Raw ratings continue to hit record lows...is it time for WWE to break out their archive?

[Playaz Eyez]

Fox and Fox Sports have been running vault and Network originals on TV for months now

Yea FS2 has recently ran ‘Best Of...” specials on Ric Flair, Charlotte, and Edge, along with precious WWE24 episodes

 

[dh86]

Bruh they don’t. First of all, ratings in general for everything are bad compared to the 90s. Most people are streaming. You can tell by the awful product for the past 10 plus years that WWE’s focus is not Raw and Smackdown. It’s the network, touring, xfl, all this other shyt. The only people who bring up ratings are wrestling sites

Theyre only making real money from FOX/USA/KSA at this point. Television ratings are significantly more important than the network. In the attitude era they were making like 5-10 million per year from television, if anything, getting the 7.0 ratings in 1999 didn’t mean shyt because it didn’t correlate to money from tv until the deal with Spike. No other sport is down 50% from 3-4 years ago but wrestling.

 

[OGmittee]

Fox and Fox Sports have been running vault and Network originals on TV for months now

Only saw the Ruthless Aggression stuff on FS1, maybe theres been more that I missed.

Even still I do believe that streaming is taking over a large portion of viewers from cable and that WWE has put a big emphasis on the Network because of that.

 

[Grifter]

Wrestling will never be a must watch live show again. Between the network, YouTube, stream sites you can see it anytime unlike during the attitude era.

 

[NYChase718]

Yea FS2 has recently ran ‘Best Of...” specials on Ric Flair, Charlotte, and Edge, along with precious WWE24 episodes

7pm ET - The Best of WWE: Ric Flair's Best Matches; 157,000 viewers with a 0.04 rating in the 18-49 demographic, #142 on the Cable Top 150

* 8pm ET - The Best of WWE: Edge's Best WrestleMania Matches; 213,000 viewers with a 0.05 rating in the 18-49 demographic, #118 on the Cable Top 150

* 9pm ET - The Best of WWE: Brock Lesnar's Best WrestleMania Matches; 255,000 viewers with a 0.06 rating in the 18-49 demographic, #99 on the Cable Top 150

* 10pm ET - The Best of WWE: Roman Reigns' Best WrestleMania Matches; 198,000 viewers with a 0.04 rating in the 18-49 demographic, #137 on the Cable Top 150

 

[stro]

Looks like Brock vs Edge at Summerslam is a lock then

 

[RammerJammer]

Looks like Brock vs Edge at Summerslam is a lock then

There won't be a full timer vs full timer main event until Vince is gone

WrestleMania 45 Main Event: Austin Theory vs Dolph Ziggler

 

[Love Sosa]

Theyre only making real money from FOX/USA/KSA at this point. Television ratings are significantly more important than the network. In the attitude era they were making like 5-10 million per year from television, if anything, getting the 7.0 ratings in 1999 didn’t mean shyt because it didn’t correlate to money from tv until the deal with Spike. No other sport is down 50% from 3-4 years ago but wrestling.

You’re talking to air. Every television program period is down from 10 years ago. And that’s including ALL sports. You wanna compare 3-4 years ago when there was still multiple streaming then fine but it’s still the same. Everything is down. I would provide sources but all you have to do is google so I’m not sure why you said that.

Ratings were NEVER a main source of money for WWE. Even at the height of their ratings their revenue was from everything else.

 

[MenacingMonk]

Celebrating...

I just made an observation based on the thing that I'm told is the only thing that matters (but only on Thursdays since October).

An observation only someone would say to defend the company.

 

[stro]

Yeah ratings themselves aren't what gets the money, but the higher the ratings the better the sponsors and the more valuable you are to the network that pays for your product. These terrible seeming ratings are worth billions to Fox and USA, so I don't think they're too worried as these ratings aren't much different than what they were when those $5B contracts got signed for two different networks.

 

[dh86]

You’re talking to air. Every television program period is down from 10 years ago. And that’s including ALL sports. You wanna compare 3-4 years ago when there was still multiple streaming then fine but it’s still the same. Everything is down. I would provide sources but all you have to do is google so I’m not sure why you said that.

Ratings were NEVER a main source of money for WWE. Even at the height of their ratings their revenue was from everything else.

Of course overall ratings down the year to year at the rate of 10% or so (NFL hasnt dropped at all) NBA only dropped because LeBron went to the west and GSW fell apart. WWE has dropped 25% in a year and 50% last 3-4 years. What other sport ratings has halved since 2015? WWE was mostly live events before the late 80s, that’s why Hogan rarely wrestled on tv to save him for the live shows. PPV took over and that’s where the stars went and that’s how they made most of their money. WWE killed off their PPV and Network subs have stagnated for years and recently had their first annual decline. Nothings given them record revenue/profits but FOX/USA. USA network broomed out their WWE friendly leadership so who knows the future of that if ratings keep falling

 

[Rell Lauren]

They have an obligation to keep content rolling.

 

[Love Sosa]

Of course overall ratings down the year to year at the rate of 10% or so (NFL hasnt dropped at all) NBA only dropped because LeBron went to the west and GSW fell apart. WWE has dropped 25% in a year and 50% last 3-4 years. What other sport ratings has halved since 2015? WWE was mostly live events before the late 80s, that’s why Hogan rarely wrestled on tv to save him for the live shows. PPV took over and that’s where the stars went and that’s how they made most of their money. WWE killed off their PPV and Network subs have stagnated for years and recently had their first annual decline. Nothings given them record revenue/profits but FOX/USA. USA network broomed out their WWE friendly leadership so who knows the future of that if ratings keep falling

Bruh you can’t compare WWE to NFL or NBA at all.

All I’m saying is if they cared about the ratings even a little bit it wouldn’t be like it is. The show is 3 hours and there’s no storylines. They’re fulfilling a contract, they’re not trying to get better in that department. They’re main focuses are on the other aspects

 

[dh86]

Yeah ratings themselves aren't what gets the money, but the higher the ratings the better the sponsors and the more valuable you are to the network that pays for your product. These terrible seeming ratings are worth billions to Fox and USA, so I don't think they're too worried as these ratings aren't much different than what they were when those $5B contracts got signed for two different networks.

NXT ratings are now lower than the USA Wednesday 8p time slot before. I don’t think it makes it to next fall. Raw is still much above station average for now

 

[Metal Face]

* 10pm ET - The Best of WWE: Roman Reigns' Best WrestleMania Matches; 198,000 viewers with a 0.04 rating in the 18-49 demographic, #137 on the Cable Top 150

Did they air Roman vs. Brock at WM 31 over and over again