CM Punk losing viewers for WWE?

[Hammy]

F4WOnline.com reports that WWE officials are considering taking the WWE Championship off CM Punk due to "terrible ratings patterns" for his weekly segments on Raw.

The matter was broached prior to Sunday's WWE TLC pay-per-view event, which saw Punk ultimately retain the strap in a Triple Threat Tables, Ladders & Chairs Match against Alberto Del Rio and The Miz. The trend of lackluster ratings for his segments continued the following night on Raw as the program's overrun, which saw the Straight Edge Superstar, Daniel Bryan and Zack Ryder overcame The Miz, Alberto Del Rio and Dolph Ziggler, only gain 59,000 viewers.

Wrestling Observer editor Dave Meltzer analyzes: "That's almost impossible given people tune in to see the following show, which basically meant wrestling fans must have been tuning out in droves (they were during the first half of the match but then started gaining at 11 p.m., but hardly gained anything)."

The main event garnered a 2.67 cable rating (2.55 for the first half of the bout), which Meltzer says is by far, the lowest-rated main event on Raw in 2011 and possibly the lowest since 1997 for a non-holiday show in its regular time slot.

sources: F4WOnline.com

[BlowUpYourVideo]

Well, he said he'd bring change...

[D]

WWE blew it.

they had the crowd interested and the angle was smoking.. then they have CM HELP HHH??

GTFO

completely ruined his momentum.. then tried to grab it back by finally putting strap on him. when a guy is HOT, u gotta let him run with the ball.. U can't **** him over for a couple months.. have people lose interest THEN try to.

[Hammy]

So now it's Zach Ryder's fault?  He is waaaay to over, I'm calling BS!

Dave Meltzer stated on the Dec 27 edition of Wrestling Observer Radio that Zack Ryder being placed in a romance storyline with Eve Torres and away from the main event scene stems from the staggeringly low quarter hour rating for last week's Raw SuperShow main event, which saw Long Island Iced-Z, CM Punk and Daniel Bryan stand tall against The Miz, Alberto Del Rio and Dolph Ziggler.

The main event garnered a 2.67 cable rating (2.55 for the first half of the bout), which was the lowest-rated main event on Raw in 2011 and possibly the lowest since Dec 8, 1997 for a non-holiday show in its regular time slot. The overrun gained 59,000 viewers, which is considered terrible.

I'd argue the rating was so low because, it was a flipping 6 Man Tag.  Nothing on the line.  Just some regular match, I had little interest in it and I really like Punk, Ryder and Ziggler.  The booking of it was wrong, not the people who were involved.  (Well Miz and Del Rio do send me to sleep these days but still....)

[D]

Agree

6 man tags are horrible.

[Yankee1012]

I don't blame it on Punk. I blame on WWE's lack of intelligence when pushing stars. Punk is doing fine, but WWE doesn't push him enough.

[D]

Agree completely Yank. Its like they are scared to trust their product with someone who doesn't look like the prototypical wrestler.

[BlowUpYourVideo]

I think Punk appeals to a certain niche of wrestling fans. Obviously he does get huge pops but still, some of the things he says about the wrestling business do probably go over a lot of the more casual fans' heads.

And let's be honest, on occasion he can come across as a bit smarmy and cocky. Telling people that you say whatever you want isn't that cool IMO....

As a side note, did anyone else notice that when he, Bryan and Ryder made their entrances through the crowd for the 6 Man Tag, the other two were slapping hands with the fans etc., while Punk didn't and just held his belt up? It likely means bugger all, but I couldn't help but notice...

[AtariLegend]

He was booked in a feud against HHH, who was made to look better, more important than him and jobbed out to him.

The chance for the casuals who make up most of the demo. that sit in the areas, not the "IWC" were lost after that. The MITB train already passed for them, he shouldn't came out back after 8 days completely demeaning his char. and shouldn't been jobbed out to HHH.

That's the diff. between pops and Stone Cold/The Rock pops.