WWE Raw Rating Is In: How Is the Royal Rumble Hype Drawing?

I enjoyed WWE Raw last night. My grade for the show was in the B range, and it set the stage nicely for this Sunday night.

The Road to WrestleMania officially begins in five days—it should be a very memorable week for the WWE Universe!

However, ratings matter more. Numbers for the company are looked at more closely than an opinion or two on the Internet. For those wondering, last week's Raw rating drew a 3.0. That's an okay number, but it definitely needs to be higher moving forward!

This week, the first hour drew 4,667,000 million viewers.

This week, the second hour drew 4,568,000 million viewers.

The official rating was a 3.2.

My thoughts on the number?

There is still room for improvement. Declining hours seems to be a major problem for WWE the past few months. Fixing that would really be helpful to the numbers. 

Trust me—WWE usually kicks their programming into high gear by February, and this year should be no different. The story line leading up to WrestleMania (almost) always bring in more viewers than usual.

Big names are surely going to be showing up any week now.

Last night on Raw, Triple H was announced as being on this week's show. That being said, Triple H should provide a nice boost next Monday night. Moving past that, it's anybody's guess!

Once again, WWE certainly would love to see their Raw ratings increase. Who wouldn't? However, time is ticking on the clock before the "real" hype begins for the biggest event of the year on April 1st, 2012 in Miami.

As for SmackDown, they continue to perform great. Last week's SmackDown drew 3.3 million viewers! According to this report, it was their largest audience since last February.

UFC on FX drew 1.3 million viewers and showed no effect on WWE's rating.

Raw is live. SmackDown is taped.

Raw has no spoilers. SmackDown has many days in advance online.

Raw airs Mondays on a huge network. SmackDown airs Fridays on a smaller network.

Raw has way more "big name" talent. SmackDown has great performers, but not a lot of big names.

Raw is struggling with ratings. SmackDown is not.

What do you folks think about the WWE ratings? Let me know below...

Reminder: I am now on Twitter @JustinWatry! Feel free to follow...thanks.