WWE Rumors: Vince McMahon To Change WWE Programming Due To Low Ratings?


This past week on Monday Night RAW, the show yielded one of its worst ratings ever. Facing little-to-no competition from any of the big sports, the news came as a surprise. But it appears that low rating could drive WWE Chairman Vince McMahon to do something to avoid getting a low rating like that again.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (via WrestlingRumors) speculates that having this type of rating, which he say is an “18-year season low,” could cause McMahon to change something about the shows format or planning.

The Inquisitr reported this week that RAW garnered a 2.7 rating. While it’s not a great rating, it’s even harder to believe just how badly that number measures up to other editions of RAW over the past two decades. Meltzer adds that the last time the show received such a poor rating during a non-holiday episode came on May 4, when the show got a 2.55 rating. In fact, it was the lowest rated show to not fall on a holiday since 1997, Metzer adds.

With all of these numbers proving how poor the rating for the show was, it is even more astounding how bad the number when it’s considered that there were no NHL, NBA, or NFL games competing with WWE — all three leagues are currently in their offseason.

“What makes this number so bad is that there was no sports competition of note, with the biggest sports event being a routine baseball game that did 669,000 viewers on ESPN. So there was no reason for this number other than a lack of interest in the product. The show had no Brock Lesnar, Stephanie McMahon or HHH. But nobody would have known that ahead of time, and the first hour was the low point, so it was that people weren’t there at the start. It wasn’t that they found out key people weren’t there and tuned out early. Raw was still the highest rated show on cable for the night.”

Two wrestlers who may have been hurt more than anybody to find out about the poor rating were WWE United States champion John Cena and Cesaro. The two men squared off in a singles match that many are regarding as a possible match of the year. However, with the rating being what it was, not many people were watching that masterpiece as it was airing live.

Now, as WWE prepares for the next installment of RAW this upcoming Monday, Meltzer names several things that could be the cause of the low rating, including the show being three hours long and not having the star power of John Cena closing out the show anymore. But he does say that he expects McMahon to attempt to right the ship and return to better ratings.

“With the lack of excuses for this number, and a pattern of mostly low numbers (with the exception of shows the day after PPV shows) since mid-April, I expect a reaction from Vince McMahon. Three hours is too long, but it has ben three hours for years. Taking the focus off John Cena as the top guy and putting it more on Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose may be growing pains that are necessary for the future. But a big part of the issue is they’ve made a decision to use Cena in a different way, rarely on last, and they haven’t been able to come close to creating another Cena, while the biggest other star, Brock Lesnar, is a part-timer.”

[Image by Ethan Miller/Getty Images]

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