10 Terrible Decisions That Led To WWE Raw’s Lowest Ever Rating
7. The Business Of This Business
In counterpoint to the prior entry (hopefully in before those below the line get there anyway), Raw's third hour has been paradoxically vital in securing its longterm future.
Celebrating 1000 episodes for the show in 2012 with a permanent third hour wasn't a gimmicky flex from Vince McMahon. It was a gigantic leap forward into a destination few others could have masterminded - bulletproof supremacy. The record low viewership for Monday Night Raw would have once raised alarm bells in the Titan front office and USA Network boardroom alike, but the inhabitants of those venues are now too busy swimming through rivers of cash like Scrooge McDuck to give a sh*t.
The game has changed, and for a man that boasts about trying to stay slightly behind the curve, McMahon was emphatically in front of it in this case. Monday Night Raw's continued place as a prime USA Network vehicle will see WWE pocket around $240 million a year, ratings decline be damned.
The creative/financial seesaw has been completely imbalanced as a result, fostering the unique circumstances of a television company never having paid more for less. Extrapolated further, the customer will never have been more dissatisfied, but the company will never have had to care less.