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Do Wrestlers Draw, Or Does the WWE Brand Draw?

  • Wrestlers Draw

    Votes: 251 39.5%
  • WWE Brand draws

    Votes: 384 60.5%
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**The Official Raw Ratings Thread** (Discuss Ratings In Here)

987K views 9K replies 852 participants last post by  Starbuck 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
For a list of the weekly rating dating back to January, please click here:

http://www.gerweck.net/tv-ratings/2012-tv-ratings/

RATINGS BREAKDOWN FOR THIS WEEKS RAW 4/9

Raw on 4/9 did a 3.10 rating and 4.29 million viewers. The show was third for the night on cable. The show did a 2.4 in Males 12-17, 2.7 in Males 18-49, 1.0 in Girls 12-17 and 1.1 in Women 18-49 with a 69.3% male skew. It was down 21% from the 5.46 million viewers of the week after Mania show last year, and last year there was no bombshell along the lines of the Brock Lesnar return on the night after Mania show.

In the segment-by-segment, Brodus Clay & Santino Marella vs. Dolph Ziggler & Jack Swagger lost 99,000 viewers.

Backstage with Laurinaitis with Miz an Cena, Marella looking for the Three Stooges and R-Truth vs. Cody Rhodes gained 255,000 viewers.

Lord Tensai vs. Yoshi Tatsu lost 415,000 viewers.

The mic work between C.M. Punk and Chris Jericho in the top of the hour segment gained 379,000 viewers to a 3.19.

Punk vs. Henry and the post-match with Jericho pouring beer all over Punk, as well as the quick Del Rio vs. Ryder match lost 169,000 viewers.

The Three Stooges in-ring segment lost 240,000 viewers and was the low point of the show at 2.90.

The Brock Lesnar interview gained 423,000 viewers.

And the Cena vs. Otunga match with Lesnar run-in gained 301,000 viewers, which is a very weak overrun number, finishing at 3.42.
 
#2,070 ·
Sad numbers.

Quarter hours will be interesting, but I'd say the "brand" of The Rock has become worn out through all of this. Ultimately, though, he's helping a bit with live gates and as Starbuck mentioned, the early indicators for Wrestlemania were all extremely bullish, including the travel packages and the general sales of tickets.

I'll give WWE credit in one regard, though. They've built up some matches at Wrestlemania this year that can't be recycled at the very next pay-per-view: Rock/Cena, HIAC, Ace/Teddy Tag and the divas match are all matches that still feel special to me in one way or another because I know WWE won't be able to simply, lazily rehash them for a couple of months and make me sick of them. I fully expect and even want Jericho/Punk to continue to Extreme Rules, and I imagine some form of Sheamus/Bryan will continue for at least another month or so, perhaps involving somebody else... Won't be surprised if Kane/Orton concludes at Extreme Rules, either. But it feels refreshing to have a good core bunch of matches, two of them being the two biggest matches on the card, that can't be sheepishly rehashed at the next PPV.

Wrestling on TV is going to experience some continued pressure, though. Almost every personal friend of mine who watches WWE regularly watches Raw, not to mention the "inferior" WWE programs, on YouTube these days. Wrestling is such a curio, such a niche product, even WWE's brand. People are enjoying the alternative means of seeing it in ways that feel inordinate for any TV program. Just something to consider, along with everything else.
 
#2,071 ·
I watched an entire episode of Raw in half an hour, that's how poorly entertained I was. Always glad to see a rating justify my hatred for this current product. When it's only the diehard fans left watching shitty feuds such as Dolph Ziggler vs Jack Swagger after WM, I'll be at peace knowing I got out before WWE became an absolute joke.
 
#2,072 ·
I just dont think there is enough action between the major feuds. Cena/Rock, TripleH/Undertaker, Jericho/Punk are all very talk heavy feuds. There are no cheap shots, brawls, no sneak attacks.
Its the same formula week after week where they get a segment and just talk. At this point you dont expect anything to happen until they actually have the match.
 
#2,077 · (Edited)
You know, The Rock is a mega-star. He truly is. But is there a chance that the reason the numbers aren't better is because people see him as a movie star now and not a wrestler anymore? Like, maybe to some people this is no different than any other celebrity coming in and wearing out their welcome. I mean, that is kind of ridiculous, but I could see someone making that argument.

When I run into a lot of ex-wrestling fans; the people that were all aboard the bandwagon during the Attitude Era, they never ask about The Rock. They always ask about or talk about or reminisce about Stone Cold Steve Austin.

C.M. Punk is the future, for sure, and I don't know how good of an idea it is to be having him take a back seat like this. How big would Austin's star have risen had he never beaten HBK in the main of Mania 14 with the Tyson involvement? Punk/Austin I think could be a mega-draw, more so than Rock/Cena, if for no other reason than because the non-physical parts, aka promos, are going to be SO much better. It's not going to be about Twitter and gay jokes..

I don't see any reason why WWE won't be able to get Sting next time around and run Sting/Taker if they want too.

It's not that WWE doesn't still have options, it's that the TV is so bad, people have stopped caring.
 
#2,080 · (Edited)
I think that, as Starbuck said, the way they are booking this feud has hurt it's appeal. Yes, they are indeed booking it as Dwayne Johnson vs. John Cena, not THE ROCK vs. John (SUPER) Cena. Instead of booking it as "What will happen when JOHN CENA - the man who overcomes everything, the man who has beaten everyone in his path - fights THE ROCK - a living legend?!" it is booked as "Watch John and Dwayane air their personal grevences against each other in segment after segment"

People are still going to buy the match, as interest has proven to be huge. But do people want to watch the build? Not really. Not anymore.
 
#2,083 ·
The match will still draw huge.

Few of my friends that haven't watched a WWE event in about 10 years know about this match and are going buy the event.

Listen to wrestling observer latest pod cast with Bryan and that other guy. He talks about how he's talked to people that haven't watch wrestling in years know about this match.
 
#2,084 ·
As noted before, the March 20th WWE RAW Supershow did a 3.10 cable rating with 4.38 million viewers.

In the segment breakdown, Kane vs. Big Show lost 125,000 viewers from the opener which is less than usual for the second slot. Santino Marella vs. David Otunga and the interview with The Rock outside in Philadelphia gained 205,000 viewers. Daniel Bryan vs. Zack Ryder lost 418,000 viewers.

Mark Henry vs. John Cena with The Rock coming out gained 327,000 viewers for a 3.20 quarter rating at the top of the hour, which is a weak gain for that timeslot. The Miz vs. Sheamus lost 279,000 viewers while the Randy Orton interview and Kofi Kingston & R-Truth vs. Jack Swagger & Dolph Ziggler lost 151,000 viewers.

The final segment with Shawn Michaels, Triple H and The Undertaker gained 597,000 viewers, which is below average, but the 3.32 overrun rating was still the highest rated point of the show. The final segment saw the Male Teens rating go from 2.2 to 2.5, Males 18-49 go from 2.5 to 3.2, Female Teens drop from 0.6 to 0.5 and the rating with Women 18-49 go from 1.1 to 1.2.
Rock/Cena & HHH/HBK/Taker stuff are the only things getting gains.

Also, I agree that the build for Rock/Cena is gone now. The match however, is still huge.
 
#2,085 ·
So what did the opener do? Seems like it did a 3.2, but I might be off on that. If that's the case that's actually pretty good considering how the show went as a whole. 10pm timeslot under-performed, even with Rock ensuring he would be there at some point during or after the Cena/Henry match. Taker/HHH/HBK gaining 600,000 viewers isn't good by their recent standards, but the fact it was the highest point in the show makes up for it. Oh, and Rock's segment gaining is very good as well.
 
#2,088 ·
10 spot did bad considering who was in it. Then again matches hardly ever do well in that spot. Still, not good at all. And the closing segment did pretty bad too. What the hell, these three do awesome in the 10 spots but don't do so well in the overrun. How did the opener do? Looks like it was the second best of the night behind the overrun.
 
#2,090 ·
i love how they put punk in the first segment, just to boost his confidence knowing there was no way he could loose viewers
 
#2,091 ·
More on RATINGS
Viewers were down 10% compared to last week and very slightly lower than the other shows of the past month. For whatever reason, the Mania build is not resulting in audience build this year. Again, I don’t believe that indicates a bad buy rate because we’ve seen over the years a lack of correlation between ratings and subsequent buy rates. But for a company that rests so much on ratings, this number two weeks out from Mania on a show so loaded with the old stars has to be frustrating. The same show two weeks out from Mania last year, where Rock wasn’t there live, did a 3.35 rating and 5.13 million viewers.
With the added Rock/Cena doc they will show all week I am bumping my prediction to 1.1million buys
 
#2,095 ·
Viewership dropping by 10% is just...I don't even know what it is tbh. I think this is just going to end up being one big anomaly. Ratings going in with so much star power doing horrible numbers yet the actual event probably breaking records. There's no other explanation for it other than WTF lol. Still the HIAC and Rock/Cena are the only things that are able to gain in viewers but it was nothing all too great this time around.
 
#2,096 · (Edited)
How many weeks in a row are these segments breakdown reports going to keep saying that the gain for the 10 PM slot was a weak gain for that slot (outside of the one week it gained 800,000 for the HHH/Taker/HBK stuff) before they jsut start to realize thats the new "norm" for that quater?

As for the segment breakdown, not really surprising that Rock/Cena and HHH/Taker/HBK stuf are the only quarters that gained b/c thats really the only programs the WWE has made seem matter.
 
#2,100 ·
But they will still get 1 million buys + for WM EASILY.

There are SO many WWE marks out there who will pay for whatever shit Vince throws at them just because it has a WWE logo on it, you could have a toad vs a badger for the main event and you would still get 500k+ buying it, just out of habit.

The only reason WWE is still making money is because of their legions of marks who will literally never stop watching, and never stop ordering PPVs, no matter how bad it gets, and see WWE as pro wrestling, not just a pro wrestling company.

The following the company gained during the attitude era has pretty much ensured they can put on any old shit and always make money, those people will always be there .

Ratings dont mean half as much for WWE as they used to when WCW was around.
 
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