WWE Creative Team Under Pressure?

 

Per a recent report, WWE's creative may be feeling the pressure as they head in to Monday's Raw.

Over at today's F4Wonline Daily Update, Dave Meltzer notes that the writers are concerned about the stiff competition Raw faces tomorrow from the NBA, and fear it will drastically affect the ratings.

I've heard some notes since last night when they found out Raw on Monday was going against game seven of the Miami Heat vs. Indiana Pacers game.  The writing team was under super stress because of the feeling that they feel there's a good chance the rating is not going to be good, and that Vince McMahon won't know why (which I'm thinking is overblown given even if he doesn't know the NBA, he's aware of the NBA's effect on ratings).

The flagship show's ratings have predictably fallen in this post-WrestleMania season, with the show doing between 2.9 and 3.1 most weeks according to PWTorch.com.
Granted, those numbers are rather flat, but they're still considerably up from the terrible figures late last year, provided again by PWTorch.com, when Raw was hindered by John Cena's absence, football competition and a lengthy CM Punk title run that just wasn't taking off with casual viewers.

If anything, maybe the company should be grateful the numbers haven't fallen more. Certainly, the third hour seems to be performing a lot more steadily than it used to. While the NBA game will likely hurt the ratings, the show should bounce back the following week.
Interestingly, Meltzer also mentioned in the update that the company is currently looking for a new head writer.
Happily for fans tired of Hollywood soap opera writers, he notes that the company is requiring any applicants to have a "deep working knowledge" of WWE and its on-screen product.

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