RAW rating for 1/16/06

[Downhome 0]

From PWInsider:

 

Edge and Lita's "live sex" carried over very well for WWE this week as Raw did a 4.3 cable rating, with a six share. The show did hours of 4.3 and 4.3 and brought back the audience that watched last week's show.

 

AM Raw did a 0.6 cable rating, with a 1.6 share.

 

Ok, so I predicted that this RAW would do about the same, or even worse, than the RAW before "live sex". I was very wrong there, but I don't really know how fair it is to give credit to that segment for the following week doing this well. They really promoted Angle/HBK, and if I remember correctly the Edge/Flair TLC match was announced days in advance as well.

 

I just can't imagine the "live sex" being the reason that people stuck with RAW for the following week. Whatever the reason, and it's pretty much impossible to really know one way or another, we do know one thing for sure. Seeing this number, WWE will take it as a sign that those type of segments is what WWE really needs these days.

 

PWInsider recently reported that people in the back were on the verge of convincing Vince that the business needs to change, and that they need to get past the controversial angles and the goofy stuff. That was the week before the "live sex". With the number that show did, and now this past RAW, I'm sure than any chance that we had to see a change, has been eliminated.

 

I don't really buy that story about the guys almost changing Vince's buys, but still.

 

Anyway, I thought this past RAW was a pretty solid show with two great matches, so the number is well deserved in my opinion, at least for this one week.

[UZI Suicide 0]

Hmm... maybe Edge really is more popular then we all thought.

 

 

Nah, who am I kidding.

[CBright7831 0]

It did pretty good going against HEAVY competition from the season premiere of 24 and the Golden Globe Awards.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Let's see if they can do that on a regular Raw, with no TLC match or Kurt vs. Shawn match to hype up. It's good they got a decent rating, even if they make zero dollars off of any ad revenue, but the time for real celebration is when they can pull off a month or two of 4.0's without gimmicks.

[Downhome 0]

I don't think they can do it without a gimmick or something controversial, not week after week. They just don't have hardly any truly interesting feuds right now. Heck, do they have any truely interesting feuds?

 

I don't think Cena/Edge can do it alone. Then we have Mickie/Trish, and that isn't going to cut it. HHH/TBS is still going on, but I don't even get that entire feud at the moment. Now that Kurt is gone there goes his thing with HBK. Vince/HBK is going on, but I don't see the point for that (other than trying to get Bret involved), and it really doesn't have any real steam behind it yet in my opinion. The entire Benjamin thing isn't going to really make people watch the show. I've been enjoying Flair, quite a lot, but where does he even fit in now after that TLC match? It's more of just filler for the Edge/Cena feud now. The only thing that's really left is Kane squashing people, so yeah.

 

Does any of that really sound like the makings of a program that will just pull the viewers in week after week without something controversial or some gimmick going on?

 

I don't think so.

[justcoz 0]

I really wish that they'd realize their own business cycles. The ratings upswing has absolutely nothing to do with "Live Sex", Cena losing the title or Edge's popularity. People are tuning in because every year at this time, going back to the late 80's, viewers are anticipating the Wrestlemania build, starting with this month's Rumble. These are almost like sweeps weeks for the McMahon's - they are wanting ratings to generate buyrates and those viewers are expecting the company to be in full gear to build to Mania to determine if the annual event is worth ordering. The rest of these PPV's each month are meaningless to most casual viewers.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

If they can't do 4's without gimmicks, then they are going to slide in to the low 3's once the people get tired of all the hotshotting. They need to stop using the gimmicks as a safety net, and concenrate on developing storylines that bring people in. They might have to suffer low 3's in the short term, but long term, it will help a lot.

[razazteca 0]

Next week Mama on a pole and Masterlock challenge is going to bring the ratings back to 3.7 which is the norm.

[Downhome 0]

I do not think WWE is going out of business, and I don't think that's going to happen for many, many years from now, blah blah blah. I just want to get all of that away, because that is not where I'm going with the following:

 

Right now, WWE seems to be more focused on the here and right now. They have resorted to booking shows up to the point right before the matches are to take place, and they are trying to get by by having the gimmicks and controversial stuff going on more and more lately. It is very much like WCW's last days that it's almost scary. Right now, the backstage and creative just seems to be in pure turmoil right now, with not real plan for the long term future.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

What makes this funny is that when he was fighting with WCW, Vince was more willing to take chances with new talent and storylines and he was patient. Now, with no competition, he loses his mind every other week.

[Guest]

The only reason that this number is staying at a relatively high level is because it's getting closer to Wrestlemania. Last year, I quit watching until the Rumble and watched it until after Mania, and I think that others do the same. People know that they will usually get a good build for Wrestlemania and not this stupid bullshit.

[razazteca 0]

Only the main event gets promoted everything else will be announced 2 weeks before the show or at the Heat show before Wrestlemania.

[Guest]

I know, but yet people tune in for the promotion of said Main Event, and everyone watches because Wrestlemania is a big thing. These ratings aren't truly accurate.

[Guest Hass of Pain]

Let's see if they can do that on a regular Raw, with no TLC match or Kurt vs. Shawn match to hype up. It's good they got a decent rating, even if they make zero dollars off of any ad revenue, but the time for real celebration is when they can pull off a month or two of 4.0's without gimmicks.

 

Exactly.

 

It's hilarious that WWE is celebrating 4.3 ratings on their website as some kind of a mark of surging business when domestic revenues were down by 25% in 2005 and show no sign of improvement, and their cash cow Wrestlemania is shaping up to be one of the hardest sells in years. They gave away a couple of pay-per-view caliber matches for free and the only thing they have to show for it a few more free rider eyeballs on their show who probably aren't ordering pay-per-views or going to live events anyway if they can't be bothered to watch Raw more than a few times a year.

 

It's a weird measuring stick of success, maybe Vince never got the memo that Nitro isn't on the air anymore.

[cabbageboy 0]

I actually think Edge's title win has in fact sparked interest in the product. It was a real "Holy Shit" type moment. Yeah, he's kind of a sleaze but he does have longtime fans who are glad he finally won the title.

[Guest Rubin]

Let's see if they can do that on a regular Raw, with no TLC match or Kurt vs. Shawn match to hype up. It's good they got a decent rating, even if they make zero dollars off of any ad revenue, but the time for real celebration is when they can pull off a month or two of 4.0's without gimmicks.

 

Exactly.

 

It's hilarious that WWE is celebrating 4.3 ratings on their website as some kind of a mark of surging business when domestic revenues were down by 25% in 2005 and show no sign of improvement, and their cash cow Wrestlemania is shaping up to be one of the hardest sells in years. They gave away a couple of pay-per-view caliber matches for free and the only thing they have to show for it a few more free rider eyeballs on their show who probably aren't ordering pay-per-views or going to live events anyway if they can't be bothered to watch Raw more than a few times a year.

 

It's a weird measuring stick of success, maybe Vince never got the memo that Nitro isn't on the air anymore.

 

Not as hilarious as how everybody keeps celebrating TNA's 0.8-0.9 ratings as if they are maginificant numbers and it indicates that TNA is a huge success that is taking over the wrestling world. Funny how shows have been looked at as being major flops in the past that were in the 0.8 range. People go to such ridiculous lengths to put a positive spin on their numbers. Like with all this and the thing here they add they replay ratings and the original airing together. Yeah, like there's really any real proof that everybody watching on Monday night never watched the Saturday? I guess then the rating for WWE's Saturday morning Raw recap show needs to be added on to the rating for Raw.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Let's see if they can do that on a regular Raw, with no TLC match or Kurt vs. Shawn match to hype up. It's good they got a decent rating, even if they make zero dollars off of any ad revenue, but the time for real celebration is when they can pull off a month or two of 4.0's without gimmicks.

.....when domestic revenues were down by 25% in 2005 and show no sign of improvement, and their cash cow Wrestlemania is shaping up to be one of the hardest sells in years.

Take out the international buys, and WM last year got about 650,000 buys domestically.

[Jericho2000Mark 0]

Wow, I can't imagine how poorly shows like No Mercy and Taboo Tuesday do domestically...

 

BTW, how well did WM XX do domestically? When did they start counting international buys?

[Guest Hass of Pain]

Exactly. WWE made a huge deal out of getting close to one million buys for Wrestlemania and it looked like this huge increase, but when 35% of those buys are coming from overseas now that pay-per-views are no longer free over there, it just allows WWE to get even more complacement because they think that they are turning business around.

 

Take out International revenue and the DVD's that are being rush produced to hemorage the bleeding, and WWE's bottom line isn't so pretty. When they overexpose themselves overseas too and the waning quality of their DVD's slows sales in the long term, things will really get scary. Not saying they will go out of business anytime in the next decade, but the fact that television ratings are still seen as the baromoter of success certainly isn't a good sign for the future.

[Guest Hass of Pain]

BTW, how well did WM XX do domestically? When did they start counting international buys?

 

Wrestlemania XX did 825,000 buys in the United States and Canada, which was a bit of an anamoly considering how low interest in wrestling was at that point as well. It had to be some kind of a nostalgia thing with so many stars on the show.

 

You'd have to ask someone in Europe when WWE pay-per-views officially stopped being free, but it was when Sky TV's contract with WWE was renewed around early fall of 2004.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

I think the reason why the Live Sex thing got such good ratings is that people wanted to see what would happen. That's a bit of a duh, but the WWE audience likes it when things are unpredictable and, I don't want to say Fresh because it isn't, but "not stale", and Live Sex had a big "Something is going to happen here" stamped on it and they didn't really know what. I think Kurt Angle winning the title on Smackdown was a pretty big reason why people tuned in to RAW this week because they wanted to see what would happen, since Angle was on Smackdown - would the match go through, who would win?

 

They could probably sustain the rating if they continued to have Edge do some taboo stuff and then transition it into a big program with a relatively refreshed HHH and did the basic program from there.

[Guest Arnold_OldSchool]

Let's see if they can do that on a regular Raw, with no TLC match or Kurt vs. Shawn match to hype up. It's good they got a decent rating, even if they make zero dollars off of any ad revenue, but the time for real celebration is when they can pull off a month or two of 4.0's without gimmicks.

 

Exactly.

 

It's hilarious that WWE is celebrating 4.3 ratings on their website as some kind of a mark of surging business when domestic revenues were down by 25% in 2005 and show no sign of improvement, and their cash cow Wrestlemania is shaping up to be one of the hardest sells in years.

 

 

WM is expected to do over a million buys worldwide easily this year WON said.

[snuffbox 0]

Expected by whom?

[Downhome 0]

No.

 

It said that WWE thinks that they will do over one million buys if Bret Hart is involved.

[Eclipse 0]

I don't understand how RAW is getting these HUGE NUMBERS with the stuff that's happening on RAW right now. I just don't get it....

[chaosrage 0]

I don't understand how RAW is getting these HUGE NUMBERS with the stuff that's happening on RAW right now. I just don't get it....

 

Sex sells. Big matches like TLC and Angle/Michaels also sell. It's not that hard to understand.

[iggymcfly 0]

I watched most of the last Raw after not watching more than 15 minutes of a show since Summerslam. Basically, I thought Cena was boring as shit, and I wanted to see where they were going with Edge as champ. It's at least somewhat "different" and "fresh" even if it's nothing major.

 

The Angle/Shawn match and the TLC match didn't hurt either. They definitely kept me interested when I would have turned away if we had the typical Cena vs. Masters and Carlito shit that's been main-eventing a lot of Raws lately.

[Vyce 0]

No.

 

It said that WWE thinks that they will do over one million buys if Bret Hart is involved.

 

Furthermore, the only reason the PPVs are doing decent buys is because of the international market. It's completely propping them up, because the U.S. market (for the WWE, at least) continues to die with every year of new, horrible WWE programming. To be honest, the WWE is only really profitable due to 1) merchandising and 2) international revenue, in the form of tours & international buys. Take those away, and the WWE is in very bad shape.

 

Plus, I think we all know Bret isn't showing up at Mania. People say "Never say never!" in wrestling.....well, I'm saying never. What I absolutely adore is that everyone in WWE management is so convinced that they can get him to show, to the point of telling the writers to factor him into their booking plans, and Bret is just completely fucking with them by blowing them off at every opportunity.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Anyway, I thought this past RAW was a pretty solid show with two great matches

How was HBK/Angle "great". Even by TV match standards, it was pretty pedestrian. HBK tries to play mat wrestler early, then starts throwing disinterested chops. Angle goes on offense, then hits some big spots that ultimately don't mean anything. HBK makes his comeback, then Angle hits the anklelock (after working the back the whole match), which HBK sits in for an eternity until the nonsensical/crappy finish.

 

Somebody point out the "greatness" in this match.

[billdynamite 0]

Yeah I wasn't particularly impressed with the match either. Although I like both wrestlers and wasn't bored by the match, I didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary.