I'll start with TNA. Wrestlingdata.com seems to have given up on TNA, so just look at Gerweck's chart. TNA averaged over 312,000 viewers in 2016. That is down from over 330,000 viewers in the previous year. They went as high as 410,000 viewers, thanks to the unique character and storylines they were having with Matt Hardy. They dropped to 165,000 on Thanksgiving. That is a pretty big range for a show that doesn't average that many viewers to start with.
It would be easy to slam TNA. They used to average a million viewers just a few years ago. Their numbers are slipping. They have all that inner turmoil. They are still going. Moreover, I think they will see their numbers increase in 2017, or at least remain relatively stable. What am I basing that on? Gut feeling? Did I flip a coin? Well, look at the numbers. Yes, they are down from previous years, but look how they performed throughout the year. They started out averaging under 300,000 viewers for the first few months of the year. During the final few months of the year, they were averaging over that benchmark for most weeks. And keep in mind, this is going against NFL games on Thursday nights. You can say the Thursday night games sucked or whatever, but they still drew good numbers, compared to other shows, and TNA managed to close the year against them pretty well. They closed 2016 better than they did 2015.
What are some of the things TNA will need to do to stay stable, or possibly grow? They just have to keep going with what they had in 2016 that worked. That is obviously The Hardys. How much further can they really go with that? Moreover, they have to build fresh stars. They cannot just push someone well for a while, then break them down. I have seen them do that too many times over the years. Not only does it hurt the connection fans might have with certain workers, some workers may not feel like sticking around in this system. On the other side of that, they need to move away from Gail Kim in the women's division. Gail Kim is already in the Hall of Fame. I can't say she should retire. And she looks like she could still go for another five years. But there are women younger than her and might potentially be bigger stars than her. TNA just needs to start going to these women properly. Most importantly, TNA should not try to play the WWE's game. The WWE does not have a winning system right now, so why imitate it? TNA has their own things with potential, so they should work on that.
Speaking of the WWE, how about Raw? Raw averaged a 2.64 in the ratings in 2015. This recent year, it dropped all the way to a 2.27. That is pretty horrible. It was a 2.95 in 2014. 3.01 in 2013. 3.0 in 2012. 3.21 in 2011. That 14% drop from 2015 to 2016 is the worst in recent years. People can say it was an election year, but it was also an election year in 2012. There was only a 6.5% drop back then. And Raw remained stable the year after that.
Looking at viewership numbers, Raw struggled to go over 4,000,000 viewers, doing so only twice in 2016. It did so eight times in 2015, including one Raw that saw over 5,000,000 viewers. The WWE's main show dipped below 3,000,000 viewers multiple times. It averaged 3.2 million viewers. Can you imagine them averaging under 3 million in 2017? I can.
I talked about how the NFL did not hurt TNA too much in 2016. Can the same be said for the WWE's main show? No, Raw got some of its worst numbers in the final months of the year, as you can usually expect. Again, they also had to deal with heavy election drama coinciding with the NFL drama. You can say competition was tougher for them than it usually is.
Will Raw bounce back in 2017? It would be easy to think they would. No more Monday night NFL games. The election is decided. Thing is, the WWE didn't have a nice ratings spike to start 2016. There is a good chance 2017 starts the same way, which would set the tone for a terrible year in the ratings, again.
What can the WWE do for Raw? Ending the brand split would be a step in the right direction. I have said before that a long-term brand split is just not good, especially for Raw. They lose their full arsenal of stars. When you take a show that is already sliding in the ratings and tie its hands like that, you just make it really hard to stop the decline. And all the Kurt Angles in the world will not be enough to save them. All these returns the WWE is doing might give them a nice boost when it happens and the week after, but it always dies down after a while. Look at Goldberg's recent return. He helped them get some good numbers for a while, but the quality of the product is just not good to retain the audience. You can also talk about making Raw two hours again, but that is even less likely to happen than the brand split happening.
Onto Smackdown. Smackdown finally beat Raw since that first live episode a few months ago. Raw last week had 2,855,000 viewers. Smackdown had 2,885,000 viewers. All it took was hyping a special episode like it was a PPV, including all those title matches and John Cena returning. Of course, Raw did have to go up against a Dallas Cowboys game. In this year of the NFL also suffering a ratings loss, the Cowboys have remained a top draw. To put it simply, it was Raw going against its toughest competition of the NFL season and Smackdown pulling out almost all the stops. It is not too shocking that it would happen.
Regardless of this recent victory, I would still say Smackdown is underachieving. They have made a ton of improvements and are on a convenient night. They only averaged a 1.72 in 2016, a little up from a 1.69 in 2015. You can say that they weren't live and their own brand for the first few months of the year. You know what's funny? Some of their numbers from earlier this year, when they were not live and their own brand yet, are actually better than the numbers these last few months. Smackdown averaged 2.64 million viewers in January 2016. It averaged 2.59 million in December 2016. It might make you question whether all these changes are really making a difference.
What can Smackdown do to improve? Well, they are still in a better position than Raw, whether they end the brand split or not. I think they just have to continue being efficient with their roster. They are going to sign and promote more talent, so that should help to make things more fresh. But they can't fall in the trap of just trying to cater to smarks. That goes for the WWE in general. Smarks seem to prefer Smackdown over Raw. Okay, but the WWE shouldn't just rest on that. There is more they can do. These meaningless celebrity segments they have sometimes done are just a waste of time. Focus on the talent you have. Hopefully, Smackdown might even be more competitive in 2017 against Raw.
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