RAW suffers lowest rating in 2 years...Orton as champ to blame?

[RVDisTNA]

How about there's just better shit to watch on T.V. than the Two hour weekly crapfest that unfortunately has become "Monday Night Raw".

Sadly, no one cares about wrestling anymore because WWE has made it such a joke that if you say you are a wrestling fan to someone, they usually laugh and feel sorry for you. Because thats what they think of. WWE. Bad acting. Silly Gimmicks. Fake "Sports-Entertainment".... It's just not cool anymore... People don't watch wrestling these days.

 

[Sara-Casey]

No Randy's a tweener and is loved by fans.If anything he draws viewers ,not run them away

 

[justinsayne]

Yeah Orton, one of, if not the most over guy in the company right now is the reason why the ratings dropped, right cause that makes sense

IDK why the ratings dropped (though I'me will to bet MNF had something to do with it), nor do I give a fuck, I have never understood why wrestling fans get so hung up on the fucking ratings, you don't see threads being started or people posting about the threads of anyother tv shows, sports, or anything else you watch on TV, so why give a fuck what the ratings are?, the only thing that should matter is if you like the show

 

[Jack bruce]

For 1 stop the cena bashing cena is not the cause of the ratings droping, he always proved he was a draw. orton cannot be blamed just yet for the ratings he aint hit the samoa joe border line yet and proven that he cant draw a dime and ratings continue to go down as champ. but orton needs to stop being god no one likes a god wrestler im looking at you cena back in the day rock got his ass kicked sometimes austin sometimes, got his ass kicked it made it more real but dominating the scene every week gets boring plus mnf has nothing to do with the ratings if it did then we would have seen it way earlier i`ll give him 3 weeks then we can prove if orton is a draw or not.

 

[Travaje]

4 million viewers is a lot, not counting the amount of people who watch it worldwide, and the amount of people who watch it later on the internet. I'm pretty sure that still beat every single show on the USA Network. There are not many shows on cable pulling higher numbers than that anywhere, and the ones that do (Jersey Shore, for example) are EVERYWHERE.

Another RAW isn't as good as it was in the Attitude Era and the ratings prove it thread in disguise. I'm pretty sure 4 million people weren't watching RAW BEFORE the Attitude Era and most people 25 years of age and older will probably argue they liked wrestling more then than now.

I actually liked RAW this week. I'm not an Orton fan, so I don't care if he has the strap or not. I'm not a fan of the strap either, so it's all good. Miz stole the show. Again. Jericho is the MVP that everyone should be trying to emulate. Every week. I like what they are doing with John Morrison and his "Ninja Warrior" gimmick. And it looks like they are breaking up Nexus, which is exactly what needs to happen, because Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater have real talent which is not being utilized and Wade Barrett wishes he could get half the heat Miz gets....he's just awful. David Otunga is even worse.

 

[MizfitPeep]

I'm sure it's been said, but I know NBC shows have their season/series premieres this week. Not to mention Monday Night Football. I don't believe Randy Orton is to blame at all. If anything, judging by way fans have been reacting to him, I would think people would want to see him as champ. (I was hoping for a Miz cash in, but then again, I've been hoping for it since he won MITB).
I don't now how the ratings work, but I don't know if they keep track of how many people actually DVR Raw instead of watching it live.

 

[triple_b2k]

It's difficult to watch Raw. There is too much 'comedy' and not enough ring time for wrestlers. The last few months has seen a more serious tone but the comedy is still there and it's worse than ever.
Michael Cole as a heel announcer is even worse than face! He was annoying and awful before but now even more so. I remember hearing many times, Vince doesn't think commentary is that important. It's clear that's the case because Cole is still there and sucks ass. I'd rather watch Raw on mute than listen to him and Lawler discuss everything else going on in the WWE except for the match they're suppose to be calling.

 

[Makavelilives]

We need Good ol JR back and Vince needs to be there to i think, or a really good gm, as bad as it sounds the best GM they had Was Eric Bishoff

 

[CrazyBeastKing]

Orton being champ has nothing to do with the low rating. With your assumptions, it seems that you have forgotten that football season started last week, which is twice as popular as WWE so ratings usually slip around this time. To add to that, it was a monday night football game featuring the superbowl champions, the New Orleans Saints, and it was a damn good game at that.

 

[Remy LaCroix]

Football season, prime time, etc. Blah blah, blah blah blah!

That's a lame excuse (LOL), using Orton as a scapegoat for low ratings. As much as me and my bro find Orton boring, it doesn't make us wanna not watch Raw cuz there are PLENTY of other segments and stuff going on that were interesting. I was especially into the whole Cena vs Nexus gauntlet match and creamed my pants over how they actually let Justin Gabriel have a match with Cena.

Okay, that last part was off-topic, but it's used to prove my point -- if people were really turned off by Randy being champion, then those fans don't know what they're missing when it comes to the rest of the show. I don't give a fuck who the champion is, as long as I'm entertained. And I was cuz of the gauntlet match.

And I didn't watch football cuz I only ever watch my hometeam play and I'm more of a baseball fan.

And I'm sure this rant is coherent, but whatever.

 

[JMitch]

Maybe all viewers are like me and are tired of seeing every main event being a good match, and then... NEXUS comes in and interferes, then RAW goes off the air with two men staring at each other.

If NEXUS doesn't die soon, WWE is doomed..

 

[CuddleBuns84]

More likely it was people checking out the season/series premieres that were going on Monday night, plus a fantastic Monday Night Football game between the Saints and 49ers that went down to the wire. If there was a pattern of RAW ratings taking a significant drop immediately after Orton becomes champ, they would stop giving it to him. Plus, given how ridiculously over Orton is with the fans, I can't see a plausible explanation as to how it would be his fault.

Really can't be blaming Orton for ratings dropping. Monday Night Football, is a seasonal powerhouse. Till they get a really crappy game, Monday Night Raw is going to get less then 3.0.

Orton is just fine as a Champ. He will sell some good pay-per-views. I hope to see him and Jericho 2 out of 3 falls for the title. Great way for Jericho to end his career.

Anyways, they still sold out the crowd. Made a bunch of money or merchandise. Ratings won't hurt them that much.

 

[ShayneLIVE91]

This will be a very short and sweet response... nope

Orton has nothing to do with the low ratings, at least that's what most of us think. The season premiere of a bunch of new shows plus Monday Night Football are some of the reasons, maybe the fact everyone knew by 8-9pm what was gonna happen on Raw, since they were taping two shows, spoilers always win over actually viewing a program for most people.

I don't think the booking was bad, It was a really good show, It's just other reasons, although I've never seen Raw in the 2's before since I started watching, If this continues, then sound the alarm, but I don't know yet.

 

[d_henderson1810]

I don't think Orton being champ is to blame, but Orton being a face may explain the dip in ratings.

I have noticed especially that Orton is now punting people again. That is a very heelish thing to do from the "face" of Raw. I personally think that Raw needs another face other than Cena, who is starting to bore everyone. But Randy Orton is not that face.

Randy Orton was a brilliant heel. Cold and calculating, every expression and mannerism made him seem "evil". He has a cold stare in his eyes, and a phsycotic grin.

I remember at "Bragging Rights" last year, Orton placed Cena on top of a pyro on the stage and tried to shoot the pyro straight through him, in their "Ironman" Match. I thought it was awesome, as it seemed that Orton was prepared to KILL someone to win.

However, as a face, Orton is unconvincing. He failed to illicit sympathy for being kicked out of Legacy, because he outfought both Rhodes AND DiBiase (in a terrible bit of booking). Orton also acts very similar as a face, as he did as a heel. He still has the strut, and the cold stare. Orton failed back in 2004 as a face, and will fail again doing it. If anyone was born to play a heel, it is Randy Orton.

Orton has held the belt as a heel, and it has dropped Raw's ratings. I think that being the "face" champion is a role he is not suited to, and he needs to be turned, sooner rather than later.

 

[Trill Co$by]

If Randy Orton wins tonight, and keeps winning for a while, I wouldn't be surprised if the WWE forum would be filled with "Super Orton sucks, He needs a heel turn, he only knows 6-7 moves, he can't sell, he's nowhere near the next Stone Cold" blah blah blah, a.k.a John Cena threads being replaced with Orton threads.

Oh hot damn was I ever wrong for doubting Ferbian (and for this Mr. Ferbian i apologize)..

It hasn't even been a week yet and already you're blaming Orton for low ratings. Yes, it's the raw after a ppv so ratings should be higher, but last night had a great football game on and it also happened to be the night for a lot of season and series premieres. I, myself, could've been caught flipping through the channels and honestly, I would've stayed there had it not been for the over use of commercials.

Orton was featured on the show long enough for the WWE to put him in a match for HIAC, and that's it... how does that put him at fault?

If anything, I'd say the lack of decent star power would be to blame. They relied on Cena to carry in ratings at a post PPV event, and not only that, but put him against a group of Mid-Carders. Sure it's a great match on paper, but not when people see Cena dismantle them in a matter of 3 minutes... although again Gabriel showed that with Sheffield gone, he's the cream of the crop.

Anyway, as I said, Orton's totally not to blame for low ratings unless you're blaming him for not being there much, but then again that's Triple H's fault because he's the booker.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Randy Orton is among the most over wrestlers in the WWE right now. For all intents and purposes, he's still very much the same character he has been but people are going nuts for him. Orton gets huge pops everytime he comes all, all he has to do is just stare at the camera and say nothing and the crowd still goes wild. Orton isn't to blame for the low ratings in my opinion.

As a lot of people have already pointed out, there is heavy competition from Monday Night Football, Dancing with the Stars premiered this past Monday, The series premiere of The Event took place Monday night, etc. so there's just some really stiff competition this week. Also, a lot of familiar faces are no longer on Raw and that's also been something of a factor. Triple H, Batista, HBK are gone and the WWE is in the process of putting and building up younger guys to take their spots and that will take time to do.

A 2.8 is a low number for Raw, but it's far too soon to declare any sort of a crisis or predictions of doom or whatever. If the numbers don't improve in the next several weeks, however, then it could be an extremely long and difficult fall for Raw when it comes to the numbers.

 

[Dave]

Randy Orton is far from blame. In fact, you could probably pin some of the figure on him. Let’s face it, the guys is easily the most over talent on the entire WWE roster. Him holding the Championship might be reason why the figure is horrid and not utterly terrible.

At the end of the day, the WWE is always going to have to compete with Monday Night Football in the USA and it is always going to suffer because of the connection people have with their teams, it is that simple. Catching up with WWE is fucking easy now-a-days. Catching up with a live game of football is not so easy and it makes the choice of what to watch rather simple, to be honest.

It doesn’t surprise me that Orton was given the Championship on Sunday as the WWE tried to save some face in light of Monday Night Football returning. Make no mistake though, a 2.8 is a horrible figure for the WWE. I will be watching next week to see if the WWE give us a reason to tune into their product. Monday Night Football probably dwarfed it on Monday and the result is clear. Vince needs to give people a reason to tune in and the same old feuds are not going to be that reason.

 

[Big Sexy]

I'm not going to blame Orton but you also can't put the blame all on MNF or the debuts of new shows. This is the lowest rating in two years and MNF was around for 16 weeks last season and it was around for the first week of this season. Last year I guarantee there were popular network shows and debuts that also happened in concurrence with a Monday night game but the rating still wasn't this low.

Randy Orton is not SCSA and it's hard for a guy with his type of character to really carry the flagship show on a weekly basis especially during this era of wrestling. There's a huge difference between getting big pops and carrying a company. Orton for the most part is bland on the mic and it's going to be an experiment to see whether or not he can get ratings to stay where they should be, which is above a 3 for the most part. He is capable of doing it but we'll have to see how it plays out.

 

[Ferbian]

Oh hot damn was I ever wrong for doubting Ferbian (and for this Mr. Ferbian i apologize)..

I applaud the fact that you even remembered the fact that I posted that.

Anyway, it could really not be Randy Orton's fault, especially considering the fact that 1. He's over as fuck. 2. He's not the only one to draw the ratings because there's others still available, especially considering less popular wrestlers have held the world title at one point or another, and still dragged in the ratings.

Have we not just gone through a period of decent ratings, with Sheamus as champion? The guy does get a good reaction, however hardly one of the same that Randy Orton does, no matter his alignment. Randy Orton is red hot right now with the crowd, and I'm sure like some have noted, football just kicked WWE's ass instead of it being Randy Orton's fault.

Randy will most likely be one of the reasons that WWE gets a better rating next week, or in the nearest future. Randy is among the future top guys of the business, and there's a reason for that.

 

[Suneeboy]

The ratings were lower for a number of reasons.

1) There were better things to watch on Monday night. Monday Night Football was on. The Event premiered on NBC, and other series premiers.

2) People don’t need to watch RAW to keep up with it. The show is predictable, contains bad acting, bad comedy, and has a repetitive flow. At times they fully insult the intelligence of adults, but that’s another discussion. RAW can be watched by switching to it for 1 or 2 minutes in between commercials of another show.

3) There are no surprises. RAW doesn’t have any cliff hangers or swerves/surprises to give an incentive to watch from week to week on a consistent basis. In the summer that’s fine because there is little competition, but now with more competition on television, RAW has to compete with big time Dramas and Comedies and Monday Night Football. An anonymous GM, Layla vs. Melina, Santino/Koslov vs. The Tag Champs, just isn’t going to cut it, when you have a terrorist attack going on over on NBC.

The bottom line is, RAW is not must see TV, and it hasn’t been for a very long time. It’s more of habitual TV, but we all know you won’t lose any sleep missing it. To be blunt, it’s getting pretty corny right now and the ratings are going to reflect that, regardless of who the champ is. They need to do things that haven’t been done before, and they are not doing that, so no one is going to watch. Unless they improve the product, the ratings won’t go any higher than the low 3’s that they’ve been getting.

 

[kthevs]

EDIT: And no it has nothing to do with Orton being champ, rating was higher when Sheamus was and he isent exactly a big star (yet).

I know a handful of people who are not wrestling fans and they would tune in to watch Raw just because they loved watching Sheamus as champ. He was hella entertaining and they loved his gimmick, his look, his accent, even the way he would run away from Nexus like a little girl. He was a fun champ.

Orton is just boring, he dominates every week and hits his finisher on 30 guys a night, his Viper gimmick is a poor man's Bill Goldberg WCW gimmick.

 

[kthevs]

and Wade Barrett wishes he could get half the heat Miz gets....he's just awful. David Otunga is even worse.

Did you just saw Wade Barrett is awful ? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha aha ha ha ha ha ha . I have not laughed so hard since my 11 year old nephew said he thought Meryl Streep was overrrated as an actress. Drugs are bad for you mmmkay.

Oh and people, this was the lowest rating in 2 years... are you all saying Monday night football has not been on these past 2 years or that fall premiere week has not happened since 08.

 

[kthevs]

I applaud the fact that you even remembered the fact that I posted that.

Anyway, it could really not be Randy Orton's fault, especially considering the fact that 1. He's over as fuck. 2. He's not the only one to draw the ratings because there's others still available, especially considering less popular wrestlers have held the world title at one point or another, and still dragged in the ratings.

Have we not just gone through a period of decent ratings, with Sheamus as champion? The guy does get a good reaction, however hardly one of the same that Randy Orton does, no matter his alignment. Randy Orton is red hot right now with the crowd, and I'm sure like some have noted, football just kicked WWE's ass instead of it being Randy Orton's fault.

Randy will most likely be one of the reasons that WWE gets a better rating next week, or in the nearest future. Randy is among the future top guys of the business, and there's a reason for that.

Difference is that Sheamus is actually entertaining and his cowardly antics are fun to watch. Orton on the other hand is a bland rip off of Goldberg and just goes superman every week and hits his finisher on everyone left and right.

 

[Morpheus101]

Although if you look at how Orton is being booked as freaking Super MAN than you would see that people have lost interest in Orton. Seriously he's booked as unbeatable. The only good thing about that is The Miz is going to stop him. And I say that because I hate the way he's being booked so anyone stopping him would be good. Aside from Sheamus, which means Miz will.

Miz will be a great (and highly entertaining) WWE Chamption IMO. I look forward to that day. Miz/Orton would also be an interesting feud. Such a feud would probably help both guys, whoever ends up coming out on top.

 

[Ferbian]

Difference is that Sheamus is actually entertaining and his cowardly antics are fun to watch. Orton on the other hand is a bland rip off of Goldberg and just goes superman every week and hits his finisher on everyone left and right.

I knew this would happen. Yep, the IWC's Super-Orton name lives.

Sheamus is entertaining and such I get that, and I agree. However, he's hardly as over as Randy Orton was as a heel, or is now as a face. Randy Orton is one of the most over people in the business right now, and Sheamus couldn't compete with that.

So while the difference of Sheamus being entertaining, Randy not being entertaining, you could also say that there's a difference in the way that.. Randy gets a reaction that Sheamus couldn't compare with.