Miami Heat vs. Indiana Pacers Game 7 NBA Playoff Series crushes Monday Night Raw in the ratings

This should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone, especially those within WWE, but it may be a bit jarring to see nonetheless: Monday Night Raw, which emanated from the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut, last night (June 3, 2013), was absolutely destroyed in the ratings up against Game 7 between the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals.

How bad was it?

Raw scored a 2.6 rating and averaged just 3.68 million viewers for all three hours. Those are the lowest numbers the show has done all year, and not even the surprise returns of Stephanie and Vince McMahon, who normally draw good ratings, could stop the bleeding.

The Heat vs. Pacers game averaged 11.57 million viewers, a monster number. That was expected, of course, but the game was ultimately a blowout and one would think that would have been beneficial to Raw, right?

It was, but not until it was too late, as you can see in the hourly breakdown:

Hour one: 3.62 million
Hour two: 3.62 million
Hour three: 3.80 million

It was clear in the second half of the NBA game that Miami was on its way to the Finals to square off with the San Antonio Spurs and the Pacers were simply over-matched. Still, the damage to Raw had been done and the company recorded its worst rating of the year.

Ouch.

Again, though, WWE knew this was likely to happen, even if McMahon doesn't follow sports. They had to do what they could to combat it but the number was always going to take a big hit. There should be a significant bounce back next week for the go home show to the Payback pay-per-view (PPV).

Or at least there better be.

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.