I get that John Cena is "their guy" mainly because the kids love him and he sells a ton of t-shirts. So they market their product to children, pretty much moving away from the 18-35 demographic. The last time wrestling was world wide popular was during the "Attitude Era" obviously marketing to adults. I know I'm not first to think of this but why not create 2 programs? Raw= Primetime, Flaming tables, Diva bra and panty matches, Middle fingers, Crotch chops, etc... Smackdown= Saturday morning, No blood, Doink the clown, no Randy Orton "punt kick finisher" Sell all the Fruity Pebbles and Rey Mysterio masks you want.
Well...there are a couple of reasons. First, people take their kids to WWE shows regardless. A good percentage of the audience is kids. During the Attitude Era, kids were doing crotch chops at school,and telling their classmates to suck it. Wrestling is, and always will be, something heavily attended by kids. For TV, you always go for the male 18-49 demographic, but that has never been the core audience at live wrestling events. Secondly, when you split your brand like you are suggesting, neither show does well. The two shows tend to cannibalize each other. Each show will do roughly half the ratings each show used to do individually. No company wants the reduction in advertising rates that come with that. There is a reason why the WWE abandoned the split brand concept a few years ago.
Pro wrestling was always a family oriented thing. Its suppose to be for the kids. I don't get why older fans don't get it. I always hear them complaining about how it's not like the old days, blah blah. Yea I mean, is there anything that stays the same as it once was? Honestly, I don't know if that would work this time around. I think we all liked it back then because it was edgy, different and cool. They had iconic characters. Fans around that time are all older so people may not like the same things they did back then. I know for sure I no longer follow wrestling like I once did. And I use to love it. Even when I tried watching the Rock comeback for wrestle mania or summer slam, I remember hearing the same ol punch lines he did and was thinking, hmm this isn't as great as I once remembered. In fact, it was kind of corny. The nostalgia was cool, but it didnt feel the same.
Pro wrestling is for kids. Thats how it should be. If you are 18-35 are you following the story? Its pretty dumb even during the attitude era.
I agree with most of your points. I think the brand extension didn't work because the talent wasn't equally split for one and two that's when they changed the product anyway. They didn't really treat it as two separate shows it was more like Raw the "a brand" and Smackdown "b brand" left over people from Raw.
Ahh... those were the good ol' days. My friends and I used to go backyard wrestling and re-enacted all those moves especially the Stone Cold Stunner