----The ratings are in and they don’t look bad. Memphis Wrestling moved to 10:00 PM last Saturday night [9.2.06] and it scored a 3.9 rating. That translates to 64,919.4 viewers watching wrestling that night. I have been covering the Memphis Wrestling TV show since 5.13.06, which was the date that this web site opened. I have all the data from then to now and there is no reason for me to look at anything else, as I could not speculate anything about shows that I don’t have full reports on. In the 16 weeks of this site, MW has average 3.7 rating [excluding last Saturday], which would make the 3.9 above average. The TV station told me that they were happy with the number and I am assuming that Cory Maclin and company are happy also. Did the number surprise me?? No, it did not. I looked for the numbers to be high the first few weeks, but if they do not deliver good shows [and they have been doing much better shows], then you will see the numbers drop.
----This is a perfect way for me to take a look at the ratings as a whole in a feature I had advertised as “Ratings & The Maclin”. I will give you the good, the bad and the ugly and show you how the ratings/gates sometimes don’t coincide. Please remember I am only dealing with data for the last 16 weeks building up to the time change.
-----The lowest rated show of the period was just two weeks ago for the 8.19.06 show with a 1.9 rating = 31627.4 viewers. This was almost half the normal viewer ship with the main event of Humongous vs Jerry Lawler, which I thought was a good show. The show the week before [8.12.06] that started the angle with Lawler piledriving Nate The Rat scored a 4.0 = 66,584 viewers. Did no one take Nate serious?? Did they not believe he was bringing someone in?? Maybe they just didn’t think they would continue with a storyline. Even with a 1.9 in the month of August, the show finished with average 3.4 = 56596.4 viewers per week.
----Just with that data, I have to believe I might have been wrong about my assessment of the importance of being on Memphis TV. I don’t take back anything I said in the article “Memphis Wrestling – Talent, Writing & The Egos”, but for me to say something like “If I was them, I would just start airing the old “Opening the Vault” full one hour shows and promote a “Legends” show every 3 months. Maybe then, some of the talent would migrate to other areas and get breaks that they deserve.” It was just being selfish and ignorant to the facts. How can any indy worker get exposure like this with over 50,000 people watching him in this area?? He can not. It can only be beneficial for the local workers to work the TV show. I am still not 100% happy with current storylines, but it has been much better.
----It also brings up a question that bugs me when I give results from around the area – if you got over 50,000 people watching you on TV why not do that gimmick?? I am not a mark for either the “Insane Clowns” or Mr. America gimmicks, but why do these guys wrestle as Pokerface and Chris Rocker at the local shows?? Why do guys work as heels on TV, but babys in the area?? None of that makes sense when you got that many people watching you on TV. When workers bitch about sites like this killing the business, they might want to take a look at themselves.
----So, does ratings = good gates?? May 13th Southhaven event with Lawler vs Burchill had a 3.9 [641919.4] TV rating and only 500 people in the crowd. 6.17.06 Legends show will be one of this year’s biggest gates. The two TV shows leading up to it both drew normal numbers. And finally, we go the July Southaven show that had only about 300 people there and no Jerry Lawler on the card. The 7.8.06 TV show that started the build up for the card had a 5.0 [83230 viewers] and the day of the show 7.15.06 it had a 4.2 [69913.2 viewers]. No one showed up at the arena to watch Koko Ware vs Maclin. The TV show after the July event even had a 4.4 [73242.4 viewers]. What does this all mean?? If you go by the ratings of the shows and the gates of the three events supplied, then you have to come to this conclusion – [Eddie Marlin told me this and I will probably tell you a million times] -- give the fans what they want to see and they come out. The marks “sort of “want to see the WWE stars, they WANT to see the legends and they could care less about Cory Maclin wrestling.
----I can’t believe I am typing this, but the ratings say this – Maclin helps with the ratings overall. His presence in the Koko Ware angle drew good ratings. No Lawler at all on that show. The fans are familiar with Maclin as an announcer whether I consider him bad or good. Lawler gives the arena events a little boost, but it doesn’t matter about him being on TV. The fans have just got use to him just being on there sometimes and sometimes he is gone to the WWE. My advice to Memphis Wrestling after looking at the facts would be to keep Maclin on TV and keep him out of the ring.
----Special thanks to my friend with the ratings. And, if you want to know what happened on the TV shows I am talking about, then just click on the dates and such.
