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this week’s edition of WWE Raw, which featured appearances by Steve Austin, Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair, took in 3.356 million viewers. This is up from last week’s record-low 3.285 million viewership average

That is worrying, its the go home show and they got the biggest stars in wrestling bar The Rock to appear on this show.

The audience has smartened up, they know these "returns" arent actually returns, they knew they would not see Austin again, they know that HBK and Flair would do something similar. None of these men would be directly involved because they are retired.

 

[akileese]

That is worrying, its the go home show and they got the biggest stars in wrestling bar The Rock to appear on this show.

The audience has smartened up, they know these "returns" arent actually returns, they knew they would not see Austin again, they know that HBK and Flair would do something similar. None of these men would be directly involved because they are retired.

I still stand firm that three hours is just too much. I used to watch them even when they weren't good...but no way am I devoting three hours of my night to it. I may pop in and out but that just feels like a waste of my life with how dull and boring the shows are.

 

[Killing_Joke]

I watched the Lesnar interview w/ SCSA, and man, when they got to the 'Taker stuff at the end, Lesnar said "I'm over it." then backtracked and did the "shoot" angle.

You could tell the dude literally has zero interest in this angle. They had a great thing w/ Brock, literally building him into this unstoppable force. How big would it have been for the company to use that to springboard the next true star in their eyes to be the one to defeat him. Its not that often you get an end level boss the caliber of Lesnar, but Taker had to get that win back.

Its kayfabe bullshit that Vinny Mac has to have to protect his guys to this day.

That was a work brother. Why in the world would Lesnar be salty about jobbing to Taker? There's no star, even Cena big enough to feud with Lesnar to be worth a shit anyways.

It sucks they didn't dig into any of the old Taker/Lesnar beef, but it's pretty obvious it's all under the bridge and most likely friends now.

 

[Paracelsus]

The problem is not Lesnar but Rollins.

Lesnar is too good to be a heel, and nobody in the roster is so over that even if he breaks them up people will hate him. Lesnar was de facto a "as long as he flips bodies everywhere we're okay with him no matter what" tweener. If you build him as a god whoever beats him will be "boo this bitch has been booked against Lesnar to look strong boo", another result of the smark era.

Rollins? He's like Del Rio and 2003 HHH had a baby. It's meant as an insult, at this point even if Sheamoose come out HIAC with the title people will probably cheer him up.

 

[VoxPop]

The problem is not Lesnar but Rollins.

Lesnar is too good to be a heel, and nobody in the roster is so over that even if he breaks them up people will hate him. Lesnar was de facto a "as long as he flips bodies everywhere we're okay with him no matter what" tweener. If you build him as a god whoever beats him will be "boo this bitch has been booked against Lesnar to look strong boo", another result of the smark era.

Rollins? He's like Del Rio and 2003 HHH had a baby. It's meant as an insult, at this point even if Sheamoose come out HIAC with the title people will probably cheer him up.

Agreed. Rollins is garbage. Really don't see the appeal. Sad to say but they should just keep Cena at the top until someone better comes along. Should have been Punk tbh.

 

[Mahonay]

Ratings up a whopping 2% after WWE had all of their special appearances on RAW and even a Shield reunion. I found the show to still be very boring this week, which is not surprising considering their current output.

Ratings will continue to be bad as long as WWE refuses to actually write anything for their 3 hour weekly show. It's petty much all recaps, random matches with no build or heat, the announcers repeating the same exact lines and corporate branding that they unemotionally barf out every show, and a few promos that are just very plainly going over what happened the previous couple of weeks. Every show constantly just circles back to what happened at the top of the hour, every week circles back to the previous week's show, nothing ever advances, no one gets over, rinse and repeat. It's not even entertainingly bad right now. There's just...nothing. Nothing ever happens.

This is the "RAW rolls on" era. Fucking trite.

 

[UberTag]

I think I would actually start tuning in weekly if they legit carted out one of their hack writers each week, forced them to be Cena's U.S. Open challenge opponent, left him for dead in the ring and then fired his ass for real. Especially on the promise that they weren't hiring anyone new to replace him.

They could milk that for 6 months until they're left with the 2-3 writers they should have instead of the army of useless sycophants they have right now.

Of course the real problem remains Vince and Kevin.

 

[mdubs]

I used to watch RAW every week when I was younger and here's the thing. There's no way RAW should be 3 hours long, there is just too much filler. If they cut that time in half and focused on the main storylines with a solid undercard, I would be back to watching

 

[TedBundysNips]

I want Waylon Mercy to pop up with Bray Wyatt at some point in the future.

 

[kirblar]

Hour 1 should be a nxt rerun

 

[jmdajr]

The guests did pretty much nothing. :\

 

[BoboBrazil]

Does anyone actually enjoy watching this stuff now or is everyone left hate watchers? It's a boring program that offers no incentive to watch on a weekly basis.

 

[Aiii]

Most of us aren't watching, I reckon.

 

[Masquerader]

Not like they have good new wrestlers, cannot blame them.

Y...eah, y'know what? Sure thing. You're wrong, but I don't blame you for thinking that way at all. Every wrestler is made to look bad in at least some shape or form. Even the good ones. Even the great ones.

This is worse than 2000 WCW. This is 1999 WCW.

 

[Mahonay]

The guests did pretty much nothing. :

I'm glad ratings barely went up this week. They do not deserve any kind of ratings burst.

My only hope is that ratings dive even further soon and it forces someone's hand to put in some actual effort week to week.

 

[Mahonay]

Does anyone actually enjoy watching this stuff now or is everyone left hate watchers? It's a boring program that offers no incentive to watch on a weekly basis.

I only watch it so I can keep current with the wrestling podcasts listen to, and sometimes to know what's going on for upcoming PPVs. Watching RAW is 100 percent a chore to me.

 

[UberTag]

I'm glad ratings barely went up this week. They do not deserve any kind of ratings burst.

My only hope is that ratings dive even further soon and it forces someone's hand to put in some actual effort week to week.

Why would anyone put effort into the wrestling product when Vince will just sabotage or derail them?
Better to take on a side endeavor like Up-Up-Down-Down and make THAT into something fun and playful.
Triple H is doing the same thing with NXT. Making that good instead of giving a rat's ass about RAW.

 

[BoboBrazil]

I only watch it so I can keep current with the wrestling podcasts listen to, and sometimes to know what's going on for upcoming PPVs. Watching RAW is 100 percent a chore to me.

You could just read the results each week. PPVs also air video packages to catch you up on the 2 minutes of meaningful stuff in a feud.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

I just record RAW and watch it later in the night. There is literally like 30 minutes of actual content surrounded by a shit load of fluff and commercials. I have no idea how the fuck you guys stand to watch it live.

 

[Bluekaveli]

The problem is not Lesnar but Rollins.

Lesnar is too good to be a heel, and nobody in the roster is so over that even if he breaks them up people will hate him. Lesnar was de facto a "as long as he flips bodies everywhere we're okay with him no matter what" tweener. If you build him as a god whoever beats him will be "boo this bitch has been booked against Lesnar to look strong boo", another result of the smark era.

Rollins? He's like Del Rio and 2003 HHH had a baby. It's meant as an insult, at this point even if Sheamoose come out HIAC with the title people will probably cheer him up.

The problem isn't Seth, the problem is booking.

 

[jmdajr]

I don't even know what the main story line is.

Cena: "I defend my title!"
Wyatts hate 75% of shield
Rollins: "look at me."

That's it really.

 

[Officerrob]

Bring back a billion old fucks and they can't even pop a decent rating. When you are turning off your audience with oversaturation and a shitty product, it doesn't matter who's on the show

 

[Mahonay]

Why would anyone put effort into the wrestling product when Vince will just sabotage or derail them?
Better to take on a side endeavor like Up-Up-Down-Down and make THAT into something fun and playful.
Triple H is doing the same thing with NXT. Making that good instead of giving a rat's ass about RAW.

That's the core issue. But since everyone is too affraid/beaten down to push new ideas to Vince, maybe these terrible ratings will force him to loosen up on the booking/writing. He seems to be doing the exact opposite right now but maybe it's a last death rattle.

If there was no NXT this would all be way way worse.

But yeah, personally I'm just killing myself watching RAW. Should probably stop.

I just record RAW and watch it later in the night. There is literally like 30 minutes of actual content surrounded by a shit load of fluff and commercials. I have no idea how the fuck you guys stand to watch it live.

Fuuuck that. I don't watch it live and it's still really hard even skipping parts of it.

 

[Paracelsus]

The problem isn't Seth, the problem is booking.

Kinda, kinda not. I can picture him in a feud like Cena 2006 and it makes me think absolutely nothing of him. He already kinda was in a feud with him and it was fecal.

You know who makes me think it could've been outstanding in a proper feud with a top babyface? Owens, but he doesn't look good so bodybuilders can't

Spoiler

wank

and thus he's not marketable according to the powers that be. Maybe they can repackage him into a champion marketable to the bara userbase, who knows.

Again, if they went for Rollins as next Michaels they failed, because Michaels whether he was alcohol, painkillers or cocaine spoke his promo like he felt them from the heart. They went for Edge? Edge had more talent on the mic in one single "let's trash talk the crowd" segment than Rollins in his career. HHH? Perfect, same exact feeling. He can outwrestle HHH but that's about it.

 

[Owzers]

watching the WWE reminds me of those Kitchen Nightmare episodes where the owner thinks his food is amazing and wants validation and then gets mad when Ramsey tells him it's bad.

 

[Plinko]

I just record RAW and watch it later in the night. There is literally like 30 minutes of actual content surrounded by a shit load of fluff and commercials. I have no idea how the fuck you guys stand to watch it live.

THIS.

The "hey, we're back from commercial--here's the same 3 minutes you watched right before commercial" crutch is a scourge on television in general, let alone wrestling.

As I said earlier in the thread, either Cena or Lesnar is getting the title at Wrestlemania. Aside from New Day, those are the only two who garner any major response any more.

 

[RBH]

Adding Steve Austin, Brock Lesnar, Undertaker, Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair to Raw last night only bumped the number up to 3.35 million viewers, up 80,000 viewers from the non-holiday low of 3.27 million set last week.

The New York Giants vs. Philadelphia Eagles game with the Star Wars trailer did 13.90 million viewers, up 14 percent from last week, but it was lower than the game two weeks away, on a week Raw did essentially the same audience (3.37 million viewers) as last night. But last night also had the Kansas City Royals vs. Toronto Blue Jays playoff game, that was expected to do monster numbers in Canada. However, that doesn't relate to the U.S. number, as the game did less than Raw in the U.S., with 3.09 million viewers, down 47 percent from last week's St. Louis Cardinals vs. Chicago Cubs game and 22 percent from the late Los Angeles Dodgers vs. New York Mets game.

The audience fell as the show went on, which should have been expected when the big guns, Austin, Undertaker, Lesnar and John Cena were all used in the first 30 minutes and none returned the rest of the show.

The three hours were

8 p.m. 3.60 million viewers

9 p.m. 3.35 million viewers

10 p.m. 3.12 million viewers

http://www.f4wonline.com/news/wwe-raw-10-19-superstar-lineup-does-little-ratings-200006

 

[The Silver]

THIS.

The "hey, we're back from commercial--here's the same 3 minutes you watched right before commercial" crutch is a scourge on television in general, let alone wrestling.

As I said earlier in the thread, either Cena or Lesnar is getting the title at Wrestlemania. Aside from New Day, those are the only two who garner any major response any more.

New Day has a very real danger of getting stale soon if they aren't given an actual storyline to move them forward.

It's baffling how they have a warehouse full of writers and yet hardly anyone has a storyline. And the few that do/did like Ziggler/Rusev are unbearably terrible.

 

[RBH]

Raw rating drops even lower:

Monday's WWE Raw scored a 2.21 rating, down from the 2.33 rating the show drew last week. Raw averaged 3.356 million viewers, up from the 3.284 million average from last week.

http://www.prowrestling.net/article.php?WWE-Raw-rating-for-the-October-19-edition-44495

 

[Ninja Scooter]

THIS.

The "hey, we're back from commercial--here's the same 3 minutes you watched right before commercial" crutch is a scourge on television in general, let alone wrestling.

As I said earlier in the thread, either Cena or Lesnar is getting the title at Wrestlemania. Aside from New Day, those are the only two who garner any major response any more.

Putting the title on someone popular doesn't magically increase ratings though. I don't think WWE subscribes to this idea much anymore, in part because they have devalued the title so much. It's often taken a backseat to other feuds.

 

[FStop7]

They should beg JR to come back and put him in a feud with Vince. Have him return to represent the dissatisfaction of the fans.

 

[jmdajr]

Raw rating drops even lower:

http://www.prowrestling.net/article.php?WWE-Raw-rating-for-the-October-19-edition-44495

More viewers but less ratings?

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

They should beg JR to come back and put him in a feud with Vince. Have him return to represent the dissatisfaction of the fans.

No chance in hell Vince would ever do that, humiliating and firing JR is his favourite thing in the world

I'm glad their ratings are so bad, this is the worst the wwf has been since Mantaur

 

[The Silver]

No chance in hell Vince would ever do that, humiliating and firing JR is his favourite thing in the world

Vince is constantly tempted to hire JR back so he can fire him again.

 

[Malvingt2]

Raw rating drops even lower:

http://www.prowrestling.net/article.php?WWE-Raw-rating-for-the-October-19-edition-44495

damn

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

Vince is constantly tempted to hire JR back so he can fire him again.

Yeah, if he brought him back it would just be to re-induct him into the KMA club and then fire him again

 

[Ithil]

More viewers but less ratings?

Ratings are a percentage of total TV viewers, not necessarily a measurement of how many are watching the show. There were far more people watching TV last night than last Monday so even with more viewers, the rating went down.

 

[Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!]

That is worrying, its the go home show and they got the biggest stars in wrestling bar The Rock to appear on this show.

The audience has smartened up, they know these "returns" arent actually returns, they knew they would not see Austin again, they know that HBK and Flair would do something similar. None of these men would be directly involved because they are retired.

They've also conditioned people to believe that things don't start mattering until wrestlemania time. They've tried to get around that this time by having Brock and Taker again but fans obviously aren't biting.

 

[Nameless]

Kill the 3 hour format. It leads to dead crowds, dull/boring stretches pretty much every episode, and viewers who are more likely to DVR or Hulu the episodes.

 

[Ziltoidia 9]

Last night when they were doing the segment about holding up your sign to let everyone see it (This wasn't on air, its something they always do towards the end) someone had a wrestlemania 32 sign with the logo on it, then they turned it around and it said "3 hours is too long!"

I was amazed by it, like, the moment was so well paced too.

 

[Spider from Mars]

I just record RAW and watch it later in the night. There is literally like 30 minutes of actual content surrounded by a shit load of fluff and commercials. I have no idea how the fuck you guys stand to watch it live.

Was Raw worse than the Monday night abortion?

 

[strikeselect]

Last night when they were doing the segment about holding up your sign to let everyone see it (This wasn't on air, its something they always do towards the end) someone had a wrestlemania 32 sign with the logo on it, then they turned it around and it said "3 hours is too long!"

I was amazed by it, like, the moment was so well paced too.

3 hours is too long because the product is absolute dog shit right now. WCW in it's heyday pulled off 3 hour shows beautifully.

But again, WWE's product is so weak right now it would serve them well to cut it to 2.

 

[Chamber]

Some of ya'll are thinking too hard about this (or maybe not hard enough). It's 3 hours of bad programming every single week. You can put the belt on whoever you want and it isn't going to change how bad the product is right now.

THIS.

The "hey, we're back from commercial--here's the same 3 minutes you watched right before commercial" crutch is a scourge on television in general, let alone wrestling.

As I said earlier in the thread, either Cena or Lesnar is getting the title at Wrestlemania. Aside from New Day, those are the only two who garner any major response any more.

There's just about zero evidence of Brock Lesnar being a television draw. In fact, ratings started declining as soon as he beat Cena and disappeared with the title and have continued to fall ever since.

 

[Kyoufu]

Time for Vince to join the CM Punk Kiss My Ass club.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

Some of ya'll are thinking too hard about this (or maybe not hard enough). It's 3 hours of bad programming every single week. You can put the belt on whoever you want and it isn't going to change how bad the product is right now.

.

I don't believe any of these motherfuckers hate each other and want to fight for either revenge or to know who's better. There's nothing to invest in or pay for.

I thought Brock Lesnar 2014 was going to give us a new era of ultra-athletes and blood feuds, but even he's been made into nothing because the biggest freak athlete WWE's ever had lost to an old man. Come on.

 

[RBH]

Some of ya'll are thinking too hard about this (or maybe not hard enough). It's 3 hours of bad programming every single week. You can put the belt on whoever you want and it isn't going to change how bad the product is right now.

Right on the money.

The problem lies with the foundation of the show, in regards to what is being presented to viewers on a weekly basis. It's antiquated, outdated, and badly needs to be repackaged.

It's a problem when the overall presentation of the show has not changed much in 15 years. Look at an episode of Raw from 2000 and compare it to now. The camera angles, the graphics, the overall format, there hasn't been enough of a change from then until now.

And I haven't even started talking about the writing on their TV shows.

 

[njr]

Damn, even an Austin appearance didn't get viewers to stay in that first hour. I know things pick up during Wrestlemania season, but we're 3 months to the Royal Rumble now. They better not screw up for the 3rd time in a row, it could be disastrous for retaining whatever viewership they have.

 

[Plinko]

Putting the title on someone popular doesn't magically increase ratings though. I don't think WWE subscribes to this idea much anymore, in part because they have devalued the title so much. It's often taken a backseat to other feuds.

I don't think it's a fix--I think it's what Vince will do because he is Vince.

Some of ya'll are thinking too hard about this (or maybe not hard enough). It's 3 hours of bad programming every single week. You can put the belt on whoever you want and it isn't going to change how bad the product is right now.



There's just about zero evidence of Brock Lesnar being a television draw. In fact, ratings started declining as soon as he beat Cena and disappeared with the title and have continued to fall ever since.

I agre about Lesnar and have argued with WrassleGAF for years about it. I didn't say he'd draw viewers, though--just that he gets a big crowd reaction. Plus, with this new ESPN deal, Lesnar is one of the few who could cross over into their programming.

3 hours is too long because the product is absolute dog shit right now. WCW in it's heyday pulled off 3 hour shows beautifully.

But again, WWE's product is so weak right now it would serve them well to cut it to 2.

100% agreed. Watching Nitro on the network, I am blown away by the quality. Nearly every feud meant something.

 

[Toki767]

Damn, even an Austin appearance didn't get viewers to stay in that first hour. I know things pick up during Wrestlemania season, but we're 3 months to the Royal Rumble now. They better not screw up for the 3rd time in a row, it could be disastrous for retaining whatever viewership they have.

With Cena taking a vacation after Sunday, they're putting all their eggs in the Roman Reigns basket.

They're pretty much screwed.

 

[Officerrob]

And next weeks show won't have Flair, Lesnar, Michaels, Undertaker, Austin or Cena