Raw’s numbers dip despite steel cage WWE title match

WWE had a plan to combat Monday Night Football on Sept. 27, and keep whatever momentum they gained from bringing in Roman Reigns to counter the NFL the week before. That plan involved announcing a WWE title match between Big E & Bobby Lashley to start the latest Raw, then running an angle to turn that into a main event Steel Cage battle for the belt.

While there’s no telling what results a different plan would have brought, it’s difficult to get too excited by Raw’s latest numbers.

The average viewership across the show’s three hours was down 4.5% from the Sept. 20, to 1,709,333. The first-to-third hour drop was also a little steeper than last week, and most recent weeks

Hour One: 1.818 million
Hour Two: 1.714 million
Hour Three: 1.596 million

Ratings in the key demo were also down slightly, averaging .48 among 18 - 49 year olds. One promising sign: the 18 - 34 year old rating was the same for the first and third hour, so the steel cage match did succeed in getting some to stick around (aka, young adults love Big E).

There were plenty of other factors, of course. The MNF game between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles pitted divisional rivals from major markets with national fanbases, and its numbers were up from last week for ESPN & ESPN2. Monday’s WWE show was also the Extreme Rules fallout edition, which doesn’t seem to have generated much excitement for Raw.

Next week is the Draft, which always pops a number.

For complete results and this week’s Raw live blog click here. To read a recap & review of the night’s events click here. For video highlights of the show click here.

Numbers via Showbuzz Daily