WWE’s ploy to increase viewership worked, at least for this week

In an effort to gain viewers in a hurry, WWE ran an angle on social media making clear Roman Reigns would be showing up on Monday Night Raw. That turned into Vince McMahon making a rare appearance, and the institution of what they’re calling the “Wild Card” rule. Essentially, stars from both brands can appear on both shows as necessary.

For this show, at least, the ploy worked.

Just not all that well.

Indeed, Raw did 2.24 million viewers this week, up a bit from last week’s 2.15 million. That isn’t much of a jump, of course, and shows just how fatigued fans are with all this. The hourly breakdown does provide something encouraging, however:

Hour one: 2.46 million
Hour two: 2.24 million
Hour three: 2.02 million

That’s the usual drop, sure, but less of a drop from hour two to hour three. This is good because they promoted a WWE title match pitting current champion Kofi Kingston against the returning Daniel Bryan. That’s promising for Kingston’s title reign.

Hey, take what you can get, right?

Still, the real story of this change will be told in the weeks to come.

Get the live blog from Raw this week here, a full recap of the night’s events here, and highlights of all the action here.