Anything past medium is burned

Might as well just eat your shoes at that point.

Chew on charcoal

I know Meltzer sheep but that is bad...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hnGq8mCPYz4?ecver=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Pfff, I want to slap you in the face with a raw steak.

Actually no, you make them the way you do and I'll just crack your skull with one.

This week's average was: 2.78


Hourly:

8 p.m. 3.09 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.80 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.47 million viewers

Bit troubling that the 3rd hour hit the sub-3 million number faster than last year's post-Mania RAWs.

Probably a really good chance RAW hits the sub-3 million overall faster as well since that didn't happen till the 5th week after Mania last year.

But people still tweet about it, right?

RAW dropped around half a million viewers from the go-home show for Backlash to the post-Backlash edition of RAW.

Lowest rating of 2018 so far. NBA could have taken some viewers but I don't think it is responsible for nearly half a million RAW viewers tuning out.

I've never really bought into the "well, in our defense, people would rather be watching something else" argument.

Nice to see Braun Strowman drawing because he is so over though. With Jinder Mahal getting some more focus, I am sure that the viewers will jump back up 2 million next week. :y:

everytime i look at the ratings I notice the 3rd hour is always the worst. like every single week. it means people give the show a shot and then realize the shit never ends

When the 3 Hour Era started, it used to be the opposite with the 1st Hour as the weakest and 3rd Hour as the strongest. Flipped to where it is now due to WWE's terrible attrition style booking and people getting used to the show starting at 8PM.

I feel like I've said this too many times, but the defense for that third hour is they get paid a lot of money for it. How much money do they sacrifice by having such a watered down and gentrified product, though? The creative problems were there before they went to 3 hours, granted, but we haven't seen a WWE that have had a 2-hour Raw with a unified roster since 2002, because I think they started the "Supershow" crap back when there were still a brand split in 2011.

That's merely a technicality, but god damn it -- end the roster split and cut your content down. If you need to release the Andre the Giant Battle Royal talent to save more money, go ahead and do that too. I'd consider cutting SmackDown too. There was demand for it in 1999/2000. Now it feels like they put out the show because they're obligated to.

SD ratings lowest since October 2017

Too bad b/c it was a good show!

Lack of interest in Roman Reigns now hurting the blue brand

It doesn’t help that they’re doing their best to make Bryan unspecial. But yeah, general interest is going to be down when Raw sucks.

Probably doesn't help that Smackdown has gotten hit harder than RAW has been with the NBA playoffs this year.

Smackdown had to deal with a lot more competitive game between Rockets-Jazz than RAW did with Raptors-Cavs.

Again, it's that "there's something better on" excuse. Be better then.

YouTube views seem to conflict w/ the TV ratings.

YT views apparently come from mostly outside the US -- per the infamous dirtsheets they mainly come from India.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">19 years ago today, 8M+ viewers (at time of calculating) tuned in to watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Raw?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Raw</a> - scoring an 8.1 Nielsen rating, WWE’s highest ever. ��<br><br>(Image: <a href="https://twitter.com/BrandonThurston?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BrandonThurston</a>) <a href="https://t.co/XbY0hq54uH">pic.twitter.com/XbY0hq54uH</a></p>&mdash; PWStream (@PWStream) <a href="https://twitter.com/PWStream/status/994584564965179392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 10, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

seems like there was some minor spike at end of 2008. wonder what that was from?

Is that chart showing millions of viewers or rating?

Think the chart is a bit messed up and it might be from 2009 instead. Had some trouble finding when the spike happened but it might be from the June 22nd episode.

That episode was when Trump "bought" RAW and aired it as a commercial-free episode for the night.

that would make some sense. completely non wwe talent related lol

RAW bounced back this week

AKA The CyNick Defense (RIP)

Raw 2018 pulling in them bret hart numbers

Raw got over the 4.0 mark 4 times in 2009:

* February 16, post-No Way Out. Randy Orton continues his path to the McMahon family and punted Shane and RKO'd Stephanie. Shawn Michaels also announced his intentions to challenge The Undertaker at WrestleMania.

* February 23, with HBK beating JBL to earn the right to face Vladimir Kozlov for the right to face Undertaker at WrestleMania, and Triple H chasing Legacy around with a sledgehammer.

* June 22, which had Trump buying Raw, it being "commercial free," everyone getting refunds, more Triple H/Randy Orton drama and John Cena being embarrassed by The Miz.

* July 27, which had a bunch of Beat the Clock Matches to decide who would get to challenge Randy Orton at SummerSlam. Shaq was a special guest and he backed up Cryme Tyme in the main event against Jeri-Show.

Cryme Tyme = ratings

The thought/joke occurred to me. They appeared on quite a few of those shows.

I was never attached to them at the time, but honestly, both guys were really charismatic. Shortcomings in the ring aside, I'd kill for two guys with their personalities today. You can cover up those weaknesses in the ring.

I'm just reading up on Shad now. The dude is a stage actor and has won awards for writing comic books. He's married to a fitness model and foiled a bank robbery in 2016. Honestly, the guy sounds a bit like a superhero.

JTG looked small compared to Shad, but the dude is 6'1 1/2 and was billed as 232lbs. He was always jacked to the gills. These two -- either as a tag team busting myths about black people or as individuals -- would be worth another shot. In my opinion. Maybe I've just forgotten how much they suck in the ring or whatever. It feels like Shad, especially, was made to jump through hoops and was kind of a victim of a...shall we called it a "Purple Hayes" in the WWE.

It's been long enough that the environment has changed. I'd like to see Cryme Tyme vs. Dolph & Drew and Owens & Zayn. I'd also like to see them against New Day and The Usos. And that's as Cryme Tyme. I think those stereotypical gimmicks are the bottom of what they can achieve.

I loved Cryme Tyme. They were outstanding for what they were.

They didn't have what I looked for in a tag team. Felt too much like a gimmick. I like my working tag teams.

It takes all kinds. Especially nowadays. I don't know that I would have put the titles on them but for midcard entertainment value, they were top notch.

Oh, agreed. Right now their personalities would put them so far ahead of almost everyone else it isn't funny. Well, it kind of is funny.

It is. Are you partial to The Revival?