I had been curious for a while about what the highest rated episodes of Raw were but I would always forget to check up on it...until now!

Here is a valuable link www.sportskeeda.com/wwe/top-10-highest-rated-episodes-in-raw-history

But it's one of those deals where you have to click the arrow to go to the next page. So for the benefit of lazy people....

Highest Rated Raw Episodes

1. 5/10/99- 8.1!
This show ran unopposed. No Nitro that night. Main Event was Austin/Rock/Vince vs. HHH/Undertaker/Shane.

2. 5/1/00- 7.4
I was at this show! Had no idea it was the highest rated head to head Raw episode in history. It was very....unmemorable  :lol:  Took place the night after Backlash where Austin returned to help Rock beat HHH. Main Event was Rock vs. Shane in a cage match. Benoit beat Tazzzzz with a PerfectPlex  :@  and I think Too Cool wrestled either the Hardys or Edge & Christian. Really not deserving of being the 2nd highest rated Raw of all time.

3. 5/24/99- 7.15
Raw Is Owen.

4. 7/26/99- 7.1
Night after Fully Loaded where Austin beat Taker thereby forcing Vince to leave the company "forever" :rofl: Vince's "last night" seems to be the big draw here.

5. 5/22/00- 7.1
Undertaker returned the previous night at Judgment Day. This was his big Raw return.

6. 4/24/00- 7.1
Go home show to Backlash. Main event was Jericho & Rock vs. HHH & Benoit. Maybe Austin was on this show...or expected to be?

7. 7/24/00- 6.9
Night after Fully Loaded. Main event was Rock & Kane vs. Benoit & Angle.

8. 9/27/99- 6.8
This Is Your Life. Expected it to be higher given all the hype it gets.

9. 6/28/99- 6.8
Night after King of the Ring. Austin beats Taker for the WWF Championship. Another one I expected to be even higher.

10. 6/7/99- 6.65
Higher Power reveal.

*More 2000 shows than I was expecting. Including some....weird ones. I figured it would 8-10 from '99 and 0-2 from 2000.

*So this started as a Raw only project but then I got curious about Smackdown and Nitro. So....

Highest Rated Smackdown Episodes

www.sportskeeda.com/wwe/top-10-highest-rated-episodes-in-smackdown-history

1. 4/27/00- 5.4
Go home show to Backlash. Austin destroys the DX bus.

2. 1/27/00- 5.4
A few days after Royal Rumble. Show ends with heels HHH and the Big Show standing tall.

3. 5/4/00- 5.3
Main Event- Rock & Earl Hebner vs. HHH/Road Dogg/X-Pac. Ah, yes. I had forgotten about that brief period where Earl Hebner was basically the #2 babyface in the company. Also didn't remember X-Pac & Road Dogg being relevant this late into 2000.

4. 3/30/00- 5.3
Go home show to Wrestlemania. Steph beats Jacqueline to become the Women's Champ.

5. 2/10/00- 5.2
Kane Tombstones Tori a few days after making his triumphant return.

6. 4/20/00- 5.2
Rock fights a bunch of heels.

7. 11/11/99- 5.1
I was at this one too! Arnold Schwarzenegger shows up. Engages in fisticuffs with HHH. It was unmemorable aside from that....and tbh even that was pretty forgettable.

8. 5/11/00- 5.0
HHH challenges Rock to an Ironman Match at Judgment Day.

9. 1/20/00- 5.0
Go home show to Royal Rumble. HHH & Cactus brawl.

10. 1/13/00- 5.0
The return of Cactus Jack!

*Smackdown has been around for almost 20 years now yet every single one of these takes place within a 6 month span in 99-2000. In the immortal words of the great Jerry Reed, when you're hot you're hot. When you're not you're not.

Highest Rated Nitro Episodes

*Nobody did the research for me this time. I only used one source with the occasional double check. Hopefully they're accurate.

1. 8/31/98- 6.0
Ran unopposed. Raw aired on Saturday that week. Main Event was Hogan & Bret vs. Sting & Luger.

2. 2/8/99- 5.7
Ran unopposed again. Main event was Flair & MONGO vs. Outsiders. MONGO=Ratings. But you already knew that. What I didn't know (or at least didn't remember) was MONGO sticking around this long. I thought he finished up at some point in '98.

3. 3/16/98- 5.6
Unopposed yet again. Raw aired on Tuesday that week. This was a Spring Break episode. Main Event was Sting & Luger vs. Hogan & Savage.

4. 9/7/98- 5.5
Same old story. Raw aired on Saturday this time. Main event was DDP & Piper vs. Sting & Luger. Looks like Sting & Lex were still ratings gold.

5. 8/24/98- 5.2
Highest rated head to head episode. Big draw here was Warrior. He had debuted the previous week. Now he was going to make his intentions known. Main Event was Hogan & Giant vs. Nash & Goldberg.

6. 4/20/98- 5.1
Night after Spring Stampede. Hogan beat Savage for the WCW Title one day after Mach dethroned Sting. Goldberg also won the US Title from Raven on this memorable edition of Nitro.

6. 10/26/98- 5.1
Night after Halloween Havoc. WCW (in)famously re-aired Goldberg vs. DDP from Havoc. Main Event was Bret vs. DDP for the US Title. This marked the last time Nitro would ever beat Raw in a head to head matchup.

6. 2/16/98- 5.1
Unopposed. Raw aired on Tuesday this week (and I can tell you what happened off the top of my head if you really want to know!). Main event was Sting & Luger (again!) vs. Hogan & Savage.

9. 8/25/97- 5.0
The earliest Raw or Nitro to appear on either list. Curt Hennig joined the Horsemen. Main Event was Savage vs. Lex.

10. Multiple- 4.9

*Looks like '98 was clearly WCW's hottest year. I expected more 1997 shows while an appearance by a 1999 episode caught me by surprise, unopposed or not.

That was fun. Maybe tomorrow I'll see if I can find decent info on SNME/The Main Event ratings. Or perhaps I'll research the lowest rated episodes in Raw & Nitro history.

That Spring Break '98 episode of Nitro was also notable for drunk Hall and Nash being tossed into the swimming pool by The Giant and Sting's 'copter repel.

Oooo... Do lowest ratings next!

Also, segments would be cool too. I've always felt like This Is Your Life has been so overblown. There HAVE to be equally big if not bigger segments in wrestling history.

Apr 5, 2018 23:32:08 GMT 🤯 said:

Oooo... Do lowest ratings next!

Already taken care of. The research is done. It's just a matter of writing it out. But I still have to do my write up for UT 's thingie. Think I'm the only person who hasn't turned in my card yet. So lowest ratings (of the Monday Night War only. Records are shoddy pre-MNW and I don't have the time to comb through 17 years of post-MNW ratings) will probably be up tomorrow.

One of my many aborted projects was checking out quarter breakdowns to see who were the true movers of the Monday Night Wars. I remember that unopposed 8.1 Raw annoyed the shit out of me because it wrecked the quarter rating records.. Almost all of the best quarters are from that show alone, so you have matches like The Stooges vs. The Mean Street Posse making them look like the biggest ratings gods of all time.

*This covers the MNW only- 9/4/95 to 3/26/01. Info on pre-1995 Raw ratings is hard to find and I just don't care enough to comb through 17 years of post-MNW Raw ratings data.

Lowest Rated Episodes of Raw

1. 12/23/96- 1.5
Undercard: Helmsley vs. Mero- IC Title Match, Sincere vs. Rocky, Pierroth & Cibernetico vs. New Rockers
Main Event: Bret vs. Fake Razor 
Verdict: Bad show on paper with only the HHH/Mero IC Title blowoff being vaguely appealing.

2. 12/30/96- 1.6
Undercard: Austin & Faarooq vs. Jesse Jammes & Savio, Helmsley vs. Flash Funk, Bret vs. Shawn Interview
Main Event: Goldust vs. Lawler
Verdict: Pretty lousy show on paper but you'd think the Bret/Shawn interview might have drawn a few eyeballs.

3. 10/14/96- 1.8
Undercard: Vader vs. Phineas, Lawler vs. Jake, Helmsley vs. Freddie Joe Floyd, Faarooq vs. The Pug
Main Event: Michaels vs. Austin(!)
Verdict: AWFUL undercard. Good main event.

4. 9/25/95- 1.9
Undercard: Jannetty (return match) vs. Skip, Gunns vs. Owen & Yoko- Tag Title Match
Main Event: Undertaker vs. Bulldog
Verdict: Not bad. In fact, I kind of want to watch this show right now 

4. 3/3/97- 1.9
Undercard: Bret vs. Helmsley, Rocky vs. Vader- IC Title Match, Sid vs. Mankind- WWF Championship Match
Main Event: Owen vs. Bulldog- European Title Match
Verdict: Umm....wrestling fans suck. This show is stacked. Main event is one of the best matches in Raw history. 

6. 8/12/96- 2.0
Undercard: Faarooq vs. Skip, Savio vs. Crush, Godwinns vs. TL Hopper & Who
Main Event: Michaels vs. Owen
Verdict: Another one with a god awful undercard but good main event.

6. 9/23/96- 2.0
Undercard: Mero vs. Faarooq (IC Tournament Final), Owen & Bulldog vs. Bodydonnas, Stalker vs. Helmsley
Main Event: JR "shoots." Fake Razor(!) debuts.
Verdict: Mero/Faarooq was mildly important. Rest of the undercard is yucky. Guess nobody was buying the whole "Razor & Diesel are returning!" thing

6. 10/28/96- 2.0
Undercard: Jesse Jammes vs. Sincere, Crush vs. Aldo, Billy Gunn vs. FJ Floyd, Bret vs. Austin interview
Main Event: Michaels vs. Bulldog
Verdict: Another dire undercard. Bret/Austin segment & HBK/Bulldog look good on paper though.

9. 11/6/95- 2.1
Undercard: Bulldog vs. Marty, HOG vs. Terry Richards (young Rhino, perhaps?), Kama vs. Tony Roy
Main Event: Bret & Hakushi vs. Lawler & Yankem
Verdict: Jobber matches. Ugh. Luckily their days were numbered. Yankem's involvement means I can't even get behind the main event.

9. 7/29/96- 2.1
Undercard: Sid vs. Bradshaw, Mero vs. Vader, Cornette vs. Lothario interview, Bulldog vs. HOG
Main Event: Austin vs. Undertaker(!)
Verdict- Slightly subpar undercard. Interesting how that very same main event would draw huge less than 3 years later.

9. 9/16/96- 2.1
Undercard: Jake vs. Sultan, Gunns vs. Holly & Pug, Vader assaults a jobber, Owen vs. Mero (IC Tournament Match)
Main Event: Sid vs. Faarooq (IC Tournament Match)
Verdict- Blah show from beginning to end aside from maybe Owen/Mero.

9. 10/7/96- 2.1
Undercard: Mero vs. Fake Diesel, Gunns vs. New Rockers, "Real Double J" interview, Sultan vs. Aldo
Main Event: Sid vs. Goldust
Verdict: Bad show from top to bottom.

9. 11/25/96- 2.1
Undercard: Bret vs. Owen(!), Executioner vs. FJ Floyd, Rocky vs. Sincere
Main Event: Marc Mero vs. Billy Gunn
Verdict: A Bret/Owen match I forgot about/never knew existed prevents this from being the undisputed worst show to appear on this list.

9. 1/6/97- 2.1
Undercard: Owen vs. Mankind, Furnas & LaFon vs. Fake Razor & Fake Diesel, Sid/Bret/Shawn drama
Main Event: Bret vs. Vader/Sid powerbombs Jose Lothario's son
Verdict: Owen vs. Mankind is appealing. This show looks much less bad than a lot of the other ones to appear on this list.

Final Thoughts

14 shows made the list. 11 of them took place between the last week of July '96 and the first week of January '97. That was definitely WWF's low point during the MNW. Most, if not all, of these shows had only one appealing match. Lots of dreadful undercard stuff during this period. The two best shows (on paper) are two of the outliers- 9/25/95 & 3/3/97. 

*I'll do Nitro before I go to sleep tonight. Probably won't be as in depth though.

Apr 5, 2018 23:53:26 GMT Baker said:

Apr 5, 2018 23:32:08 GMT 🤯 said:

Oooo... Do lowest ratings next!

Already taken care of. The research is done. It's just a matter of writing it out. But I still have to do my write up for UT 's thingie. Think I'm the only person who hasn't turned in my card yet. So lowest ratings (of the Monday Night War only. Records are shoddy pre-MNW and I don't have the time to comb through 17 years of post-MNW ratings) will probably be up tomorrow.

Yeah, fuck everything else. Don't worry about it. Ratings only ever mattered during the MNW anyway.

Apr 6, 2018 1:11:40 GMT Kilgore said:

One of my many aborted projects was checking out quarter breakdowns to see who were the true movers of the Monday Night Wars. I remember that unopposed 8.1 Raw annoyed the shit out of me because it wrecked the quarter rating records.. Almost all of the best quarters are from that show alone, so you have matches like The Stooges vs. The Mean Street Posse making them look like the biggest ratings gods of all time.

There's gotta be a way to prune out outliers to get at some real stats, but never besmirch the name of the Stooges again. Or the Posse. But especially the Stooges.

Lowest Rated Episodes of Nitro

* 4/27/98- 1.7
Not really fair to include this one as it was a special one hour episode of Nitro that aired after midnight due to the NBA Playoffs.
Undercard- Jericho vs. Chavo- Cruiserweight Title Match, NWO drama
Main Event: Goldberg vs. Scott Norton- US Title Match

1. 12/11/00- 1.7
Main Event- Scott Steiner vs. A-Wall- WCW Championship Match

2. 4/3/00- 1.8
This was a special episode chronicling Nitro's history while the new regime of Bischoff & Russo plotted a big angle for the following week.

3. 5/6/96- 1.9
Undercard- Savage vs. Hugh Morrus, Malenko vs. Liger, Sting vs. Regal
Main Event- Giant vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan- WCW Championship Match

4. 11/13/95- 2.0
Undercard- Hulk Hogan acts weird, Savage vs. Meng, Benoit vs. Sasaki, Badd vs. Eddie- TV Title Match
Main Event- Sting vs. Malenko

4. 2/19/01- 2.0
Main Event- DDP vs. Kanyon

6. Seven times in 2001- 2.1
Including 5 out of 6 consecutive weeks. The one week they didn't score a 2.1 during that stretch they bottomed out with a 2.0. Yikes.

Final Thoughts

Going through this makes it easier to understand why that jerk Jamie Kellner decided he no longer wanted WCW on TBS. WCW had bottomed out in 2001 with 8 of the 12 lowest rated episodes in Nitro history taking place over an 11 week span in early 2001. Only the WCW diehards were left.

I have a theory that explains a lot of the anomalies here and it's one that I believe in firmly, the entire Nielson ratings system is a total crock of bullshit. I've never in my life known ANYONE who had a Nielson box hooked up to their TV, I've never known anyone who has known anyone who has had one of those things. So these numbers are in no way at all reflecting what people in my hoods were watching through the Monday Night Wars. I think the numbers are way too low for 1997-1998 Raw and way more people were watching than what those numbers show. And I think they may be a little low for late 95 into 96. Maybe Mcmahon didn't have the connections that Turner did to pay the right people off to get those numbers? The whole Nielson ratings system also totally seems like something that could be easily rigged with the right money/connections.  



I can't even begin to tell you how many folks around here I talked to last football season that said they were boycotting the NFL because of all the kneeling for the national anthem, as if them not watching actually had some type of impact on the ratings or something. It's like man I hate to break the news to you but nobody knows what the fuck you are watching on your TV unless you have a Nielson box hooked up to it. 

Apr 7, 2018 13:43:50 GMT shinobimusashi said:

I have a theory that explains a lot of the anomalies here and it's one that I believe in firmly, the entire Nielson ratings system is a total crock of bullshit. I've never in my life known ANYONE who had a Nielson box hooked up to their TV, I've never known anyone who has known anyone who has had one of those things. So these numbers are in no way at all reflecting what people in my hoods were watching through the Monday Night Wars. I think the numbers are way too low for 1997-1998 Raw and way more people were watching than what those numbers show. And I think they may be a little low for late 95 into 96. Maybe Mcmahon didn't have the connections that Turner did to pay the right people off to get those numbers? The whole Nielson ratings system also totally seems like something that could be easily rigged with the right money/connections.  

I believed this 100% in 96-97. I was convinced the Turner people were somehow rigging the ratings in a vast conspiracy to destroy my beloved WWF.

And, yeah, I've always had a problem with the Nielsen system too. It seems extremely flawed.

After many years I finally did come across one person involved in the Nielsen program. My cousin, the one I went to a lot of wrestling shows with from 98-00, including 5 or 6 ECW Arena shows, got a Nielsen box* a few years ago. This would have been around 2011-12. He was randomly asked to participate by phone or mail (I forget which) and agreed to do it. No idea if he still is. I don't talk to him much anymore. 

*Actually, I don't think they did have a box. Iirc they were asked to record what they watched and send it in to the Nielsen people.

I was curious about the highest rated editions of TNA Impact and ECW on TNN. So....

TIL there was a second Monday Night War. Well, more like Monday Night Skirmish between WWE and TNA in early 2010. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TNA_Impact!%27s_move_to_Monday_nights

And it was during the very first episode of the MNS where TNA Impact set their ratings record with a.... 

1.5- 1/4/10- This rare live edition of Impact featured the debut of Hulk Hogan, the return of Jeff Hardy, and an AJ/Angle main event for the TNA Championship. The Outsiders, X Pac, Nasty Boys, Bischoff, Foley and Flair were also on this show. No idea whether they were TNA regulars or debuting/returning here.

Another Impact episode worth noting is...

10/20/11- 1.35- Highest rated Thursday night episode, which was the usual night for TNA Impact. So I'd imagine this is the 2nd highest rated episode in the history of the promotion. It was the post-Bound For Glory episode. Main Event saw James Storm beat Kurt Angle for the TNA Championship while the Hogan/Sting (in 2011!) and Jarrett/Jeff Hardy feuds seemed to take up a lot of the tv time.


ECW On TNN

1.3- 3/3/00- Main Event saw the odd duo of Masato Tanaka & Tommy Dreamer defeat the Impact Players for the ECW Tag Titles. Rest of the episode featured Tajiri vs. Crazy vs. Guido for the 968th time and Awesome vs. Spike #200 for the ECW Championship. Not really sure why this episode ended up being the highest rated of ECW on TNN's one year plus run. Were the Impact Players secretly a draw? Blizzard on the East Coast keeping people indoors on a Friday night? My guess is the latter.

That 3/3/97 Raw show is infamous behind the scenes. For whatever reason, the WWF wanted to showcase how popular they were around the world so they taped a Raw in Germany. The problem was the show had the worst production values of any show during the Monday Night War and fans who normally cared about the WWF already knew what happened. They missed out on one of the all-time great Raw matches, but nobody gave a damn about the European Championship, one of the most useless championship belts in the history of Professional Wrestling.

It's because of that show, Russo gained more creative control.

As far as that 1/4 iMPACT show, it actually peaked at a 3.0 rating during the Hogan/Bischoff/Wolfpac/Sting segment but lost it's audience when Raw came on and gave us the Bret/HBK reunion. In hindsight, the show is remembered for the opening match which was a Steel Asylum Cage match between Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Consequences Creed (Xavier Woods), Jay Lethal, Kiyoshi, Suicide (Frankie Kazarian), Homicide & Amazing Red which ended in a DQ after 4 minutes. Not only was it a horrible finish, but then Homicide couldn't climb the top of the cage which took the wind out of Jeff Hardy's return to the company.

It's a shame, because the main event of AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle was a fantastic television match.

I came across this interesting little tidbit while going through old Observer excerpts....

"Although WrestleMania had a disappointing buy rate, Monday Night RAW is doing good ratings, with the recent edition on April 10 (1995) pulling a 3.7 rating, tying highest in the history of the show."

Main event was Bret/Kid/Holly vs. Owen/Yoko/Hakushi with Tatanka/Bomb opening. New Headshrinkers and Kama also won squashes. I remember the 6 man tag only because it was on some tape WWF put out back in the day. "Best of Raw" maybe?

Now I'm curious to find what episode they tied. As far as I can tell this was the co-highest rated episode of Raw until the unopposed 4/8/96 show scored a whopping 4.7 with a Michaels/Lawler main event, Vader/Yoko opener, Helmsley/Dumpster, and Bulldog/Ahmed arm wrestling contest.

Apr 18, 2018 5:24:24 GMT Baker said:

I came across this interesting little tidbit while going through old Observer excerpts....

"Although WrestleMania had a disappointing buy rate, Monday Night RAW is doing good ratings, with the recent edition on April 10 (1995) pulling a 3.7 rating, tying highest in the history of the show."

Main event was Bret/Kid/Holly vs. Owen/Yoko/Hakushi with Tatanka/Bomb opening. New Headshrinkers and Kama also won squashes. I remember the 6 man tag only because it was on some tape WWF put out back in the day. "Best of Raw" maybe?

Now I'm curious to find what episode they tied. As far as I can tell this was the co-highest rated episode of Raw until the unopposed 4/8/96 show scored a whopping 4.7 with a Michaels/Lawler main event, Vader/Yoko opener, Helmsley/Dumpster, and Bulldog/Ahmed arm wrestling contest.

My search got me to Google Books, and a book called The Raw Files 1994 by James Dixon. According to that the April 18, 1994 edition of Raw scored a 3.7.

Bret Hart defeated Kwang (w/ Harvey Wippleman) by submission (6:52)
Jeff Jarrett defeated P.J. Walker (4:00)
The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner) defeated Mike Khoury and Barry Hardy (5:13)
Earthquake defeated Mike Bell (3:55)
Irwin R. Schyster defeated Major Yates (3:24)

The weeks before and after got 3.3 and 3.2 ratings. I have no idea what the hell was going on April 18, 1994.

Apr 18, 2018 6:05:40 GMT Kilgore said:

Apr 18, 2018 5:24:24 GMT Baker said:

I came across this interesting little tidbit while going through old Observer excerpts....

"Although WrestleMania had a disappointing buy rate, Monday Night RAW is doing good ratings, with the recent edition on April 10 (1995) pulling a 3.7 rating, tying highest in the history of the show."

Main event was Bret/Kid/Holly vs. Owen/Yoko/Hakushi with Tatanka/Bomb opening. New Headshrinkers and Kama also won squashes. I remember the 6 man tag only because it was on some tape WWF put out back in the day. "Best of Raw" maybe?

Now I'm curious to find what episode they tied. As far as I can tell this was the co-highest rated episode of Raw until the unopposed 4/8/96 show scored a whopping 4.7 with a Michaels/Lawler main event, Vader/Yoko opener, Helmsley/Dumpster, and Bulldog/Ahmed arm wrestling contest.

My search got me to Google Books, and a book called The Raw Files 1994 by James Dixon. According to that the April 18, 1994 edition of Raw scored a 3.7.

Bret Hart defeated Kwang (w/ Harvey Wippleman) by submission (6:52)
Jeff Jarrett defeated P.J. Walker (4:00)
The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner) defeated Mike Khoury and Barry Hardy (5:13)
Earthquake defeated Mike Bell (3:55)
Irwin R. Schyster defeated Major Yates (3:24)

The weeks before and after got 3.3 and 3.2 ratings. I have no idea what the hell was going on April 18, 1994.

Yuck. That's a bad show on paper even by the standards of that era.

It's interesting that all 3 early Raw ratings record setters took place in April. That makes sense given that WrestleMania season is usually the hottest time of the year. The 1995 & 1996 shows both took place 8 days after 'Mania following hot Raw's the previous week.

'95 was the first true "Raw after Wrestlemania" as it's understood today. It had the big Sid/Shawn angle and Bertha Faye debuting after Blayze won her title back from Nakano in what is widely considered the peak of that particular Women's division experiment.

The '96 post-WM Raw had the in ring debuts of Mankind & Mero and the big Mankind/Taker angle to end the show.

So I can see why those two shows got high ratings. They both followed WrestleMania and a hot Raw. But '94 remains an outlier even if it did take place in April. For starters, WrestleMania was earlier that year so the 4/18 episode took place almost a full month after 'Mania. And the previous week's Raw was uneventful. Was Major Yates a draw? Kwang? I don't get it.

I would love to see which shows and PPVs have been streamed the most on the WWE Network. It would be a great indication of what is being watched, and the age of the subscribers.

I bet the NXT TakeOvers are among the most streamed PPV/Specials.

We have a new pre-MNW ratings champion. While doing research for my 1995 SuperCard MashUps I discovered the 4/24/95 episode scored a 3.9 rating on the strength of a Diesel vs. Bam Bam Bigelow WWF Championship Match. The Smoking Gunns, Bertha Faye and Aldo Montoya also won squashes. So WWF was actually on a mini-hot streak, at least ratings-wise, in the weeks following Wrestlemania 11.

Resurrecting this thread because I was looking into ECW on TNN ratings tonight which in turn sent me down a TNA ratings rabbit hole.

Here is the complete list of ECW on TNN ratings oswreview.com/history/ecw-on-tnn-tv-ratings/

First thought was they look suspiciously similar to peak TNA ratings. And that got me to thinking there was only a maximum of a 1.3 tv rating worth of people willing to give non-WWF (or WCW) wrestling a chance between 1999-2014. 

Turns out TNA actually drew more viewers than ECW for many years, though still far fewer than even dying day WCW Nitro. Have to admit I wasn't expecting TNA to beat ECW for so many years though. Here are the cold, hard numbers...

ECW on TNN averaged a 0.94 rating over the span of 59 episodes from August 1999-October 2000.

Here is the yearly average for TNA on Spike...

2004-2006: Incomplete data
2007: 1.06
2008: 1.05
2009: 1.14
2010: 1.06
2011: 1.17
2012: 1.02
2013: 1.00
2014: 0.95
2015-Present: Data incomplete/very low

And here is the source I used oswreview.com/history/history-of-impact-wrestling/ Website is a pain to navigate, but all the data is there. It just involves a lot of clicking.

Just for shits and giggles I wanted to see how AEW Dynamite compared to ECW & TNA, but surprisingly couldn't find a good source. Most sites list the total viewer and key demo(!) numbers rather than the more traditional ratings point. This is the best source I could find...
www.itnwwe.com/wrestling/aew-ratings-viewership/#2-see-also

One interesting tidbit I discovered is the most watched episode of AEW Dynamite is still the inaugural episode on 10/2/19 with a little over 1.4 million viewers. Their best since then is 9/8/21 with a shade over 1.3 million viewers. To put those numbers into perspective, the most watched episodes of AEW are roughly equivalent to TNA's 2013 weekly average (1.00 rating).

Oct 18, 2021 2:17:20 GMT Baker said:

ECW on TNN averaged a 0.94 rating over the span of 59 episodes from August 1999-October 2000.

Here is the yearly average for TNA on Spike...

2004-2006: Incomplete data
2007: 1.06
2008: 1.05
2009: 1.14
2010: 1.06
2011: 1.17
2012: 1.02
2013: 1.00
2014: 0.95
2015-Present: Data incomplete/very low

TNA on Spike just happens to coincide with the peak of cable ratings as a whole. If you look at the Top 20 most-viewed programs in cable history, it's almost all from 2009-2015. Just before chord cutting, cable had its highest share of households ever, so I imagine 1.17 in 2011 is lower share than .94 in 1999, TNA simply benefitting from way more people having cable. 

Although TNA beating ECW outright doesn't seem crazy, having much bigger names than ECW had in 1999. 

Either way, TNA's ratings basically exist in the juiced ball era of cable ratings (which is also why I maintain that Raw ratings going down during this time is so much worse than most people realize). 

Thanks for the info Kilgore . Didn't know 2009-2015 was the Golden Age of cable ratings. Would have assumed it was late 90s-late 2000s with the decline starting around 2010.

Here is a list of the average Raw rating every year from 1998-2017...

1998: 4.35
1999: 5.90 (company record)
2000: 5.88
2001: 4.64
2002: 4.01
2003: 3.76
2004: 3.67
2005: 3.81
2006: 3.90
2007: 3.61
2008: 3.27
2009: 3.57
2010: 3.28
2011: 3.21
2012: 3.00
2013: 3.01
2014: 2.95
2015: 2.64
2016: 2.26
2017: 2.17

Source: www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/6g5za2/year_over_year_ratings_in_wwe/

*Over that 17 year span only 4 years (2005, 2006, 2009, and 2013) saw a ratings increase over the previous year. Yikes.

-Still looking for an easily digestible source chronicling 95-99. Might do the work myself if I can't find it anywhere else.

Oct 19, 2021 2:54:02 GMT Baker said:

-Still looking for an easily digestible source chronicling 95-99. 

Partial success. Found good ratings info on 98-99 here  www.gerweck.net/tv-ratings/

1998 weekly average

Raw- 4.35
Nitro- 4.43
Thunder- 3.66

1999 weekly average

Raw- 5.90 (company record)
Nitro- 3.66 (equal to 1998 Thunder)
Heat- 3.91(!)
Thunder- 2.77
Smackdown- 4.37 
ECW on TNN- 0.97

Fun Fact: Smackdown & ECW on TNN premiered the same week in late August 1999.

*Going to edit the 98-99 Raw scores into my previous post.

Oct 19, 2021 2:54:02 GMT Baker said:

Thanks for the info Kilgore . Didn't know 2009-2015 was the Golden Age of cable ratings. Would have assumed it was late 90s-late 2000s with the decline starting around 2010.

You're partially right! Cord-cutting netting negative cable subscriptions for some providers began in 2010, but the tipping point seems to be 2015/2016. I can't find a more recent Top 20, but as of 2015, ESPN actually had all spots in the Top 20 most-viewed of all time:

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}

blog.timesunion.com/sportsmedia/top-20-most-viewed-programs-in-cable-tv-history/15840/