WWE Raw Rating Is In: How Much Did John Cena and Kane Ending the Show Help?

I enjoyed WWE Raw this week. It was the perfect way to close the year, yet leave a lot of doors open for next week's huge episode.

As with all things, numbers matter more than opinions.

As I covered last week, WWE Raw disappointed big time with a 2.9 rating. Many excuses were thrown out there, but none of them mattered.

Zack Ryder, Daniel Bryan, and CM Punk were the focal points of the show (after their big pay-per-vew title wins), and viewers did not care one bit.

My thoughts were confirmed a few days later when a report was released that had the Raw overrun doing the lowest number of the year. 

Ouch!

Another report had it being the lowest overrun since 1997. Not a good start to this new "revolution" so many fans wanted.

This week was a little different!

This week, the first hour of WWE Raw had 4,330,000 million viewers

This week, the second hour of WWE Raw increased to 4,594,000 million viewers.

The final rating for this week's Raw was a 2.93 (up slightly from last week).

Here are my opinions and a few things to consider:

1. This is the final Monday Night Football game of the season. One "excuse" can officially be crossed off the list now. I put some stock into the football games each week, but it is just an "out" for bad numbers.

2. Finally, WWE saw an increase from the first hour to the second hour. It had been awhile, but it occurred this week. It's a great sign that fans are interested in Kane and John Cena feuding! Yes, I am giving them the credit.

3. Notice the placements Monday night of the "future" stars that were heavily featured last week. Zack Ryder was in the middle of the first hour with Eve. Daniel Bryan was on for 15 seconds, and Punk's match did not get the final segment. John Cena got the "featured" time slots at the beginning of hour two and end of the show.

4. It was still the holidays. While the date was December 26th, I am giving a little bit of credence to the time frame in which Monday occurred this year.

For those wondering, WWE SmackDown got its usual 2.0 rating on December 23rd. Thus, there was no "holidays excuse" for a Friday (and taped) show. Either it is a reason for a drop in viewership during this time of the year, or it isn't. Pick a side folks!

All in all, this rating does not change my thought process much. John Cena is still (by far) the top man in the industry, and his feud with Kane is of great interest to me (and apparently others).

Punk was not in the main event spot this week, while Bryan/Ryder do not translate to main event players right now. I stress right now!

I look forward to next week's huge show on January 2nd, 2012. A WWE Title match is set, and a "force" will be revealed. Expect major intrigue and nice bump in the ratings as well! 

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