7 Ways to Unrealistically Boost WWE Raw Ratings

Idea No. 7 – Raw Guest Hosts: Mike & The Mad Dog

For nineteen years, sports talk radio was dominated by Mike Francesa and Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo. Mike played the stubborn voice of reason while Dog played the raving, yelling arm-waver. Those descriptions don’t do them just, but if I was forced to expound about Mike and the Dog, it would take an entire afternoon drive for me to do them justice.

More from John Cena

• WWE SmackDown Predictions: John Cena Will Summon Great Khali
• John Cena’s return to WWE SmackDown must include LA Knight
• Top five ladder matches of all time
• Four opponents for John Cena to face at SummerSlam
• Retro Review: WWE SummerSlam 2013

What’s my point? A lot of Mike & The Mad Dog fans love WWE. Mike doesn’t. Chris doesn’t. (Although Mike did enjoy going to wrestling during the time of Bruno Sammartino.) Those guys are such characters, the idea of them on commentary or backstage would be must-see TV. Now to get Mike Francesa’s WWE-loving producer to pitch the idea.

The team split in 2008 with Francesa keeping the WFAN real estate (and being forced to adopt some of Russo’s yelling) while Dog got his own channel on SiriusXM. Still, fans continue to plead for a reunion and last week, longtime fans got their wish.

Francesa and Russo had their first ever simulcast to announce that they would team up in March for one night at Radio City Music Hall to benefit the Garden of Dreams Foundation. The announcement crashed Radio City’s website, Twitter blew up as the simulcast was compared to Shane McMahon showing up on Nitro. Mike and The Mad Dog on Raw the next time there are at Barclays would be a huge, testosterone-driven hit. Even throw in fellow WWE/Mike & The Mad Dog fan Bill Simmons. All men 18-49 would win Raw that key ratings demographic.

With accents and shouting as authentic as those of Jim Ross, this idea is can’t miss. But we have to at least try.

Worst case scenario: someone gets arrested.