3000 tweets under it. The average wrestling trending topic has 1200 tweets (and that number is questionably high) In any other popular fandom, you're not trending till its like 15-20k and up.
Don’t be fucking ridiculous. 1985 to 1992 and 1997 to 2001 was when WWE was at its most popular periods. Back then people who weren’t even wrestling fans knew who Hogan, Bret Hart, Taker, British Bulldog, Randy Savage, Ultimate Warrior, Steve Austin, The Rock, all were. You used to see a lot of ads for wrestling and WWE on TV, now you don’t. That’s why when people who aren’t fans talk about wrestling they still call it WWF, because ever since it’s been called WWE, that’s when the popularity started to decline. People should know when wrestling is truly popular, because people who aren’t fans can name the current wrestlers, but people don’t fucking know who Roman Reigns or Cody Rhodes are. People see Reigns at the airport and they think he’s Jason Momoa.
Here in Australia, Paul Roma appeared on an ad selling Toyota cars. Yes, *PAUL ROMA!* *That* is how popular wrestling was in the 1980s. The *curtain-jerker* had an ad selling Toyota cars in *Australia!* ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-R-PGSxG21Lo.html (I thought Roma was amazingly talented, by the way, so not knocking him, yet he *was* a curtain-jerker at the time.) I've never seen Roman Rings or Toady Rhodes advertise anything in this country, despite the fact that WWE has held big shows here. More people at the shows, yet far fewer are watching on television.
There's a Japanese wrestling movie that was released several years ago, MY DAD IS A HEEL WRESTLER. The film has a character who works in an office, she's a big wrestling fan. One of the jokes in the movie is that she is obsessed with certain wrestlers, obsessed with wrestling in general. Yet guess what? Nobody else in the office has any clue who she is talking about when she mentions particular wrestlers. She responds to this with a moronic level of indignation. Think about it: even the makers of a Japanese wrestling movie were aware that most people have no idea about wrestling. I've thrown names of current Japanese wrestlers to Japanese people, the response is typically a shake of the head, and "Sorry, I don't know this one!" For anyone out there who thinks that wrestling is a big deal, let the above sink in. It's not even a big deal in a country known for taking wrestling seriously.
That moron Melter rambles on about "key demo this...uh...uh...key demo that...uh...I have a head like a jug...gargoyle face...I eat whole onions out of Kenny Omega's bunghole...uh...uh...things changes, plans change...uh...uh...key demo...uh..." and so on. Meltzer, by the way, has never worked in television. As for wrestling these days, it's terribly unpopular.
in a world wide sense yes it is. People in china and UAE now watches it. That didnt happen in the 90's thru 2010. WWE youtube has over 100 million subs.
@@DaveKnowsWrestling if there is more people "globally" that knows about it..... how is it by definition not more popular? If you are strictly talking about views/viewers in america than yea its not popular. But if you are talking about "popular" as in more people knowing what it all over the globe. I would say its more popular than it was in the 90s or 2000s
Being aware of something is different than popular in this context. Lapse fans still know what WWE is. But furthermore, you're assuming people in those countries didn't know what WWE was before it was available to watch. Secondly, you also assume the viewership in those countries is high enough to make up the deficit
Wrestling has always been popular, but it's always had a niche audience. The WWF ratings were down for most of the 90's until The Attitude Era where it became popular again with the mainstream viewers for the first time since Hulk Hogan in the mid to late 80's and early 90's, but this was only just for a few years. Then it went back to the mediocrity again that it's been for the last 23 years, ever since WCW died. The mass audience went away again, and only the die hard fans stuck around.
80th most popular show on TV in 2023 (Raw) is not more popular than ever. 1 successful promotion and a bunch of indies, record low name recognition of major stars, WWE uses this propaganda to break deals.
@@lancethefilmguy9392 It's a winning strategy in board rooms with investors that have never watched wrestling, but when fans who don't benefit from it what so ever parrot it, they're being obtuse and gain nothing.
Raw, a show that went from 5 million viewers 20 years ago to 3 million 10 years ago to a million nowadays, Meanwhile Monday Night Football and NCAA College basketball kills Raw in the ratings so you cant even say its all cord cutters. So no, Wrestling isnt more popular, its just more of the tv audience is showing up to live events
HECK NO!! IT ABSOLUTELY IS NOT!! IT'S IMPROVING TO BE SURE, HOWEVER PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING WILL NEVER BE AS POPULAR AS IT WAS IN THE 1980'S-LATE 1990'S! NEVER! DEFINITELY NOT AS GOOD!
In India, wrestling's popularity might be at its lowest in the mainstream. Any random Indian can easily recognize John Cena and Undertaker. Many young indians can even recognize Roman Reigns, Dean And Seth. But it would be very rare if someone recognizes anyone who debuted after them. No one really knows about Cody Rhodes here
In my opinion , Wrestling is going through an Artistic Renaissance ,but not a popularity Renaissance. cause TV culture is SO different from 1999. and also Pro Wresting is no longer destination programming since the end of The Monday Night Wars and because there's so many options for people 14-39 now. and also Wrestling at it's greatest heights (Bruno, Hogan,Austin/Rock) always reflected its culture. it doesn't now
@@markv1274 definition:a revival of or renewed interest in something. (You ever read a fucking dictionary?) TL:DR during the the late 2010's they're was this indie groundswell of just all types of Wrestling especially in California, where it became this Hipster things with groups like PWG Lucha Voom ,Joey Ryan's BarWrestling, and we had the Cult Promotions like Impact (with their Wacky-Ness/Broken Hardy stuff etc)Lucha Underground, ROH ,all this stuff that WWE didn't have a clue on. And then the whole Indie revolution happened. It's Pro Wrestling for a Fortnite /Tik Tok /Steaming world now. Where you can find ANY form of Wrestling you want. You want a TV show about Wrestling you got WWE. You love the Craft of Wrestling ,and Japanese strong style etc, you have AEW for that now.
Wrestling is not more popular than ever. I didnt have cable growing up so couldn't watch the Monday Night Wars in real time. But even back then it was in your face everywhere. Non wrestling fans knew Rock, Austin, Undertaker, Goldberg, the NWO, Mankind, Triple H, Edge and Christian, the Hardy Boyz. That isn't the case now. At best non wrestling fans know John Cena, CM Punk, and Roman Reigns from non atitude era stars. Wrestling, especially WWE is about the brand. Not the star. The brand makes money. And thats okay. But it doesn't mean the product is the best its ever been. I'll take Attitude Era and Ruthless Aggression era any day over what we have today.
My partner is Japanese. I've visited Japan several times. There isn't a single wrestling fan in her side of the family. I've talked to many Japanese people outside of the wrestling. They are in the dark when it comes to the names of the promotions, never mind the wrestlers. People still remember Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki, that's about it. Tell them about Kazuchika Okada--no idea. I'm fed up with non-Japanese people who have never been to the Tokyo Dome, maybe never even been to Japan, who think Kenny Omega is a big deal there. He really isn't.
Contrary to popular belief, WWE has always been available to an amazing number of countries. I'm guessing you're from either the United States or Canada. You'd be alarmed to know that the WWF (as it was then known) ran shows all across Europe, they visited Japan, visited Australia, and so on.
@@markv1274 I know that already. I'm referring more to their recent Saudi deal and PLEs. They may have toured many parts of the world but they never put on major ppvs in those countries as opposed to now barring a few shows.
Is wrestling going through a boom period? To a minor extent, yes. Is this boom period as great or greater than the boom periods of the past? Heeeeeeelllllllllllll no. Best way to look at it in my opinion.
In the US? Probably the Attitude Era and the 80s were better in that regard. Worldwide? Definitely yes. Not just cause of social media bumbers but because of how big of a reach it's gotten in the last 5 to 10 years, specially this decade. WWE weren't even thinking about doing PPVs outaide Canada and the US except for an UK one once every decade; now we've gotten three in the last three years in the UK (counting this year's Clash at the Castle), another one in France and another upcoming in Berlin; all this while teasing a Big 4 event in the future. And on top of that, AEW gathered 70-80k at Wembley Stadium last summer and will likely gather around 50,000 this year. Which imagine telling that to any company in the late 90s or the 2000s, let alone one not named WWF/E. TLDR: It's not in the US, but it's by far on a global scale.
@@DaveKnowsWrestling My point was outside North America, particularly in Europe. Also, the Korea show's attendance was made of people who were forced to watch it under threat of being killed by Kim Jong-Il's regime, so it's not comparable to what AEW did at Wembley (which were a paying audience) or even to what WWE was able to do in Wales for the first Clash at the Castle. The closest thing to it would be SummerSlam '92, and even then that wasn't followed up by any British PPV until One Night Only '97 (and for a stadium show we'd have to go to the aforementioned Clash at the Castle thirty years later); if we take the UK out of the equation I can't even remember the last PPV/PLE any major American company had put in Continental Europe prior to last month's Backlash in Lyon, which had one of the most passionate crowds I can remember in recent times. And to top it all off, they're doing another continental Europe PPV after Summerslam with Bash at Berlin. And as a continental European wrestling fan of 14 years, doing anything other than a House Show at this side of the pond (except for the UK) was unthinkable until two-three years ago (in fact, iirc the only non-house show event they've done was that time RAW was in Milan, and that was almost 20 years ago).
@@zoeloteroThat is an interesting perspective. I will say that since Triple H has taken over from Vince McMahon, WWE is slowing but surely getting better by the year. We might still be a long way from where we are going, but we are taking each day step by step in this new era
I’m not saying this to bash Cody Rhodes but the answer is it was before Cody beat Roman. Now it’s falling a bit from that. Partially because there’s always a dry spell after Mania, partly because Roman is the most popular wrestler they have.
(1) Your comment made me laugh. (2) There are very few shopping centres in Australia that you can look around in without seeing Taylor Swift's likeness printed somewhere.
