[Mr Premium]

It was as just as important back in 1995/1996/1997 when there were also DVRs and Youtubes, so they pretty much got away with those 1.9's, 2.6's, 2.4's........oh wait

[Patrick Bateman]

For a fan it shouldn't be importtant.

[Grass420]

They are important to sponsers, network executives

[just1988]

For the WWE office the ratings are still very important because the higher rating they pull then the more likely the TV networks are going to want WWE on their channel. The more channels want your show, then the more you can charge whoever does end up airing the product because then you force a kind of bidding war.

Now if the ratings were low for Raw then the prospect of having that on a TV network wouldn't be too glamorous and although somebody may give it a try because of it's former glory they'd be less inclined to pay the big money for it.

So then when you put it into practical terms, if a certain guy consistently pulls a low rating and isn't providing with the WWE with much in terms of merchandise sales then they're likely to release him because he's just not worth that much to the company. If they like him then they may re-package him as something else but that's another story.

[rizzotherat]

They are more important than ever due to the decline of PPV. TV rights fees are based on ratings.

Originally Posted by RevolverSnake

For a fan it shouldn't be importtant.

Thanks for that input

[GetReady2Fly]

Ratings are going down the shitter anyway.

[ChrisK]

Ratings will still be the benchmark for years to come. They really shouldn't matter, as media is evolving, but what else can they use for the time being? It's a brave new world.

[Midnight Rocker]

Absolutely. Of course, WWE may not necessarily care about ratings as much as they used to (Monday Night Wars for example), but no question, ratings are the sole indicator of how well a TV show is doing in terms of viewership, at least for now.

[Fortitude]

I watch wrestling, not ratings.

[Starbuck]

Forgot to comment on the breakdown. The opener did really well as expected. It also carried over into the second quarter which only lost 9,000 so I'd say that's a great sign for Trips/Lesnar. The BTC matches didn't seem to have the impact I thought they would since practically all of them lost viewers while random shit with Khali and and Clay gained lol. All this talk going on about 10pm doing so badly is . That segment started with 2 video recaps and then went to commercial. Anybody blaming that on Orton is being retarded. Doesn't matter if they had Rock, Brock, HHH and Cena in there, people tune out during commercials. Stupid conversation. It was silly of them to do the staredown with Punk/Bryan at such a weird time. I'm willing to bet half the people tuning in next week won't even know they're having a match at OTL. But with Brock gone that gives them the chance to get either the opening or closing slot next week I would imagine. The overrun did a nice number too. No, it didn't pull a million viewers but it still did the average numbers. Not fantastic but not shit either. Next week will be telling since Cena/Ace is now obviously the main deal on the show.