Welcome to another edition of The Pro Wrestling Post. This time we take a look at the debut of the WWE’s Saturday morning show and ratings from the Wrestlemania repeat.
Saturday Morning Slam does better than TUF
F4WOnline.com (subscription required) reports the debut episode of WWE’s Saturday Morning Slam garnered an average 1,126,000 viewers for a 0.7 rating. The CW series, dedicated toward kids, had a better rating average than most TUF episode on FX. It was the highest rating of all the shows on the new CW kids block.
Payout Take: A good sign for the WWE as the show should reach out to a younger segment and would extend the marketing reach of the WWE Universe. The head to head comparison to TUF may be unfair but is a comment on the brand awareness of each company.
Wrestlemania show on NBC does 2 million plus
FWOnline.com (subscription required) reports that Wrestlemania 28’s main event featuring The Rock vs. John Cena scored a 2.73 million viewer average. It also did a 0.9 rating in the 18-49 demo. The show was more a “music video” for the one hour it was on the NBC network. The rating is up from last year’s presentation. Although it went up against NFL preseason football, its rating was better than the UFC on Fox earlier this month.
Payout Take: The ratings could be based upon the Rock-Cena matchup. It is still a very good rating considering its placement (Saturday night primetime).
I didn’t think the WrestleMania special was a “music video” presentation like previous NBC WrestleMania airings in years past.
Half the show was the documentary footage of Rock and Cena from the “Once In A Lifetime” special and the other half was the Rock vs Cena match with a few edits here and there.
However, it was more or less the full match (and the only match from WM shown) with commentary; not a music video montage.