7/9 RAW Ratings Breakdown: AJ's Wedding Angle Draws?, Backlund's Return And More
As noted before, the July 9th WWE RAW Supershow scored a 3.17 cable rating with 4.42 million viewers.
In the segment breakdown, the opener with AJ Lee, CM Punk and Daniel Bryan with Sheamus vs. Jack Swagger lost 74,000 viewers. Christian and Tyson Kidd vs. Tensai and Dolph Ziggler plus the Michael Cole vs. Jerry Lawler angle lost 416,000 viewers. Brodus Clay vs. Drew McIntyre plus the Stephanie McMahon video promoting the 1,000th RAW gained 102,000 viewers.
Kane and John Cena vs. Chris Jericho and Big Show gained 66,000 viewers, a low gain for that time period in the show. The match did about a gain of 280,000 at 10pm, which is lower than usual, but then lost those viewers when the match went longer and through a second commercial break.
Sin Cara vs. Heath Slater and the return of Bob Backlund lost 21,000 viewers. Lawler vs. Cole and the reveal of Hornswoggle as the Anonymous General Manager lost another 21,000 viewers.
It appears AJ's tease from earlier that she would be leaving with her future husband did the trick as far as the rating goes. The overrun following AJ and Punk vs. Daniel Bryan and Eve Torres gained 711,000 viewers – which is normal but it should be noted that this was done without John Cena in the segment and with CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, who have never moved ratings big.
There was a huge increase in Male Teens watching the overrun that wasn't there for the rest of the show. Male Teens hovered between a 2.7 and 3.2 rating for the entire show but jumped up to a 4.4 rating for the overrun.
It appears it's the wedding gimmick that helped ratings since AJ, Punk nor Bryan made ratings jump in the Male Teens demographic during their opening interview segment or during any other week in this storyline.
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
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