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I think that to panic at this juncture over the lack of a major ratings spike in lieu of the Punk/Cena/McMahon angle is jumping the gun a little bit. Rome wasn't built in a day - even when Austin/McMahon started off, we didn't see an immediate jump in the ratings - it was a gradual climb upwards as the WWF showed their fans that they could consistently put on an entertaining and worthwhile product, week-in and week-out, which featured interesting characters like Stone Cold, Vince McMahon, The Rock, DX, Mankind and others.
I think that the WWE brain-trust should focus less on the ratings and more on the reviews they've been getting over the past few weeks. This much praise has not been heaped upon the WWE in a very long time - maybe not since Nexus, possibly before that. What they are doing is working, and if they continue to put on interesting, intriguing and entertaining segments/matches every single week, then word of mouth will cause a gradual increase in ratings.
But like I said, no one can expect a sudden spike in the ratings. The WWE's casual fans have been programmed to believe that RAW is about John Cena, Randy Orton and whatever lame ass they're feuding against at the time - it's not like the attitude era when fans were programmed to believe that RAW could be anything - that anything could happen and that shit could hit the fan at any moment. The past few weeks with Punk have brought that feeling back, but for the actual ratings to pick up, that feeling has to become the overall attitude of the WWE and it's flagship program, RAW.
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