In 1995 Raw had an average rating of 2.4 while Nitro had an average rating of 2.4 as well. Now, may I remind you that in 1995 the New World Order “takeover” angle hadn’t started yet so it’s not like Hart and the WWF were up against huge competition yet.
Now in 1996 everything changed. Raw received an average rating of 2.65, so they had a rise in ratings but it wasn’t an incredible gain in ratings. While Raw had an average of 2.65, Nitro had an average rating of 3.16 in ratings. When Bret was needed to get high ratings he just couldn’t do it.
In 1997 during his final year in the WWF, Raw had an average rating of 2.67. This was in 1997 and they increased their rating by very, very little from the previous rating. Nitro had an average rating of 3.67. So not only did Nitro see their ratings increase by big numbers, they also defeated the WWF in the ratings war with Hart leading the company.
You can blame creative all you want but the fact of the matter is that people were more interested in seeing WCW than WWF with Bret Hart leading them. Bret was supposed to be a ratings draw in America for the WWF but he proved he just wasn’t a good draw for them. People didn’t want to see Hart, it’s plain and simple. Notice how I didn’t say anything about the buys, but with low numbers in ratings I simply cannot imagine them doing high numbers in pay per view buys with Hart headlining. It’s proven that Hart was never a good draw when he was main-eventing for the WWF.
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