WWE News: Raw after Elimination Chamber Drops in Viewership
What’s the Story?
Following the mediocrity that was the Elimination Chamber, Monday Night Raw didn’t manage to maintain their viewership.
The Feb 26th edition of the flagship program averaged 3.180 million viewers and was down 103,000 from last week’s average of 3.283 million.
In Case You Didn’t Know...
The Raw after the Elimination Chamber focused more on segments than usual as John Cena, Roman Reigns, The Miz, and Ronda Rousey were involved in segments with WrestleMania implications.
The six-woman tag team match, Seth Rollins and Finn Bálor taking on The Miz in separate matches and the Two out of Three Falls match between Titus Worldwide and The Bar for the Raw Tag Team Championships were the biggest matches on the show.
The Heart of the Matter
The following is the hourly breakdown of this week’s edition of Raw per Show Buzz Daily:
Hour One: 3.407 million
Hour Two: 3.249 million
Hour Three: 2.884 million
The transition into the second hour saw 158,000 tune out, but the biggest drop occurred in the third hour and resulted in a loss of 365,000 viewers.
Brock Lesnar was advertised to confront Reigns regarding their upcoming match at WrestleMania 34, but the Universal Champion did not appear as advertised.
Another point of interest following Raw was the news from Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Asuka was expected to announce which Women’s Championship she was challenging for, but the segment got nixed.
The Empress of Tomorrow was expected by many to challenge Charlotte for the SmackDown Women’s Championship after Asuka defeated Bliss back in January, but that is pure speculation.
What’s Next?
Next week’s episode will emanate from the BMO Harris Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin but neither Rousey nor Lesnar is advertised to appear on the show.
Lesnar’s is expected to appear the March 12 edition of Raw, but there is no indication of when the former UFC Bantamweight Champion will return to confront Stephanie McMahon.
Author’s Take
The show was just as uneventful as the Elimination Chamber, but it also stoked the flames for many of the WrestleMania feuds that fans are waiting to be announced.
Hopefully, next week’s show is much more interesting.