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WWE experience decline in TV ratings and ticket sales during Jinder Mahal’s title reign

A negative direction in the TV ratings was noted since the day Jinder Mahal became the number one contender for the WWE Championship.

By Raja

Bengaluru, May 27: It was an auspicious occasion for all the WWE fans of India when Jinder Mahal won the WWE Championship at Backlash, this past Sunday.

In case you don't know, he became the 50th overall WWE champion in the history of the company and the only second Indian to do so, next to Great Khali.

Jinder Mahal WWE Champion (Image courtesy: wwe.com)


However, the move of crowning Jinder with the title had some serious fallout among the USA natives. A negative direction in the TV ratings was noted since the day he became the number one contender for the WWE championship defeating five other established competitors.

It was a complete shocker, at that time. Jinder was nowhere to be found on Raw whereas he was taken to the main event spot just after landing on Smackdown Live.

In fact, he is the only one who became WWE champion without any official merchandise released by the WWE.

So, that wipes out the possibility of incrementing merchandise selling, for now. In addition, the decline in ratings has been a constant headache for them.

As stated by Dave Meltzer, the veteran wrestling journalist, the situation was worse for the Backlash PPV.



The event was hosted by the All-State Arena in Chicago, Illinois where the fans are extremely supportive to any sports. But, owing Jinder Mahal in the main event, WWE failed to sell out the arena on that night.

The arena has the capacity of 18000 whereas only 10000 tickets were sold, barely. It clearly indicates the fans of US are not willing to see Jinder as the prime title-holder, here.

Meltzer also pointed out that WWE has lost 500000 viewers for Smackdown on the night when Jinder became the number one contender.

The go home show for Backlash has witnessed 2.175 million viewers which were a record low for this year.



The good thing is even after tolerating all of these facts the creative gave green signal to crown Jinder with the championship. Plus, there was a slight improvement in ratings on the latest Smackdown episode.

It was headlined by Jinder' Punjabi celebration and garner more viewers than the previous one. So, the creative should wait for some more before finalising the deciding the fate of the WWE Championship.

OneIndia News

Story first published: Tuesday, August 8, 2017, 11:38 [IST]
Other articles published on Aug 8, 2017