WWE Raw Ratings DROP For WWE Title Match & General Manager Reveals
Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose didn't draw.
Monday's episode of WWE Raw was the last one prior to the brand split, and the company tried to stack the show in order to go out with a bang. Ultimately, though, their efforts did little - Raw drew an average of 3.13 million viewers, down from 3.17 the week before.
The show started out strong, as hour one averaged 3.2 million viewers - its best performance in nearly a month. The opening hour was likely helped by the announcement that the show would start with the reveal of both Raw and Smackdown's General Managers, as well as the fact that the segment ended up featuring popular legends Mick Foley and Daniel Bryan.
Raw peaked in the second hour, with an average of 3.24 million viewers, but fell sharply in the third hour, which averaged just 2.96 million viewers. That number is particularly disappointing, given that the main event of the show was a half-hour-long WWE Championship match between Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, a bout that had been advertised since the previous week.
Given that stars like Ambrose, AJ Styles, and most importantly, John Cena, will now be permanently absent from Raw, there has to be serious concern about the show's future ratings. Nevertheless, Smackdown's ratings remain a higher priority to WWE, as the USA Network expressed concern regarding numbers for the show, leading to its revamp.