WWE News: Raw Ratings Increase This Week, but Still Down on Last Year

To say that Raw was a jam-packed show this week would be nothing short of an understatement.

The WWE went all out on the nostalgia front, with Hulk Hogan and The Undertaker both returning to signal their respective WrestleMania involvements. Other developments saw Bray Wyatt outline his intentions regarding John Cena (in characteristically haunting fashion) while there was further teasing of The Shield’s much-speculated disintegration.

All in all, I personally felt that it was one of the best episodes of Raw in recent memory.

And at a glance, it would appear that such sentiments are reflected in the show’s viewership figures. WrestlingInc.com reports that Monday Night Raw saw an average audience of just over 4.66 million this week:

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Monday's WWE RAW with Hulk Hogan's return, The Undertaker's return and fallout from Elimination Chamber averaged 4,661,000 viewers, up 7% from the previous week's 4,364,000 viewers. RAW was the #1 show on cable for the night and did a 1.6 in the adults 18-49 demographic, down from last week's 1.74.

For this week's show, the first hour of RAW—which featured Hulk Hogan's return - averaged 4,892,000 viewers, the second hour averaged 4,778,000 and the final hour averaged 4,313,000 viewers, a 12% drop from the first hour.

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However, a more detailed analysis brings the true success of these figures into question.

The seven percent week-on-week uplift is certainly a step in the right direction, and it continues a trend of weekly gains for a third successive week. But shouldn’t the landmark returns of two of the industry’s all-time biggest stars have yielded a sharper increase in viewership?

If we take a look at the corresponding show from last year, 2014’s figures start to look a little less rosy.

The 2013 end-of-February Raw posted an average of 4.71 million views—1.1 percent higher than this year’s total. The show was certainly a memorable one, marked by Brock Lesnar being infamously busted open the hard way and the stellar main event between John Cena and CM Punk, but was it really more memorable than the returns of Hogan and ‘Taker?

Initially one would have thought not, but this comparison may suggest otherwise. It’s worth investigating the other variables between the two shows though—particularly in terms of star power.

Despite his WrestleMania 29 involvement, the Rock did not in fact feature in the Feb. 25 episode of Raw last year. It’s arguable that his appearances in prior weeks had a knock-on effect in generating interest in the Feb. 25 show, but still his absence means the increased viewership cannot be directly attributed to him.

Photo courtest of WWE.com

Furthermore, this year’s show featured Batista. I know he’s by no means on par with the Rock in terms of drawing power, but his presence this year means that the roster is arguably stronger than it was at this point in 2013.

Apart from, of course, the small matter of CM Punk.

The year-on-year drop in viewership once again brings to our attention the age-old discussion of CM Punk’s effect on ratings. Was his match with John Cena last year more of a draw than the return of two legends? And thus does this mean that Punk does indeed equal ratings?

Personally, I’d have to say no. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of his, but I still think his drawing power is limited largely to the hardcore fans—and they are by no means the WWE’s key demographic at present.

Nonetheless it’s a fairly interesting statistic. On the whole though, 2014 remains incredibly close to 2013 in terms of overall average Raw audiences since the turn of the New Year. This year’s average stands at 4.51 million, with last year’s number 1.9 percent higher at 4.59 million.

So regarding the bigger picture, there’s still time for this year’s Road to WrestleMania to outperform last year’s in terms of viewership.

But the WWE can’t shy away from the fact that Hogan and Undertaker were two of the bigger guns in the company’s arsenal. I’m sure they would have liked to have seen their returns garner great audiences but on the positive side, at least it was a week-on-week increase.

If such a trend continues, this year may in fact beat last year. Combined with the potential success of the Network, this possible year-on-year increase would make for very happy reading for the WWE brass.

But what do you guys think of the ratings?

Should Hogan and ‘Taker have yielded increased viewership?

Do the numbers reflect the quality of the shows?

And has CM Punk’s absence adversely affected the company this time around?

Please feel free to comment below with your thoughts on this topic, as well as any of the points that were outlined in the article.