Worst Raw Of 2015

In terms of ratings, this week's Raw was the worst of the year. It averaged 3,463,000 viewers. That is the lowest since the last Raw of last year. Not counting that, you have to go back a few years to find a Raw that did worse. And numbers are usually bad when Raw falls on a holiday or goes against football. None of those excuses can be used for this week's poor numbers.

This is not a weird occurrence. Ratings have been bad all year. Through the first half of 2015, Raw has averaged over 4 million viewers only 8 times. For  the sake of comparison, Raw only failed to average more than 4 million in the first half of the year twice in 2014. One of those days was a holiday, while the other was when Raw was in England and taped earlier in the day. The WWE has just done very poorly this year.

There is no one problem. There is a lack of great star power. Guys like Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns are not real draws. Guys that the WWE has counted on to be stars, like John Cena and Randy Orton, sometimes seem to have issues properly connecting with the fans. Part-timers just cannot do it anymore. The Rock came back to a house show recently. They mentioned it on Raw. And yet, the excitement that a star like that might randomly show up on Raw does not draw. To make matters worse, the WWE is incredibly inefficient with their entire product. The tag division has regressed. The diva division continues to be mediocre. The WWE has shown signs of improving the midcard at times, but they just cannot be consistent with it. Even the main-event scene is stale.

What makes this poor number coming at this time of year even more sad is that it's summer. Where's the big summer angle? Brock Lesnar gunning for the title? You did that last year. Aside from fans loving Cena getting destroyed, it didn't lead to anything. There is nothing big going on right now to really excite fans. The WWE is not being shaken up by anything. Even the NXT Champion showing up on Raw is really not a big deal. Kevin Owens is not a big star. Talented wrestler, but not a star that can draw in that wider audience. I would like to believe there is still time for the WWE to try to do something big for this summer, but they probably will not do it.

It can get worse. Football season is usually when Raw gets bad numbers. There is still another two months before the season starts. The viewership this week is even worse than the average for last year's football season. How bad can things get before the year is through? I am more excited by how low they can go than for the actual product.