I was actually pissed that he wasn't the first thing out. You had all that momentum and put him on at the end of a three hour show. That went 3 and a half hours.
The only thing that has taken a hit is the Raw ratings since HBK retired. They've broken 3.5 since his retirement about the same amount of times they broke 3.5 during the build of Shawn/Taker II. A dozen or so times. That's six years versus 4 months.
Time will tell if Bryan or the lack thereof has this kind of impact.
The buyrates in 2013 compared to any Michaels 96 run proved that a lifetime ago. And Shawn is basically a forgotten relic and it's only been 6 years. 3.5s weren't for Shawn Michaels...he ain't never ever generated rating segments like that in his entire run.
well actually he did
he was doing 4+ for his title win in 1996. even when nwo was kicking ass, he still was regularly doing better than Bryan's speech.
Notice nobody chanting "one more match" at Bryan. They drowned Shawn out with that kinda shyt. Bryan is a fad, and Shawn is forever in the WWE.
HAHAHAHA...Shawn got some of the worst ratings in history opposite the Nwo. Didn't it fall to like upper 1s at one point? Hideous.
Shawn peaked at 4.7 for his title run in 1996
Bryan peaked at 3.7 for his title run in 2014
Case closed
He wasn't selling out arenas and damn sure wasn't as mainstream as Bryan. Nowhere nearWhen Shawn retired, it didn't make HALF the impact we saw from all of those outlets on Monday. Come on
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Bryan was forced to retire. Of course it was going to be covered more. Shawn planned and executed his retirement exactly how he wanted it to be. It wasn't salacious or controversial. Doesn't change the fact that more people cared to tune in to Shawn's.
I mean hell, Fox News covers Marco Rubio like he's the chosen one, yet Donald Trump has beaten him twice in a row. The media doesn't dictate anything.
jesusThey still went to 11 back then. I thought Raw was tremendous until the speech. Just being honest. He spent FOREVER getting the words out. Kind of obnoxious really.


Theres a weird parallel between swagnificent and that guy. If you're shameless and just continuously move the goalposts and no-sell facts, you can tire out the person you're lying to. Its very trump-esqueThis exchange...jesus
The only thing that has taken a hit is the Raw ratings since HBK retired. They've broken 3.5 since his retirement about the same amount of times they broke 3.5 during the build of Shawn/Taker II. A dozen or so times. That's six years versus 4 months.
Time will tell if Bryan or the lack thereof has this kind of impact.
Use ratings as a indicator of success but use crowd reaction only when its convenient
Even with concrete proofThe 4th most popular wrassler in the history of the universe going to get more then die hard fans, I think Vince is purposely holding the ratings downCan't put the ratings on D-Bry, I don't think people were sitting through 3 hours of Raw to see him unless they were die-hard fans. Just the time we live in.
I really don't have a dog in this fight but the support for Bryan is looking a lil bit funny in the light![]()

I really don't have a dog in this fight but the support for Bryan is looking a lil bit funny in the light![]()
Except me...because logic starts to add up and things start to become telling espdcially when all people assume that toughness is a gene that is sometimes more luck than chanceDon't even go there, man. Bryan himself has admitted to not being straight forward about how extensive his health issues were (in particular him hiding that he'd been suffering from post-concussion seizures), so nobody had any reason to assume things were that bad.