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

The Authority Figures

Triple H: +350,000 Viewers

Hunter Hearst Helmsley is a combination of all of the major categories for ratings draws: he's a veteran of the attitude era, he's an authority figure, and he's a part-time wrestler who gets involved in main event storylines. During this study's time-frame he feuded with Undertaker, CM Punk, Kevin Nash and Brock Lesnar on PPV events. He's certainly in this for the long haul. (Following Vince McMahon's death, he and wife Stephanie McMahon will run the WWE outright.) Segments with HHH and the Undertaker gained more than a million viewers (both 3/28/11 and 2/20/12 Raws) and his arguments with Paul Heyman (on behalf and including Brock Lesnar) did quite well (gaining 585k viewers on 4/1/13 and 899k viewers on 5/6/13). Even the convoluted and somewhat goofy "vote of confidence", "performance review" and authority storylines involving everyone from Vince McMahon to John Laurinitis have delivered more than half a million viewers on numerous occasions.

General Managers/McMahon's

Vince McMahon: +335,000 Viewers John Laurinatis: +220,000 Viewers Brad Maddox: +180,000 Viewers Stephanie McMahon: +167,000 Viewers Vickie Guerrero: +90,000 Viewers One of the most surprising findings from this analysis was seeing Brad Maddox's name in the top 15 for biggest rating gains. What's really going on is that Authority Figures tend to appear in certain segments (for instance, top of the hour) and when the champion is involved. People have been trained to believe that when an authority figure intervenes or makes a ruling, something important or of consequence is going to happen. Vince McMahon has long been a major TV draw (his feud with Steve Austin helped the company make a pretty penny) and there's several examples of Vince being involved in overrun segments that drew over a million viewers (including 7/18/11 and 7/4/11 Raw episodes and his brawl with CM Punk on the 10/8/12 Raw). Johnny Ace (John Laurinatis) method-acted his way into playing a buffoon on WWE TV where he often was involved in strong segments throughout the first half of the 2012. While Brad Maddox wrestling may lose viewers (-167k viewers when Randy Orton beat him up on 12/3/12 Raw) or gain viewers (+755k viewers when he wrestled Ryback on 11/12/12 Raw), he's part of the General Management team. When he announced the main event for Hell in a Cell 2013 on 10/7/13 Raw, that segment gained over half a million viewers. Stephanie McMahon (who latest contract mentions her intellectual property nicknames as being "The Billion Dollar Princess", "The Alliance" and "Boss Lady") has a mixed bag when it comes to viewers, though her 2013 storyline with Big Show did have some notable successes (+836k viewers on 9/16/13 Raw). Vickie Guerrero spent much of 2011 and 2012 as an authority figure on Raw dealing making trouble with AJ Lee and had some very successful runs including a super heated segment with Dolph Ziggler on 12/20/10 Raw which gained 946,000 viewers and later her "performance evaluation" on 7/8/13 Raw which gained 553k viewers.