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In the recent episode of Busted Open Radio, former WWE Superstar Bubba Ray Dudley (aka Bully Ray) commented on why WWE RAW's ratings and viewership is continuously on the decline. He said that WWE is struggling because of their approach to building stars in a certain way. Bully Ray said WWE didn't pay enough attention to their second-tier talents and are finding it difficult in the absence of their top stars.
Bully Ray compared the scenario to how it used to be back in his day. He said that the second-tier stars would step up in the absence of top Superstars and that was the reason why WWE never dipped. (H/T 411Mania)
“During these times, you can’t afford to be mild, that’s why you’re getting a mild rating, and I don’t like to talk about the ratings. This rating is not about, ‘Oh my God, they did a 1.6!’ This is more indicative of how WWE used to build everybody up, and now they only build certain people up. And now all of a sudden you have a situation where you can’t have those people on TV all the time, and your second tier talent needs to be up there. Back in the day, if you go back and watch, all at one time, Stone Cold, Rocky, Triple H, Cactus, Taker, Kane, they were either gone or hurt or off TV, whatever, what did the WWE do? They relied on their second tier talent who was able to step right up, they were just waiting in that batter’s box, ready to get up there, and they were swinging away, and the WWE never dipped. Now we’re seeing a massive dip.”
WWE's dip during the COVID-19 pandemic
WWE has seen a steady decline in their viewership, both on RAW and SmackDown, during the empty-arena shows. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, WWE has been forced to shoot all their shows inside the Performance Center without an audience since March.
This week's RAW recorded the lowest viewership since the Red brand moved to three hours back in 2012. WWE are pulling out all the stops to get the ratings up as next week's RAW will see both Edge and Randy Orton return for the first time after their brutal Last Man Standing Match at WrestleMania 36. Whether or not this helps the ratings go up remains to be seen.
