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For the first time in five months, WWE had Monday night all to itself, or at least it didn't have to compete with football for viewers, either from the NFL or college. That meant ratings were going to be up, but would it be a major jump?
Insert Dean Ambrose NOPE GIF here.
Indeed, this past Monday night's episode averaged 4.09 million viewers for all three hours. That's up from 3.89 million last week but not as much as one might expect considering the circumstances.
The hourly breakdown:
Hour one: 4.29 million
Hour two: 4.14 million
Hour three: 3.87 million
The show long angle revolving around John Cena wrestling to earn Dolph Ziggler, Ryback, and Erick Rowan their jobs back apparently wasn't the big hit WWE surely expected it would be. That last hour is especially troubling considering Sting made his long awaited Raw debut.
Still, it was a hot show with a strong finish. That should do plenty to encourage viewers to come back next week, and that's without even mentioning that show will have all the fallout from Royal Rumble.
For complete results and the live blog from Raw click here. For a recap with reactions to all the night's events click here. And to watch highlights of the show click here.