OP. For as long as you've been watching wrestling.. I can't believe you truly think it's because of who the champion is.
I haven't watched wrestling in the last couple weeks, why? Because the complete product is TRASH. Punk is actually one of the highlights of the show, yet the rest of the show doesn't warrant me turning on my television set to watch Punk, that has nothing to do with Punk.. everything to do with the writing, whole entire segment. I don't want to waste my precious time watching a talent like Daniel Bryan being wasted before hour eyes in a side show comedy act. I don't want to waste my time watching the Miz anymore, I've seen the likes of HBK, Steamboat, Jericho.. WWE is not fooling me. I'm not wasting my time watching a 40 year old Big Show get 10 minutes of mic time..over hungry talented wrestlers who can spit..Ziggler should easily be getting 10 minutes a night. I'm not wasting my time watching a talentless charisma deprived shmuck like Shameus get airtime anymore. I'm not wasting my time watching a bony 7/10 woman pretend talk and "general manage" a show like RAW. I'm not wasting my time or energy trying to keep track of which rivarly is going to change, and which stupid stipulation is going to be added to the main even match at the last second. I'm not wasting my time watching a guy dressed up as Goldberg. I'm not wasting my time watching this circus anymore!
When wrestling ratings were at their peak, it was always because from the start of the show all the way until the end it was exciting with a continuous flow of story lines that made sense.
In the mid 2000's they were still somewhat higher than now because the overall show was still a bit better than it is today, not because of who the champ was. Also, like myself, I'm sure a lot of us believed that it was only a matter of time before the show turned around again..or "something" big happened.
That something "big" will never happen, until they get rid of the writing team and the way the show is over produced today. You can switch in whatever champ you want and try to sugar coat it. The rock in his PRIME as the champ would not make the ratings budge by much..you know why? Because the rest of the show would STILL be hot garbage... that is due to the writing, NOT the talent level of the top performers today.
Every rivalry is fly by night, and makes little to no sense. Feuds start and end with no explanation..there's no flow, rhyme or reason to anything. Until you get real wrestling people writing the show and producing it.. it will be a failed reality t.v sportsman show attempt at "pro wrestling". What the WWE fails to realize is that you can still be cutting edge, and popular without moving away from the integrity of what pro wrestling is all about.
The WWE lost when they stopped doing them, and tried doing hollywood. The only people who will watch wrestling are wrestling fans, or people who have the potential to be wrestling fans. Trying to make it into a gimmicky reality sports show with useless story lines and things changing every week, is a sure fire way of failing. The products ends up looking like a half assed product..just corny.
It's an embarrassing product. Switch in whoever you want at that top spot, even Hogan at his peak would barely budge these crappy ratings..as he'd be bogged down to doing the same syndicated repetitive crap with a different opponent every week.
Nobody wants to watch this corny garbage anymore. The only ones still watching are young kids, or people with the hope that "something" will happen to magically change the direction of RAW. That's the ONLY reason I watched it the past decade.
I suggest you guys stop wasting 3 hours of your life, move on, until the product gets better. They don't deserve your ratings or precious time. Go learn some yoga, go evolve as a human being. Meditate, anything.
You only live once! Why waste it watching a product that's not even TRULY catered to you and for you any more? Doing so, is the definition of insanity itself.
after an hour