WWE Raw Viewership Falls Hard Against Two NFL Games

"WWE Raw" saw an even further decline after its second week against "NFL Monday Night Football," but that decline may not be as drastic as people would suspect. Wrestlenomics shared the viewership information for Monday and the September 19 episode for "Raw" was watched by an average of 1,594,000 viewers, down seven percent from the week previous and the show's lowest viewership has been since the July 4 episode.

Despite that, the key demographic for "Raw" increased a bit. This week's episode was watched by an average of 583,000 viewers aged 18-49 which is up one percent from the previous Monday.

"Raw" came in fifth for cable originals for Monday and the show ranked twelfth for broadcast primetime, but that's for good reason as the program saw itself up against not one, but two NFL games. The Buffalo Bills, an early Super Bowl contender, took on the Tennessee Titans while the Philadelphia Eagles faced the Minnesota Vikings. The latter was on ABC and ranked first for the evening with a 3.81 P18-49 rating while the former ranked second on ESPN with a 2.14 P18-49 rating. 

"Raw" opened with Bobby Lashley defending his United States Championship against Seth Rollins. The match was praised for the great in-work, but it began a night of distraction finishes. Kevin Owens defeated Austin Theory due to a Johnny Gargano appearance. The Judgment Day's Damian Priest and Finn Balor defeated Rey Mysterio and Matt Riddle and Bayley defeated Alexa Bliss, both also due to distractions. The only match on the card to not end under chicanery was The Brawling Brutes (Ridge Hollan and Butch) defeating The Street Profits.