On the Raw after WrestleMania, 5.36 million viewers tuned in. As late as the last week in August, Raw viewership was just under 4 million, at 3.89 million. Move ahead three months, and the number of people watching Raw had fallen below 3 million viewers, setting a 15-plus year record low for a non-holiday episode. This isnt just a time of the year phenomenon. Raw during the holidays last year hovered in the 3.4-3.6 million range, meaning that WWE is losing viewers, period. In any other business, if you lost 20% of your audience in three months, the higher-ups would be doing some soul-searching to determine what went wrong and what needs to change. In WWE, it means more McMahons and a title change, apparently. The funny thing is, it worked (at least for a week). But the return of Mr. McMahon and a new world champion is not a panacea to WWEs woes. If Raws ratings remain 10-20% off the pace of last year during the Road to WrestleMania, then it would signal a serious problem that needs to be addressed in the worst possible way.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
