This week’s edition of WWE Monday Night Raw was a big success for WWE in terms of their viewership numbers. They averaged 3.15 million viewers, which meant it was the highest show on cable television on Monday night and the best number since Raw on April 17, which drew 3.33 million viewers. Thanks to ShowbuzzDaily for the info. This week’s number is a five percent increase over last week’s show, which competed with the MLB Home Run Derby.
Raw was built around two major events that they advertised heavily in the last week. It was the mystery Kurt Angle storyline reveal that took place at the top of hour three as the Raw General Manager Angle revealed that he is Jason Jordan’s father. The main event of Raw was Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe to determine who the number one contender would be for the Universal Title at SummerSlam. The match ended with a No Contest due to Braun Strowman attacking both men.
The hourly breakdown saw the first hour (8pmET) get 3.14 million viewers, hour two got 3.24 million viewers and the third hour got 3.08 million viewers.
Those numbers for the hourly breakdown are consistent with how it looks most weeks. The second hour is normally the highest and the third hour is usually the lowest because it’s tough for some people to sit through three hours. The encouraging sign is that the third hour stayed over three million viewers on the strength of the Angle mystery, the Reigns vs. Joe match and The Hardy Boyz vs. Revival in the third hour probably helped too.
What does the ratings rise mean for WWE? It might mean more mystery angles are coming. After all, in the last couple of months they did the “Who attacked Enzo Amore and Big Cass?” mystery storylines and then the Angle mystery. It wouldn’t surprise me if they try to ride the mystery wave by doing some other big storyline towards the end of August.
Next week’s Raw has already advertised three matches: Finn Balor vs. Elias Samson in a No Disqualification Match, Bayley vs. Sasha Banks to determine the No. 1 Contender to the Raw Women’s Title and Dean Ambrose teams up with Seth Rollins against The Miz, Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas. None of those matches are as big as the two main storylines from this week, but WWE will be hoping that the ratings continue to go up on the road to SummerSlam.
