Raw rating = DOWN

[Taker316]

Yeah, so i seen on the front page, once agian the raw rating went DOWN. Kinda funny concidering they're giving away a million bucks on raw, but not in a wise way at all. All a person would have to do is watch the 1st 10 mins of raw, find the password and shut it off, wait for the call. So first 10 mins rating could be 5 for all we know, but rest low as hell LOL. Another thing i was noticing is the million dollar giveaway is only for the U.S. Which means, basically they lost all they're canadian viewers (myself for one) which id bet to say makes up a good percentage of the TV ratings.

Dicuss. =P

 

[Deus1138]

This million dollar give away has to be one of the most transparent, pathetic attempts to salvage ratings WWE has come with. At least when they were doing edgy stuff, having girls in the crowd flash, and having the Divas show a lot more skin, they could argue they are marketing to an older audience. This is just sad! What's really sad is everyone has figured out and point out that you need to only watch the first 3 minutes of RAW. Great plan, Vince! If they weren't totally stupid about this, they would have done something like have a Diva come out, flash her bra, then call someone 3 seconds later and see if that person can name the bra color. But the money give away would STILL be a really lame attempt at ratings. I mean, it's worse than the Mick Foley cheap pop, which he conceded as a cheap pop, made fun of the fact that it was a cheap pop, which made it work!

 

[Steamboat Ricky]

I don't really know what to think about this, as I actually really enjoyed Raw last night. I think this proves that a quick fix can't right the ship. They need to realize that WWE is sports entertainment...not entertainment. They can't continue to mask the fact that the business that they are in is primarily the business of professional wrestling. Start utilizing the talent that you have and start defending titles on television.

 

[DeadmanInc.]

I actually Lol'd after reading that. The Million Dollar Mania has got to be one of the most pathetic attempts at boosting ratings I have ever seen. They're literally paying people to watch their show, how desperate is that? They should improve their product instead of buying viewers.

 

[MrScott]

i was actually thinking of the same password problem as i was watching. a better way to keep people watching would be perhaps a new password, given out before each phone call. then you keep people watching

but since im canadian, and its american audiances only, the million dollar give away segmeants were just a complete waste of time for me and took away from the show.

and why make it american eligibility only anyway, your doing this to try to get ratings up, why exclude the rest of the world when you looking for new people to watch?

=S

 

[buddy_z34]

i thought they would of changed the password every time. but yes it's a complete waste of time. it was really boring watching the Million Dollar segments. i hit FF on my DVR.

 

[FoleyIsGod]

Its a nice plan in theory to try and get the older viewers back, the ones that left in 2002/2003.

What isnt a good plan is having Triple H as the champ during this Money Mania. A lot of people got sick of seeing him in 2003/2004 as the champ (much like we all got sick of seeing Cena for 18 months)

The WWE ran with a dab hand too long, much like WCW and ended up tanking, like WCW.

This is what you get when you dont push new stars Vince

 

[AnthonyMango/NoFate007]

I don't really know what to think about this, as I actually really enjoyed Raw last night. I think this proves that a quick fix can't right the ship. They need to realize that WWE is sports entertainment...not entertainment. They can't continue to mask the fact that the business that they are in is primarily the business of professional wrestling. Start utilizing the talent that you have and start defending titles on television.

I actually enjoyed it as well. Although the matches were a little short, and I can't argue that, but when was the last time you can remember seeing the WWE accomplish as much as they did as last night? Think about it. Kennedy and Burchill's feud has a spot, DiBiase's feud continues (with a very logical "paid off the two strongest guys to soften them up" story to the match), Melina/Beth continues (as well as showing the women's champ), they upped the ante for the Michaels/Jericho feud in a nice segment, they showcased their top four main event stars (Cena, HHH, Hardy, and JBL despite how I hate him) but on top of that, they made all but JBL look good in the end. HHH loses a match that he dominates for the most part, JBL loses a matches that he dominates for the most part, Cena gets the upper hand on HHH after he gets the upper hand on him, and Hardy out of nowhere takes them both out to balance out how he only won by DQ. The only one that doesn't equalize is JBL, but, well, fuck JBL lol. And the money thing, yeah, it took up more time than the wrestling, but it ALSO reminded the fans that Charlie Haas existed, showed Maria for the people that give a shit, gave them 2 comedic segments (that I'm sure the people that like Hornswoggle's bullshit enjoyed, but I never really think these things are funny)...the only match that didn't contribute much was Cryme Tyme vs Santino/Carlito.

But on top of everything else...you know why this week's Raw was enjoyable to me? WRESTLING pushed the feuds forward, not 10 video segments of "let's rewind to 12 weeks ago and show you the same damn video that we showed you last week, but now we've added in the 2 spots from last week's show". Watching the CONSTANT ads for feuds as opposed to seeing the people in action is what we've been used to and its annoying. This week's Raw, we saw wrestling matches which progressed the storylines.

I bet if McMahon had figured out how to use the phone quickly enough, giving a few more minutes to some matches, nobody would be complaining at all (unless they're just mad that they didn't win). If I have a choice between seeing 10 or so 5 minute matches that are entertaining and progress a storyline, as opposed to 5 matches that last 10 minutes long and consist of "JBL versus D.H. Smith in a squash match, Kozlov in a squash match, Palumbo against Finlay, Umaga squashing Val Venis, Cherry vs Maryse", and then to make up for the lack of purpose, just squeezing in an hour of the same promos you've already run twice during the week....then shit, isn't it obvious to take the first one?

Anyway....that being said....its a shame that the WWE can't figure out what to do to get the ratings up - as long as its not "we need more comedy so give Hornswoggle another championship" type tactics. Maybe this will shock the hell out of them so much that they'll stop the endless squash matches and DQ endings and actually, you know, think about what's enjoyable to the fans.

 

[klunderbunker]

To me, this is the best that could happen for the fans. After rewatching the Attitude Era Raws, there is one major thing that seems to be missing: Stories. When was the last time there was a major feud that had a story behind it? All there is anymore is you're the champion, I want to be the champion. There has to be something there for the audience to care about. Right now, the closest thing to a story is Jericho/Batista/HBK, which isn't really a story as much as complicated. There's nothing but random match after random match. That, and a feud isn't 3 weeks of staredowns and a match. To me, WWE needs to just be patient and let the product grow, but above all else, they need some kind of story to go with the matches more than anything.

 

[Taker316]

Yeah, i gotta say the only thing i actually liked bout RAW this week was the Jericho, HBK segment. FINALLY they got Jericho heel (even though i'd cheer for him even more now) but still hopefully his old mic skills will come back and Jericho, will be the Jericho of old again! And again, since im from canada the million dollar giveaway was just a complete waste o time! (and WTF was the whole *u won 2 whole dollars* thing?) Honestly... if i got a call, won 2 bucks i'd just have to go on a rampage or something! MAN what a pissoff!

 

[Golden Standard]

The million dollar giveway won't bring up the ratings for Raw. Only thing that will bring up the ratings on Raw is good matches, storylines and feuds. And i don't see that happening anytime soon so expect the ratings to get lower or be the same for awhile now. Be crazy if Raw got the ratings Impact gets. I would ball out laughing.

 

[motownjunk]

I wonder how they came up with the giveaway in the first place? "I know, lets give people money to watch something they weren't bothering about watching in the first place". I found the whole idea laughable, and I switched over from RAW everytime the segment came on. Because the way the mania disrupted the matches, I wasn't surprised at the rating. I bet the guy who came up with it has a large McMahon shaped footprint on his behind lol.

 

[D.Miller]

How could have anyone enjoyed RAW on Monday? You had these Million Dollar Mania segments in between matches with McMahon even with his damn glasses on, struggling just to dial up a few numbers which took so much damn time. He should set up some kind of automatic dialing or something because while you're standing there, taking your little time and pressing your fingers on buttons while the whole thing looks like a piece of crap fraud, people especially the rest of countries excluded from this opportunity are saying "f this piece of crap" and tuning out. Basically, the segments slowed the show down from actually being better because just as some mentioned in here, they executed well a few great things on RAW. But from the constant segments, I decided to tune out and missed most of RAW this week. I reckon Vince find a better way to do this because if he continues this way, rating will without a shadow of a doubt, continue to plunge!!!

 

[Etrain]

What has happened to the WWE is what has happened to another show: They've hit a dry spot. And they've been in that spot for quite some time. Now, I'm one for instead complaining, let's come up with some solutions.

1. Get rid of the mill give away. It's pointless. You are paying people to watch your show, Vince. That's basically what you're saying. It's pathetic. It's WCWish.

2. PUSH NEW TALENT! PUSH NEW TALENT. Granted not everyone can be a Steve Austin, Rock or HHH. But Jesus, even those guys weren't stars over night. It's time for Kennedy, J. Hardy( if he can stay sober) Shelton Benjiman, CM Punk to rise to main event level.

3. Bring some more edge! I'm sick of the "marketing to kids" crap. That's what Disney and cartoons are for this is wrestling. And that's why the "Attitude Era was so great. They pushed the evenlope, and they had great talent.

To sum it up, Vince needs to take his own money and invest into his talent roster, or else the ratings will be looking like 2.5's. And I love the WWE, but it's not even great to watch anymore.

 

[FOTH 3:16]

Good God I never thought I would see the day where Vinnie Mac would actually have to start paying people to watch RAW.This is pretty pathetic.I mean seriously,paying people to watch programming.Whats the point?They will watch the first five minutes,get the password,and turn away to watch something else.WWE has been going down hill for a while,since 2004/2005.But now its getting bad.The tag tam division and mid-card division sucks,all the women are is T&A,The only division that get's any focus at all is the Heavyweight Division and it ain't that great(who wants to see Cena/HHH cuz it is not me).The fans want to see a few gimmicks,yeah,but I would also like to see some good wrestling action.I recently watched a ROH DVD for the first time and was amazed.That is the kinda wrestling I wanna see.Not some stupid Italian(no that wasn't meant to be racist) butcher the english language and put on a show containing of a punch and armdrag.I wanna see a great match.The product WWE provides sucks anymore and that is why the RAW rating was down.Hopefully the product will improve with the draft but it is doubtful.But when its so bad ratings plummet to 3.0 and you pay people to watch its pretty pathetic.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

Im glad this failed miserably. The maybe they will stop this fucking embarassing shit. I honestly had a feeling of pity for Mcmahon during this. It was just absolutely laborious. Terrible. It was like a hokey 9 am game show. NO ONE watches WWE for this, at all. If anything, people were disgusted and offended by it, like I was. And to have this go over your main event??? Are you fucking serious???. I can see the creative meeting right now "now get THIS...we will wait to give away the most money til the very end of the show!!! Thatll make people stick around for the whole thing!!" Ugh.

 

[justinsayne]

Im glad this failed miserably. The maybe they will stop this fucking embarassing shit. I honestly had a feeling of pity for Mcmahon during this. It was just absolutely laborious. Terrible. It was like a hokey 9 am game show. NO ONE watches WWE for this, at all. If anything, people were disgusted and offended by it, like I was. And to have this go over your main event??? Are you fucking serious???. I can see the creative meeting right now "now get THIS...we will wait to give away the most money til the very end of the show!!! Thatll make people stick around for the whole thing!!" Ugh.

I turned it off after the ME, completely forgot about them giving away more money

I hope they never ever try anything like this again, McMahon needs to learn two things, 1- you can't buy viewers, and 2- not all you fucking veiwers live in fucking America!!!!, Vince McMahon pretty much insulted every other veiwer in the world by having this thing be for American fans only, that was just plain stupid, that's like saying that us American fans are the only ones that matter

They need to try to do new things, but they need to keep those things related to the show, not this Million doller give-away crap

 

[jpfizzle]

I turned it off after the ME, completely forgot about them giving away more money

I hope they never ever try anything like this again, McMahon needs to learn two things, 1- you can't buy viewers, and 2- not all you fucking veiwers live in fucking America!!!!, Vince McMahon pretty much insulted every other veiwer in the world by having this thing be for American fans only, that was just plain stupid, that's like saying that us American fans are the only ones that matter

They need to try to do new things, but they need to keep those things related to the show, not this Million doller give-away crap

I agree, when I don't have anything to do tuesday daytime I stay up in my UK house, watching my UK broadcast until 4:15 AM!!! to see Vince giving all the American fans a chance to win a million! That doesn't bother me really but I thought with them TRYING to draw in more viewers they would have at least something notable happening to make the money giveaway worth while and ensure that at least some of those viewers will come back when there isn't money to be given out. One could argue that the Jericho heel turn was this moment but it got almost forgotten about with the Million Dollar giveaway malarky.

I am praying we get something diffren't this week...usually RAW is hit and miss and after a really bad week we get a REALLY REALLY good show.. here's hoping!

 

[bradd]

To me what the WWE has to do is (laugh if you will) treat the company as if they were playing GM Mode on their video games. Hear me out. In the GM Mode in order to have more fans you need to have a few things: rivalries, story lines, popular superstars against one another, special mathces, title matches with hype, crazy ppv to name a few. If Vince paid attention to this kind of recipe I think WWE would overall be more enjoyable.

Cena vs Umaga on Raw tonight in a Street Fight is a good start. But knowing the outcome is crap and nearly kills the goodness of the Street Fight. The WWE has become to predictable. Umaga is going to job to Cena. However, if some time went into building Umaga before this match it might seem he had a chance making for a much better match. These little things is what the WWE has to do to get better raitings.

All in all if the WWE can develop superstars so either could win 50/50, put them in different style matches (different every week) with storylines that add fuel to the fire right until the PPV where they have the hands down best match of their fued with maybe a title shot on the line or another stipulation thats not total bs like the recent ones the WWE will be back on the road to recovery IMO

 

[HellBoundPower]

Well it looks like Raw rating was up this week, at least compared to last, with a 3.3. This Raw was better than the last, and the Million Dollar Mania didn't seem to interfere as much this week. Vince was also able to dial the phone correctly, so that helped move the segments along a little bit too. They did blow Flair's return, but other than that Raw was solid this week, and hopefully they can pull in more ratings next week for the draft.