Triple H’s first official show he was in full control of was August 1’s episode of Raw, with everything through SummerSlam reportedly already written by Vince McMahon.
Hunter made a few tweaks here and there, but Raw was cited as being a statement show by him to start off the new era.
While we’re only in the first days of Triple H fully taking over WWE Creative and there’s plenty more to come, the early returns ratings wise show fans are excited or at least interested to see how he’ll change things.
Raw And NXT Ratings Rise Under Triple H’s Direction
Raw was a fun experience for several reasons, but the biggest was the chaotic feel was gone. Instead, it was slowed down and the matches were allowed to happen without a ton of run ins or other gimmick endings like we’ve become accustomed to.
It gave the show a smoother run with the focus being on the right times instead of trying to manufacture a chaotic feel and it made the show feel like it moved faster.
Ratings tell the story
One of the best ways to measure how fans are reacting to a show is the ratings, and Raw lodged its highest viewership since March 16, 2000, which was the first Raw without an audience, according to wrestlingnews.co.
The show’s ratings rose to 2.230 million viewers, with the previous week lodging 1.901 million viewers. More importantly, the key demographic of 18-49 had an average of .61, which was up from .50 last week.
There’s no denying a large part of that was because it was Triple H’s first show where he was in complete control, so we’ll see if it can continue.
NXT 2.0 sees an uptick as well
The surge continued with NXT 2.0 as it ranked number 7 out of 150 shows after it finished 21st last week. The ratings improved from 600,000 viewers to 649,000.
The show saw a raise in the 18-49 demographic from .13 last week to .15 this week.
There’s still plenty of room for the show to grow, but it’s a good sign that fans are interested in the future under Triple H and we’ll see if he can maintain the upswing.
So far, the fans appear to be enjoying the change in direction with the WWE so far, and it’s going to be fun seeing how far Triple H can take it after he finishes stabilizing the creative vision into his.
What do you think about Triple H’s run so far? Is it the beginning of an exciting new time or will things level off? Let us know in the comments below.
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