[Evil Peter]

Originally Posted by Defei

I thought the only reason Punk is the WWE champion is because the Rock wants the title? Thats what the report said last month.

I can't pretend to know what's going on backstage but Punk doesn't have to be the champ in order for Rock to become champ, Rocky can beat anyone if WWE wanted someone else as champ. From what I've read The Rock wants to wrestle Punk though, and he's set up to face the champ at RR, so that is obviously a factor in that Punk will go into RR as the champ. They could have taken it off him previously during the year and have him gotten it back though, but they chose to give him a record breaking run. I don't think you do that with someone you don't have confidence in, regardless of opponent at RR.

[Defei]

Originally Posted by Evil Peter

I can't pretend to know what's going on backstage but Punk doesn't have to be the champ in order for Rock to become champ, Rocky can beat anyone if WWE wanted someone else as champ. From what I've read The Rock wants to wrestle Punk though, and he's set up to face the champ at RR, so that is obviously a factor in that Punk will go into RR as the champ. They could have taken it off him previously during the year and have him gotten it back though, but they chose to give him a record breaking run. I don't think you do that with someone you don't have confidence in, regardless of opponent at RR.

That would weaken the title match. They probably considered taking it off several times but since the Rock wanted the title, and considering the plan for Mania seems to be Rock vs Cena II they let him hold it through till Rumble.

[Evil Peter]

Originally Posted by Defei

That would weaken the title match. They probably considered taking it off several times but since the Rock wanted the title, and considering the plan for Mania seems to be Rock vs Cena II they let him hold it through till Rumble.

It's The Rock coming back, it doesn't really need everything to be perfect in order to attract a ton of attention. We can't know but I don't really buy that wouldn't have taken the title off Punk if they were unhappy with him in that position.

[hardysno1fan]

Originally Posted by Evil Peter

I don't know if it means that though. Raw being three hours is something that lowers the ratings but it also increases the profit for WWE. Punk gets criticism for not increasing the ratings as a champ but WWE has obviously seen enough value in him to have him champ for over 400 days. That only makes sense if you think that WWE gives out long title reigns just because they are nice. The ratings have constantly been going down for several years and they still aren't making any changes to their biggest star, Cena, either. On the contrary there were reports from Meltzer that Cena and Punk were the only two guys WWE had full confidence in, despite that they aren't changing the downward trend.

So I don't see anything drastic WWE is doing due to the ratings. Bringing in guys like The Rock would have been done anyway. It just looks like WWE is doing their thing without any significant changes, which makes it look like the fans are more panicked about ratings than they are.

Didn't Vince sack the head writer like 3-4 months ago stating he wanted results or resignations? I'm sure the ratings are a concern. Its true profit is the bottom line but reduced popularity is never a good thing. Lets say Final Fantasy produces yet another crap game and it gets torn to pieces by critics. It still makes a ton of money but the producers have to worry about the next in the series. How many ppl do you know who aren't embarassed to admit they like WWE? How many ppl do you know who know it has changed from WWF? The decline of popularity is a long term concern.

[Evil Peter]

Originally Posted by hardysno1fan

Didn't Vince sack the head writer like 3-4 months ago stating he wanted results or resignations? I'm sure the ratings are a concern. Its true profit is the bottom line but reduced popularity is never a good thing. Lets say Final Fantasy produces yet another crap game and it gets torn to pieces by critics. It still makes a ton of money but the producers have to worry about the next in the series. How many ppl do you know who aren't embarassed to admit they like WWE? How many ppl do you know who know it has changed from WWF? The decline of popularity is a long term concern.

Yes, that's the only real change I've seen them do. They did that, but obviously never took the strap off Punk when they were looking for reasons for the decline, which again says something about how WWE views Punk (which is different than what his haters so desperately try to make it look like). Lower ratings are of course never something positive, even though it doesn't affect the company's earnings much at the moment. It will be more relevant the next time they are renegotiating their TV deal, but of course they are also earning more money with three hours despite that everyone knows that it lowers the overall ratings.

As for people I know that are embarrassed to say they like WWE, there's no one. That has little to do with WWE itself though and more that the people I know aren't afraid of what other people might think. Then again it's always been uncool to watch wrestling in Sweden, regardless if it's the current era, the Attitude era or something else, so no matter how it is now it won't be much of a comment on WWE's current state.

[DegenerateXX]

I don't frequent this thread a whole lot, but does someone know where I can find the ratings breakdowns from episodes of Raw from previous years?

[Starbuck]

Yay or Nay on a new 2013 ratings thread? If most of you are in favour I'll put it to the other mods and see what they say.

[D.M.N.]

Originally Posted by Starbuck

Yay or Nay on a new 2013 ratings thread? If most of you are in favour I'll put it to the other mods and see what they say.

[RaneGaming]

Originally Posted by Starbuck

Yay or Nay on a new 2013 ratings thread? If most of you are in favour I'll put it to the other mods and see what they say.

[Gamblor]

Only if the thread is (appropriately) named, "The CM Punk (and Raw) Ratings Thread".