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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?