WWE Raw did not receive a big bounce back with viewers this week following the conclusion of the NBA & NHL playoffs.
Monday’s three-hour episode on the USA Network averaged 2,235,000 viewers, which was up 5% from last week’s show against the NBA playoffs, but still the fourth lowest number of 2019.
The show was promoted around Seth Rollins facing Daniel Bryan in a non-title match along with the tease of who would be named the special referee at Stomping Grounds, which was never announced.
The first two hours were consistent with the opening hour averaging 2.33 million viewers and experienced a slight drop to 2.30 million in the second hour. There was a decline of 9.8% in the third hour with the final hour averaging 2.08 million viewers.
The only episodes that drew fewer viewers this year occurred on April 29th (against the NBA playoffs), May 27th (Memorial Day with an NHL playoff game), and last week’s episode that went against the Raptors vs. Warriors games that averaged 18.2 million viewers.
In comparing the year-to-year numbers of Raw, the show was down 22.7% from this week in 2018, which also took place after the playoffs had ended.
I have a gripe. Why don’t we hold the talent accountable more? Yes, I know creative sucks and they have limited freedom but you can’t tell me all the professionals in the ring during that Corbin match think it was a good idea to have him eat the pin on the go-home to a championship match. I’d love to know what would happen if Sami and KO simply said - hey that’s terrible booking, let one of us eat the pin and keep the challenger strong. What would be the rebuttal? Would they be replaced in the match because this angered Vince? A locker room full of wrestlers should be able to ban together to simply argue for the most basic wrestling booking. Maybe promos and skits will suck but the basics…C’mon!
We have seen what happened to Goldust and Dean Ambrose when they were given a true opportunity to perform.
It’s like seeing a good actor in a shitty movie. You can see they have more to offer, but it isn’t in that specific venue. Conversely, you can have a shitty actor in a great movie, and it can take you out of it.
I think this is what the number is for the rest of the summer, if 18 million people watched an event last Monday and Raw only got a 5% bump that probably means they weren’t losing people to the game. Just a guess
I’m not even asking to give talent the freedom. But does nobody in the back speak up and say beating the Tag Champs regularly or a #1 contender on a go home show is just backwards? Or are the talent all just so dejected they don’t even care to speak out or try to have basic booking take place. A bunch of yes men isn’t going to change this.
But the numbers actually did go down, and kept going down as the NBA post season kept going.
I think there’s a whole lot of people that watched the playoffs over raw, realized Monday nights were much better not wasting them on three hours now or RAW, and not returning.
I think it goes back to Moxley talking about how much effort it takes to get things changed. The locker room isn’t gonna band together to protest a single match outcome on an episode of TV. Are they probably aware that those little things build up and matter? Yes. Is the effort gonna be put forth to change one small thing when you know next week a similar small thing will come up again? Doubtful.
It’s not one little thing. It’s the total destruction of divisions and results in zero interest for title matches. What is any character’s motivation once 90% of matches don’t matter.
Let me include agents then. Agents put together the matches. The scripted stuff is bad, fine. But who takes a pin or who wins a match, can’t the agents interject themselves? At what point do talent look ridiculous?
If an NBA head coach told the center to shoot threes every play, at some point the players would be like, that’s not smart.
If an NFL coach decides to hav an offensive lineman run the ball, wouldn’t the QB say, that makes no sense let’s audible?
Are we saying that in the example of the tag match on Raw, if KO/Sami and Corbin audibles who takes the pin they are all getting put in the doghouse for simply altering the play so that the booking makes sense? That’s actually what seems to be at play here but that’s also what makes everything so head scratching and ruins a product. It’s baffaling. But I’m preaching the the choir here so I get it.
How do you know people aren’t speaking up and it’s going on deaf ears? That’s why guys like Rhodes and Moxley left. Maybe that’s why so many others want out?
The best I can assume having listened to experts and podcasts is basically its a company run by a boarderline senile old man with outdated ideas who changes his mind constaly and forgets what they did the week before.
While you can hope the employees do better to be honest he pays them and they are probably a bit fearful of crossing him too much. Think of politicians in Trumps cabinet - they know hes a moron and crazy but they can’t keep speaking out against him for their own health.
This is a guy who doesn’t let others sneeze or sleep on a plane. Hes always been crazy.
I guess most geniuses are a bit eccentric - I know plenty in my line of work that are but when they get older and the brilliance fades a bit then the oddities in their personality stand out more.
He is a micro manager who has outdated ideas and forgets what they did the week before basically. Its very hard to have a person like that at the helm and then expect better.
Also, in one of the Moxley podcasts; he did mention something to the about if they changed things around, the writers would be held responsible. It’s just not worth ruining someone else’s career to fix a small detail when the guy in charge doesn’t care