WWE News: Monday Night Raw down big against NCAA Championship

What’s the Story?

This week’s episode of Monday Night Raw averaged 2.759 million viewers and was down 106,000 viewers from last week’s average of 2.865 million.

In Case You Didn’t Know

The first hour of Raw featured Sasha Banks & Bayley versus Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville of Absolution and the in-ring debut of “Woken” Matt Hardy. The second hour featured the return of The Miz and a Cruiserweight Championship match between Enzo Amore and Cedric Alexander.

The final hour of Raw featured the brawl between Brock Lesnar, Kane and Braun Strowman and the main event of Jason Jordan, Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns versus The Bálor Club.

The Heart of the Matter

The following is the hourly breakdown for the Jan. 8 edition of Raw:

Hour one: 2.993 million

Hour two: 2.784 million

Hour three: 2.502 million

Raw had to compete with the NBA and the NCAA games last week, but this week’s game between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Alabama Crimson Tide was a back-and-forth contest that resulted in an even greater decrease in an hour to hour viewership for the flagship show.

The NCAA Championship game generated 27 million viewers while Raw couldn’t reach three million viewers for the seventh week in a row. The drop in viewership from hour one to hour two was about 209,000 viewers, but the biggest drop occurred in the third hour which had a viewership decrease of 282,000.

The viewership drop was expected but isn’t likely to continue with no more football games from the NFL and the NCAA to contend with.

Raw is building towards the 25th Anniversary episode on Jan. 22 and will likely see a massive viewership increase similar to the one from Raw 1000.

What’s Next?

The NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers may detract some of the Raw viewership, but the show will more than likely return to the three million viewership average it normally receives during WrestleMania season.