Already having reason to celebrate given the uptick in the night’s overall rating, WWE got an even warmer picture regarding the impact of Vince McMahon on Monday Night RAW.
According to F4WOnline.com, the key segments involving McMahon performed admirably. The three hour show opened with an impressive 2.9 household rating, which is very strong for the opening segment in the unfamiliar 8PM hour.
That is not to say McMahon made the usual RAW audience completely aware of the early start time; the 9PM segment featuring CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Kane and AJ added nearly a million viewers over the 8:45PM segment, indicating the usual influx of “forgot to watch at 8PM” fans. The difference is that McMahon added enough intrigue to keep the 8PM segment strong as well, and with the usual increases throughout the broadcast, it assured that the overall average rating would be stronger than usual.
The final overrun segment involving McMahon’s “verdict” on John Laurinaitis, along with appearances from The Big Show and John Cena, added 721,000 viewers to a 4.0 household rating, which ranks it neck-and-neck with Triple H’s “performance review” of John Laurinaitis as the most-watched wrestling segment of 2012.
It goes without saying that Laurinaitis, too, deserves credit, as his “job performance” is the common link between those two popular segments. But given that Laurinaitis does not draw quite so well on his own (save for occasional gems, such as the segment in which he “fired” Big Show), it is clear the dynamic with the McMahon family executives is needed to push RAW over the top.