WWE Raw viewers up big this week

This is a pleasant surprise for WWE.

This week’s episode of Monday Night Raw was set to feature a confrontation between Universal Champion Brock Lesnar and his opponent at WrestleMania 34, Roman Reigns. In addition, Ronda Rousey was supposed to be there. That’s what the company had advertised, but they failed to deliver on either Brock or Ronda, for storyline purposes or otherwise.

It all seemed to work this week.

Indeed, the show drew 3.35 million viewers, up big from last week’s 3.09 million. The hourly breakdown shows they kept the audience throughout the entire program, something that rarely happens anymore:

Hour one: 3.35 million
Hour two: 3.42 million
Hour three: 3.27 million

They explained away Lesnar’s absence and made up for it with an angle where Vince McMahon appeared and suspended Roman Reigns. It’s notable that while Rousey didn’t appear — and an article promising she would on the WWE website was deleted — Triple H and Stephanie McMahon didn’t either.

As stated, it didn’t seem to matter. It does, however, create interest in what next week’s numbers will look like. McMahon did promise Brock will be at that show. Is that enough to get all these viewers to come back, just to see if they’ll burn them again?

For complete results and the live blog for Raw this week click here. To read a complete recap and review of all the night’s events click here. For a full playlist of the show click here.