WWE Raw ratings down a bit, third hour drops despite Rousey debut

[Big Red Machine]

Source: www.F4WOnline.com

By Dave Meltzer | @davemeltzerWON | Feb 27, 2018 2:05 pm


Even with the debut of Ronda Rousey and coming a day after a pay-per-view, Raw was down three percent last night to 3.16 million viewers.

There was a big first hour, although down from last week's number which saw the gauntlet match with the top stars lead to a strong first two hours.

Rousey, whose segment (which included Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, and Kurt Angle) was saved for last, didn't change the usual pattern of a big third hour drop. The third hour drop was biggest in males 18-49 and those over 50. The latter is the usual pattern but the former is unusual and most weeks the third hour drop is female skewed. Male teens also dropped in the third hour, and they usually stay with the show until its completion better than any other demo.

Raw still finished first for the night on cable, beating Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News at 3.06 million viewers.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 3.41 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.25 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.88 million viewers

[Bob-O]

Don't get me wrong, WWE landing Rhonda is HUGE for them, but am I the only one that doesn't see it going as well as they hope?

I mean, when you're WWE and this opportunity comes along, you HAVE TO jump on it. But, this is uncharted ground for them. They've never had a mainstream female draw like this. It doesn't look right seeing her next to anybody besides Rock, so they're kinda forced into this program with Triple H and Steph because it's literally the best they've got to be across the ring from her box-office wise. So, they do their Wrestlemania thing, which actually has me intrigued if they do the Angle/Hunter thing, but then what? How do they handle this where everyone wins? Realistically. It's Rhonda fucking Rousey. Megastar, box-office smash, household name, RHONDA ROUSEY. They don't have a "dream match" for her. Nobody does! Ask me to name one female athlete that isn't a WWE Wrestler or Rhonda Rousey... and I can't. I don't even know the MMA lady's name on NXT and I watch that show every week! Sara Blazer? Sharon Ballser? I seriously don't remember.

Bottom line, there isn't anyone on the roster that isn't a "step down". I'm a huge fan of the Women's Revolution, but let's call a Spade a Spade here... again, Rhonda Rousey. The whole amazing thing the women have going for them right now is based around being credible professional wrestlers. Rhonda Rousey has become a household name by beating up people for real. Everybody knows Rhonda would destroy every single one of those "credible wrestlers" in a real fight, but on the other hand you can't exactly have somebody that's never wrestled a match mow down the entire division that revolves around being credible.

Nobody's going to want to see her lose, because she's Rhonda fucking Rousey (UFC buys took a big hit after she lost). Nobody is going to want to see her win, because she's an outsider (remember Batista?)... it's not going to be good!

[Big Red Machine]

I pretty much agree with all of that. The only other thing for her to do is face Asuka, and even with build, I don't think people will respond well to her just mowing through Charlotte, Sasha, and Becky. She's almost too big a star, and not just for what they have available but even for what they'll have coming down the pipeline. At best you've got matches against Asuka and Baszler and that's really it. If she's any good in the ring Nattie will be able to carry her, but without making her yet another unbeatable babyface (essentially what Asuka is doing now) they don't have much for her in terms of starpower because the fact that she's an MMA fighter basically means that you have to ignore the rules of who is a superstar pro wrestler and can only book her against people who either feel like they can shoot or who come off as legit tough. And that's basically just Baszler, Asuka, and Nattie. And maybe Tamina, just due to her size and her tendency to potato people.

[Bob-O]

From an armchair booker position, I've been thinking about this since I posted that, and there IS a way everyone wins...

I said "Rhonda fucking Rousey" many times. She's a HUGE deal, so big that they have nobody to pair her with...

So... turn the problem into the solution! Like I said, nobody wants to see her lose, but everybody is going to shit on it if she mows down the entire division... so what's left? You don't do either.

SHE is the draw! Let her draw!

Protect the rest of the division and put her on PPV against Billie Kay or whoever. People want to see a slaughter, I don't think anyone really cares against who as long as it's not taking away from the division, but make them wait for it. Focus her weekly TV on preparing for the "match" (it's important they don't say "fight", we're trying to transition this "fighter" into a "wrestler" in the fans eyes) in segments with Sara Del Ray. She squashes Billie on PPV in 60 seconds, MMA style beat down, with enough action to get some highlights for her Titantron.

Next PPV, same deal. We're training with Sara for a few more weeks, in preparation for her next match with another NXT Lady - let's say Peyton this time. Boom, another MMA style squash. Moving forward, these training segments get a little more focused on Rhonda following the rules. "You can't just punch your way to the championship" type of lectures from Del Ray, who is becoming noticeably frustrated with Rhonda who's all "ya ya ya, gotcha".

We do this all month, getting the smart fan buzzing about a possible Death Ray/Rousey match while we build to a match with somebody on the roster but wouldn't be hurt taking the back seat to Rhonda... let's say Nattie. We're gonna have a match this time. Nattie's going to wrestle smart, she's going to roll out of the ring, she's going to go for rope breaks, she's going to pop a couple cheap shots. We'll let this go 5 minutes where Rhonda can't really get any offense in because Nattie keeps getting out it. Finally, Rousey gets frustrated and ignores the five count on a rope break and gets herself DQ'd. An irate Rhonda argues with the ref and SDR hits the ring with a "this is what I was talking about!" stance. Rhonda's gonna shove Sara out of her way and storm off to the back. Cut later to an argument between the two in the back, Rousey's going to say something along the lines of "I'm better than her, and I'm better than you..." which shuts Del Ray right up. After a second, Sara says "see you next week".

Next Performance Center vignette, Rousey apologizes - she's doesn't take losing well. Sara starts the session Stu Hart style, synching up on a submission and not releasing even though Rhonda's tapping (like Baszler did a few weeks ago). Sara gets pulled off her eventually, just spitting shit like "WHO'S better than me? WHO'S better than me?" and "you don't know ANYTHING!" Rhonda's gonna come out the next week on Raw and challenge Sara Del Ray to a match at Summerslam. Sara accepts. The build to this being Rhonda has something to prove, and Sara's promos focused on not "allowing an outsider to come in here and walk all over 'her girls' without paying their dues". The trick here is getting people familiar with Sara Del Ray real quick. The coming weeks you have people in the locker room asking Rhonda if she knows what she's getting into (Cesaro, KO, Zayn, Rollins, Bryan, the other women)... Sara Del Ray needs to be put on a pedestal by those she's worked with and trained as the greatest women's wrestler of all time. These two go to war at Summerslam, 20 minutes, with Rousey going over in a clean/competitive match. The kind that ends in a handshake. Now they can start building to Asuke, preferably through Charlotte.

Rousey gets to work through her buzz and sell some tickets, nobody gets damaged, Sara Del Ray could have a real farewell, and Rhonda Rousey becomes a credible wrestler in a division based on credible wrestlers.

But, in that original post I made, I also said "realistically"...

[Big Red Machine]

From an armchair booker position, I've been thinking about this since I posted that, and there IS a way everyone wins...

I said "Rhonda fucking Rousey" many times. She's a HUGE deal, so big that they have nobody to pair her with...

So... turn the problem into the solution! Like I said, nobody wants to see her lose, but everybody is going to shit on it if she mows down the entire division... so what's left? You don't do either.

SHE is the draw! Let her draw!

Protect the rest of the division and put her on PPV against Billie Kay or whoever. People want to see a slaughter, I don't think anyone really cares against who as long as it's not taking away from the division, but make them wait for it. Focus her weekly TV on preparing for the "match" (it's important they don't say "fight", we're trying to transition this "fighter" into a "wrestler" in the fans eyes) in segments with Sara Del Ray. She squashes Billie on PPV in 60 seconds, MMA style beat down, with enough action to get some highlights for her Titantron.

Next PPV, same deal. We're training with Sara for a few more weeks, in preparation for her next match with another NXT Lady - let's say Peyton this time. Boom, another MMA style squash. Moving forward, these training segments get a little more focused on Rhonda following the rules. "You can't just punch your way to the championship" type of lectures from Del Ray, who is becoming noticeably frustrated with Rhonda who's all "ya ya ya, gotcha".

We do this all month, getting the smart fan buzzing about a possible Death Ray/Rousey match while we build to a match with somebody on the roster but wouldn't be hurt taking the back seat to Rhonda... let's say Nattie. We're gonna have a match this time. Nattie's going to wrestle smart, she's going to roll out of the ring, she's going to go for rope breaks, she's going to pop a couple cheap shots. We'll let this go 5 minutes where Rhonda can't really get any offense in because Nattie keeps getting out it. Finally, Rousey gets frustrated and ignores the five count on a rope break and gets herself DQ'd. An irate Rhonda argues with the ref and SDR hits the ring with a "this is what I was talking about!" stance. Rhonda's gonna shove Sara out of her way and storm off to the back. Cut later to an argument between the two in the back, Rousey's going to say something along the lines of "I'm better than her, and I'm better than you..." which shuts Del Ray right up. After a second, Sara says "see you next week".

Next Performance Center vignette, Rousey apologizes - she's doesn't take losing well. Sara starts the session Stu Hart style, synching up on a submission and not releasing even though Rhonda's tapping (like Baszler did a few weeks ago). Sara gets pulled off her eventually, just spitting shit like "WHO'S better than me? WHO'S better than me?" and "you don't know ANYTHING!" Rhonda's gonna come out the next week on Raw and challenge Sara Del Ray to a match at Summerslam. Sara accepts. The build to this being Rhonda has something to prove, and Sara's promos focused on not "allowing an outsider to come in here and walk all over 'her girls' without paying their dues". The trick here is getting people familiar with Sara Del Ray real quick. The coming weeks you have people in the locker room asking Rhonda if she knows what she's getting into (Cesaro, KO, Zayn, Rollins, Bryan, the other women)... Sara Del Ray needs to be put on a pedestal by those she's worked with and trained as the greatest women's wrestler of all time. These two go to war at Summerslam, 20 minutes, with Rousey going over in a clean/competitive match. The kind that ends in a handshake. Now they can start building to Asuke, preferably through Charlotte.

Rousey gets to work through her buzz and sell some tickets, nobody gets damaged, Sara Del Ray could have a real farewell, and Rhonda Rousey becomes a credible wrestler in a division based on credible wrestlers.

But, in that original post I made, I also said "realistically"...

I like the idea, but I'm not sure Sara can possibly be built up that well to the mainstream audience, especially because the perception of the trainers is that they're all old.
That being said, a good way to try to make it work might be to eventually pair Baszler- one of Ronda's best friends- with Sara, with the idea being that Baszler is angry that Ronda came in and basically took her spot. You could even get two matches out of that: one is Ronda vs. Death Rey with Baszler having told Sara all of Ronda's secret strengths and weaknesses, and then one of Ronda vs. Baszler where Sara has taught Baszler all of her wrestling knowledge so Baszler can use her MMA skill and knowledge of the tricks of wrestling to have an edge over Ronda.