Jay's Ways - Raw Legends Night A Ratings Success Submitted by Justin Watry on 01/06/2021 at 12:57 PM
WWE Raw Legends Night was a success.
The ratings/viewership are in, and the promotional ploy worked. Before getting to the numbers, let's be real: WWE and USA Network have been in need of a nice boost. While I think the product has been somewhat decent, Smackdown over on FOX has been stomping them into the ground for months now. Quality wise and ratings wise. Don't forget USA Network paid a BILLION DOLLARS for Raw just as Fox paid a BILLION DOLLARS for Smackdown. They want ratings, make no mistake about that fact folks.
Hence the Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, IRS, Torrie Wilson, Sgt. Slaughter, and others being hyped in commercials for the January 4th edition of Raw...
The first hour drew over 2.1 million viewers. The second hour drew over 2.1 million. The third hour drew just under 2.1 million viewers. Plus, the main demos that everybody loves to talk about placed them right at the top of the charts for Monday night. That is a huge bump from recent weeks, nearly 400,000 viewers up, and the numbers are the best WWE has seen since March 16th, 2020. That is when Raw advertised "Austin 3:16 Day" with Stone Cold Steve Austin appearing in the empty Performance Center. A lousy atmosphere for the usual rambunctious Stone Cold. Still, Edge, the Undertaker, and Austin were enough to give WWE RAW a viewership increase.
Fast forward nearly ten months, and it is legends that do it again. Hulk Hogan was advertised. Ric Flair popped up. Teddy Long was advertised. Mickie James and Melina were going to be there. Jeff freakin' Jarrett was on. Heck, Big Show and Mark Henry were there. Everybody under the sun showed up in some form or fashion two days ago on RAW. We even got a shocking return at the end of the show from BILL GOLDBERG! He was not hyped up, so it was a surprise to say the least.
Fair or unfair, this is why WWE likes to trot out the "big names" every once in awhile and gain some mainstream media buzz right around WrestleMania season. It proves to be true time and time again. If only the other 11 months out of the year could be spent on building up our future legends and stars - then we would be all set for 2021 and beyond!
All in all though, I actually enjoyed most of the episode. Yeah, we had the legendary names. Guess what else we had? Elias and AJ Styles delivered a decent bout. Jeff Hardy vs. Randy Orton was pretty good; those two always had perfect chemistry inside the squared circle. Then there was a WWE Championship bout featuring 'The Stud' Drew McIntyre retaining over Keith Lee in the main event. Kudos to WWE on the Raw viewership. Now they have to keep it. We're nearing the Royal Rumble and the road to WrestleMania...buckle up...
