WWE RAW: 16 Biggest Ratings Movers (2011-2013)

The Rest

Chris JerichoChris Jericho: +79,000 Viewers Kane: +44,000 Viewers Mark Henry: +49,000 Viewers Alberto Del Rio: +25,000 Viewers ADR, Henry, Jericho and Kane -- all of these wrestlers are former champions who certainly can bring a lot to the table. However, what they didn't demonstrate was consistent ratings improvement over the dataset. In fact, there was only one segment among the four of them that even broke a million viewers gained and that was a Big Show versus Kane match that ended with John Laurinaitis firing Big Show (Kane was hardly the driver). Each of these men have had periods where they've done better -- Mark Henry's strong promo work and heel turn on John Cena in June 2013; 2011 Alberto Del Rio wrestling against Rey Mysterio (8/15 +763k) or teaming with Punk against Awesome Truth (10/10, +667k); Kane's return on 12/12/11 during Henry/Cena with +745k viewers; Chris Jericho's return in 6/25/12 and main event against John Cena gained + 803k and +567k respectively -- but overall it's a mixed bag. Daniel Bryan: +47,000 Viewers Daniel Bryan Yes And then there's internet favorite Daniel Bryan... in August 2013, there's evidence that Bryan was getting hot. The six-man tag (Cena/Bryan/Orton) against the Shield gained over 700k viewers on the 8/5/13 Raw. A few weeks later when Bryan ran a gauntlet against the Shield the segment gained over a million viewers (8/26) and a singles match against Dean Ambrose on 9/9 gained 760k viewers. However, this positive momentum for Bryan is a new thing. For most of the three year dataset he had a "fair to poor" grade when it came to his influence on viewership. On March 7, 2011 a singles match against Sheamus lost over 1.1 million viewers which was an astoundingly bad number. Two years later a singles match Big E Langston lost 461,000 (4/8/13); a Big Show battle resulted in 508,000 viewers leaving during the 2/6/12 episode; his 4/16/12 Kofi Kingston singles match which lost 603,000 viewers. Among all of the people on this list, Daniel Bryan probably has the greatest opportunity to remake his future different than his past, but the story that the numbers currently tell suggest he's got a long, long way to go before he'll be a proven ratings draw.
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I'm a professional wrestling analyst, an improviser and an avid NES gamer. I live in Saint Paul, Minnesota and I'm working on my first book (#wrestlenomics). You can contact me at chris.harrington@gmail.com or on twitter (@mookieghana)