In last week’s Figure Four Weekly Newsletter, it was reported that while CM Punk has emerged as a clear live crowd and Internet favorite, the one area where he still lags behind John Cena significantly is TV ratings.
Last week’s Raw rating with CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, for example, was one of the lowest-rated Raw main events garnering a 2.55 for the end of Raw and a 2.67 for the overrun.
That is the likely reasoning behind this week’s positioning of Punk vs. Ziggler at 10 pm while saving Cena and Kane for the main event slot.
F4W also says WWE is finally coming around to the idea that Michael Cole’s heel announcing has not been good for business. If Cole hadn’t spent the past year burying mid-card faces like Daniel Bryan, perhaps Bryan and Punk would draw better ratings when paired together.