WWE Raw ratings improve for Oct. 14 show but football season is lean

We're now deep into the National Football League (NFL) season and that means Monday Night Football on ESPN is rocking and rolling and stealing viewers away from Monday Night Raw over on USA. Even during weeks when the game itself isn't all that enticing, such as last night's (Oct. 14, 2013) San Diego Chargers vs. Indianapolis Colts tilt, the numbers strongly favor football.

Indeed, that game drew some 12 million viewers while Raw, which was up from last week's poor showing, did a 2.88 rating with an average of 3.99 million viewers. It could be better, of course, but it could be worse.

Where the issue lies, really, is the hourly breakdown.

Hour one: 4.11 million
Hour two: 4.14 million
Hour three: 3.71 million

That's really unfortunate because the main event angle that closed the show, the Rhodes brothers defeating The Shield to win the tag team championships, was one of the best segments of the entire year. The match was great and the crowd was hot as all hell for it.

The prior two hours were fun but littered with filler. Tons of Funk vs. Real Americans isn't going to captivate audiences enough to stick around through three hours of programming, even with the promise of a Giant Swing from the great Antonio Cesaro.

Still, the numbers are up and the sky isn't falling, so let's not dwell in the negative too much. Not for this week, at least.

For complete results and the live blog from Raw click here. For full reactions click here. And for a complete playlist from the show click here.