WWE Raw Ratings Hold Steady After Seeing 200,000 Viewership Drop Last Week

After WWE Raw saw its viewership drop by over 200,000 last week, Monday night's episode largely held steady with 2.13 million viewers, according to Showbuzz Daily (h/t Fightful's Carlos Toro).

Raw's hourly viewership went from 2.35 million in the first hour to 2.21 million in the second and 1.85 million in the third.

Last week, Raw averaged 2.13 million viewers during its three-hour broadcast, which was down from 2.34 million the previous week.

Raw had the benefit of following Friday's SmackDown, which featured several surprises from NXT with much of the roster being stuck in Saudi Arabia because of mechanical issues with the plane. Raw also faced some stiff competition, though, in the form of a Monday Night Football game between the NFC East rival Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants.

Monday's edition of Raw was largely built around Triple H's attempt to recruit Seth Rollins to the NXT side ahead of Survivor Series. Rollins beat Adam Cole by disqualification in the main event NXT Championship match when Undisputed Era interfered, and it led to a massive brawl between the NXT and Raw rosters.

Many of the NXT Superstars who appeared on SmackDown were part of Raw as well, including Undisputed Era, Tommaso Ciampa, Matt Riddle and Keith Lee. Dominik Dijakovic and Damian Priest made their main roster debuts as well.

Also, during an interview segment featuring Raw Women's champion Becky Lynch, NXT Women's champion Shayna Baszler interrupted and vowed to make Becky tap during their Triple Threat match at Survivor Series, which includes SmackDown Women's champion Bayley.

WWE champion Brock Lesnar and his advocate, Paul Heyman, opened the show by explaining the decision to quit SmackDown and go to Raw. They also discussed their intent to hunt down Rey Mysterio.

Lesnar caused plenty of havoc, including an F-5 on Dio Maddin through the announce table, but Mysterio got the last laugh by attacking The Beast with a lead pipe.

The unpredictability that comes with NXT's involvement in Survivor Series should continue to be a factor next week as the built to the pay-per-view rolls on.

WWE will once again have some heated competition next week, however, in the form of a clash between the undefeated San Francisco 49ers and the 7-2 Seattle Seahawks on Monday Night Football in a battle for NFC West supremacy.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).