WWE Raw ratings for Dec. 30, 2013: Final show of the year does well

After four long months of suffering through strong competition from Monday Night Football over on ESPN, WWE finally got to run its flagship program, Monday Night Raw, against lesser competition like college football bowl games. And, as expected the numbers were up, though not by too much.

Last night's (Dec. 30, 2013) episode, the final show of the year, averaged 4.12 million viewers for all three hours. The hourly breakdown is more encouraging:

Hour one: 4.14 million
Hour two: 4.20 million
Hour three: 4.04 million

This week's show saw WWE working with a split crew, as half the roster was up in Toronto working a house show at the same time Raw as live on USA. That didn't hurt the quality of the product; in fact, one could argue it made it better.

CM Punk worked a strong match against Seth Rollins while poking and prodding The Shield into dissension, Brock Lesnar returned and absolutely destroyed Mark Henry, and Daniel Bryan joined The Wyatt Family in a shocking display of brilliant storytelling.

Next week's episode goes up against the BCS National Championship Game, which always draws monster numbers and significantly affects Raw's ratings. In response to this, WWE will run its annual "Old School" edition, featuring the return of many stars from days gone by, including "The Nature Boy", Ric Flair.

Oh and that beast, Lesnar, will also be there to wreak havoc on yet another poor soul.

Stay tuned!

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.