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Monday Night Raw's ratings dipped to a record low this week and Smackdown Live didn't end up much better.
While anyone in The WWE Universe will chalk this up to the company not giving fans what they want, they fail to realize that some of the problems have to do with factors outside of WWE's immediate control.
Now, this doesn't mean that WWE isn't responsible for carrying some of the blame for the rating drop, but again, there are outside factors that also contributed to the problem
Unfortunately for The WWE, this means that they are going to have to focus on their product and try to let the rest work itself out.
With that being said and this week of WWE television finally in the books, here are five reasons WWE's ratings dropped this week.
As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments below and be sure to tell us why you believe WWE's ratings were low this week. Also, tell us what you believe would help increase ratings.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article belong to the author and doesn't necessarily represent Sportskeeda's stand.
#5 Top stars missing
Let's be honest here.
How is WWE supposed to have high ratings with Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, Finn Balor and Charlotte Flair all out for various reasons.
Beyond that, WWE has Sasha Banks currently in a standoff with the company, The Undertaker and Goldberg are gone after a one-off match and Triple H is also not appearing on a regular basis.
If nothing else, it was just too many outside factors in one single week and WWE didn't make it any better for themselves by having so many stars absent.
With that being said, hopefully, things will pick back up next week.
#4 A lot of overlap
One of the biggest problems WWE is facing right now is the overlap between Superstar Showdown and Stomping Grounds, which has forced the company to book several rematches for the latter pay per view.
Unfortunately for The WWE Universe, this means they will be treated to much of the same.
In all honesty, WWE has tried to spice things with a special guest referee for The Universal title match and the company has also tried to generate interest by replacing Shane McMahon with Drew McIntyre, but it's just not enough.
Beyond that, WWE doesn't have a lot of time to build up these storylines to point where they can serve as any kind of payoff.
For what it's worth, WWE should pick back up once The Stomping Grounds pay per view is over, but it the meantime, The WWE Universe needs to stay patient with the company.
Sure, they could have booked other matches for the upcoming pay per view, but that would require them to build new feuds and that takes time to accomplish!
#3 NBA finals
Another thing The WWE Universe needs to be honest about is the fact that Monday Night Raw was actively competing with several shows this week and will continue throughout the year.
Unfortunately for the company, they found themselves up against a crucial game five in The NBA finals, which saw The Golden State Warriors come back to win their second game in the series.
Adding to the importance of the pivotal championship series was the fact that Warriors star, Kevin Durant was returning from injury in order to help his team win the championship from a 3-1 deficit. With that in mind, WWE was up against a championship series with its share of important storylines and probably would have lost viewers no matter what it did.
According to Variety.com, "Game 5, which ended on the incredibly tight score of 106-105 in favor of the Warriors, scored a 5.2 rating in the key 18-49 demographic, and 14.3 million total viewers. Those figures are up a substantial 36.5% on Game 4’s rating of 3.3 and 32.5% on the total viewership for Game 4 which stood at 9.65 million total viewers."
With that being said, Monday Night Raw, only drew a 2.12 this week, and interestingly enough, steadily lost viewership as the night went on.
This is believed to be due to The NBA Finals taking part during that portion of the show, leaving WWE with just over 2 million in its second hour and less than that amount in its third hour of programming.
In the end, WWE was going to lose viewers to The NBA finals no matter what and Kevin Durant's return and the nature of the series only decreased their numbers.
Fortunately for WWE, the series came to an anti-climatic end Thursday night, with the Raptors winning the series, 4-2, which means that The NBA will no longer be a threat in the ratings.
#2 Super ShowDown pay per view
Another big thing that put WWE behind the eight ball heading into their weekly television programming was the fact that they had just arrived home from their big show in Saudi Arabia.
Not only did this most likely cause immense jet lag for creative and Superstars alike, but it also gave them little time to prepare for what's next.
In all honestly, WWE had to take a 13-hour plane ride home and be ready for five hours of on-air programming in one week. While some might think that shouldn't be a problem for a company as gigantic as WWE, this, along with the various other issues plaguing the company created a snowball effect of sorts.
And that snowball effect forced WWE to put on a pretty safe week of programming for the WWE Universe, which came across as lazy.
Of course that' wasn't enough for a lot of fans, who were interested to see what WWE did with the product after Superstar Showdown, but with Stomping Grounds right around the corner, who could blame them for taking a safe approach for one week?
#1 Sticking to a tired format
WWE has done a lot of things right lately, especially after their outright promise to do better, but the formulaic openings of their shows have still yet to change.
Not only is this type of booking lulling fans to sleep on both RAW and SmackDown Live, but it also makes everything very predictable.
Think about it! From Seth Rollins' fiery promo at the start of Monday Night RAW, to The Miz and Shane McMahon clashing on Smackdown Live, WWE didn't really deviate from their usual formula and it hurt them.
If nothing else, fans are waiting for the air of unpredictability to return to WWE, but the company still hasn't been able to deliver on that!
Of course, a lot of that has to with the network they air on and preserving talent for the long haul, but it wouldn't really kill WWE to try something outlandish to start their shows.
Something like a young star rampaging and going mad backstage or maybe attacking someone in the parking lot to prompt some kind of brawl. Just something to refresh the product a little bit from formulaic opening and get fans invested from the jump
