Tuesday WSX rating

Vince135792003

0.99. Very interesting.

Fozzy

Tis indeed. The second week is always the most interesting, as people will either tell their mates to watch, or they won't bother watching themselves

I wouldn't be surprised to see it overtake ECW at all. MTV is obviously a bigger and better known channel than Sci-Fi, and a good part of the ECW audience might be more interested in WSX, as ECW really does sound dull. As bad as I thought WSX was, at least it had stuff happening!

Vince135792003

Thats the thing. It got a 1.0 on the same night as ECW and on its debut.

I watched the WSX show just now. I enjoyed it. Again its hard to judge it like a "typical" wrestling show because well it isn't one.

But for a half an hour it never once bored and I enjoyed it. It had a different feel to it that I liked and it was just fun to watch. I think 30 minutes is perfect for it. 60 minutes of it or even 2 hours might be a little bit much for me.

Again if they were on ppv or were running house shows you'd have to judge it differently. But right now they aren't. So as a stand alone show I thought it was refreshing.

Stalfos

I thought it was very good too for a MTV show. I couldn't see a single thing i didn't like about the whole show as i expected it to be way over the top. As for an actual wrestling show, i couldn't really compare it to anything i've ever seen before. They did get the rite wrestlers for the job though. I couldn't see a technical or a long drawn out match ever happening though. I just wonder if watching a spot feast all the time will become boring though.

Vince135792003

Stalfos wrote:

. I just wonder if watching a spot feast all the time will become boring though.

I don't think it will. The fact that the show is only 30 minutes helps.

Mr.Nice Guy

I don't see this lasting long. Teddy Hart said in an interview the other day that he's as good as gone when his contract is up (I think he said it was up in March).

He was saying the place could become a feeding ground for the WWE.

I see it attracting those disillusioned with the ECW product and those casual fans who can't be bothered to watch a technical wrestling match unfold but I'd be very surprised if this show becomes a big hit.

Vince135792003

Its an alternative approach to wrestling programmings and its refreshing to me. If they maintain or grow their audience, I'm sure they'll get another series. But if I was gonna bet on it being around in 10 years time, I'd say no.

What I like about it though is that it has the guts to put a new slant on wrestling programming. It didn't try to be like WWE tv which TNA does too to their cost in my opinion. JR once said in his blog in reference to TNA that "you cant "out-WWE" WWE".

WSX offered something different and by doing that I think it could be successful at least in the short term.

And by getting a 1 in its debut week going up against ECW and being an hour later than TNA now airs (although we''ll have to see where the rating goes from here) is a statement in itself.

Minto

I just watched it and I must say it wasn't too shabby. I was expecting to see constant weapon use and some fairly sh*tty wrestling, but thats not what I saw. The WSX Rumble was alright for what it was, but the explosions and electricity crap was a bit over the top. Also, they seem to be going to do something with piranahs (spell?) in a future episode according to the end of the show, again a bit OTT.

All in all, i'd say it watch this space, cos it could get better (or worse unfortunatly).

Off-topic: With MTV doing a wrestling progra, I assume that their relationship with MTV is over. Does anyone know what happened?

Fozzy

Minto wrote:

Off-topic: With MTV doing a wrestling progra, I assume that their relationship with MTV is over. Does anyone know what happened?

You mean MTV and WWE? As far as I can remember, the last WWE show on MTV was Tough Enough, about 3 or 4 years ago. I think they just dropped it cos of the ratings. So their relationship has been over for a good while, unless I'm forgetting something

Minto

Yea, sorry I meant WWE and MTV. I thought is just fizzled out like that alright, thanks!

Vince135792003

The .99 was reported incorrectly. Here is the up to date info:

WSX .78 rating with 945,000 viewers.
TNA .99 rating with 1.2 million viewers.
From www.f4wonline.com

A little less impressive but still a strong initial number.

Same old story for TNA.

Fozzy

Interesting news this week. WSX got a 0.7 for their second episode, which I've heard was actually better than the first week, I haven't watched it yet. Meanwhile TNA got a 1.1, but had 1.6 million viewers overall, which is the most viewers they've ever had. It'll be even more interesting next week to see how they do with their Monday night special

Vince135792003

Also, prior to this the WSX new episode "secretly aired" on the Friday at 11 before its "official slot" on Tuesday getting a .4. It won't be happening this week with Tuesday being the first run of the show.

Fozzy

I watched it last night, and I'll admit that it was a bit of an improvement on the first week. The matches were obviously edited severely, but what they showed was decent. The Dragon Gate lads were their usual deadly selves, but it was as if they were wrestling a normal match that they had to fit into 6 minutes, or whatever it was. Vampiro and 6-Pac were better than I'd have expected out of them. I wouldn't mind seeing those matches unedited, as they were probably pretty good

The thing that I have to say I enjoy about the show is the fact that they use the wrestling to get over the wrestlers. There's some promos, but they're kept short and to the point. The wrestling wasn't as over-the-top as last week's show, which was nice. But the commentary would wreck your head

Double C

Just watched the new one there, how hasn't that ring announcer been lynched yet? Apart from that one guy, its a really entertaining show. I love the gimmick they have for Matt Classic (Cabana). It will be cool to see him on tv.
I noticed the Filth and the Fury used the TNA song Adrenaline Rush as their entrance music, and Teddy Hart used the Canadian Destroyer. He must be paying royalties to TNA
Good to see Sparta get some exposure too, even though At the Drive In were WAY better!
I expected to hate this when I heard of it first, but hey, its better than TNA!!

Double C

PWInsider.com:

In the midst of major shakeups within the network's executive end, MTV has pulled the fourth episode of MTV Wrestling Society X from next week's scheduled airing at 10:30 PM.

While the actual yanking of the episode was due to an issue with the MTV's standards and practices department, sources claim that the network is also trying to change their strategy moving forward, both with WSX and other first-run programming. A program titled "Scarred" will run next Tuesday in WSX's usual timeslot.

The pulled WSX episode was slated to feature the debut of IWA Puerto Rico star Ricky Banderas, during which he would throw a fireball into WSX champion Vampiro's face. MTV initially approved the storyline and stunt when it was filmed during WSX's taping in Los Angeles. Once the network received and reviewed the episode, the decision was made to not allow it to air due to concerns over children possibly recreating the stunt. Since the fireball angle was one of the company's main storylines for the length of their episodes, the situation went back and forth within the network and has yet to be resolved, thus the pulling of the episode.

In a January interview with PWInsider.com, Wrestling Society X producer Kevin Klinerock discussed the MTV issues with producing a product that would feature violent stunts, commenting, "The biggest issue that standard and practices, and everyone at MTV has - and it's understandable. The concern is, 'How easy is it for some kid, some viewer, to replicate what they are seeing?' They don't want us swinging light tubes. Understood. An exploding casket, however, is not seen in the same light on the same scale of sheer violence of swinging a light tube; a kid's not going to be able to get an exploding casket in their backyard. That's their concern. It doesn't come from a sake of wanting or not wanting something to be seen on television, they have real series concerns. They've lived through a number of lawsuits from kids watching and imitating "Jacka**" and similar things, and it's just their set of standards that the entire network lives by. It doesn't matter if it's a wrestling show or "The Real World." It's just a standard of rules that everyone has to live by. "The standard [MTV uses] is how easy is it for someone to replicate it. That's what we have to look at when it comes to stunts and violence. It's not a whitewash WCW using cotton candy as weapons by any stretch of the imagination. It's definitely got your mix of extreme and your mix of entertaining in-ring high flying action. We give a little bit of each in each episode, the extreme violence and the excellent high flying technical in-ring wrestling. I think we accomplish that. Most episodes were laid out that way."

Additionally, MTV as a network is in a major state of flux at the moment with ratings for their original programming down across the board. In response, parent company Viacom has let go of 250 employees in the last several days including several high ranking executives, with some given two week notices and other departments being completely shut down.

Among those fired according to today;s edition of entertainment trade publication The Hollywood Reporter was Paul DeBenedittis, who held the position of Executive Vice President of "multiplatform programming, content strategy and scheduling at MTV", was among those fired. DeBendittis was responsible for MTV's programming decisions, including placing WSX up against WWE's ECW on Sci Fi.

Sources claim the network is re-evaluating the programming currently airing on the network. Its possible that moving forward, WSX may be moved to another timeslot to get it away from the competition of ECW.

When asked whether the series was in danger of being canceled after garnering just a 0.5 rating this week, WSX sources noted MTV had already paid for the production of the 10 filmed episodes and that it wouldn't make sense for the network to not air what they had already invested in.

As of now, those sources indicate that Wrestling Society X is scheduled to return on Tuesday 2/27 at 10:30 PM, although that could conceivably change as things evolve from the standards and practices end.

Heres the clip that got it pulled

It's a shame, they were building things up well as an alternative to WWECW.

Fozzy

I don't understand why they can't show a fireball on a show that's not real, but they can show much worse stuff on shows that are real, like Jackass. Looks like another case of wrestling being victimised