WWE News: WWE RAW takes a hit without Brock Lesnar & Seth Rollins

What's the story?

This week on RAW, we saw Kurt Angle and Braun Strowman team up against Baron Corbin and Drew McIntyre in the main event. Despite the star-studded lineup, the viewership dropped 7% when compared to last week.

Last week's edition of RAW, which was the post-Royal Rumble show saw 2.703 million viewers tune in. This week's edition saw a decline with only 2.510 million watching the show.

In case you didn't know...

Seth Rollins was the big name missing from RAW this week. He has suffered an injury as a result of which he was forced to sit out.

Brock Lesnar was also missing from the show, but that's not surprising considering it's Brock Lesnar. There was a big Intercontinental Championship between Lashley and Balor advertised for the show, but it was replaced with a match between Balor and Lio Rush instead.

Sasha Banks and Bayley qualified for the Women's Tag Team Title Match at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.

The heart of the matter

Thank you to Wrestling Inc. for the following figures. RAW was #1 on cable for the important 18-49 demographic despite the fact that the ratings had dropped a notch as compared to last week's show.

The first hour drew the strongest viewership at 2.656 million, while the viewership dropped to 2.552 million for the second hour. The third hour would record the lowest ratings at 2.321 million viewers. While these are not the strongest figures, it's still higher than the low numbers the show had hit earlier in the year.

What's next?

As WrestleMania season approaches, expect the programming to kick into high gear once again. The ratings are certain to climb as more pieces fall into place. One wonders what surprises lie in store to boost the ratings in weeks that follow.

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Who can be the next breakout star in Seth Rollins' place? Let us know in the comments.