WWE Rumors: Company Could Make Some ‘Reactionary Decisions’ After ‘Raw’ Sets Record-Low Ratings
With Monday Night Raw recording record-low viewership numbers for this week’s episode, it appears that WWE might be planning some drastic organizational changes as the company seemingly keeps losing popularity against rival promotions such as All Elite Wrestling.
On Tuesday night, the WrestleVotes Twitter account wrote that per a source familiar with the situation, the news of Raw‘s all-time low ratings isn’t “sitting well” with WWE’s top officials. Although the account noted that it remains unclear what changes might take place, it stressed that the promotion is expected to make some “reactionary decisions” to deal with the matter.
As reported by WrestlingNews.co, the December 14 episode of Raw only attracted an average of 1.527 million viewers on the USA Network, marking a major decline from the 1.736 million people who tuned in to the December 7 edition of the red brand’s show. This also represented a new all-time low viewership number, breaking the previous record of 1.561 million viewers that was tallied in July.
According to the publication, it’s possible that Raw performed so poorly because it was up against the Week 14 edition of Monday Night Football on ESPN, where the Baltimore Ravens edged the Cleveland Browns, 47-42. However, it was also notable that last week’s episode of AEW Dynamite outperformed the December 14 Raw in the 18-49 demographic, with the rival company’s weekly show doing a 0.57 rating as compared to the red brand’s 0.49 in the first hour and 0.44 in the second and third hours.
In a separate article, WrestlingNews.co pointed out that WWE did make some seemingly “reactionary” decisions earlier in the year, firing Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff from their executive director roles and hiring Bruce Prichard to replace them on both main roster brands. Heyman’s dismissal from his role on Raw reportedly led to a number of creative changes, including the apparent abandonment of his plan to focus on younger performers such as Ricochet and Cedric Alexander.
In addition, the publication opined that much of the blame for Raw‘s sinking ratings “[lies] on the creative end of things.” With Prichard now overseeing the red brand’s storylines and WWE chairman Vince McMahon still having the final word, there have been rumors suggesting that there are many wrestlers who are growing “increasingly frustrated” with how things are going. Forbes also sounded off on this rumor earlier this month, opining that Raw has particularly remained “stagnant and mundane” as Prichard continues to rely on “big name stars from the past” instead of pushing young talents.
