Brie Bella Not Being Held Responsible For Declining WWE Ratings

Raw's main event promo segment last week drew a unique response from fans, to the tune of even perhaps the first ever "Jamie Noble " chant in WWE history. Despite the segment being well received by most who viewed it, the final hour ratings plummeted during the final hour. The segment featured Brie Bella, wife of Daniel Bryan, and Stephanie McMahon as they hyped up their upcoming battle at Summerslam. The incident resulted in a pull-apart brawl, and it ended up closing a show that didn't have the benefit of using John Cena or Brock Lesnar, who will be main eventing Summerslam. The final hour of Raw plummeted from 4.511 million viewers to just 4.051 million in the second hour. However, it doesn't appear that Brie Bella will be blamed for any of the ratings decline. According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, the angle is seen as more of Stephanie's than Brie's, absolving Bella of any blame that may be cast her way. The quarter hour ratings are still not available for Raw, and are often inconsistent when released, but it's possible that many simply avoided the main event promo after they realized the final match of the evening had aired.