Starting with TNA Impact Wrestling, and before actually looking at last year's ratings, last week's show did a 1.14. That is actually a boost from previous months. Hyping Sting did bring results. It was almost the highest number since TNA changed their time slot and went live. The problem will be keeping the number that high. You go back to the start of 2012. TNA stayed above a 1.0 for 14 weeks. After that, things started to fall apart. The annual average was a 1.01. That is close to being under a 1.0. That number is still the lowest yearly average since around the time TNA started out on Spike. Look at the annual average through the years here. That is not a good sign for TNA. 2011 saw their best annual average. 2012 sees one of their worst. I don't believe they will keep the ball rolling well in 2013.
Smackdown is doing well. Smackdown's numbers through the years can be found here. It is down from last year, but still up from 2010. The problem you have is that staleness. The brand split is gone, so top names from Raw can be used more regularly on Smackdown, but I think they can do a better job by going back to developing one long-term centerpiece for Smackdown. They have been rotating centerpieces frequently. Whoever has the title has typically gotten the spotlight. That's fine, but I think putting the title on Randy Orton, for instance, and really pushing him consistently well even after the reign ends will do some good. Or how about giving Dolph Ziggler that kind of treatment? I don't like them rotating centerpieces every few months. TNA does that. It's not very effective. Nevertheless, Smackdown should be staying around the same area this year in the ratings.
And then you have Raw. John Cena is still the clear centerpiece of that show. Would things have been different had CM Punk not gotten injured? That's another issue. What about the ratings? The numbers here tell the story. 2.99. The worst you could have ever wanted. Impact managed to stay above a 1.0, but Raw dropped below a 3.0. Blame it on December. Three-hour Raws and football also hurt. The WWE will have The Rock to help them this year, but he did not save them from the big drop last year. Moreover, Raw was not 3 hours for most of last year. Unless they give up on 3 hours, it will be that long every week this year. That does not seem to be helping their numbers. Viewers don't seem to be sitting through it well. 2012 was the year of CM Punk's long reign and Cena never winning any titles (aside from the briefcase). Do you put the blame on the WWE for not freshening up their main-event scene more on Raw? Cena being out of the title scene did not stop him from frequently being booked higher than Punk. Even though both Punk and Cena suffered injuries last year, I don't think that had much to do with the long run of ratings below a 3.0. The WWE still tried to keep things interesting, but they did not follow through properly. Can Cena still deliver as centerpiece? Give him 2013, but if he can't deliver as everyone says he can, they need to try something else. Yearlong title reigns do not seem to be the answer. The WWE should be able to bounce back this year. A 2.99 is very low. I cannot imagine them doing worse. They just need to start utilizing other talent better and figure out what to do with Cena. Going back to 2 hours might also help those numbers look better.
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