WWE Raw ratings for WrestleMania 29 go home show fall flat

In a big surprise, the ratings for last night's (April 1, 2013) episode of Monday Night Raw, the go home show to the WrestleMania 29 pay-per-view (PPV) extravaganza set for this Sunday night at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, came in flat despite a star-studded line up and no major competition on other networks.

This was one of the biggest shows of the year, at least in terms of how important it is, and it only managed to deliver a 3.1 rating and an average of 4.30 million viewers for all three hours. That's down from last week's 4.62 million viewers that tuned in for The Rock's return after two weeks away promoting his film work.

Here's the hourly breakdown and this is even more surprising.

Hour one: 4.03 million
Hour two: 4.48 million
Hour three: 4.40 million

As expected, the second hour is the high point of the show but this time the first hour was as low as its been all year. There wasn't much drop off for the third hour, a nice surprise, but not a single hour of the show could match any of the three hours from last week.

When you've got The Rock, John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, and CM Punk all appearing on the same show spread throughout the evening, it's shocking to see the numbers this low compared to what we've seen in the past.

Still, good old Jim Ross has a positive spin on it:

#WWE #Raw #1 on all of cable TV AGAIN Monday night! Over 4M viewers w/ sick, social media tally. #Wrestlemania29 momentum.

— Jim Ross (@JRsBBQ) April 2, 2013

For complete results and the live blog click here. For reactions to the show click here. And for a playlist of the entire night click here.