WWE News: Latest ‘Monday Night Raw’ Was Second-Lowest Rated Ever
Since the WWE Draft, Monday Night Raw has showcased only one solid episode, and it was the first one after the draft commenced. It took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the tandem of Mick Foley and Stephanie McMahon announced two matches to determine the no. 1 contender’s match for the WWE Universal championship. The winner of that match had the challenge of taking on Seth Rollins at SummerSlam for the new title.
That night in Pittsburgh, Finn Balor defeated Roman Reigns clean to become the no. 1 contender to the WWE Universal championship. Sasha Banks also won her very first WWE Women’s championship on the main roster. She beat Charlotte after a lengthy title reign for the Nature Boy’s daughter. It was the shock value that helped create memorable moments like those. Even though Banks and Balor aren’t the most-over wrestlers on the roster, WWE fans were introduced to two great performers who embraced the adoration from the WWE Universe.
That brings us to Monday Night Raw post-SummerSlam. While Smackdown Live brings their best writing, booking, and WWE superstars every single week, it seems that WWE Raw takes the easy way out with their storylines and doesn’t put the best foot forward every episode. The Cesaro and Sheamus feud is a great example. They fought in a best-of-seven series, which led to a double-disqualification after an injury stoppage.
On the September 26 episode of WWE Raw, Sheamus and Cesaro had a huge argument with Mick Foley inside the squared circle. Foley said he thought they were equally strong and demanded they get their title shot, but as a tag-team. WWE fans were not happy, and that showed in the ratings. According to SEScoops.com, the ratings were the worst WWE Raw has nearly ever seen.
“Before getting the actual rating, Meltzer noted that last night’s rating could end up being the new valley “for any WWE wrestling television show ever on Monday night dating back to the Prime Time Wrestling era” that ended in 1992.”
Wade Keller, editor of PWTorch.com, clarified the statistics from the ratings Monday night. Due to Monday Night Football happening with two popular teams, as well as the debate, it was actually a success for the WWE.
Raw comes in at 1.75 rating, down from 1.97, a mere 9 percent drop in rating compared to a 30 percent drop for MNF up against debate.
— Wade Keller (@thewadekeller) September 27, 2016
@adecorativedrop @BTuckerTorch Yep, you’re right. Found it. 1.5 is the all-time low. Probably Christmas Week ’96 was the factor. pic.twitter.com/vgmHgQNatH
— James Caldwell (@jctorch) September 27, 2016
In an earlier report by the Inquisitr, numbers for the debate were initially high without any ratings being produced. The social media interaction alone had WWE analysts thinking they were going to reach all-time low ratings. It turned out that they were very close to doing so. In the above tweet by James Caldwell, Christmas week in 1996 was the worst night for Monday Night Raw ever.
The results from Monday Night Raw on September 26 weren’t earth-shattering, as some may put it. Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho were, once again, the most entertaining part of the show.
Seth Rollins wasn’t cleared to compete, so he interfered during the Highlight Reel, but security detained him from doing anything. Sheamus and Cesaro are now a tag-team and Sasha Banks gets a Women’s title match next week on WWE Raw. There isn’t a debate next week, so the WWE has some breathing room to perform well again. That isn’t to say they certainly will, but the pieces are put in place to do that once again.
[Featured Image by WWE]
