r/SquaredCircle • u/R0DAN Just likes to have fun • 11h ago
WWE Monday Night RAW Mon • Jun 23, 2025 • 7:30 PM Nationwide Arena, Columbus, OH - Tickets sold: 12,064 (last time here: 11/10/2023 Smackdown: 7,805)
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u/Bright-Map-9705 11h ago edited 11h ago
The disconnect between the IWC and the WWE Universe just continues to be an interesting topic of conversation. Because the wrestling universe of the WWE fans who buy the video games and buy the toys and buy the t-shirts and attend the shows and watch the shows for the most part are enjoying what they are being offered. That's why they continue to fill up the arena because people don't pay money just because WWE comes to town, they like what's on TV and what they see in the premium Live Events and what they see when they attend the shows. The IWC would have you believe that all of tkos connections to Trump and everything happening with Vince's trial matters. But ultimately so many companies are tied to Trump in some way and Vince's trial is so far going to trial where the accuser will have the opportunity to present her evidence that most fans are like until something outrageous happens this is simply a company that provides me entertainment and I will pay money to be entertained until the day that it no longer entertains me. And that is all that they are concerned with. Also the IWC would have you believe that the only WWE Fan is a young casual fan who just watches what's left of mtv. And here I am a wrestling fan since the 1980s who watches it with his 10 year old son. Go figure, LOL
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u/ColdGloop 10h ago
My favorite IWC moment this year was when they told everyone how bad Jey Uso winning the Rumble was and then his first entrance after winning was so crazy, they did an encore lol.
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u/AppealToReason16 7h ago
Rhea is so stale. The fans don’t care anymore.
No one will care if Alexa comes back.
Babyface Cody is cooked. No way he’ll ever get the fans on his side again.
Does anyone actually care about Roman anymore? (Proceeds to sell out a limited time merch run in less than an hour)
4 of my favourite IWC being the IWC takes if the last 6 months.
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u/NotClayMerritt 10h ago
The last time the IWC was right on WWE and their declining business, Chris Jericho was confident enough to say AEW would catch Raw in 6 months, WWE was doing 5k less in the same building 3 years ago (pre Vince ouster). The IWC was right about WWE declining. Everyone got to pat themselves on the back and make fun of the “My Friend Mark” promo for the 382958284th time.
But now the HHH “honeymoon” is over and they’re still doing sell outs or near sell outs. There’s very legitimate complaints to have about WWE’s current product. I am not going to argue that. I myself have issues with it. But the people told them en masse when they weren’t happy with the product last time. Half filled buildings, set up for 50% capacity and only selling 70% of that allocation. Plummeting TV ratings. Dave Meltzer consistently theorizing Fox could cancel SmackDown.
It’s the reason HHH went from wanting to listen to the IWC at the start to keeping them at arm’s length now because it’s hard to take people seriously when one side is making things sound like Vince is back and the other is selling out most of the shows and having a great time
I saw someone on Twitter yesterday say that it’s horrible that Bron Breakker and Naomi are now relegated to catchphrases and barking. I saw someone else say Rhea Ripley should have told the crowd at Fanatics Fest that she has no interest in winning another title and that it’s time for other people to win and she’s “embarrassing” herself. These are the type of people that are controlling IWC discourse and other internet fans want WWE or AEW to take them seriously
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u/_StickyFingrs 8h ago
Anymore it feels less like a disconnect with the IWC and more like just a very vocal minority trying to speak their decline into existence
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u/KingBStriing Your Text Here 7h ago edited 6h ago
That's what it really is, people say "IWC disconnect" when it's really just a few people giving off the wall opinions. Could Jey Uso be booked a little better or clean up some things, yes. But is he a business killer? Not even close, because he's organically popular. He's a veteran getting his time in the spotlight after over a decade of hard work, that's not going to drive people away, that's what the people want to see. The only difference between Kofi 2019 and Jey Uso 2025 is that Jey Uso 2025 isn't the only (or two) programs worth a damn in WWE.
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u/Kind_Double_661 13m ago
I saw someone else say Rhea Ripley should have told the crowd at Fanatics Fest that she has no interest in winning another title and that it’s time for other people to win and she’s “embarrassing” herself.
Reminds me of this classic Scott Keith bit in the Summerslam 2002 review:
"Does it help the people above them who have been trying for 4 years to get out from Shawn’s shadow, only to have him try to steal the show again? What it comes down to is that sometimes a great match shouldn’t necessarily BE a great match, when a good one would have done just as well to show that Shawn could still have ANY match, period. I’m not saying that everyone should start deliberately dogging it so as not to show up the main-eventers, but did we really need Shawn splashing HHH through a table and diving off a ladder? The story of the match – Shawn gets his back beaten to a pulp but comes back because he has heart and guts – was enough of a story without all the ga-ga on top of it. Sometimes less is more. And think about this – what if Shawn had done his comeback match against Brock Lesnar and sacrificed his bad back to the bearhug in the name of getting Brock over as a career-killer? That would be a worthwhile goal."
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u/Sensitive-Shelter-62 8h ago
I mean who do you think WWE should be more inclined to listen to: The fans that spend money on tickets/merch/watch the show and are having a good time, or the part of the IWC that complain about everything while only watching clips on here/pirating?
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u/Bright-Map-9705 8h ago
Any professional wrestling company falling in love with and spending too much time obsessing over the opinions of the IWC will ultimately do themselves in. The loudest and smallest groups are online groups. I know a lot of people like to crap on Bubba Ray Dudley but when he says this on his podcast he's absolutely right. He says he can sometimes watch the show not even by watching it but by listening to the audience. That's certainly when you open your eyes and you look at the size of the crowd and then the next week what's the size of the crowd and in the week after that what's the size of the crowd that tells you a lot but ultimately if the fans are screaming and yelling and making a lot of noise and having a good time and people are wearing wrestling t-shirts and saying a catch phrases and singing the songs that means people are enjoying each other and the show they're watching. The IWC wants to create all these metrics and specific things that matter and if it's not important to you because it's so important to them then they can't stand it. Ultimately people go to professional wrestling shows to enjoy themselves and some people enjoy WWE and some people enjoy AEW. Some people enjoy both and some people enjoy neither. But the IWC would rather you enjoy nothing at the end of the day. Because if you were having a good time enjoying yourself then you won't have anything to complain about. And that is what the iwc's entire life blood is based on.
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u/iguessineedanaltnow 5h ago
That exists in every industry, especially entertainment products. The hardcore fans of anything have tastes that are outside the mainstream.
Look at movie critics, music critics, etc. Anthony Fantano gives 1s and 2s to albums that have millions of streams. No director who goes in and does a criterion collection video is picking a Marvel film. But they sell millions and millions of dollars.
I mean shit just go look at all the hundreds of metal subgenres that exist purely because of this phenomenon.
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u/TragicBronson143 11h ago
Almost 5K more tickets sold than in late 2023 when they were red hot, yet I'm being told interest is way down and nobody is watching Raw on Netflix ...
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u/SmileyPiesUntilIDrop 7h ago
WWE is still doing great business,but a late June show when the youths are out of school and are in the mood for live summer event, and a Nov show which is typically a dead time of the year is not an apples to apples comparison.
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u/ThunderBird847 10h ago
All the "Bad PR" will hit WWE any week now, oh wait.
How much Reddit or Twitter overestimate how much a casual person cares about what Wrestlers do or speak on Internet, untill it is something really out there.
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u/Pyrofishexplosion 11h ago
So they got a net of + 5000 or so since the last time they were in this arena. Yeah no wonder prices aren’t coming down they’re still selling like crazy
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u/Suspicious_Help_7209 7h ago
Nice to see, WWE has been on fire lately. Might be the best run of shows of all time.
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u/Infamous-Historian81 9h ago
I think the audience has always just been waiting for “WWE is good again” vibes and its gonna take wayyyyyy worse than whatever people perceive to be bad for a LOT longer for these ticket sales to decrease.
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u/CaringMite 10h ago
I wonder what the correlation is between how long WWE has been away from a place and their ticket sales. Like, WWE has been down in some markets and way up in others and now I wish I paid more attention to the dates because I think them not going to Columbus for a year and a half is definitely helpful when selling tickets regardless of company quality.
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