During the WrestleMania build, WWE could generally count on the feud between the heel Michael Cole and the babyface Jerry Lawler to spike viewership interest.<\/p>\n
That interest appears to have faded, as a significant portion of Monday’s WWE RAW audience tuned out during Cole’s match with Zack Ryder.<\/p>\n
According to a quarterly ratings breakdown at F4WOnline.com, Triple H’s “State of WWE Address” popped an impressive 3.8 cable coverage rating, representing one of the biggest “top of the hour” spikes in a while for the weekly wrestling telecast. The segment with Zack Ryder versus Michael Cole, the match that Triple H’s promo built, fell to a 3.1 rating, which conceivably represents a loss of more than one million viewers.<\/p>\n
Given the immense fan interest in Triple H’s follow-up to the angle with Vince McMahon, that segment undoubtedly benefited from “curiosity buzz” that would not customarily trickle over to the next segment. But a drop of this magnitude, especially since the Cole match was<\/i> plugged during Triple H’s promo, is still a disappointment.<\/p>\n
The low rating, of course, also speaks negatively to Ryder’s drawing ability, indicating that his online buzz has not yet translated to television interest.<\/p>\n