Vince McMahon was part of today’s WWE 2020 First Quarter conference call and discussed the decline of television viewership. Here is what McMahon said:
As far as television goes, Raw is off considerably but Smackdown is about even compared to the start of the year. He talks about the move to the Performance Center and that it’s a challenging environment but the company is trying to make it as special as possible. He talked about doing “mini-movies” like they did at WrestleMania to make the best out of the situation.
Vince said it’s a different atmosphere holding shows without an audience and everything they do is based on the audience so they need to be able to figure out ways to get creative, such as hearing wrestlers talk to one another. Vince re-iterated that it’s new for them and without an audience, it’s a completely different show. He again highlighted that Smackdown remains relatively unchanged and it’s only Raw that has suffered and he said that it’s because they have to bring new talents and performers for Raw and it takes time. He mentioned Brock Lesnar no longer being on Raw but he is confident that Raw’s ratings will bounce back.
