5 Booking decisions which could boost RAW Ratings
RAW ratings have been largely in the sub-3Mn mark for the past couple of years. Although it rose to over 4 Mn viewers for the RAW 25th Anniversary show earlier this year, it has again gone down to 2.7-2.8 Mn viewers per week.
The main reason for this could be that there are no meaningful stories being told on RAW. For the past year or so, RAW has been focused around 2 superstars – Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman. This kind of obsession with just a couple of people, along with a step-motherly treatment of the Women’s division and the Tag Team division is what has brought RAW to this stage.
The obsession with Roman and Strowman has done its damage - Worst of it coming from Roman as even after the Shield reunion, he is getting booed by the crowd. Strowman, on the other hand, was still over before he turned heel. RAW fans have not had a champion that they could get behind since Brock Lesnar took the title from Goldberg and went home. That needs to change.
The way Strowman and a 10-year-old kid squashed the Tag team champions at Wrestlemania 34 was symptomatic of the way RAW was treating its tag team division. Pure tag teams like the Revival and Authors of pain are ignored completely while the Intercontinental champion gets a tag team title shot.
The less said about the RAW Womens division the better. They were a bit hasty in making Ronda Rousey the champion and now they are not able to find a legitimate contender for the title. Alexa Bliss has been all talk and no walk in the ring. Sasha and Bayley should get awarded for the most misused storyline ever, A superbly talented wrestler like Ember Moon is ignored week after week and the Riott Squad have been just acting as filler material.
There need to be some drastic changes if RAW intends to pull up its rating from the Abyss. The following are 5 of the changes that might work. But whether these will be implemented is anybody’s guess.
#5 Strowman wins the Universal Championship
The main reason RAW is in the current situation now is that of Vince's unhealthy obsession with Roman. When you try to push a tasteless morsel down someone's throat, they are bound to reject it.
That's what the crowd did. The RAW creative team has been pulling out all stops to ensure that Roman gets cheered. Part of it was turning Strowman heel. Apart from Rollins, Strowman was the most over Superstar on the RAW Roster. Even with his monster gimmick and ridiculous push, the crowd still cheered for him.
This might be set to continue when he takes on Roman inside the cell this Sunday. Vince needs to come to terms with the fact that Roman is never going to be over with the crowd. Strowman needs to defeat Roman for the title so that the RAW viewers, after almost a year, can finally have a champion that they can cheer for. This will go a long way to bring more eyes on to the television while RAW is on.