WWE: Monday Night Raw Sees Drop in Ratings Before SummerSlam Pay-Per-View

WWE might have thought it would make sense to expand Monday Night Raw to three hours, but they may now be scratching their heads after how the SummerSlam go-home show performed in the ratings.

On Monday night, Raw saw its lowest ratings since moving to a three-hour format (via TV By the Numbers).

In its first hour, WWE Monday Night Raw had 3.79 million viewers. The second hour improved to 4.25 million viewers, and the third hour closed out with 4.35 million. Overall on cable television, Raw slipped in the Top 50 rankings, with its final hour scoring a 1.7 rating in adults 18-49.

Is the three-hour Raw format working? 

After WWE exploded in the ratings on its 1,000th episode, Raw has seen the ratings steadily decline since moving to a new three-hour time slot. With the Olympics concluding and Raw up against the NFL preseason football, this has to be very disappointing for WWE officials.

The first hour ratings have not been impressive by any means.

For this week's edition of Raw, it dropped under four million viewers. The second and third hour did not see any major sort of increase, which is a sign that wrestling fans were either watching another television show or just not interested in the current product presented.

Since the addition to its time slot, Raw has been a bit dragged-out as a show, and the ratings are showing why it is not necessary to add a third hour.

Is Raw fit to be just a two-hour program?

When Raw moved to three hours, I felt the WWE was making a poor decision because the show just does not fit that model.

The first hour has been filled with tons of video packages, talking segments and limited matches.

Instead, the first hour should be used as a tool to keep story lines fresh and offer young wrestling talents a chance at their spotlight. 

However, after another poor ratings report, Raw is best fit to be a two-hour program to watch.