By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

Last night's WWE Raw drew a 3.0 overall rating for the three-hour special. The "bonus" first hour dragged the rating down, as it drew just a 2.40 rating. The standard two-hour timeslot drew a 3.3 rating, up from last week's 3.2 rating. (There may be a "final number" of 3.4 that circulates as the average of hours one and tw was 3.345, very close to rounding up to a 3.4.)

Last year same week drew a 3.7 rating. Again, this is an 11 year low rating for Raw in April the last two weeks. You have to go back five years to find a rating for an April Raw as low as 3.5.

WK ANALYSIS: WWE received a lot of publicity for the appearances of the presidential candidates on various news and entertainment outlets, and at best it resulted in a small tick up in the rating to a still very disappointing level - only looking "decent" because last week was so lousy. It seems there is widespread agreement that something is not right with the WWE product right now. It could be a WrestleMania hangover (literally, in some cases) and exhaustion from the long European tour that has drained the creative juices of Vince McMahon and the creative staff.

My no. 1 recommendation for a longer term fix is to find a way to get some fresh wrestlers positioned as top tier players. It's tough when that means one of the top six or eight would have to move down a slot, but it really does feel stale having the same people on top with little rotation. The departure of Jeff Hardy alone wasn't crippling to the ratings, but the absence of what he represented is - which is that now there's almost no one left for fans to root for who is a fresh, exciting, youthful, energized character in a promonent position. C.M. Punk may not be that person, but he's the closest they have. Pushing Mr. Kennedy as a babyface act might be a move worth considering. A hot tag team act in a revitalized tag division would be the easiest way to accomplish this, but decades of history suggests the McMahon see tag teams as not worthy of a money position.

The fact that loading the show with talent from all three brands and featuring the celebrities of three top presidential candidates didn't pop a rating is alarming.

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