The Coronavirus Pandemic has played havoc with industries across the globe besides ruining a lot of things for people. However, wrestling continued with AEW, WWE and more competing to the tumbleweed’s sound in their respective arenas. Both companies have flecking the ringside area with other wrestlers to making increased use of pre-filmed cinematic matches in an attempt to mitigate the impact of the absent fans. Nevertheless, stony silence or muted applause from socially-distant colleagues replaces the roar of the crowd, then it loses a great deal of atmosphere, gravity and effect making the situation far from ideal. It is now doubted that wrestling is suffering as a whole, but, the brunt of COVID-19 is still bored by the flagship show of WWE, Monday Night Raw.
WWE Raw big drops in viewership and ratings
WWE Raw saw the final edition of Monday Night on December 15, 2020, with steady ratings for the red band as of late. But, there is a huge drop and the lowest one in this week regarding the ratings numbers and viewership. 1.526 million viewers were brought down by this week’s edition of WWE RAW which is way down from last week’s 1.736 million. A considerable amount of viewers between hours one and three is once again lost by WWE RAW. It had 1.441 million by the end of the evening although starting the show with 1.627 million.
WWE RAW saw a big decrease this week with a 0.41as for the all-important 18-49 demo which is way down from last week’s 0.51. WWE will probably get more concerned with the number a lot more than the numbers of actual viewership. The 18-49 demo also ended with a 0.38 besides starting at 0.44 and decreasing took place throughout the whole evening. Ascension Ceremony between Drew McIntyre and AJ Styles headlined Monday edition of WWE RAW. There was a fantastic match between Sheamus and Styles for kicking off the show while Randy Orton and Bray Watt played hide and seek with each other.
Reason for the low decline in ratings and viewership of the show
Undoubtedly, there is a clear connection between the beginning of lockdown and the recent decline in numbers. Thus, it is also Monday Night Raw’s record-low rating is partly due to the pandemic. WWE not only created a lesser viewing experience for TV due to the lack of fans but was slower to adapt in comparison to their rivals which means that such as putting wrestlers in the crowd came in later than they could have. There is also some erratic story developments due to unavailability of certain wrestlers which is not in the control of the company up to some extent. Quicker and firmer action might’ve been beneficial as suggested by the recent reports of several dozen staff testing positive and lax testing procedures. However, it is noteworthy that if the current woes of the Monday Night Raw are only attributed to the pandemic, then it’s effect could have also got seen in all other brands. However, that is not so the case as most other brands have only minor drops.
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