Backstage News For RAW, Big Changes, Kimbo & More News
? As reported earlier, last week's episode of Monday Night Raw drew a 3.61 cable rating with 5.40 million viewers overall. Here is a rundown of the rating: The Intercontinental Championship match between Kofi Kingston and William Regal lost 464,000 viewers while Maryse's WWE Divas title defense against Kelly Kelly gained 75,000 viewers. Following the Divas match, the Santino Marella, Goldust and Festus vs. Chavo Guerrero, The Brian Kendrick and Jamie Noble match would lose 45,000 viewers. Successfully, The Miz's promo and non-match with John Cena due to Big Show coming out gained 748,000 viewers. At 10:15 p.m., the MVP vs. Matt Hardy match lost 75,000 viewers, which actually is not bad coming off a huge growth segment. At a time slot that is usually a ratings loser, Vickie Guerrero announcing her resignation as the General Manager of Raw and Edge coming out to belittle her gained 239,000 viewers. The segment drew a 3.86, which was the highest full quarter rating for the show. The Carlito and Primo vs. Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes tag match following it lost 209,000 viewers. The final segment with Randy Orton getting a title shot against Batista and Triple H returning gained 1,122,000 viewers to draw a 4.47 overrun. Although, the segment went on so long that they attracted a number of viewers expecting to see the program following Raw. (source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)
? WWE has changed the production of Monday Night Raw a bit in recent weeks. Instead of running commercials directly following a backstage segment, they've been cutting to commercial after one wrestler enters the ring and coming back when the second person comes outs. This is said to be practice for the commercial -free Raw next week.
? For the month of April WWE shipped 162,000 DVD units with the top two best selling DVDs so far this year being "Starrcade: The Essential Collection" shipping 107,000 units and "Best of the Saturday Night's Main Event" shipping 106,000 units. The latest "WrestleMania 25" DVD release is expected to do very well as every WrestleMania DVD seems to do.
? FightLine.com has an article with quotes from Bas Rutten about his former protege Kimbo Slice appearing on next season of The Ultimate Fighter. While Rutten admitted earlier in the week that he had called Kimbo an a**hole, he said he admired him for taking the risk of going on the show. For his full comments, including his comments from earlier in the week where he ripped Kimbo, check out FightLine.com by clicking here.