Who May Join The Dudley Boyz To Feud With New Day?, A Look At WWE’s Declining Ratings

The Dudley Boyz

In this article, Blake Oestriecher of Forbes looks at ratings for Raw and SmackDown going down in recent years. He feels the drop in ratings puts even more pressure on the WWE Network to succeed.

“Wrestling tends to be a cyclical business, going round and round from lows to highs, but the disturbing plunge in ratings of the WWE’s two biggest shows highlights just how much the average fan’s interest in pro wrestling — and specifically, the WWE — has waned in recent years,” Oestriecher states. “Perhaps more importantly, though, it puts even more pressure on the WWE Network. Now, the Network has to succeed. Absolutely has to.”

– WWE’s creative team has discussed pairing El Torito with The Dudley Boyz for their feud with The New Day. Spike Dudley’s name has also been tossed around. A return is not out of the question for the former WWE Superstar, who is now 45-years-old and working as financial planner. He wrestled as recently as 2014 and worked a match with Bubba Ray and D-Von the year before for TNA Wrestling (on March 19, 2013 at One Night Only: Hardcore Justice 2, he teamed with Jeff Hardy to defeat the legendary duo in a Tag Team Tables Match).

It was announced Monday on Raw that The New Day will defend the WWE Tag Team Championship against The Dudley Boyz at Night of Champions.