10 Step Investigation: Just How Successful Is WWE In 2017?

10. Television Ratings

The cable television model, which revolutionised professional wrestling, is dying across every component of the entertainment medium.

Dwindling ratings is not a problem endemic to WWE. Viewer habits across the board have changed irreversibly with the advent of the internet and the facilitation of widespread piracy that came with it. The rise of recordable devices and streaming services has compounded the trend yet further. RAW is no longer appointment television because nothing is. That concept no longer exists. If you don't catch RAW, WWE replays the important bits via YouTube and their own website hours later; it's there, for your convenience, whenever you fancy dipping in.

The flagship, Monday Night RAW, remains one of the most popular programmes on cable television - but the downfall has accelerated at a canter even within this new paradigm. Ratings have plummeted since early 2013, during which numbers in excess of 3.0 were common. In 2016, RAW never broke 3.0 once. Numbers even fell below the dreaded 2.0 range. Once constant has remained throughout this period: the presence of a heel authority figure. Will Stephanie McMahon's hiatus reverse the trend?

Does that question - and by extension do low ratings - even matter? Television remains by far the most lucrative revenue stream WWE has. But if the spiral continues at this rate, renegotiations with the USA Network will see the power dynamic shift.

Enough for WWE to dispense with the Roman Reigns push? Time will tell.