RAW viewership suffers a major blow; records one of the all-time lowest numbers in WWE history
The last episode of RAW might have helped the red brand in taking several strides in the build-up for the upcoming WWE PPV, Extreme Rules: The Horror Show. But the taped episode ended up fetching the third-lowest viewership for RAW in the entire WWE history.
As reported by WrestlingINC, RAW had 1.735 million viewers on the USA Network. The viewership drawn by RAW is 9.7% less than compared to the average viewership from last week when the show registered 1.922 million viewers during its Championship edition.
The report further suggests that RAW had 1.862 million viewers in the first hour, 1.751 million viewers in the second hour, and 1.592 million viewers in the third hour. It was indeed one of the biggest shifts in the viewership numbers recorded in WWE history.
What happened on RAW this week?
This week's episode of RAW started with the double contract signing segment which saw Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre make their upcoming WWE Championship match official. In addition, Sasha Banks and Asuka signed the dotted lines to confirm their RAW Championship match scheduled for Extreme Rules: The Horror Show.
As is typical with WWE contract signings, the segment featured altercations between the Superstars present inside the ring which set up a mixed tag team match for the main event.
The show also saw Andrade and Angel Garza teaming up to take on the Viking Raiders. The latter couldn't win the match as the Zelina Vega-led stable ended up besting them inside the squared circle.
R-Truth defeated Akira Tozawa for the 24/7 Championship whereas Big Show ended up beating Angel Garza and Andrade in a two-on-one Handicap match on RAW. We also saw Buddy Murphy and Seth Rollins defeat the team of Aleister Black and Humberto Carrillo.
The RAW Women's division saw Peyton Royce claiming an important victory over Ruby Riott. The United States Champion Apollo Crews locked horns with MVP in a Single's match, but he couldn't pick a victory. On the other hand, Bobby Lashley ended up winning his match against Ricochet.
Finally, in the main event of RAW, Dolph Ziggler and Sasha Banks teamed up to take on WWE Champion Drew McIntyre and RAW Women's Champion Asuka. After an engaging match, Ziggler and Banks ended up winning the match against their future opponents to close the show.