WWEekly Confidence Index: No More Excuses

Ok, WWE. No more excuses. No more "there was a good matchup on Monday Night Football tonight that people wanted to see". No more "there was a good college football game on". No more "well, it's a holiday" even though next Monday is actually a holiday, but it's not a holiday that affects television ratings.

The crutch the WWE's been able to use for the last four months (five if you count preseason) is now gone.

Now more people are going to pay attention. The next ten weeks may (and I may be out of bounds for saying this) determine the future of A LOT of people. How so, you ask? Well, Network subs are going to get a "gift upswing". The Royal Rumble is coming, and that's surpassed Summerslam (though the last couple have been really good) as the second biggest night on the WWE calendar. Plus, the UK and Ireland are finally going to get their hands on it legally. The big question is one I'm afraid I might have an answer to already: will they be able to hold on to them beyond March 30?

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Before we get to the number (and a new poll), let's see how the people voted, shall we?

Heel Burgess channels his inner #HeelDoors with his 2.5 rating and a callback to another regular feature on this site:

Love: NXT never fails to deliver an A-grade show (maybe B+ is the lowest I've rated an episode) and Takeover is still an amazing watch, even 5 viewings later; Raw has the signs of being on a slight upward trend; SmackDown has been pretty decent recently and is the better of the two flagship shows; Cesaro and Tyson Kidd are a tag team that have won a match (!); Nikki's heeling it up in the Women's Diva's Division; BNB is back to deliver Bad News on all the suckas; The Authority are back; J&J Security!; Lesnar is back (huge mark for the Beast); I'm in love with Sasha Banks & Paige; Ziggy is bumping and selling all over the place; and it's Rumble month - always mark out heavily for that.

Loathe: Commentary.; Daniel Bryan's return - I've said it before, I just don't get the universal love in. He's OK at best to me, and with his declaration that he'll be in the Rumble, the entire webosphere seems to think he'll be winning. That just reeks of solving a problem too late. He didn't appear last year? Get over it! What's done is done. Let him develop a different story back to the top of the mountain; The Uce-No's are Tag champs again - oy vey; Cena is still in the title scene and still in control of virtually every individual's position in the company; Dean & Bray - my 2 favorite wrestlers - are embroiled in a dead feud; Total Divas is the reasoning behind any female feud; Big Show is still an active "sports entertainer".

Y U NO LOVE DANIEL BRYAN? HE KNEED TRIPLE H'S EYE FOR YOUR SINS! But at least Bray and Dean are moving on to something else. To what, I dunno.

Treybreez (aka NXT's Tyler Breeze-maybe) goes full Blutarsky:

Wish I could count lower, but alas it won't allow.

Not confident in the product right now. Jern had to bring the Authority back to save Edge. That was the bad move. Never negotiate with terrorists (Yep Rollins was acting as one with ransom of life). Then the Boosos winning gold again. CheeseMode being CheeseMoOoOOOoOOoooOoOOOooOOoOOOoOode and the latest "rumor" about the main man being sour on his developmental region.

Let me repeat...VKM is sour on NXT. His developmental area. It is HHH's pet project and it is successful. If he took the time to go back and see what this industry is about, he wouldn't have so many sour fans watching the weekly shows. Main Event and Superstars feel more entertaining than Raw/SD right now.

NXT is just 1 hot hour of action and some dialogue.

Raw is like 40 min of action and the rest talking. Focus on action. Build storylines, use vignettes, use the things that brought you to the game. We don't need another Russoian era.

Even if you are Team Rollins (and I know a lot of you are), he's right. Dude threatened a man's life. And yeah, I don't get it either. Why's Vince so down on the people who will be populating his company in five or ten years (should he live long enough)?

Zentrification, who needed to be explained what the Blutarsky was, then felt great shame when he missed said reference, went with a 3:

5 Happy thoughts -

Blue Pants Won. Can we bring back the BWO? We found it's leader.

Some people are back. For some its Bad, others screamed Yes!

Triple H said Sting's name again.

John Cena looked like a fool to open Raw (still watching, 38 minutes).

Seth Rollins has been acknowledged to be on par with Brock Lesnar and John Cena.

Are you fucking serious?

Darren Young is right there behind John Cena. Darren Young's BACK. I don't recall his returned being announced. A lot of fans care about this guy, act like you do to.

i no word:

John Cena's beginning promo has all the male wrestlers in the ring. Whatev's.

Then, on seen on television, the women were outside the ring, essentially standing at the feet of the men.

Way to show exactly what you think of women's wrestling. That was a horrible fucking to broadcast. No one but John should have been there.

I'm not one to complain about the Diva's division. This and that bullshit Battle Royal on SmackDown a bit ago has really opened my eyes.

Now I think I should have dropped another doughnut hole but nXt is the gift that keeps this fucking company in most peoples good graces around here.

I feel better.

BWO reboot? I'm ALL IN. ALL FREAKING IN.

And finally Lordban with a reminder for us all with his 2:

I have a feeling WWE will get it right, but not for the Royal Rumble. They don't seem to have learnt too much from last year, and with how rushed the return of the Authority has been, there's another solid set of botches waiting to happen there.

Remember, you have to make Roman look really, really strong...

Good start: get someone not named Vince McMahon to write his promos. It's 2015, not 1985. I mean, Double R was a baby at the height of Hulkamania.

With that, your WWEekly Confidence Index for January 13, 2015 is...

2.42. It's up.

Gotta say, I'm surprised. But two episodes of RAW have aired since this, and neither of them were spectacular. So the chance it stays that way are remote. But we'll see. Vote and comment. Poll closes three days from time of post. Best comments make next week's post.