Can Raw Underground Increase Slumping WWE Ratings?
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2020 has not been a great year for WWE in terms of viewership.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lots of other factors, the professional wrestling company has seen the lowest ratings it has ever had for its Monday Night Raw show.
Despite pushing newer stars like Drew McIntyre, nothing seems to be working in terms of gaining new viewers. The absence of a live audience has also made some fans tune out due to the lack of an atmosphere.
After several weeks of the same stuff week in and week out, WWE tried something different this week called Raw Underground.
This is a newer take for the product, although it remains to be seen if it will take off in the future.
One of the things that casual audiences don't like about WWE is that all the fights are scripted and acted. For these types of fans, they prefer something more real like MMA in the UFC.
In order to please this crowd, WWE is trying to make Raw Underground look and feel like real street fights. It's kind of like WWE's own version of Fight Club.
As we have seen from this week's episodes, there are no ring ropes and the fights are really short. Instead of using traditional wrestling moves, wrestlers use more strikes and impactful looking moves instead.
While this makes the product more exciting for some, it may not please everyone because the fights are still scripted. WWE needs to invest in more storylines like in the Attitude Era in order to increase ratings.
Speaking of ratings, viewership for this week's episode of Raw improved slightly. The show averaged 1.715 million viewers which is up from the 1.617 million viewers the show got last week.
It will be interesting to see if this new concept can increase ratings as we head into SummerSlam. You have to admit it's something different, but only time will tell if it will be a true success for the company.
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