(Observer) Raw ratings news

[Guest Retro Rob]

Like someone said earlier, RVD's entire career would have changed if he was pushed last year. The same with Chris Jericho. If he wasn't wasted in the mid-card for two and a half years, he would have became the Superstar that all of us made him out to be back in 1998.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

There was a window back in late late late 2001 and very early 2002 where a major RVD push may have done some business. He was ungodly popular.

 

Instead I think they gave him one shirt for sale.

 

That's all over now mind you.

[Guest bob_barron]

I disagree with ending the brand extension since I think it may hurt Smackdown more then it will help RAW

[Guest IB2BLACK]

But what about RVD's mic skills? How are the fans supposed to care, when he has the same reaction to anything and everything. He's been in the WWE for a year and a half, and has had maybe less that 10 promos.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

I'm not starting another RVD mic skills argument with you.

 

At MSG in the Elimination Chamber their were three massive pops:

 

HHH and HBK...who spent weeks talking with their mic skills.

 

and RVD who has none.

 

And yet...people cared as much if not more about RVD getting eliminated than anything else. That's why they shit all over his elimination.

 

I know you aren't stupid, since you can figure out how to get onto the internet...so you have to be able to understand that fans can care about wrestlers even if they don't stand in the ring and say nothing for 20 minutes a week.

[Guest bob_barron]

Gotta agree bps- the crowd was PISSED when RVD got eliminated and I don't recall him cutting one promo about the Elimination Chamber

[Guest Anglesault]

cut out the guys who are obviously tanking Test, Regal, Kane, and such.

I think Regal could make a VERY good manager, personally, but the others suck.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

I think Regal can do a lot of things, manage, commentate, and I still like Regal as a wrestler.

[Guest Anglesault]

I like his wrestling too, but I can see why others don't. He'd make a great replacement for Lawler.

[Guest Nevermortal]

I like his wrestling too, but I can see why others don't. He'd make a great replacement for Lawler.

A retarded one eyed moose would make a great replacement for Lawler nowadays.

[Guest Anglesault]

A retarded one eyed moose

 

PIERRE~!

[Guest Nevermortal]

A retarded one eyed moose

 

PIERRE~!

That actually crossed my mind after I posted.

 

But since Al Snow's on Raw....maybe they can hook that up.

[JasonX 0]

I disagree with ending the brand extension since I think it may hurt Smackdown more then it will help RAW

At this point SD must be sacrifced to save Raw. Plain and simple...

 

Kill this farce that they call brand extension and be done with it...

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

Where is SD! heading?

 

Big Show and Taker and Brock in the main event...and the same 6 people facing each other over and over?

 

hmmm...pass.

 

Still need to fire a bunch of people and then (AND ONLY THEN) can they end the brand extension.

 

Of course...they'll just keep all the wrong people anyway.

[Guest Anglesault]

Where is SD! heading?

 

Big Show and Taker and Brock in the main event

::weeps::

 

...and the same 6 people facing each other over and over?

 

And the matches are losing quality.

 

BTW, Show/Taker/Brock at Rumble so Michael Cole can scream "Biggest (As is size of competitors) WWE title match ever!"

[Guest bob_barron]

I'm starting to not despise the Big Show v. Brock feud. I'm fast becoming a Brock fan and seeing him F5 Show is impressive.

 

I don't think the matches are losing quality either- Los Guerreros v. Benoit/Angle was great last Thursday.

 

I'm still a fan of this brand extension and would hate to see it end

[Guest chirs3]

I'm starting to not despise the Big Show v. Brock feud. I'm fast becoming a Brock fan and seeing him F5 Show is impressive.

 

I don't think the matches are losing quality either- Los Guerreros v. Benoit/Angle was great last Thursday.

 

I'm still a fan of this brand extension and would hate to see it end

Ditto.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

The Brand Extension is the one good thing they have done all year. If they end it now, they will lose me as a fan (unless they fire HHH, Taker, etc. at the same time).

[Guest Mole]

I like his wrestling too, but I can see why others don't. He'd make a great replacement for Lawler.

YES YES YES. That is a great idea. Regal would be a great heel commentator.

 

Anyway, I am suprised that the women's match did so well. I guess people do want to see women's wrestling, even though I don't. Oh well.

 

It really suprises me that the main event did so poorly. HBK isn't the draw that they hoped he would be. I say put the title on Jericho, his segment did draw the most people, other than Triple-Juice.

[Guest goodhelmet]

Well, I'm dissapointed but not surprised.

 

RVD had no chance of winning the title from him on free TV...and even if he did I doubt people would care at this point. The RVD ship sailed almost a year ago.

i disagree. i think rvd was still hot up until lesnar completely squashed him at KOR. THAT was when you could see RVD just deflate. The RVD-Taker showdown-passing of torch would have been complete. Lesnar-Rock still could have happened. It was right there and they fucked it up. After KOR, RVD ceased to be relavent and I stopped caring about him at that point. Not because I don;t like his wrestling but because I knew it wouldn't amount to jack shit.

[Guest SuperTonyJaymz]

I agree...more Jericho, more damnit!

[Guest cabbageboy]

Well flat out they pushed the WRONG GUY. Lesnar has an entire career to be properly built and it wouldn't have hurt him a bit jobbing to RVD in the KOTR. No one has said this but we could have had a main event on PPV of Rock/RVD. If you give that match the same build they did with Brock/Rock it would have drawn twice the money. Have RVD beat the Rock clean and he would be over as hell.

 

That said, I don't really care about this rating for Raw. With Shawn it's not so much that fans don't remember him nowdays...I'd say most of the main fans today remember him pretty well. That is the reason in fact, I DO remember him and I sure as hell never was begging for him to return. I associate Shawn with a shitty period in the WWF that I do not want a part of again.

 

Basically RVD isn't really that screwed here, it all comes down to one thing. The only way to dispel the notion he isn't going to win the big one is to HAVE HIM WIN THE BIG ONE. I imagine they will put the title on him next year sometime in order to get him to resign in 2004 (much like with Jericho), but his title run will be about as notable as Jericho's.

[Guest Anglesault]

Well flat out they pushed the WRONG GUY.

Really?

[Guest NYCTA Bus No. PA1767]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and make a rational argument. Here goes...

 

You all are saying in not so many words that the reason the "dream match" bombed is because "people knew RVD wasn't going to win." You know what? People knew RVD wasn't going to win at the PPV, yet they were pissed when he lost. Why? They like RVD. Those that don't probably didn't care or they cheered. People know RVD is not going to win alot o fME matches that are for the title, yet they react when he come out to the ring. Why? They like RVD. If they don't, they sit on their hands. What's my point, it's this. If people like RVD, they're going to tune in, whether they feel he is going to win or not because they like seeing him perform. If they don't like him, they're going to tune out. Am I placing all the blame for the low rating on RVD? No, I'm not. As champion Michales has to bare the brunt of it, but RVD is responsible too. That's just the way it is. A ME match is a two man show, not one.

 

Also, someone posted that they felt the match bombed "because people knew HHH was going to interfere." Please, stop being delusional. No one outside of the internet community hates HHH on the same level as you people do. Most marks hate HHH on the "I hate what he did on RAW last week." level. If they did, RAW would be in the upper twp's lower ones because I'll be damned if 60% of that show does not invlove HHH in some shape or form. And what's even more mind boggling about what the poster said is that even though they knew HHH was going to interfere, they came back for the overrun, the time that HHH would most likely interfere. So, you're saying they don't want to see HHH interfere, yet they come back at the time he would? Are you saying there are 460,000 masichists(sp?) out there that get off on HHH torture? I'm not attributing that drastic increase in viewers totally to him, but it's wrong to say the decrease before it was all of his fault.

 

In conclusion, RVD is not a draw, HHH is not a draw, Michaels is not a draw. Nobody is a draw. Wrestling itself is not a draw. No matter how many times you scream push RVD! Push Benoit! Push Angle, it will not just magically turn around and make things ago. If you believe that you are no better than Vince McMahon with all of his false starts and quick finishes. It's going to to take an enormouse effort from everyone from the bookers, to the road agents, to the writers, to the wrestlers to the McMahons themselves to make things work again and it's not going to be a quick fix that wil just patch things up. It's going to be a slow, long process to heal the wounds of dizzying highs and dashing lows.

[Guest Vyce]

The Shawn Michaels v. RVD "dream match" was a huge flop. It was the LEAST viewed segment on the entire show, doing only a 3.23 rating.

It was the lowest rated Raw main event in nearly four years, beating out the 4 way RVD/Jericho/Show/Jeff Hardy match from a few months ago from the HLA show.

 

Does this REALLY surprise anyone?

 

I think most anyone who has the slightest bit of common sense left knew two things going into that match: 1) RVD wasn't going to win. 2) HBK canNOT perform anywhere near the same level as he did 5 years ago.

 

Test and Steven Richards lost 60,000 viewers.

 

You just KNOW that Richards is going to be fucking screwed and will get blamed for that.

 

It couldn't be that Test is killing the ratings, no sirree.

 

Trish v. Victoria added 130,000 viewers.

 

Evil psycho questionably-bisexual divas = ratings.

 

The Dudley/Jerichristian angle climax aded 170,00 viewers and was the high point of the show.

 

What made those segments watchable: Jericho. To a lesser extent, Christian.

 

Who will get the credit for the success: The Dudleys. To a lesser extent, "asscream."

 

And in more depressing news, the overrun with Triple H destroying RVD and Shawn Michaels added 460,000 viewers. Meltzer says that is the audience that likely tunes out halfway through the show and comes back for the ending, along with a little bit of the CSI audience.

 

Brace yourself for another several months of HHH on top. Up until another part of his steroid-riddled body explodes or tears.

 

As for the brand extension.....look, I'm no fan of Big Show as champ. I despise Undertaker at this point. And Brock has YET to connect with me as a fan / viewer.

 

But that doesn't mean I want to see HHH put himself over those goons and hog up TWICE as much air time as he already possesses.