WWE Raw ratings for go home show to Night of Champions on Sept. 12 fail miserably

by Geno Mrosko on Sep 13, 2011 7:42 PM EDT in Raw

With these two leading the show, how could the ratings go bad?

We knew WWE Raw Supershow would take a hit in the ratings just as soon as the NFL season kicked into gear and ESPN's Monday Night Football (MNF) provided the toughest competition possible.

But I don't think anyone imagined it would be this bad. PWTorch brings the word of some shockingly awful numbers:

WWE Raw on Monday, September 12 scored a 2.71 rating vs. Monday Night Football Week 1, down ten percent from a 3.00 rating on Labor Day Monday last week. Raw was down 14 percent compared to the August 29 Raw two weeks ago.

Raw averaged 3.86 million total viewers, which was down eight percent compared to last week's show and the fewest number of viewers of the year other than the July 4 episode. (Raw only averaged 150,000 more viewers than Fourth of July.) The first hour averaged 3.82 million viewers and the second hour increased slightly to an average of 3.89 million viewers.

The two football games on ESPN, New England Patriots vs. Miami Dolphins and Oakland Raiders vs. Denver Broncos, simply put, provided much entertainment for fans television dollars. Not just because it was the debut doubleheader of MNF, but because both games were legitimately fun to watch.

The same can not be said for Raw last night.

Despite the fact that it was the go home show to the Night of Champions pay-per-view this Sunday, Sept. 18, 2011, WWE brought one of its least compelling shows to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The night was fraught with a lack of any meaningful action to go along with some of the worst booking I've seen on the show in a very long time.

I can't imagine this rating will do anything short of sending the powers that be up in Stamford into full blown panic mode. They are already dragging Edge out of retirement to do Smackdown tonight for the show that will air on Friday and the rumor is that he will continue to be asked to do more and more dates. It's no surprise, really, as Smackdown lacks superstars but whose fault is that? You guessed it.

For complete Raw results and live blog click here and for reactions to the show click here. Videos from the night can be seen by clicking here. Any thoughts on this putrid rating? Dreading the thought of what WWE will attempt to do to fix it?

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Comments

I think a 2.7 is around what you would have had to expect, given that football usually costs them 0.3-0.4 of a ratings point, and they’ve been doing in the very low 3s all summer. I imagine they’re stuck in the 2.7-2.8 range until The Rock returns and football is over. Foley’s return may be moved up and Chris Jericho’s return is now more likely I’d imagine.

by Keith Harris on Sep 13, 2011 7:50 PM EDT reply actions

I’m of the thinking that they do an awful job of promoting what will be happening on RAW. Last night’s preview mentioned Punk and HHH facing off. Yeah, that’s it.

I remember not that long ago WWE used to post a preview similar to Impact. Basically a full page article on what we’ll be seeing. Now we get a pic and a brief blurb. Sometimes they’ll squeeze two matches into that brief blurb.

I am guessing that mentioning that Bret Hart would be appearing and wrestling on RAW would have had a better effect on the ratings than the weak preview they gave us.

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by TestOO7 on Sep 13, 2011 8:10 PM EDT reply actions

Yep

They need to start promoting more of what will happen on Raw each week, especially more than just a couple of days ahead of time too. If they don’t want to commit to a certain storyline or something too far in advance, then that’s fine for the main event guys, but at least promote some US championship match or something like that. They have a midcard on Raw, they need to use it.

"In fact, most of these free-swinging Padres couldn’t hit Dock’s funky palm ball. I threw it often. But by then, also, the first acid distractions entered: the TV flickered; the cracks in the wall started to move; the hand soap started to breathe — those sorts of things. Plus I was drawn to the outdoor garden between innings. Rain was near, I sensed." - A.J. Daulerio

by Gdawg on Sep 14, 2011 9:26 AM EDT up reply actions

I had to watch my boy Darren McFadden

by SilverNBlackZach! on Sep 13, 2011 8:16 PM EDT reply actions

Cannot wait to see what happens is Smackdown beats Raw one week. I know now Cena will be champ on Sunday… and they will have to do something. Del Rio as champ more so in their minds will be the goat. I don’t know what they can do.. they killed Punk the day Nash hobbled into the picture.

by Rawuncutnxrated on Sep 14, 2011 1:16 AM EDT reply actions