WWE Raw ratings rise to 4.15 million viewers for Payback fallout show

Considering the Payback pay-per-view (PPV) was as strong as it was the night before, and there was no major competition from any of the big sports that usually rip viewers away, one would think last night's (June 17, 2013) episode of Monday Night Raw would bounce back over the four million average for all three hours.

And that's exactly what happened.

Indeed, Raw, which emanated from the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, did a 3.0 rating and averaged 4.15 million viewers. There was an NHL Stanley Cup Final game between the Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins that did around 4 million viewers, but it didn't appear to cut into Raw's audience much, if at all.

Here's the hourly breakdown:

Hour one: 4.03 million
Hour two: 4.26 million
Hour three: 4.17 million

Not the best, but certainly not the worst. The third hour didn't benefit from actual promotion of Brock Lesnar, who showed up in the main event segment as a surprise to F-5 CM Punk following his split from Paul Heyman.

WWE has been getting it right an awful lot lately, though and with so much entertainment value looming on the horizon, the hope is the ratings will gradually improve as the shows continue to get better.

The hope is that much, at least.

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.