Considering the fact that SummerSlam was an outstanding pay-per-view (PPV) that featured John Cena losing the WWE world heavyweight championship in shocking fashion to Brock Lesnar in the main event of the evening, it was expected the next night's episode of Monday Night Raw would do a great rating.
It didn't.
In fact, viewers were down from the week before. Last night's show drew 4.19 million viewers compared to 4.31 million last week. What's more, the hourly breakdown shows a decline in viewership in the third hour:
Hour one: 4.28 million
Hour two: 4.33 million
Hour three: 3.97 million
Perhaps it had to do with the fact that it was clear Cena wouldn't be showing up until next week and the big angle, with Lesnar being presented a new WWE title, happened earlier in the show. It's also unfortunate considering the Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins match that closed the show tore the house down.
Too bad.
It's also worth noting that the Cleveland Browns played on Monday Night Football on ESPN and the Johnny Manziel hype machine was in full effect. That game did almost 7 million viewers, so there was definitely strong competition from football despite the fact that it was a preseason match-up.
For complete results and the live blog from Raw click here. For a full recap with reactions click here. To watch the show click here. Check out Cageside Live reviewing the show here.