I am one who did not watch the July 4 RAW (mostly b/c I read the spoilers and knew CM Punk was not going to be on); but I made sure to watch this week. I plan on buying this PPV; the first non-Royal Rumble I order since 2001.
A lot of people think CM Punk will win the title this Sunday and then lose to whoever cashes in the briefcase. Another scenario I think could happen is Vinnie Mac helping Cena keep the title to avoid the "embarrassment" and it also turns Cena heel. Though I think Punk winning and losing is more likely.

off topic, but it involves punk. theres another shoot promo that im wondering if you have seen. its from the australia tour, and punk praises cena saying that he respects cena for coming in and sacrificing his body every week for the fans(unlike the rock he notes). and he ends it shaking cenas hand in the ring. its a feeling that im surprised more dont share. most people say only kids can like cena but im an adult male and i dont know how u cant respect his dedication and work ethic.

Kevin, while 2.9 is not a good number, the most hyped episodes of RAW (WWE Draft, Rock's Birthday Party, All-Star Night hosted by Stone Cold) all did in the mid 3's. So a 2.9 knowing that Punk is going to get jobbed out to "Super Cena" isn't all that bad. Unless Vince has the stones to pull a major swerve and has Cena lose the belt, what's the motivation to get behind this angle besides Punk's mike work? While I enjoyed his time on the mike last Monday; you could tell it wasn't as spontaneous and actually felt forced at times. At first I was interested in watching their match, but now, with Vince always wanting to send the crowd home happy, I don't see the point.

Don't worry about it. Those of us with a brain understood what you were getting at. Those without a brain can be safely ignored.

According to the ratings breakdown that I saw the CM Punk segments were the highest rated segments of Raw on Monday, finishing with 3.4 for his 'negotiation' with Vince. The average may have dragged it down but it still seems he punched above his weight.

This whole thing about Cena putting his body on the line week after week? ITS HIS JOB. There's a whole roster doing that every week! And secondly, The Rock performed in a MUCH harder era than Cena is. 10 years ago we had Rock, Austin, HHH etc. Now all Cena has to face is Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger?

As I said in the other thread, the real question isn't how the rating itself compares to last year, it's how much of a drop the rating experiences when it goes against the HRD. Ratings in general could be lower this year (and I think they are?)

On the whole WWE should be more concerned about the product they're putting forth. Those inside the company should realize one part of WCW's downfall was a constant monitoring of the ratings and sacrificing sure-fire money-making PPV matches on Nitro to pop a rating.

True, the analogy doesn't entirely lineup because there's no competition these days, but WWE should embrace this opportunity. While ratings are important within the TV industry, the company needs to get back to what makes it unique in the first place.

WWE has the chance to give wrestling fans what they want, and for some reason it simply refuses to do that and has for a long time. The ratings these days are not necessarily a reflection of how good certain segments are, but of how disinterested the fanbase is overall of years of silly angles.

It bears mentioning the overrun got a 3.5.

" I’m a CM Punk mark. I proudly wear my Punk t-shirt, and his entrance music is my ring tone for God’s sake."

Kev, I'm surprised. I figured you would have HBK's entrance music as your ringtone. Et tu Kevin?

RESPONSE FROM KE: I used to have DX but I switched to Punk when I got a new phone.

As pointed out by "savemejebus", (which is incidentally a cool screen name), I looked up the breakdown as well, and there are indeed sources listing an ending 3.4 for Punk's final segment, with 2.9 being the average.
Again, I think that not only can't we judge an angle of this magnitude based on one week's worth of ratings, whether it is the current paradigm to do so or not---but it may be more reasonable to associate the low ratings with the quality of RAW and WWE in general lately, than with anything to do with Punk. I think a lot of people are DVRing and using Youtube to watch just him. Which makes sense, as Punk's already infamous moment involved attacking the poor quality of WWE in recent years. This worked so well for a REASON.
The two factors I still see being primary to this are 1.)---will WWE use this as a fifteen-minute attention getter, or will this be a catalyst for change? If it is the latter, in the long term, viewers will come back, despite the accessibility of free internet sites, etc. Most people still DO have cable, and they will tune in to the show if they are engaged by the WHOLE thing, not just the one current bright spot of Punk. That bright spot should be rightly used to begin the process of overall change, the prospect of which is why everyone was so excited in the first place.
2.)---People have to be willing to support good wrestling. I have had a lot of problems in my life with Vince and WWE. But, as a wrestling fan, I will stand behind whatever and whoever I feel is providing good wrestling, which should be the focus. There is much criticism in 2011 to be made concerning BOTH companies. One cannot fall into the trap of criticizing for criticism's sake, and one should not throw their weight and opinion behind any one company as if it is a game show where we pick sides. It's not. Wrestling is the point, and not favoring any other concern over that is what is important.
This is a great angle, and the freshest thing in years. If it proves that it is going forward, people have to get off their cynical asses, and tune in. If you like where Punk is going--then buy a shirt. Buy a PPV, (yes, I of all people, am considering MITB)----the "hardcore" has as much purchasing and rating power as the "casual". If you don't like something, stop watching and buying---if you DO, then make sure that you DO start watching, (legally), and buying. AS I've stated--the average RAW ratings ARE the casual and under fourteen audience. The slip from ten years ago to now is us, and if you want good wrestling and want to promote the factors that support it, then like any other aspect of democracy, you have to get out there when it is appropriate and make that support felt, just as pulling out and making your lack of support felt is important when you DON'T like what's going on.

and @ Mr. Eck----As a reader, I'd rather not have you worrying about what people will call you for writing or saying certain things. F##k 'em, which includes me too. The interesting thing to the way you run the comment boards is that people are free to say what they want. A lot of the time, I think you're right about a lot of things. Sometimes I don't, but I can always find a commenter who posits a perception that I agree more with, or I will posite one myself. Who cares if they call you an apologist---and I know I have before, so flip me off too----Just write what you think is right---those that disagree with you civilly make for good reading all around---those that are more vehement are going to be d***heads no matter what you write.

I watched the opening and ending segment of RAW. I flipped back and forth to the Home Run Derby in between. And at one point went to the home office to mess around on the computer there (leaving the TV on the HRD for my gf). Yes, she's a bigger mark for baseball than wrestling. So I can see the low average rating. The middle of the show was very blah from what I saw of it. It didn't hold my interest.

The low ratings are due to WWE's declining overall package.

Just in recent memory -

Bautista, Shawn Michaels,Triple H, The Undertaker, Chris Jericho, The Hardy's, MVP,Edge, and Mr Kennedy have been replaced by -

Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel, Eziekiel Jackson, Mason Ryan, Daniel Bryan, Sheamus, Sin Cara and Cody Rhodes.

Granted there is enough talent in this new group and on the rest of the roster to make things work and get incredible ratings.

But this is the WWE.

CM punk and Christian are getting thrown crumbs.

The Miz, Sheamus, Wade Barrett, have all been built up and dropped.

Alberto Del Rio has taken over Rick Martel's spot.

Bryan Danielson is completely misused.
WWE owns all the rights to World Class Championship Wrestling.
Spend some time in the film room - check out the Von Erichs - and then write your show. Bryan Danielson is a spot on Von Erich.

The second greatest ring announcer behind Gordon Solie is Joey Styles.
And WWE has him working the IP Addresses.

When the WWE goes the way of all the greats who came before it. Like all the greats who came before it.

It will be your job Kevin, to write the last article about wrestling, properly titled
"How the Cliq, destroyed wrestling"

Kevin Nash in WCW.
Triple H in WWE.
Scott Hall and Sean Waltman in the Independents.
And just to make sure Shawn Michaels is included also , I know he spent some time in Japan as a Special Guest Referee, so we can nail the fall of FMW on to him. If only he had spent more time over there, what could have been ???

All in all, with apologies to the Cliq.
The last time I checked, Linda Mcmahon wanted to be a Senator or a Governor.
And it's not like anyone told her "NO".
She spent 50 million on her campaign.
And then lost.

Between spending 50 million and having nothing to show for it, and then trying to recoup the 50 million that she lost.

John Cena and Randy Orton can't plow the WWE cash field's faster enough.

And like your article says Kevin.

Neither can CM Punk.

While I did not comment on your original post on this subject, I think I understand why some were freaking out about it. Many of us were so happily suprised by Punk's initial salvo, we thought everyone would feel the same way, it would be ratings & PPV gold, there would be huge ratings for his reinstatement, & Vince would see the error of his ways in taking the product to the bland, boring island of "Family Friendly". So, when the ratings come in like they do & you simply blog on what you see, we decide to kill the messenger because we don't want to hear it. We know the ratings still mean something & if allowing this angle to keep going this way doesn't equal ratings, & may not equal increased PPV buys, Vince will abandon it & take things back to where they were. That will hurt worse than if it never happened because we're so sure that this is the right thing to do. So, bottom line Kev, stop telling us the truth!!!

It really is mind boggling that people still can't see the point you're trying to make with this...lol

I honestly don't know what some fans want out of a main event angle in WWE if people are still willing to take to the 'net and pick apart this angle.

Everyone wanted an edgier feel to the product...they delivered with this one.

They wanted great workers like Punk & Christian to be involved in the main event angles...delivered.

They wanted genuine ANGLES and believable build ups to big matches...is that not what this is?

I'm way more pumped up about seeing how this all plays out at MITB than I was for an match/angle/Duane promo at WM this year...isn't this what most people have been craving? Or am I missing something?

John Cena wrestles stiff. His dropkicks are horrible. He has no flexibility. The Rock will Layeth the Smacketh down on his phoney ass! John Cena's promos are lame. I can see through the bull Cena brings. Wrestling is finally good again. All we need is a good Nexus. eliminate Otunga and Mcgill and put a legitimate tag team in Nexus. Bring back Wade Barret, Punk. Wade, Cm Punk, Mason Ryan, and now add Sin Cara. Would be a better NWO and merchandise will sell like crazy!

They just need to find the balance between family-friendly and Attitude Era, which is what wrestling was in the 1980s.

Leave out the overt sexuality and bring back the blood.

I was a little kid when I watched the Greg Valentine/Roddy Piper dog collar match. That was a bloodbath, but not even the bloodiest of matches I saw.

I wasn't scared or scarred.

Cut these guys loose a little bit and let 'em bleed.

The only number that matters is the 18-49 Nielsen rating. Overall numbers don't really matter to the the television industry. I don't know what that is for this particular RAW, but my guess is that it is about the same as every week.

I got what you meant the first time. Personally, I skipped about 90% of Raw this week cuz I could care less about what was going on. Mark Henry vs Big Show is a dumb idea. Big guy vs a guy who can't move. Not exciting. The women's division is pointless and I can't remember who's champ half the time.
But Cena vs Miz delivers (although I can't stand Cena). Throw in McMahon and it's awesome.
The way I see it, the ratings would be a lot lower without Punk. He's the best thing going.

I don't have much to say on this article as I completely know what you were aiming for on your last profile and didn't get mad or angry about it.

My question is for you Kev. If CM Punk does stay with WWE what do you think his standing with the WWE universe is? I mean, is he a heel, tweener or will they try to make CM Punk into a face. From the crowds reaction lately I'd say tweener, but was wondering your take on it.

The buy rate for this PPV is what determines Punk's ability to draw. The ratings on 1 episode of Raw doesn't mean a whole lot and could have been off for 37 different reasons.