The answer, sadly, is no.  Who could have imagined a wrestler who is old enough to have grandkids wouldn't be a big hit among today's youth?  Everyone?  Everyone would have predicted that?  Okay.

Dusty Rhodes, once one of the biggest draws in all of wrestling, lighting crowds on fire from Madison Square Garden to the tip of Florida, failed to create a stir with his special guest hosting gig.  In the 18-49 male demographic, RAW dropped from a 3.04 rating last week to a 2.75 this week.

Overall rating and a look at the last ten RAWs  after the break.

From the Pro Wrestling Torch

8/31/09 - 5.13 million viewers (Dusty Rhodes)

LAST FIVE WEEKS OF RAW
8/24 - 5.85 million viewers (Floyd Mayweather/Night after SS)
8/17 - 5.53 million viewers (Freddy Prinze, Jr.)
8/10 - 5.49 million viewers (Sgt. Slaughter)
8/3 - 5.10 million viewers (Piven & Dr. Ken)
7/27 - 5.76 million viewers (Shaq)
5-WEEK AVERAGE: 5.55 million viewers (8/31 Raw down 7.6 percent)

W/LAST TEN WEEKS OF RAW
7/20 - 5.16 million viewers (ZZ Top)
7/13 - 5.23 million viewers (Seth Green)
7/6 - 5.15 million viewers (Ted DiBiase)
6/29 - 5.96 million viewers (Batista)
6/22 - 6.80 million viewers (commercial-free)
COMBINED 10-WEEK AVERAGE: 5.60 million viewers (8/31 Raw down 8.5 percent)

 

It's a shame more people didn't tune in to see a pretty nifty show.  It was like 1986 all over again, only Dusty joined Horsemen and Cena played Dusty.  Confused?  Let's just say that style of heel turn was classic Dream.  And having Orton turn on Dusty, causing friction within Legacy, was a brilliant long term booking move.  Add the soon to be classic Shockmaster parody by Santino and you have a RAW to remember.