Losing Powerrr?
By Dennis DuBay
Four weeks ago the National Wrestling Alliance debuted it’s NWAPowerrr on streaming platforms Youtube, Facebook Live & Fite TV. The first week saw what can only be considered an amazing response to the show in viewership and praise. It was something new, something different, but at the same time so familiar and easy to connect with. The first show is sitting at 518,000 views. Like all shows (including NXT on USA, AEW on TNT, SmackDown on Fox), the NWA has had a hard time retaining that number, with episode two sitting at 299,000, episode three at 201,000, and last nights fourth episode generating 108,000 through it’s first 22 hours on youtube. On Facebook Live the numbers are lower (week one: 104k, week two: 51k, week three: 26k, week four: not released as of writing,).
Total Viewership:
Week one: 612,000
Week two: 350,000
Week three: 227,000
Week four: 108,000*
So why the loss of viewers, when for the most part, the show has received massive amounts of praise from both old fans and new fans?
Over saturation of the market and outside of wrestling competition
Powerrr debuted the same day as AEWDark, AEW’s creative way of packaging dark matches to the youtube crowd. AEW also debuted Dynamite on TNT a week before, while NXT moved to USA a few weeks earlier than that. Add to it the easily accessed independent wrestling shows found on streaming sites like IWTV and Fite TV, fans can watch wrestling on any given night anymore.
You can also point to Major League Baseball and the Fall Classic as a possible reason for the collapse in numbers - I know I’ve been watching a little more baseball than I had been, because of the World Series. It’ll be interesting to see the numbers next week when Baseball isn’t an issue.
Being that the show is OnDemand, however, leads one to think that live sports wouldn’t effect such a program. We have to remember that there’s only so many hours in a day, however, for entertainment.
Jim Cornette
While there are many obstacles in the way of NWAPowerrr, its biggest is the mouthpiece of the show. Jim Cornette is a genius when it comes to wrestling history, but his glasses are not adjusted to the future. And let’s not even get into the train wreck that is his twitter account. It has to be a character he’s playing - if it’s not, and he’s as abhorrent in real life, Billy Corgan and Dave Lagana would be better served to sever ties with Cornette now. He is costing the company new fans - the 18 to 49 year old fans, that a lot of promotions seek out for their television. Now, I’m not saying that that’s the demographic the company is seeking, I’m only saying that if it is, this could be a reason for the drop off in views. Obviously, not all - but he’s not helping them when he’s telling people to kill themselves on social media.
The positives
One thing Powerrr has that a lot of their competitors don’t, is the uniqueness of the studio. It’s almost another character on the show - it really puts the crowd right in the show. Some of my favorite moments through the first four episodes are the fans chants and roasts of the wrestlers they are enjoying. It’s such an intimate environment that the WWE or AEW cannot replicate in any possible way.
If it can continue to provide that quick, entertaining product every week, I believe you’ll see more fans clamoring to it. But I think Cornette needs to either delete his twitter, or Corgan and Lagana make a hard decision: Keep Cornette for historical reasoning, lose the viewership of the younger fan base due to Cornette’s inability to tread the line of political correctness.W Whatever they decide, I'll stick around for the ride. I appreciate the pride and effort the men and women in the ring are putting forth to give up on it altogether.