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Considering The Rock made a surprise return to Monday Night Raw last week, there was at least the possibility that ratings would be up this week in anticipation of another appearance. After all, that's usually the metric of how well something like that works.
It didn't.
This week's show, which was mostly solid save for a putrid main event, averaged just 3.75 million viewers, down a tad from the 3.79 million it garnered last week. Only this time, instead of the numbers gradually improving as the show went on, as happened last week, they gradually declined.
Hour one: 3.83 million
Hour two: 3.75 million
Hour three: 3.66 million
The show was built around the John Cena vs. Dean Ambrose No Holds Barred Contract on a Pole match with the winner getting Seth Rollins and the loser getting Randy Orton in Hell in a Cell matches at the pay-per-view of the same name later this month in Dallas.
With the numbers coming in this low, it's safe to say nothing went particularly well on that front. You could argue, in fact, that the tease of a Rollins vs. Orton showdown was better than the actual main event finish.
For complete results and the live blog from Raw click here, and for a full recap with reactions click here.