Let me start with Impact Wrestling. Through the first four months of 2017, the show averaged 297,000 viewers. For the first four months of 2016, the show averaged 288,000.
The prediction I made for TNA was that they could do just as well as they did last year or better. I did not anticipate a big drop for them this year. Next thing you know, they lose The Hardys, they change their name, and Jeff Jarrett is once again very much involved. You would expect TNA to be a sinking ship. And yet, they aren't doing too bad. They have done well this year, so far. Did merging GFW with TNA manage to create some interest? It's not that GFW was that well-known. Just the angle in itself generated hype. TNA will still have to close the year strong to do better than the 310,800 they averaged for all of 2016.
Onto the WWE. Start with Raw. Raw has averaged a 2.23 in the ratings from January to April this year. That is already below the 2.26 they averaged for all of 2016. They averaged 2.54 during the first four months of last year.
The thing you had to keep in mind about last year was that it was an election year. All the drama created an excuse for why ratings were down. You would expect the WWE to bounce back this year. It did in previous years there was an election to recover from. Raw has not bounced back. They have not cracked 4 million live viewers this year so far and likely will fail to do it at all. The WWE may never get 4 million live viewers again. People can talk about DVR and whatever else all they want, but Raw got over 5 million live viewers just two years ago. Last year, two episodes of Raw got over 4 million live viewers. It is pretty terrible for Raw to not be able to reach that mark again, especially in a year that should have been better than last year.
How about Smackdown? So far, 1.86. Last year, 1.74 through the first four months.
Obviously, Smackdown is up. Why? They made it its own brand again and have been having important things happen there. Being live and putting it on a convenient night also helps. But the reason I wanted to talk about ratings at all right now is because I noticed some people bringing up Smackdown's poor numbers lately. The last two episodes did 1.72 and 1.71, respectively. Smackdown has gotten its lowest viewership of the year last week. Why is this happening? Some people want to blame Randy Orton once again being WWE Champion. Some people want to blame the women. You can talk about the shake up hurting Smackdown. Thing is, there is always a ratings drop during this time of year. You've got NBA playoffs. To a lesser degree, baseball season is back. I wouldn't put the blame on any one person, although I do think Smackdown losing some stars will hurt it in the long run.
What can the WWE do to improve? Obviously, there is room for improvement. TNA has been getting more viewers for the first four months of this year than they did for the same span last year. Smackdown has been doing better in the ratings during this span than they did last year. Raw's excuse simply cannot be that no one watches TV anymore. It doesn't come down to stars. The WWE has signed a whole bunch of people over the last few years, including legendary stars of the past to be part-timers. These guys aren't just appearing on the WWE Network. They have been showing up on Raw. And it isn't helping enough. The WWE needs to stop looking for easy answers and work on changing their atmosphere. Treat the workers they have properly. Try to limit inconsistency and stupidity in the development of storylines, feuds, and characters. Decide what they want their identity to be and embrace it. It sometimes feels like the WWE is trying to be too many things and it just doesn't work. They have to be PG, but they still try to be edgy. That dumpster fiasco last week is a good example. In theory, it makes for an exciting moment. How they did it, however, just ended up being lame. They need to focus on being entertaining. It might help if they just stopped listening to smarks. They gave those fans a chance in a lot of ways. How has it worked out? The WWE shouldn't need the approval of those fans to know what is good. They need to think clearly to figure what appeals to those fans, and the wider audience. Because it is the wider audience that is more likely to tune out, not sour critics that tune in just to complain.
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