This past Monday, WWE Raw set another all-time viewership low with 2.19 million viewers. It was the second straight week viewership had sunk to a new low. Seth Rollins opened Raw by stating that the show "sucks" and cut a "shoot" style promo aimed at General Manager-elect Baron Corbin.
Rollins was speaking for many fans on social media who have ripped Raw for putting on a poor show every week. The declining viewership numbers have only given fans more ammo to fire at WWE and their flagship show. Surprisingly, former WWE writer Jimmy Jacobs came to the defense of the company.
Writing a 3 hour wrestling tv show every single week is fuckin hard. https://t.co/ohGZXBAJkx
— The Zombie Princess (@JimmyJacobsX) December 12, 2018
Jacobs spent two years working for WWE before he was fired in October 2017 for posing for a photo with members of the Bullet Club during their "Raw Invasion."
Responding to questions and comments, Jacobs defend his position in a series of follow-up tweets.
Ed and Dogg are both great. Honestly, all the writers are super smart in their own unique ways.
— The Zombie Princess (@JimmyJacobsX) December 12, 2018
It’s great you’re thinking of ideas. That’s seriously cool. Now look at the RAW roster on the WWE website, then using that roster, take a blank piece of paper and come up with 16 segments of tv. Then do that for 4 weeks, building to a PPV. It’s a challenge!
— The Zombie Princess (@JimmyJacobsX) December 12, 2018
It can be at times. But there are a lot of benefits to it too.
— The Zombie Princess (@JimmyJacobsX) December 12, 2018
It’s a great question. If you come up with an answer, let me know!
— The Zombie Princess (@JimmyJacobsX) December 12, 2018
The show never wrote itself.
— The Zombie Princess (@JimmyJacobsX) December 12, 2018
Great! Now do that again and again and again and again. It’s 52 episodes a year, which creates a whole different set of issues than writing one show. I’d recommend trying to write 4 shows in a row and a PPV at the end. Then think about what you’d do at the following PPV too.
— The Zombie Princess (@JimmyJacobsX) December 12, 2018
Then with one less hour of tv and less live events, you’ve cut a HUGE portion of the yearly gross income! There’s a lot of masters to serve. Moving one piece moves them all.
— The Zombie Princess (@JimmyJacobsX) December 12, 2018
Change is the nature of the beast. But absolutely it’s possible. We write ahead at Impact.
— The Zombie Princess (@JimmyJacobsX) December 12, 2018
Jacobs currently works on the IMPACT Wrestling creative team.
