WWE officials considering taking the title off Punk

F4WOnline.com reports that WWE officials are considering taking the WWE Championship off CM Punk due to 'terrible ratings patterns' for his weekly segments on Raw.

The matter was broached prior to Sunday's WWE TLC pay-per-view event, which saw Punk ultimately retain the strap in a Triple Threat Tables, Ladders & Chairs Match against Alberto Del Rio and The Miz. The trend of lackluster ratings for his segments continued the following night on Raw as the program's overrun, which saw the Straight Edge Superstar, Daniel Bryan and Zack Ryder overcame The Miz, Alberto Del Rio and Dolph Ziggler, only gain 59,000 viewers.

Wrestling Observer editor Dave Meltzer analyzes: "That's almost impossible given people tune in to see the following show, which basically meant wrestling fans must have been tuning out in droves (they were during the first half of the match but then started gaining at 11 p.m., but hardly gained anything)."

The main event garnered a 2.67 cable rating (2.55 for the first half of the bout), which Meltzer says is by far, the lowest-rated main event on Raw in 2011 and possibly the lowest since 1997 for a non-holiday show in its regular time slot.

sorry but punk, bryan, ryder vs dolph, miz and del rio!! Is it any shock people tuned out?! To anyone other than die hards that looks so midcard. Wwe lacks real star power, just lucky that punk appeals to the IWC at the moment

But the thing is they are building stars by doing this and making them seem important. If they had shot Cena down the first time he had a bad rating he wouldn't be where he is today.

I didn't say shoot them down

But the reason is that is a dullfest to anyone other than a diehard, who would care if del rio pinned zack ryder, reeeeeeeeealllllly

It's no reason to take the title off punk, but maybe a reason to give him something to work with that says MAIN EVENT

Sexton Hardcastle wrote:

I didn't say shoot them down

But the reason is that is a dullfest to anyone other than a diehard, who would care if del rio pinned zack ryder, reeeeeeeeealllllly

It's no reason to take the title off punk, but maybe a reason to give him something to work with that says MAIN EVENT

Agreed. The match was pointless because it was 6 guys who are all trying to push into the main event really, so having them fight each other got them no where. If it was a match like ,say, Miz, Del Rio and Ziggler vs Cena, Triple H and Randy Orton, then they would have more viewers and Miz, Del Rio and Ziggler would benefit more.

Shouldn't Miz and Del Rio be considered main eventers (and thus OK to be used to put the likes of Bryan and Ryder over), when you consider they've both beaten Cena for the title, and had WrestleMania world title matches this year?

If they are still seen as mid-carders, amongst the non die-hard fans after that kind of push, then there's a serious problem.