WWE News: RAW numbers increase slightly after No Mercy PPV
What's the story?
This week’s RAW episode came after a pay-per-view which had a number of big clashes, such as John Cena facing Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar successfully defending his title against Braun Strowman.
While many would have expected an increase in the ratings, the numbers were slightly greater than those from the previous episode, according to Cageside Seats.
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The post pay-per-view shows are always eagerly awaited as there seems to be an extra energy in the crowd and many fans do tune in to see the aftermath of a great fight or battle.
Reigns and Lesnar did their bit by picking up respective wins, but the No Mercy pay-per-view was average, to say the least.
The heart of the matter
The viewership for this week’s show was 2.92 million viewers according to the report which was slightly better than the previous week’s RAW episode which drew 2.83 million viewers.
If we are to look at the breakdown for the three-hour show, the viewership numbers plummeted as we saw Enzo Amore mouth off while celebrating his WWE Cruiserweight title win over Neville at No Mercy.
The first hour attracted 3.12 million viewers, the second hour saw 3.08 million viewers while the final hour only clocked in 2.56 million viewers.
Amore’s main event segment cannot be only blamed for this, as there was the NFL game between the Arizona Cardinals and the Dallas Cowboys, which also drew some of the viewers from RAW.
What's next?
The numbers aren’t all that flattering and the WWE is in a bit of a bother regarding attendances and viewership, to say the least. This week’s SmackDown Live episode had reports of arena sections being covered off due to a lack of fans at the event.
The upcoming RAW episodes could regularly get hit by numbers from Monday Night Football during the NFL season, and the WWE have to step up their game.
Author's take
Frankly, a poor pay-per-view will lead to low-interest levels for the next show. No Mercy could have been a great event, thanks to a couple of stellar bouts on the fight card but none of them turned out to be brilliant.
Hopefully, the writers and the creative team get a hold of this slide before it becomes a huge deal and leads to more fans turning to other sports and promotions.