Why the RAW ratings are dropping every week
Monday Night RAW posted its lowest rating ever last week and has somehow managed to break that record again this week. The show averaged 2.29 million viewers, down 2% from last weeks figure. The audience continued to switch off through all three hours. The third hour posted 2.08 million rating and was the lowest rated hour of RAW in 20 years. Remember that they spent the majority of the show promising an appearance from Shawn Michaels in the third hour. That is really close to dropping under the two million mark.
Yes, RAW was up against a strong Monday Night Football game on ESPN, which drew 13.21 million viewers, but the ratings for RAW are shockingly bad compared to their average rating during football season. On October 16th 2017, Monday Night RAW went up against another Monday Night Football game and a Baseball game but still managed to post a rating of 2.6 million. This proves the WWE can post a strong rating despite the competition on a Monday night. This leads me to believe that the product itself is failing to capture the attention of the fans.
In my opinion, RAW has been a complete mess since SummerSlam (really its been terrible for longer but lets just start here). They are trying to build to three different pay-per-views at once and it makes no sense. Next Saturday we have Super Show-Down from Australia. The main event of that match is a toss up between Triple H vs Undertaker or The Shield vs The Dogs Of War (horrible name). I don't know what match will go on last but I know that those two matches don't matter at all.
Triple H and The Undertaker is a match that I never wanted to see again. Their last match should have been "The End Of An Era" match at Wrestlemania 28. That match was an incredible end to the rivalry. A match that could have main evented a show in the 90's should not be on a show in 2018. WWE need to let go of these part-timers and focus on building new stars. They live too much in the past.
The main problem with RAW is The Shield and The Dogs Of War. All the main titles are tied up in this feud and that means that the rest of the roster have nothing to fight for. There is zero substance to the show. Finn Balor should be chasing the IC title but he can't because its held by Seth Rollins. The Revival and AOP are rising in the god-awful tag team division and have no prize to aim for because Ziggler and McIntyre are tagging with Braun. Nothing else on the show matters except for Ronda Rousey and The Shield feud. We are already looking past Super Show-Down because the main event of Crown Jewel is Roman vs Braun vs Brock for the Universal Championship. This is a big problem. We can't look forward to a show because we are already looking past it and building to the next. They build and build towards a giant anti-climax.
There has been zero build to Evolution. It's all just a big publicity stunt. A cover up for their show in Saudi Arabia. The Women's division doesn't matter to WWE the publicity does.
You can summarise the problems with RAW in these points. Formulaic, zero substance and rinse and repeat. The only good thing about RAW this week was the Elias and Kevin Owens segment. The heat they got from that crowd was incredible, but the only problem was that I have seen that type of segment too many times. Every week Elias comes out and insults the crowd and his opponent, and every week he is interrupted and a fight breaks out. It's like a fill in the blanks equation.
The show lacks the explosive creativity and surprise that made it so popular during the 90's and early 2000's. Nowadays they just pick a direction and spin their wheels for months. That's really why the ratings are down, it's the same show every single week and you won't miss anything if you don't watch.