WWE Monday Night Raw ran via tape-delay last night (April 16, 2012) from the O2 Arena in London, England, and featured a WWE championship match that saw CM Punk retain the strap with a pinfall win over Mark Henry in the show opener while John Cena was beaten by Lord Tensai to close it out.
And wouldn't you know it, the second hour did better ratings than the first.
Raw scored a 3.08 rating and averaged 4.39 million viewers for the two-hour broadcast on USA. The first hour, which opened with Punk vs. Henry and also saw Brock Lesnar's awesome interview, garnered 4.32 million viewers. The second hour, which featured the main event match pitting Cena vs. Tensai, saw a small gain to 4.45 million.
The troubling trend of declining viewership from the first hour to the second appears to finally be over.
Sure, the ratings aren't nearly as good as WWE was surely hoping they would be with the return of Brock Lesnar to the company but it's not like he can show up and make everything all better within just a few weeks. These things take time and if the proper dedication is shown, the sky is the limit.
Or so they hope.
For complete results and the running live blog from Raw click here. To listen to the Cageside Live post-show podcast click here and for complete reactions to the show click here.