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What’s the story?
After a predictable ratings slide after RAW 25, it would appear that WWE's red brand is on the rise again with a bump from last week's slump - averaging 3.10 million in comparison to last week's 3.05 million.
In case you didn’t know...
This week's RAW had a hot start with the announcement that John Cena would kick off the show, where he cut a cryptic promo hinting at a potential match with a certain Deadman at WrestleMania before battling it out with The Miz to determine the first entrant into the Chamber at Elimination Chamber in two weeks.
There were plenty of other memorable segments and matches in the show, not least Braun Strowman interrupting Elias to mimic him in a scene that saw The Drifter feel the wrath of The Monster Among Men in the form of a floor bass to the back after being serenaded by Braun.
Sasha Banks v Bayley was also advertised ahead of time alongside John Cena opening RAW and, as you would expect, was a very good match.
The show also had a pretty incredible main event where the last chance Fatal 4-Way got an extra member that saw Seth Rollins injected into the match to face off against Apollo Crews, Bray Wyatt, Matt Hardy and Finn Balor to fight it out for the last spot in the Elimination Chamber Match - a match that saw Rollins and Balor simultaneously pin Wyatt in a cliffhanger ending.
Kurt Angle would then determine on Facebook Live that both men would be added to the match - making it a seven-man match for the first time in history.
The heart of the matter
The following is the hourly breakdown for this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw as per ShowBuzzDaily.
Hour one: 3.26 million
Hour two: 3.21 million
Hour three: 2.83 million
The hourly breakdown shows an improvement on last week for all three hours respectively too.
The show falls firmly in the middle when compared to the rest of this year so far, but we shouldn't forget RAW 25 and a post-Royal Rumble episode that may have drawn more eyes due to Ronda Rousey's appearance the night before.
Aside from those two shows and the episode before RAW 25, this was the most viewed RAW of the year - and keeps the red brand firmly above the three million viewer mark as well.
Kurt Angle also announced that, at Elimination Chamber, Ronda Rousey will officially sign her WWE RAW contract. Will that affect the ratings? You'd have to think so.
What’s next?
Well, next week's edition of RAW will be the go-home before the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view on February 25th, so we should expect the viewership to receive another bump in viewers.
Author’s take
Well, this week's edition of RAW was particularly good and, with John Cena announced beforehand, it was always going to draw a decent viewership. Add to this a high-stakes main event and Sasha v Bayley, and WWE set themselves up pretty well this week.
Elias and Braun's interactions definitely made it enjoyable - and you'd have to think people will be tuning in to see both of them after their recent spells. WWE also announced that Ronda Rousey would be joining the red brand this week, so will there be a rise post Elimination Chamber? I guess we'll have to wait and find out.
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