So Punk/Kane ended up doing the lowest? 2.3? If true, that's brutal. It's strange, because Punk always used to have respectable numbers for his segments compared to the average rating, but I think he's been becoming even less of a draw as his heel run continues. For example a year ago a Punk/Cena match would gain a million viewers, but just a couple of weeks ago it got less than half of that. Earlier this year Punk and Kane had matches that did average numbers in the 10PM slot, but now in the last segment/overrun they're doing well below average. I didn't give it much thought before, but that report about how the whole Punk and Heyman making fun of Lawler's heart attack turning people off from Punk may not be entirely off the ball, because since then his numbers have been very weak.
It sucks, but with past few weeks in mind I think Punk is not just not doing anything to help the ratings, but he's actually hurting them. With what I said above, I also think when he turned heel it hurt his popularity as well. He was easily the second biggest face in the company and kids were really catching onto him as a second to Cena, and of course he always had the teen/adult male audience on his side. Turning him heel, while making him more entertaining than what he was as a generic face to me and perhaps his core fanbase, turned the casuals and kids off from him.
He should still be able to sell title matches on PPV on the fact he's been champ for over a year and he's the heel people want to see lose the title, and he'd maybe even be able to draw in more than normal if he actually defended his title (like if he defended it against Kane this week I'm sure the number wouldn't have been anywhere near as low), but as far as general appeal on his name alone, it's been deteriorating since his heel turn and as I said before, with his mocking of Lawler's heart attack with Heyman, it's been completely wiped out and now casuals just plain don't want to see him.
Punk should still keep the title till Royal Rumble of course since Punk/Rock is what they've been building up for months, and I still do believe despite his negative appeal it wouldn't hurt to keep the strap on him till Mania since there will be Rock, Lesnar, and Taker/HHH to balance things out if they want Ryback to be the one to take the title off Punk.
But yeah, that's my thoughts on that for the 0 of you that care.
Edit: One other reason I'm leaning towards the numbers being on Punk this week if the 2.3 number is true is because besides Ryback in the overrun (if you count him), he was the only big star in the third hour and the number declined very sharply. I'm not sure there's ever been a fall that big from hour 2 to hour 3 since the 3rd hour stuff started.
**The Official Raw Ratings Thread** (Discuss Ratings In Here)
Re: **The Official Raw Ratings Thread** (Discuss Ratings In Here)
