>>8830270>comparing TV ratings from 20+ years ago to TV ratings todayApples and oranges much? Nothing draws the same Nielsen numbers it did back then. DVRs and Internet streaming came along and changed the way that people watch TV. Besides that, pro wrestling as a whole just doesn't have the same following that it did back then.
If you're going to compare apples to apples, you have to acknowledge that even the 850K figure that Dynamite only rarely falls below is a *lot* closer to WWE's Monday and Friday night numbers than ECW ever was to the combined WWF/WCW numbers. Back then, Raw and Nitro were drawing 9 million between them on Monday nights, while Smackdown and Thunder were drawing 7+ million between them on Thursdays; now it's an unusual Raw that breaks 2 mil, and Smackdown sits around 2-2.5 on Friday nights. Even Rampage's average numbers are closer to that (on a percentage basis, not just in terms of the numerical difference) than ECW was to WWF+WCW's Thursday numbers, let alone the Monday numbers.
