WWE News: How did Raw's Ratings hold up against the NBA Finals?

What's the story?

WWE's efforts against the NBA Finals weren't enough to retain their audience, with nearly 300,000 less viewers than last week.

The June 10 edition of WWE Raw averaged 2.12 million viewers and generated the lowest viewership since the Christmas and New Years's Eve episodes.

In case you didn't know...

The NBA Finals aired on ABC an hour after Raw started, averaging 18.2 million viewers as the Golden State Warriors beat the Toronto Raptors 106-105.

Raw was four days removed from WWE Super ShowDown in Saudi Arabia, but didn't receive the post-PPV viewership increase that usually occurs.

The heart of the matter

With the NBA Finals airing on a national broadcast, Raw dominated Monday Night Cable at number one, beating Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta on VH1 and Teen Mom on MTV in the demographic ratings.

Raw was down 12 percent from last week's episode on June 3 which averaged 2.40 million viewers with the advertisement of Mr. Money in the Bank, Brock Lesnar, cashing in his contract against Seth Rollins for the Universal Championship.

The following is the hourly breakdown for the June 10 Raw episode per ShowBuzzDaily:

Hour one: 2.380 million

Hour two: 2.086 miliion

Hour three: 1.909 million

The third hour of Raw brought the show below the two million viewership mark for the fourth time since the Christmas and New Year's Eve episodes from 2018.

Compared to last year, Raw was down 22 percent from the June 10, 2018 episode, which was headlined by a fatal four-way match between Bobby Roode, Finn Balor, Kevin Owens and Braun Strowman.

What's next?

The NBA Finals will conclude this Sunday, which means Raw won't have much to contend with until the NFL season begins in August.

Raw's viewership is expected to increase significantly for next week's show and should hold the number one spot for Monday Night Cable until the end of the summer.