That third hour is becoming increasingly difficult to defend.

With the third quarter investors conference call having come and gone and there having been no real justification for WWE adding a third hour to Monday Night Raw, trends like this are troubling enough that there has to be at least the thought of action.

Remember, there were a few folks within the company who said the three hour era would end by early 2013.

The ratings for last night's show are in and here's how the three hours break down:

Hour one: 4.07 million
Hour two: 4.28 million
Hour three: 3.88 million

The final rating was a 2.78 for an average of 4.07 million viewers over all three hours.

Vince McMahon's justification for the third hour is that it's doing solid numbers. But he's talking about the 8-9 p.m. ET hour instead of the final hour of the show, when viewers are burned out and turning their television sets off or to other programming.

Simply put, it makes no sense. The show hasn't improved dramatically and, in fact, it's only gotten worse. Pacing a show this long is difficult and the roster, already thin before the move, is stretched far beyond its operating capacities.

Still, it looks like they'll keep trucking right along, the status quo remaining unchanged.

For complete results and reactions to last night's episode of Raw click here and here.