Image from Randy Orton – WWE Universe Facebook
The WWE is currently looking to boost its TV ratings so that they can earn more money from TV rights.
This is the main reason why Raw had that exciting 12-man tag-team match. Usually, a match like that would only occur on a PPV, forcing people to buy it. It’s interesting to note that the WWE never had any plans to put the match at Survivor Series and wanted to build a feud specifically for the aforementioned Raw match.
The WWE wants to build the ratings up for Raw and Smackdown so that they can get more money from domestic and international TV rights. If ratings are low, TV networks might not pay top dollar to broadcast WWE’s shows. They want to increase ratings so that the company is financially stable for the future.
I do think there’s an odd situation that might occur as a result of this. If they are giving away top matches for free on TV, what kind of matches will they book at the PPV? That 12-man tag-team match was exciting and is likely to be better than any match they have at Survivor Series 2013. As I said many times before, why would anyone want to pay to see John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio and Randy Orton vs. Big Show for the millionth time?
Other than booking strong matches, the WWE will also need to build exciting new stars and have compelling storylines to increase ratings. If the storylines focus too much on Cena, Orton and Triple H, I’m sure the ratings will still stay level.
