WWE News: ‘Monday Night Raw’ Ratings Take Big Hit In ‘Road To WrestleMania’ Season
WWE is currently on the “Road to WrestleMania” and time is running out to find that perfect match, storyline, and swerve to out-smart the WWE Universe. Focusing specifically on Monday Night Raw, the WWE found a successful formula they displayed on this past episode. The opening segment was Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns. Unlike the normal 25-minute promo to open the show, it only lasted 15.
Going through the rest of WWE Raw’s festivities, a lot of good came from behind the scenes. The segment with Miz and Damien Mizdow was hilarious, as they had Miz do a commercial about Niagara, WWE’s spin-off of Viagra. From that to John Cena and Stephanie McMahon’s segment, it was perfectly written. WWE’s wrestling matches Monday were pretty good as well.
However, the ratings didn’t prove it to be a great show. According to Wrestling Inc, Monday Night Raw didn’t secure great ratings on Monday night.
“Monday’s episode of WWE RAW, which featured Jon Stewart and the build to WrestleMania 31, drew 3.825 million viewers, down 7% from last week’s 4.122 million viewers.”
“For this week’s show, the first hour drew 3.545 million viewers, the second hour drew 4.066 million viewers and the final hour drew 3.864 million viewers.”
“RAW was #2 on cable for the night behind Love & Hip-Hop.”
Jon Stewart, who is a media celebrity, couldn’t even get a ratings boost from the Monday night crowd. This isn’t the first time WWE Raw took a ratings plunge. Three weeks ago, while the Seth Rollins nude scandal broke, Monday Night Rawlost 600,000 viewers with Brock Lesnar attending the show as well. Usually, Lesnar is a big-time draw for the ratings.
Another situation occurred for the WWE that had a few wrestling analysts concerned. When NXT R Evolution and TLC went on the same week, the WWE Universe wasn’t optimistic about a great TLC pay-per-view. While it was a decent show, the WWE fans were still feeding off its wrestling high it gave off four days prior.
On WWE Raw the next night, WWE got its lowest ratings for Raw since a Christmas Eve episode in 2012. For those that have followed WWE for several years, the Holidays allow WWE talent to go home and spend time with their families. So, they usually tape a Christmas episode earlier. On a night after TLC, the WWE Raw ratings plummeted.
Is there a specific reason for the drop in ratings? WWE is still thriving in this market that doesn’t care for professional wrestling like it used to. They are always contending in the business world, as their merchandise sells like hot cakes. However, the main problem could be the fact that more people used to watch WWE than watch WWE currently. It is WrestleMania season, so they should go up. The question is, when is it time to hit the panic button?
[Image via community.petco]
