10 Decisions That Helped Kill WWE Raw's Ratings
8. Hulk Hogan Wins The WWE Championship
In early 2002, WWE brought racist scumbag Hulk Hogan back to the company. Though he was initially booked as a heel (and part of the New World Order), the fan reaction that he got at WrestleMania X-8 in Toronto led the company to turn him babyface. It also led them to push him back to the WWE Championship, much to the detriment of business.
At Backlash 2002, the 48-year-old Hogan defeated Triple H to win the newly-unified Universal Championship, and ratings immediately dropped, going from an average percentage share of around 5.0 to right around 4.0. Hogan would only hold the championship for a month (he lost it to Undertaker in a particularly bad match following a particularly bad feud), but the drop was permanent. Raw's days of scoring ratings in the 5.0 range had ended forever.
During the Attitude Era, WWE gained fans and momentum because the product was seen as cool - it felt relevant, unpredictable, and compelling. The decision to put the title back on Hogan - who hadn't drawn money in years and whom WWE had mocked repeatedly during the Attitude Era - was the official signal that the product was no longer cool and no longer needed to be watched.