PWTorch.com - CALDWELL'S TAKE: Monday's Raw TV rating should be a wake-up call - practical solutions for post-Mania Season

CALDWELL'S TAKE
CALDWELL'S TAKE: Monday's Raw TV rating should be a wake-up call - practical solutions for post-Mania Season

May 5, 2015 - 5:02:42 PM

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By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

Last week's Raw TV rating seemed like it would surely be rock-bottom for post-WrestleMania Season. The Creative issues were obvious before and after WrestleMania, the three-hour format continues to tax the live and TV audience, and top stars are over-exposed.

Just another three-hour Raw in the middle of spring. Weather the storm, get past the NBA Playoffs, and wait for Summerslam hype season.

But, this week's Raw fell to a 2.55 rating.

Even in a cord-cutting TV environment, that's an alarming rating. After all, if WWE is going to celebrate the high of a 3.68 rating the night after WrestleMania, they have to acknowledge the low of a 2.55 rating just five weeks later.

How WWE typically acknowledges these types of situations is bringing back a McMahon Family member. In this case, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon have mainly been absent from television since Mania. So, the natural conclusion is to bring one or both back, especially to deal with The Authority B-Team's ongoing problems. Oh yeah, and deal with over-exposed babyfaces Roman Reigns and Randy Orton.

But, this rating needs to be addressed with more than just stopping the leak in the dam with a McMahon.

For years, it has been apparent WWE needs a different approach to post-WrestleMania Season. Especially in the three-hour Raw environment.

After all, it's not like WWE is throwing an NXT show in the post-Mania timeslot and drawing a 2.55 rating. This is WWE's best available talent from the full-time roster. And since Brock Lesnar is not walking back through that door for several more weeks, WWE will eventually have to take a larger-scale approach to this issue.

Post-Mania Season needs to change.

The most obvious solution is cutting Raw down to two hours again. But, to WWE, that revenue is too much to give up, even for the potential long-term benefit. Or, just go away for two months. Wrap up Mania Season with Extreme Rules, take a break, run house shows, develop the next 10 months worth of storylines, let everyone refresh, and let the audience appreciate and miss the wrestlers and Raw. That's not going to happen, though. To WWE, that would create too many complications, hurt revenue (recurring theme), and risk losing the audience by breaking viewing habits. Plus, break Raw's Streak of being the longest-running, episodic, weekly, you get the idea.

So, what are practical changes based on WWE's current position?

It could be bringing back the brand split forcing Creative to focus on 20-25 wrestlers on Raw, as opposed to WWE operating with the false security of the entire roster available to them, creating bad habits. (Ahem, WCW Nitro.)

It could be presenting a combination of NXT and Tough Enough segments to fill chunks of Raw. The shift would (1) bring the audience down before bringing them back up when the main roster stars become the focal point again, (2) make the full-time stars feel special again by withholding them, (3) give the full-time wrestlers a rest period not having to wrestle every week, (4) allow the overloaded announcers to clear their minds and take a new approach to the product, (5) give Creative a breather not having to pump out a whole new round of material after the exhausting Mania period, and (6) draw a sub-3.0 rating with the B-Level material instead of hitting rock bottom with the best material.

It would also make new stars who could be incorporated with the full-time stars after a "comedown period." WWE is trying that right now with the introduction of Neville and Lucha Dragons, plus Sami Zayn accepting the U.S. Title Open Challenge on Monday night, but WWE is only dipping its toe in the water. WWE needs to at least be in the water.

WWE's main concerns are USA Network and wanting to pump up WWE Network on Raw. USA is paying big bucks for John Cena and Co., not the NXT roster. And, they're paying big bucks to draw a decent rating, relative to the season. Would Raw be at a 2.55 rating every week or fall below a 2.55 with a shift in the look & feel of post-Mania Raw? It's possible, but at this point, what WWE is doing right now isn't getting the job done. And the post-Mania Lull Period is becoming more pronounced with part-time stars disappearing year after year.

To make this work, WWE would need to find ways to incorporate full-time stars into the show without over-exposing them. WWE has found some success with Cena's Open Challenge, but for every Cena-Zayn match, there's Randy Orton and Roman Reigns wrestling twice on the same show. Not to mention WWE World champion Seth Rollins and Kane having the same tired argument week after week, often-times two or three times per show.

The NBA and NHL Playoffs are not going away, post-Mania Raw is becoming skippable to a sizable chunk of the casual audience, and the full-time roster feels less special than it has in a very long time.

Even ponying up big bucks to Brock Lesnar for him to be full-time could hurt his appeal over time. After all, the three-hour Raw environment is just plain unhealthy. As the joke goes, why was Daniel Bryan the most-over star on the roster when he returned from injury after eight months away? Because he was off TV for eight months.

The 2.55 rating should be a wake-up call. Not for the short-term to start hot-shotting title changes and dream matches and McMahons to bring up the average rating post-Mania, but for the long-term to really and truly address WWE's most challenging season of the year.