10 Desperate Moves WWE Made In A Panic Over Low Ratings

2. The WWE Debut Of Eric Bischoff

July 15, 2002 is a night that will forever live in pro wrestling infamy. On that night, fans and wrestlers watched in shock and awe as Eric Bischoff stepped out onto the Monday Night Raw stage and embraced Vince McMahon. For those who were around World Wrestling Entertainment for the Monday Night Wars, a turbulent and heated feud with World Championship Wrestling over television ratings supremacy, their stomachs had to have churned at the sight. After all, it was Bischoff who gleefully gave away results for WWE's flagship show and vowed to put the company out of business. How could McMahon put that behind him and bring Bischoff on board? Business.

Raw ratings had been steadily declining, reaching lows that had not been seen since the days before the Attitude Era took the industry by storm. McMahon saw introducing Bischoff to the audience as the new Raw general manager as the most shocking move he could pull out of his bag. Bischoff sauntered to the squared circle, made note of the declining ratings and vowed to return Raw to the same heights it had previously been. He would restore excitement to the show, just as he did for WCW years earlier. Short term, it worked. Unfortunately, fans who tuned in to see Bischoff realized quickly that you could not slap a new face in the tired authority figure role and expect to improve the quality of the show. It was still the same stale product that it was before Bischoff arrived. The desperation from the company led to a single moment that could be replayed over and over for years in video packages but failed to result in fans returning to Raw in droves.