Raw 4/25: Scheduled During Blackhaws/Blues Game Seven

I was thinking more along the lines of High Voltage, but American Males fits too, haha.

I had been watching both the Hawks & Raw, but skipped the last 2 segments of Raw to watch just the Hawks. I knew what would happen on Raw. Watched back on the DVR & it happened just like I thought. Bullet Club shows up, AJ holds them off, gets hit by Reigns, who wipes out the Bullet Club & AJ hits his finish.

Although I thought AJ would've stood tall & not both guys down. Eh, close enough.

Monday’s Raw continued a severe post-WrestleMania slide leading into the Payback PPV.



WWE Raw TV Ratings Tracking



April 25: Monday’s Raw fell to a 2.20 rating the week after falling to a 2.32 rating for a taped international show.



It was the lowest rating of the year and lowest since a 2.15 rating in December. If not for the Dec. 7 episode, this would have been the lowest-rated regular-week Raw TV rating in about 20 years.



April 4 post-WM: 2.93 rating

April 11: 2.50 rating

April 18: 2.32 rating (U.K.)

April 25: 2.20 rating (25% decline since WM32)

– Raw was especially hit hard among 18-49 viewers. General adults 18-49 fell one-tenth of a rating to easily the lowest a18-49 rating of the year. Also, males 18-49 fell eight percent to easily the lowest m18-49 rating of the year.



The only demographic that improved was males 18-34, which hit an extreme low-point last week and inched up from the basement level this week.



– Raw’s three hours averaged 3.128 million viewers, down six percent from last week’s audience of 3.335 million viewers.



It was by far the fewest viewers of the year and also the fewest since Dec. 7, 2015. Hourly Break Down:



First Hour: 3.263 million viewers (down about 200k from last week)

Second Hour: 3.184 million viewers (down about 350k from last week)

Third Hour: 2.938 million viewers (down 40k from last week)

For the second consecutive week, the third hour drew fewer than 3.0 million viewers. That is the first time that has happened in the modern era.



Even during last year’s difficult Fall TV season, there were no back-to-back shows where the third hour drew fewer than three million viewers.



The key this week appears to be a very soft second hour (with the big week-to-week drop-off), which then fed into the typically soft third hour.



Caldwell’s Analysis: The issues are obvious week after week. In summary, the loyal audience base is eroding, WWE is not a hot TV property right now, rejection of Roman Reigns as WWE champion, the casual viewers have little connection to the new stars and storylines hurriedly introduced after WrestleMania, over-exposed established stars who do not feel special, an interim tag on Shane McMahon running or not running Raw week-to-week, and a flimsy, incomplete vision from Vince McMahon as head of Creative trying to mix established and new stars coming out of WrestleMania. Short-term, trying to put a band-aid on a big problem, WWE is going to have to come up with a big angle coming out of Payback to re-energize the show. Otherwise, they’re looking at falling below 2.0 when John Cena shows up on Memorial Day.

The crowd last night sucked, so if you do watch KS (this goes for Woodridge too), put that aspect out of it. It was by no means a bad show. Dragged in spots like usual, but it always does.

Sheamus/AJ was fine.
Rusev/Zayn I thought was best match of the night. Really enjoyed it.
Crews/Stardust was harmless.
BC/Usos was nowhere near as boring as it came off. Commentators sucked & just repeated what we heard before about BC. Was a fine match.
Nattie/Emma was short but enjoyable.
Watched main event & it was what it was. Didn't dislike it, but we've seen it so much. I'd skip til the end with the AJ/BC stuff.

Jericho/Ambrose segment was fantastic & New Day/NXT guys were funny. Cesaro/Miz was alright. Steph/Shane was just ok.

It was a pretty lackluster go home show, but it was harmless. Which, sad to say, is a positive for WWE these days. This time in November or December it was boring as shit.

I had to skip the rest of your post but I do intend on watching it. Crowds never influence me.

The weird thing is that I've been on Twitter ever since late last night and I still haven't had anything spoiled for me. Which seems to indicate that either not too many people watched, or that it was terrible but I'll keep an open mind going in.

But no sweat on spoilers. If I'm in this thread or on twitter than I'm doing so at my own peril.

"You really know how to take the air out of a room" Shane says to Stephanie. Couldn't agree more. It no longer matters how good Steph or HHH are on the stick because everything they could ever say has already been said a thousand times. The Authority stuff is beyond stale. Even in a brand split they're stale. But I think it's coming.

There's no doubt in my mind that Shane does massive amounts of coke.

I really like the Phenomenal Forearm.

Ok I'm already turning on Enzo & Cass. I'm gonna give the Vaudevillians a second chance.

I never liked the New Age Outlaws even a little bit and some (maybe alot) of the Enzo & Cass shtick on the mic is REALLY, FUCKING REALLY reminding me of them. And I don't like that.

Why is Titus still not back on TV? Did I miss that? I hate Vince.

I swear to God I will turn off the TV right now.

Leave it up to the WWE to say they're gonna give us the history of the Owens/Zayn feud and never mention ROH once.
Hate. Them.

Dammitt. They still called him a League of Nations member. I have a feeling a face turn is in his future because you sure can't turn the other two suckwads.

Lana is slightly less hot than she used to be. There I said it.