WWE Bets on Roman Reigns To Improve RAW's Ratings This Week

Coming off the lowest non-holiday, non-football season RAW rating in modern history, WWE is going [...]

By Ryan Droste

Coming off the lowest non-holiday, non-football season RAW rating in modern history, WWE is going all in on Roman Reigns giving the program a boost this Monday.

Will it work? That's hard to say. WWE has succeeded a bit in getting some people talking about this week's show based on the company and Reigns exchanging words on social media about his pending appearance.

Reigns announced on Saturday that he would be on the show to handle some "unfinished business." It's anyone's guess at this point as to what he was referring to, though something involving the McMahons seems likely.

WWE's official Twitter account quickly responded, saying that Reigns is now a SmackDown superstar, and thus, will not be allowed on RAW this week.

Reigns responded on Sunday, not only doubling down on the fact that he will be on Monday's show, but also announcing that he would open the broadcast and they should have his theme music ready to go.

Critics have been quick to note that it's a bit odd to think that Reigns' presence will lift RAW's ratings given the fact that his show, SmackDown, performed even worse in the television viewership department last week.

Then again, Reigns was not in a heavily promoted segment on that broadcast. He wrestled the B Team in a handicap match, to very little fanfare or importance. This week's RAW has been hyped in advance for the crossover appearance by Reigns.

Reigns has been a draw for WWE over the last few years, despite what his many detractors would have you believe. He consistently ranks near the top of merchandise sales, and the videos featuring Reigns on WWE's YouTube page also usually rank highly. For example, two of the top three most viewed segments from last week's SmackDown show on WWE's YouTube page are Reigns videos (only being topped by the Hardy Boyz forfeiting the tag titles).

It's likely that the Reigns appearance this week on RAW will drive up viewership a little bit, at least in the first hour, though WWE's television ratings pattern in recent years is far more complex than the booking of any one performer.

It's clear that WWE believes Reigns can help this week. Moving forward, they're going to have to dig deeper to solve the bigger crisis at hand. While almost all of television has been suffering decreasing ratings in recent years, losing approximately a quarter of your audience from this time last year is real bad and there is no way to spin it otherwise.

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