Although the recent low ratings haven't been up against holidays, they have been up against some strong sports competition. Dave Meltzer reported that "The combination of NFL football and baseball playoffs" were primarily responsible for the record low on October 12. There was the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. San Diego Chargers on ESPN, which pulled in 12.18 million viewers, and the Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals which TBS aired to 5.78 million viewers, followed by Los Angeles Dodgers vs. New York Mets which they aired to 3.96 million viewers. Like many of the bad Raw numbers in the recent weeks, if that sport competition wasn't as interesting, then Raw numbers would be better. What's really happened in the last month? Has Raw got significantly worse, or is the sport simply more interesting than in previous years? Whatever the case, when Raw gets unopposed again, WWE expect the numbers to get back to normal. It would only be a crisis if they thought they'd lost the viewership completely for the longer term.
