5 Ways to Fix the WWE Raw and SmackDown Ratings Slump

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With WWE on their annual ratings decline and Vince McMahon apparently “freaking out” about the numbers for recent shows, how can Raw and SmackDown be changed to bring back the viewers?

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With recent reports from Bryan Alvarez at Wrestling Observer (h/t Wrestling Inc) that Vince McMahon is far from happy with the numbers of recent TV shows, it would seem that we’ll see some big changes on the landscape of WWE. It’s usually around this time every year that TV ratings drop and it can almost entirely be attributed to the start of the NFL season, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t see Vince pressing the panic button.

Raw used to be an amiable show. Now it’s fallen into a formulaic pattern every week, the same people in the same segments basically saying and doing the same things every week. SmackDown is a shadow of the show it has been in the past. At one time it was just as important as Raw on the weekly schedule, now it’s just a place to put on rematches or matches that have no real meaning to the story lines that we’re meant to be invested in.

It’s always been the case that TV ratings are the be all and end all for wrestling. During the Monday Night Wars, they were relevant but in the current age are they as accurate? There are so many ways that people can now watch wrestling every week, that a lot more people probably watch the shows every week than the Nielsen numbers show.

Regardless of the numbers if Vince McMahon isn’t happy with them, or more accurately the WWE advertisers aren’t happy with them, then changes will undoubtedly happen.

There’s numerous things that could be changed to improve both Raw and SmackDown, read on to find out what we think should happen.

Next: Reason No. 1

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