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WWE Raw ratings remain stagnant in the three-hour era, lull period in pro wrestling

The ratings are in for this week's episode of Monday Night Raw and it's become painfully obvious to anyone with a properly functioning brain that the three-hour era has done nothing but hurt the numbers for WWE.

Michael N. Todaro - Getty Images

Two weeks ago, Monday Night Raw hit its lowest ratings in 15 years for a non-holiday show. That was enough to cause an irate Vince McMahon to hot shot himself into a main event match with WWE Champion CM Punk just to get the numbers back up.

That's what happened and all was well, at least for a week.

Well, the ratings are in for last night's (Oct. 15, 2012) episode and the good news is the numbers didn't go down. But they didn't go up either. And you know what they say about being stagnant.

The show did a 2.79 rating and averaged 3.99 million viewers. Here's how that breaks down hourly:

Hour one: 4.07 million
Hour two: 4.01 million
Hour three: 3.89 million

As usual, Raw was up against strong competition across the board. Monday Night Football, featuring a crazy game between the San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos, did 12.84 million viewers while the San Francisco Giants vs. St. Louis Cardinals MLB playoff game did 5.58 million viewers.

At some point, though, the product has to turn around and get hot. Once that happens, the excuses will fall away and the business will prosper. Until it does, there will always be something to blame the numbers on.

We're in a lull for pro wrestling right now and I can't wait to come out of it.

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