10 Things You Didn't Know About WWE In 2018
2. Raw 25's MONSTER Rating
Raw 25 was a critically panned and creatively ramshackle edition of the flagship show, turning something intended as a celebration into a topic of derision even while it was on air.
A simulcast from the show's original home of the Manhattan Center became a lightning rod for controversy when the high-ticket punters were served almost no action in person. Videos of the booing did the rounds on Twitter as Brooklyn's portion of the event rolled on, and the whole event served as a fairly miserable viewing experience.
It might explain why the drop-off in audience was as substantial as it was - because the highest total audience in years tuned in hoping for more than what they received.
The January 22nd show attracted a whopping 4.530 million viewers, almost two million up from an episode a fortnight prior and over two million more than what the show was drawing by the end of the calendar year. It was the biggest gathering of legends in some time, and though so few of them actually did anything on the show, it drove WWE to replicate the formula whenever they felt the pinch of Network pressure.