WWE and its flagship Monday Night Raw program have faced a great deal of criticism from fans in the recent weeks and months. The WWE Universe has derided the company for its current creative direction and recent decision-making. As a result of their disappointment in the product, some fans have simply moved on and changed the channel. It was just last week that Raw had attracted its lowest television audience since May. Competing against the years debut edition of Monday Night Football, WWE Raw pulled in about 3.8 million viewers. The company attempted to counter the strong competition by airing the pull-apart brawl between John Cena and Brock Lesnar during halftime of the NFL broadcast. This week, however, no such tricks were pulled. Instead, Raw went toe-to-toe with Monday Night Football and lost. As a matter of fact, the September 22nd edition of Raw garnered the lowest rating for the entire year -- dating back to the December 23rd, 2013 episode. Despite drawing a slight increase over last weeks 3.8 million viewers, Raw only received a 2.69 rating which was down from a 2.79 the week prior. Interestingly, the Twitter rating numbers saw an increase this week. Raw had a Twitter audience of almost 1.3 million, up from last weeks 1.24 million. Furthermore, there were over 7 million tweets about the Monday night program on September 22nd, as opposed to the 6.4 million tweets from last week. Regardless, WWE has seen a steady decline in its viewership for Raw as of late. While the new competition from the NFLs Monday Night Football is likely a factor, it cant take all the blame. That blame belongs on the shoulders of WWE and its creative team. Simply put, fans have not been pleased with the direction of the company, and WWE has failed to attract a more casual fan-base to the product. Will Raws ratings continue to dip, or will WWE bounce back next week? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Douglas Scarpa is a freelance writer, independent filmmaker, art school graduate, and pro wrestling aficionado -- all of which mean he is in financial ruin. He has no backup plan to speak of, yet maintains his abnormally high spirits. If he had only listened to the scorn of his childhood teachers, he wouldn't be in this situation.
