WWE programming is on the rise. As hard as it is to believe, the ratings for WWE Raw just came in and according to Cageside Seats, there was a huge boost in the ratings.
The hourly breakdown shows just how invested fans were.
- Hour one: 4.04 million
- Hour two: 3.78 million
- Hour three: 3.82 million
Hour two saw a loss in viewership, but that was still higher than all of last weeks’ WWE Raw. Things were certainly different last night. Roman Reigns came out to a big pop from the Philadelphia crowd. That’s the same building that booed Reigns away when he won the Royal Rumble last year. Many WWE personalities tweeted about that exact fact following WWE Raw’s conclusion.
Remember the @WWE fan revolt because @WWERomanReigns won the #RoyalRumble 11 months ago…in Philadelphia? #irony pic.twitter.com/flTxYVy8Ul
— Joey Styles (@JoeyStyles) December 15, 2015
He won #RoyalRumble and Philly booed him. Tonight he won the @WWE #WWETitle and Philly cheered him. #PoeticJustice Congrats @WWERomanReigns
— David Otunga (@DavidOtunga) December 15, 2015
The WWE Universe stood on their feet and congratulated Roman Reigns after the show. This is the kind of thing the WWE needed to really get back off their feet from the poor ratings over the last few months. It appears like it’s working. Now, the WWE needs to begin and make WWE Smackdown a noble wrestling show as well.
If WWE Raw is getting better, then the WWE Creative team can focus on their secondary programming. The process already began with the signing of a new announcer, Mauro Ranallo. He’s commentated MMA and Boxing. He’ll add a new dynamic to the Smackdown announce team. In a recent interview , Ranallo talked about the future of Smackdown, and why it could become a hybrid of NXT and Raw.
“I get the sense they want to make it kind of a hybrid between Raw, the flagship show with all the storylines and great performances from our Superstars in the ring, and what’s happening in NXT. That’s really been a phenomenon, and I’m a huge proponent of that style of storytelling.”
“I think if SmackDown can become a hybrid of the two, we’ll have a winning formula regardless of who’s on the microphone. But since it’s going to be me, I love that it’s playing to my strengths. I think they want to set us all up to succeed.”
The only way for both brands to succeed is for a brand split. One program can’t rely on what the other does for content and booking. It always appears that Raw dictates what happens on Smackdown. When fans call it the “Raw Replay,” they aren’t necessarily wrong. There are more replays of what happened on Raw than there are backstage segments.
A wrestling promotion shouldn’t depend on anyone for booking. Paul Heyman proved that Smackdown could consistently be the better show out of the two. In his documentary, he talked about why Vince McMahon threw him on the Smackdown writing team. He just wanted Heyman away from him at Raw.
Instead taking it like a demotion, Heyman knew how to take a bland wrestling TV show and turn it into a masterpiece. At one point, Smackdown was winning in the ratings each week. Heyman was able to utilize guys like the Undertaker, Chris Benoit, Edge, Kurt Angle, John Cena, Brock Lesnar and more to create a star-studded lineup that brought the best out of many WWE stars. Maybe this is the next rise of WWE Smackdown.
[Image via YouTube.com]
