The NFL & ESPN Strike A Huge Blow To Raw

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

The week before a PPV, the last thing WWE needed was the return of Monday Night Football. Check that, the last thing they needed was the return of a Monday Night Football and an unprecendented doubleheader that would cut into the usually non-competitive west coast airing of Raw. Well, they didn't get the best case scenario last night and it showed in the Raw rating as the show did just a 3.6 cable rating, with a 5.5 share, much lower than the show's recent average. Raw did hours of 3.6 and 3.6 and Monday Night Football on ESPN definitely cut into their audience as ESPN scored the network's highest audience ever for the Minnesota Vikings vs. the Washington Redskins game, which drew a 9.9 rating, and 12.57 million households. To use wrestling terms, it laid the Smackdown on Raw. ESPN's second Monday night game, San Diego's 27-0 win over Oakland which aired live against more than the first hour of Raw on the west coast, received a rating of 8.5 and was seen in an average of 7.87 million households. As I mentioned on the Elite hotline yesterday, this isn't a good sign for WWE through the fall football season.

The 9/9 edition of AM Raw did a 0.7 cable rating, with a 3.1 share.

Credit: PWInsider

well, WWE. I guess its time to start coming up with ways to get your fans back.

[Michael Coello]

Didn't last week have about the same rating? 3 point something, I think a 6?

[Magneto]

I knew that football on Cable would impact Raw more than it did on the ABC. They deserved that rating too. What the HELL was thinking doing a damn Johnny Nitro promo in the first hour? A Johnny Nitro promo on 9/11 in NY? WTF?!

[Magneto]

sinister1 said:

Didn't last week have about the same rating? 3 point something, I think a 6?

Yeah...but it being on SciFi was the excuse used last week.

[Michael Coello]

magneto said:

sinister1 said:

Didn't last week have about the same rating? 3 point something, I think a 6?

Yeah...but it being on SciFi was the excuse used last week.

It was on Sci Fi 2 weeks ago. Last weeks was on USA, if I rememeber correctly.

[Vice honcho room temperature]

magneto said:

sinister1 said:

Didn't last week have about the same rating? 3 point something, I think a 6?

Yeah...but it being on SciFi was the excuse used last week.

No that was 2 weeks ago. Laber Day was the excuse last week.

[Voldemar H. "Brak" Guerta]

What the? Wrestling has always done terrible head-to-head with MNF, for years. This isn't shocking at all.

[Kevin Hamilton]

It always does. Especially in my house. But seriously, who cares what the ratings do?

[BD Punk AKA SUSPENDED!]

Maybe Vince will realize that DX vs the McMahons DOES NOT DRAW and will end it after the PPV and think of good storylines. Nah, we're not that lucky

[jevman]

OMG FOOTBALL DID A 9.9?!?! THAT MUST MEAN WRESTLING ONLY DID A 3.6 THIS WEEK AS THEY DID A 13.5 LAST WEEK AND THAT ENTIRE 9.9 IS POTENTIAL RAW FANS WHO TURNED OFF THE TV TO WATCH FOOTBALL INSTEAD!!!!!

[Kevin Hamilton]

Sarcasm? You're drowning in it!

[HoagieWithPastrami]

Laugh all you want, but the fact is Vince is proud of owning the Cable ratings.

With MNF now on ESPN, that won't happen. We should ALL hope that he views this as a challenge (which it is) and starts improving the product.

[EvilMasterBetty, Esq.]

This is in two ways meaningless.

A) MNF is not a rival company in the sense that TNA or WCW are/were. It's a seperate form of sport that, while it has the same target audience, has a different appeal.

B) RAW is still the highest rated purely Entertainment show on Cable or very close to it. That is still an accomplishment to be proud of. It's really not a bad thing to say that you get beat by the biggest sport in the United States on it's premere night for a game.

Also, MNF is only for 17 weeks out of the year. The rest belongs to the WWE.

And I don't think any sane individual would or should say the WWE should try to go head to head with MNF. That's just retarded. The WWE just has to bite the bullet for the next 4 months and accept that they will have a lower rating and just try to maintain their 3.5-4 (which was better than they were pulling on Spike at some points a couple years ago).

[-Lithium-]

Good...maybe he will step up the product but he prolly wont for the reasons the poster above said...

[Erik Majorwitz]

My life flip flops

Childhood: WWE > MNF

Junior High: MNF > WWE

High School: WWE = MNF

Marines: MNF > WWE

College: WWE > MNF

Now: MNF > WWE

Semper Fi,
Erik Majorwitz

[Timmy8271]

How can MNF>WWE when the radiers are playing? I can understand Vikings/Redskins but the raiders suck badly.

[RAW100023]

zillawrath said:

The week before a PPV, the last thing WWE needed was the return of Monday Night Football. Check that, the last thing they needed was the return of a Monday Night Football and an unprecendented doubleheader that would cut into the usually non-competitive west coast airing of Raw. Well, they didn't get the best case scenario last night and it showed in the Raw rating as the show did just a 3.6 cable rating, with a 5.5 share, much lower than the show's recent average. Raw did hours of 3.6 and 3.6 and Monday Night Football on ESPN definitely cut into their audience as ESPN scored the network's highest audience ever for the Minnesota Vikings vs. the Washington Redskins game, which drew a 9.9 rating, and 12.57 million households. To use wrestling terms, it laid the Smackdown on Raw. ESPN's second Monday night game, San Diego's 27-0 win over Oakland which aired live against more than the first hour of Raw on the west coast, received a rating of 8.5 and was seen in an average of 7.87 million households. As I mentioned on the Elite hotline yesterday, this isn't a good sign for WWE through the fall football season.

The 9/9 edition of AM Raw did a 0.7 cable rating, with a 3.1 share.

Credit: PWInsider

well, WWE. I guess its time to start coming up with ways to get your fans back.

Damn! That's not good. I don't care even if the NFL only has 17 weeks. It's not the end of the E by no means. But this still isn't good. I would say the same thing if WCW, The REAL ECW, and TNA were getting 4.0 and higher ratings throughout the year's, and through the Summer.

[RAW100023]

timmy8271 said:

How can MNF>WWE when the radiers are playing? I can understand Vikings/Redskins but the raiders suck badly.

I guess the Chargers fans wanted to see how they could do against Raiders. I really feel like this NFL season it's really any body's superbowl. Or at least it's seeming that way.

["Hollywood" Cactus Matt]

y2ejm said:

My life flip flops

Childhood: WWE > MNF

Junior High: MNF > WWE

High School: WWE = MNF

Marines: MNF > WWE

College: WWE > MNF

Now: MNF > WWE

Semper Fi,
Erik Majorwitz

How did that work when MNF was still on ABC? Did they show it on AFN or on a local German station? And for that matter, is American football big in Germany, as I assume it is on a military base? I've always been curious how things like that worked out in a situation like that.

[Palatial Regalia]

hoagiewithpastrami said:

Laugh all you want, but the fact is Vince is proud of owning the Cable ratings.

With MNF now on ESPN, that won't happen. We should ALL hope that he views this as a challenge (which it is) and starts improving the product.

Vince CAN NOT compete with football, sports entertainment vs sports, the real sports will always win (especially w/o the lack of kayfabe, to keep wrestling not so 'fake')