How about the Raw the night after TLC this week? Nothing huge happened at the actual PPV, but Raw did feature a few things that might lead you to expect good numbers. Chris Jericho was there. Roman Reigns, who is supposedly the hottest superstar in the eyes of the fans this year, was there. And Brock Lesnar even made a rare appearance. That last one was the biggest of them all. And yet, Raw was only able to average a little over 3.5 million viewers. The first hour had 3,703,000 viewers, the second hour had 3,477,000, and the final hour had 3,385,000. You see a decline through the show. The final rating was about what you had last week, a 2.66. These are not good numbers.
Keep in mind that the Raw after Survivor Series had more to overcome. You had a Monday Night Football game featuring two Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks, another NFL game going on around the same time due to weather issues, and many people being more interested in the news that night because of Ferguson. Raw this week was going against a sloppy game that wasn't very competitive. While the Raw after Survivor Series saw viewership rise from hour two to hour three, Raw this week just saw a decline. That is not a good sign when you take everything into consideration.
Fans knew Brock Lesnar was there. He didn't just show up for one random backstage appearance and leave. He showed up during the middle of the show and showed up again at the end during the main event. Fans knew he was there and had to have expected he would go out there for a match between two guys he has had issues with in recent months. Despite that, you have a decline between the final two hours of about 90,000.
What does this say about Brock Lesnar? I don't blame him for the bad numbers. The WWE botched. I am usually not one to say that often. Often, you will see the WWE do something that fans do not like and the fans say the WWE botched it. No, more often than not, the WWE was simply not trying to do what you hoped they would do. They were going for something else and did what they wanted and usually get what they intended. Usually, this happens in feuds where fans think the WWE is trying to build stars. In a lot of these situations, they are building people or angles to put over the stars. It is only natural for the WWE to move away from these things eventually. What you have seen this year with Brock Lesnar is not one of those situations. This guy is not a jobber to the centerpiece. He is an A+ player. He is someone they are counting on to deliver for them. And you look at how much they have invested in him this year alone. I am not talking about money. He defeated The Undertaker at Wrestlemania. He crushed John Cena for the WWE Championship. He makes these rare appearances as Champion, which you would think would make them more valuable and get fans eager to see him. This guy is not all hype. He can go out there and demolish people and make it believable. You take into account his own abilities, things he has legitimately done, and those things he has been booked to do, especially this year, you should have an undisputed draw on your hands. That is, on paper. In practice, all that hype has not worked out too well.
Is it all worth it? The money they pay him for these rare appearances? Handing him The Streak? Letting him hold the top title in the company and not even be around for months? Are they really profiting off this? It certainly isn't drawing the way it should. You can say the big payoff will be making a top star by having some face conquer Lesnar. If that guy cannot connect with the fans properly, handing him Brock Lesnar will be about the same as handing Lesnar everything else they have given him this year. These things were not simply accolades to honor Lesnar. These things were designed to put him over and help him draw and create situations to draw. You have a centerpiece that fails to connect with the fans properly, other main-event stars with questionable drawing power, a mediocre midcard, a stale tag division, a poor women's division, and now your A+ part-timers don't seem to be able to always carry you like they might have in the past. The WWE messed up. They botched. Simply handing Lesnar all these things is not enough.
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