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What’s the story?
The 25th Anniversary of Monday Night Raw had a lot of hype going into it and the show received a big boost in the viewership ratings. This week’s episode of Raw averaged 4.530 million and was up 1.28 million viewers from last week’s average of 3.25 million.
In case you didn’t know...
Raw kicked off with Stone Cold Steve Austin hitting Vince and Shane McMahon with Stone Cold Stunners. The other big moments from the show were the return of The Undertaker, the 'Too Sweet' between D-Generation X and the Bálor Club, and The Miz defeating Roman Reigns for the Intercontinental Championship.
The heart of the matter
The following is the hourly viewership breakdown for the 22 January 2018 edition of Raw as per ShowBuzzDaily:
Hour one: 4.803 million
Hour two: 4.641 million
Hour three: 4.147 million
This week’s episode of Raw dominated cable for the first time since Monday Night Football began back in fall 2017 and was the show to average 4 million viewers since 4 April 2016 which averaged 4.093 million.
Despite the big boost in viewership, many fans were dissatisfied with the lack of action on the show and with a lack of key Raw figures like The Rock, Edge, Lita, and others.
The Manhattan Center show was considered a disappointment by the fans in attendance who paid hundreds of dollars to watch the flagship show at its birthplace. The only matches that took place at the Manhattan show were 205 Live dark matches, Bray Wyatt versus Matt Hardy, and a quick match between The Club and The Revival.
What’s next?
Next week’s Raw will be the first episode after the Royal Rumble pay-per-view and will likely see a massive decrease.
Usually Raw gets a boost following pay-per-views, but the gargantuan jump in viewership from this week’s show will likely prevent the post-Royal Rumble show from seeing a viewership increase.
Author’s take
This week’s Raw had to serve as both a go-home show and celebration of the show’s history, but it ultimately didn’t meet the fans' expectations. Despite this, this edition will probably be the highest viewed Raw episode of the year.
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