Beware of Monday Night... Basketball?
WWE Monday Night Raw ratings took a header this week, in every respect. Compared to last week, total viewership was down 15%, ratings in the 18-49 year-old demographic were down about 20% and 18-34 ratings were down even more than that. There are reasons, of course. The previous week opened in the glow of a well-received Royal Rumble show, opened with Paul Heyman on the stick and closed with Triple H. This week opened and closed with Samoa Joe. Samoa Joe has his fans, but he's not a star. That's important right now because WWE is facing new competition on Monday nights from another star-driven business: professional basketball. Sports fans in the United States may have heard about the National Basketball Association (NBA) receiving a lucrative new television contract. They may not have heard that the NBA only received an incremental increase in rights fees for existing broadcasts. The big money increase was due to allowing television networks to air more hours of l