The detailed breakdown of this week's low WWE Raw viewership has been reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The prime culprits for the low 2.20 rating and 3.35 million viewers were football and baseball on other channels. The Philadelphia Eagles vs. New York Giants game did 13.90 million viewers. This was the game that had the big launch of the Star Wars trailer, which some figured would have stolen away viewers from Raw. However, the football game actually lost viewers during half time and the Star Wars trailer. So Star Wars actually had zero impact on Raw. The football rating was considered good, and there was also a baseball game, The Kansas City Royals vs. Toronto Blue Jays, which did 3.09 million viewers. In terms of the demographics of WWE Raw viewers, Dave Meltzer writes "As far as the loss of viewers from the first hour to the third hour, the 18-34 drop was 19 percent, the 35-49 age group actually was up 2 percent, but over 50, it was a drop of 14 percent, with women dropping off at a higher clip than men." The three hours were- 3.60 million 3.35 million 3.12 million On the face of it, this was really poor considering WWE loaded the show with legends. But then, the Austin appearance was never really promoted properly. As for The Undertaker and Lesnar, that was over in the first twenty minutes. What it tells us about Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair, is that they mean nothing. They are legends, sure, but they aren't perceived as anything special like a legend like The Rock would be if he featured in a segment. Rocky would undoubtedly pop ratings. The problem with Michaels and Flair, is they are used too often, doing things of such little consequence. As for The Shield reunion, that was only announced an hour before the show ended. Many viewers had already tuned out before the match was made.
