9 Most Desperate WWE Responses To Low Ratings
3. Million Dollar Mania
If you can't encourage viewers to watch your show, why not pay them to do it? That was the purpose of WWE's McMahon Million Dollar Mania segments in 2008 - though there was no amount that made them worth sitting through.
The weekly contest was basically a live sweepstakes, in which 'lucky' fans would, possibly, receive a phone call from McMahon - provided he could dial the right number - and be given cash for answering. So blatant was the ratings grab that the company even admitted it was designed to "attract new viewers".
If it did, they won't have stuck around. A weekly rigmarole saw McMahon fumble with the new-fangled telephone, before he was either cut off or met with blanket confusion. On one occasion, the confused chairman was Rickrolled by an answerphone. It was the one high point.
Having given away bags of dosh with no appreciable benefit - ratings hit their lowest in seven weeks - McMahon thought "f*ck it" to the whole farce and had the set fall on him. The definition of blowing your load.