Orton Snaps

It was only a matter of time before the WWE pulled the trigger and had Randy Orton attack Seth Rollins. Most fans had to have realized that something was going to happen. And it happened this week on Raw. With no one from The Authority around to protect him, Seth Rollins got destroyed by Randy Orton in a lengthy attack to close Raw.

Time for a few criticisms. First, I would have waited another week before having Orton do what he did this week. There still would have been plenty of time left to have him go against other members of The Authority prior to facing Seth Rollins at Wrestlemania. There is no need to rush. Of course, it is just a week. No need to nitpick. I just feel they could have spent a little more time playing with it. Things also seemed to be telegraphed last night. It seemed obvious what they were building up to as the night went on. That is not always a bad thing and not always something that can be avoided. But some fans do complain when things are just obvious. The last thing I would criticize is the length of the beatdown. It just seemed to drag on too much. They had some cool spots, but it just lasted too long. And it doesn't help that the crowds are deader these days than previous years. There were reactions, but they could have been better. And it might have helped the segment. In general, I like the feud and am hoping for a good match at Wrestlemania.

Switching gears, let me talk about ratings. I found another site that lists ratings. They go back further than Gerweck does and includes the viewership for the recent episodes, which as always handy. They also let you sort the data either by chronological order or rating. They do not provide a convenient yearly average like Gerweck does, and they do not separate it neatly by years like they do. Regardless, it is a good chart to look at.

Just look at Raw's ratings. The best numbers since Raw debuted are all from 1999 and 2000. Not surprising. That is the Attitude Era. According to the data provided, the worst is mostly from the few years prior to the Attitude Era picking up steam. There are a few recent dates sprinkled in between. That's right, some of Raw's numbers in recent years are as bad as they were prior to their big boom period. You can talk about how bad Raw's ratings are now, but it is good to get a sense of how that compares to year's past and the charts provided by this site can help you with that. You always have to keep in mind that times have changed. You have more channels, DVR, and all that stuff. I have not done any in-depth analysis with all these numbers, but these numbers do show how far the WWE has fallen. I still think a lot of it could have been avoided. There is no reason for things to be as bad as they are.