Raw rating

[Kurt Angle Mark 0]

By Dave Meltzer

 

Raw last night did a 3.6 rating, down slightly from last week. As most would have figured, the HHH vs. Benoit match did not do well between the 10 and 50 minute mark, but picked up strongly in the final few minutes.

[Guest Trivia247]

they are lucky they have so much rating points after wasting time with the diva bullshit

[The Robfather 0]

ho hum. Same old same old.

[Promoter 0]

That rating is interesting. They almost pulled the same 3.7 number they have been pulling lately. Not too bad when you consider there were 2 matches and a whole bunch of Diva deliciousness

[Guest Fook]

Does anyone have any breakdowns by segment?

 

I'd like to see how many viewers tuned out during that longest half hour in history.

[Guest Loss]

Nielsen has requested that the websites that post the ratings no longer post quarter hours. It's not considered public information. Meltzer will usually do analysis on the numbers in the Observer, but Nielsen requested recently that all news entities stop publishing quarter hours.

 

So we know all we're going to know.

[AndrewTS 0]

Hmph--no quarter hour breakdown. Lame.

 

Still, I'm absolutely shocked the show didn't freakin' tank in a huge way.

[Promoter 0]

Who put the fork up Nielson's backside? What does knowing the break down hurt them? If this was 1998 the wrestling websites would be saying Ted Turner paid them off to beat Vince in the ratings

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

It's really odd how some people are looking at this as a good thing. Benoit and HHH have been "feuding" since Royal Rumble; which is about 6 1/2 months (3 PPVs) and this was their blow-off and it couldn't even do better than average. Oh, I forgot, the actual sense of heat between HHH and Benoit couldn't warm a hotdog and they didn't give any reason to watch the match. Speaking of cold and meaningless, hows about that DIVA search?

[razazteca 0]

What no update like Hour 1 which was the Battle Royale and the 13 year old spanking segments of brain dead divas trying to seduce the savage african Kamala did a 3.1. While Hour 2 which was the Iron Man match did a 4.0.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Does anyone have any breakdowns by segment?

 

I'd like to see how many viewers tuned out during that longest half hour in history.

That was a couple years ago though, and wasn't it the highest rated segment ever?

 

OH OH..you don't mean the "This is your life" segment..

[iggymcfly 0]

Good point on the "This is your life" segment. I like entertainment over wrestling much more than the typical smark, and when the segment aired I wasn't really a smark at all. Yet I still remember being embarassed to be a wrestling fan during that segment, and thinking it was one of the dumbest, most boring segments I'd ever seen. Stuff like Rock telling stories about how he gave his football coach a DDT when he wouldn't let him do wrestling moves on the field. Riiiight. Great idea.

[Guest FrigidSoul]

Nielsen has requested that the websites that post the ratings no longer post quarter hours. It's not considered public information. Meltzer will usually do analysis on the numbers in the Observer, but Nielsen requested recently that all news entities stop publishing quarter hours.

 

So we know all we're going to know.

I believe that has something to do with Nielsen being sued as well. I remember reading something about it in my newspaper recently where they just bullshitted about what Afro-Americans ages 18-30 watched or something like that. Thus they're keeping the ratings to themselves now until the case is done most likely.

[Guest Loss]

This Is Your Life was not the highest-rated segment of all time. Steve Austin v The Undertaker from the 06/28/99 RAW was. This is your life drew an 8.4. Austin v Taker drew a 9.5 rating.

 

The other two in the top four are the Mean Street Posse against Patterson & Brisco from the 05/10/99 RAW, which drew an 8.6 rating, and HHH v Chris Jericho from the 06/14/00 RAW, which drew an 8.4 rating.

[MARTYEWR 0]

Loss, weren't Austin's matches with Kane (after KOTR 98) and Rock (after SurSer 98) right up there as well, possibly higher than This Is Your Life and the other two you mentioned?

[deancoles 0]

The other two in the top four are the Mean Street Posse against Patterson & Brisco from the 05/10/99 RAW, which drew an 8.6 rating,

Was that the match where the MSP were putting their "careers " up and got squashed?

[Guest Champ]

This Is Your Life was not the highest-rated segment of all time. Steve Austin v The Undertaker from the 06/28/99 RAW was. This is your life drew an 8.4. Austin v Taker drew a 9.5 rating.

 

The other two in the top four are the Mean Street Posse against Patterson & Brisco from the 05/10/99 RAW, which drew an 8.6 rating, and HHH v Chris Jericho from the 06/14/00 RAW, which drew an 8.4 rating.

Actually Austin vs. Taker grew a 7.2.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

This is Your Life is the highest rated segment opposed by Nitro, therefore it is felt that its rating means more than the ones that beat it unopposed (like Taker/Austin).

[BHK 0]

the Mean Street Posse against Patterson & Brisco from the 05/10/99 RAW, which drew an 8.6 rating,

......

 

If you're not kidding, then I ask, HOW and WHY?

[Guest Loss]

Austin/Taker ran opposite of Nitro. Nitro was very much still on the air and three hours long in June of 1999.

 

The entire show (the 06/28/99 RAW with Austin v Taker as the main) drew a 7.2 rating. The match itself drew a 9.5 rating for that quarter hour.

 

People who think the fans would rather see dumb skits than wrestling forget that HHH v Chris Jericho on the 06/14/00 RAW drew the exact same quarter hour as This Is Your Life. So that's not a conclusion that can be formed from that information.

 

Yes, the MSP match was the one where they put their careers on the line.

 

The Austin v Kane and Austin v Rock matches both drew great numbers, especially for the time period, and Austin v Rock shattered the DDP v Goldberg record just a few weeks before it. It was the highest rated match ever until the record was broken several times in 1999.

[Guest Loss]

the Mean Street Posse against Patterson & Brisco from the 05/10/99 RAW, which drew an 8.6 rating,

......

 

If you're not kidding, then I ask, HOW and WHY?

1999 was one of the worst years in wrestling history, at least for the WWF, but also one of the most financially successful. The entire year made no sense.

[strummer 0]

well Loss, 99 wasn't so great for WCW either. 99 WCW sort of reminded me of the situation in wrestling in the late 80s/early 90s. The WWF was so popular in the 80s and early 90s with the cartoon gimmicks and big guys slowly pounding on each other in the main events. The NWA had much better wrestling, but was clearly WAY behind the WWF in financial/popularity terms. So in order to compete they thought they had to be like the WWF, and thus the gimmick explosion in early 90s WCW. In 99, the situation was the same as WCW still was putting on better in-ring wrestling than WWF, but was getting killed business wise. So the brass at WCW thought they had to be like the WWF to compete and thus Russo was hired at the end of 99. It was a real tough situation for them as they knew they couldn't overcome the WWF without making changes, but at the same time how could they mirror the Sports Entertainment model without pissing of the loyal WCW fan base? They were in a lose/lose situation.

[what 0]

It's really odd how some people are looking at this as a good thing. Benoit and HHH have been "feuding" since Royal Rumble; which is about 6 1/2 months (3 PPVs) and this was their blow-off and it couldn't even do better than average. Oh, I forgot, the actual sense of heat between HHH and Benoit couldn't warm a hotdog and they didn't give any reason to watch the match.

Holy shit, stop crying. It didn't take a genius to realize that the Iron Man match wasn't going to draw huge viewers. The Lesnar/Angle Iron Man match drew below average ratings.

[Promoter 0]

1999 was one of the worst years in wrestling history, at least for the WWF, but also one of the most financially successful. The entire year made no sense.

I think I can make sense of SOME of the crazy ratings in 1999 which goes back to my rant in another thread about 1999 being an illusion.

 

"The entire show (the 06/28/99 RAW with Austin v Taker as the main) drew a 7.2 rating. The match itself drew a 9.5 rating for that quarter hour."

 

*Okay, wasn't UT/Austin a rematch of the main event from the ppv where Owen Hart died (OTE)? I don't need to go into why ratings around this time would be inflated.

 

"This is your life drew an 8.4".

 

*Okay, do people forget the storyline leading UP to the segment? Foley was trying to befriend The Rock and The Rock was throwing insults after insults at Foley. Foley said that he had a BIG surprise for The Rock. Now general wrestling logic meant something like a HEEL TURN, but that did not happen. The segment is over-rated for the actual content and not how it was built up to.

 

I also thought the ten man tag match(early 2000 with the radicalz in Houston) was in the top 5 with it being over an 8.4 rating?

[Guest Anglesault]

The Lesnar/Angle Iron Man match drew below average ratings.

That was also the crappy boring ass match that blew off one of the most horribly mismanaged long feuds I've ever seen.

[Guest Anglesault]

*Okay, wasn't UT/Austin a rematch of the main event from the ppv where Owen Hart died (OTE)? I don't need to go into why ratings around this time would be inflated.

It was a month later.

[iggymcfly 0]

The reason that WCW lagged behind WWF in 98-99 had nothing to do with them trying to strike a balance between wrestling and sports entertainment segments, and had everything to do with most of the segments of both types being terrible.

 

It was always the exact same shit. You'd have Hogan or Nash or Luger or someone in the middle of the ring. They'd cut a generic two-minute "I'm gonna kick you BUTT, (opponent's name)" promo, except they'd stretch into 15 minutes by pausing 40 seconds every time they said two words. It made 1999 Triple-uh H-uh look like the guy on the radio reading the side effects for Viagra. When you put this against Austin, DX, and the original Corporation cutting some of the best promos the industry has ever seen, in the tightest angles ever seen from a wrestling promotion, WCW really had no chance.

 

And the "better wrestling" may have been there in patches, but the average fan tuning in to watch a WCW match saw a big steaming load of crap. WCW main event style was this: Heel punches opponent knocking him into the corner, then heel taunts fans for 30 seconds while opponent lays in corner, then when the heel finally works his way back over to the corner, he's shocked to see that the face has awakened. The face then does a two move comeback, after which he either lays down or plays to the fans himself. And I don't even want to talk about Thunder. There were at least 5 or 6 terribly blown spots a show that exposed the business and broke kayfabe.

 

1998-1999 WWF may have emphasized the angles at the expense of the actual wrestling, but at least they did a good job with what they were trying to do. WCW was lost without any direction, and for the most part they just did everything badly.

[Guest Loss]

WCW in 1999 had its good moments. March-April of 1999 was fantastic. Juvi/Blitz, Benoit/Malenko v Raven/Saturn, Sting v DDP, Juvi v Blitz v Rey v Psi, Flair becoming the top heel, the Bret/Goldberg steel plate angle and the "new look" Nitro all took place within about 4-5 weeks. It was a really strong period that faded out when Sting won the World title to DDP and lost it back to him in the same night. That match was the best match among two main eventers WCW had since Hogan's arrival, and the crowd was so into every single nearfall. The Raven/Saturn v Benoit/Malenko v Kidman/Rey feud was well-booked from start to finish and Ric Flair was drawing competitive quarter hours at that point so they were throwing him all over the show.

 

The problem is that most of this was running head-to-head with Wrestlemania hype and an Austin v Rock rematch, so it didn't stand a chance. And for all the good that came out of WCW, you had High Voltage, Disorderly Conduct, Van Hammer and Buff Bagwell to bring it down, and you had Hogan and Nash on top pulling strings ensuring that no one, not Ric Flair, not Sting, not Bret Hart, not Chris Benoit, not Chris Jericho, not Bill Goldberg, not Rey Misterio Jr. -- NO ONE -- was going to become bigger than them.

 

WCW tried the New Blood v Millionaire's Club feud in 2000, but had they done it in 1999 with the old fogies as the heels and while Benoit, Saturn, Malenko, Guerrero and Jericho were still around, it would have worked. But by 2000, Billy Kidman was leading the fray against Hulk Hogan, and that just wasn't going to work any way you sliced it.

[nl5xsk1 0]

I think the fact that it was an Iron Man match potentially hurt the ratings ... the average viewer (e.g. the non-smark) might think to themself "this match has no chance of ending for another 45 minutes, I can just flip around and come back periodically, and make sure that I'm back at 11:00-ish to see how it ends" and then flip away for a while.

[Steviekick 0]

WCW tried the New Blood v Millionaire's Club feud in 2000, but had they done it in 1999 with the old fogies as the heels and while Benoit, Saturn, Malenko, Guerrero and Jericho were still around, it would have worked. But by 2000, Billy Kidman was leading the fray against Hulk Hogan, and that just wasn't going to work any way you sliced it.

They actually teased a group like that called the Apocalypse or Armageddon with Regal, Malenko, Benoit, and Guerrero around 98 at a PPV. They actually got a good pop from the crowd, and Hogan canned the idea later that night.