Sunday’s Payback pay-per-view was the first WWE PPV since WrestleMania, but it was also one of the weirdest in recent memory. The show featured a lot of weird holding-pattern matches that were booked before people switched rosters, and the middle hour of the PPV was dedicated mostly to the “House of Horrors” match, which was mind-boggling, but at least highlighted some affordable real estate.
While a lot of wrestling fans — like us here at With Spandex — were looking forward to getting past Payback so the real post-WrestleMania storylines could start, apparently a significant portion of viewers didn’t feel quite the same way. Monday’s episode, which had a lights-out triple threat main event, actually drew Raw’s lowest rating of 2017, which isn’t great!
Obviously, this dip in viewership wasn’t just due to post-House of Horrors malaise. Viewers tuned into the NBA Playoffs on Monday night in droves. While 4.428 million and 3.577 million viewers tuned in for the two NBA games on Monday night (according to ShowBuzz Daily), Raw took a five percent hit from last week, as they were down to 2.871 million viewers. That’s the lowest viewership for an episode of Raw since December 26 of last year.
WWE is likely quite happy that the NBA postseason only lasts a few more weeks, as they should see the same sort of rebound after the NBA Finals that they saw when Monday Night Football ended for the season.
