Many diehard pro wrestling fans were thrilled by this week’s RAW, which not only showcased indie favorites Daniel Bryan and CM Punk as WWE’s two world champions but also featured the two, along with the Internet’s beloved Zack Ryder, in a main-event against The Miz, Dolph Ziggler and Alberto del Rio.
After all the complaining about a glass ceiling and WWE pushing the same people, the RAW main-event featured six “fresh faces,” three of whom are carrying championships.
Unfortunately, the excitement from the diehards and the live Philadelphia crowd was not matched by the at-home viewers. According to F4WOnline.com, the overrun segment gained only 59,000 viewers, which is an absolutely dismal increase given the fact that a number of viewers, as it is, would be tuning in to watch the show that followed. Even RAW episodes subject to the recent trend of hour one outperforming hour two have been able to spike interest for the overrun.
And, on the whole, F4W says the main-event was one of the lowest-rated non-holiday RAW conclusions of all time, having posted a 2.55 cable coverage rating for the first portion and a 2.67 for the overrun.
Their show-opening segment did perform well, scoring a strong 3.36. But it is hard to give any serious credit to the actual performers (rather than the post-TLC buzz) given the fact that their match, which was announced during the first segment, attracted such little interest.
Granted, thanks to Michael Cole’s insults on commentary and the way Bryan and Ryder had been portrayed in the ring prior to their title wins, it is not exactly surprising that the casual WWE fan does not see such performers as main-event-level talent. Still, it is hard to see this RAW performance as anything but crushing to those fans who felt names like CM Punk and Daniel Bryan could instantly turn things around if given the right exposure on WWE television.
