WWE Raw Ratings Decline with Rey Mysterio's Return, Asuka vs. Bayley Main Event

Monday's episode of WWE Raw, headlined by Raw Women's champion Asuka against SmackDown Women's champion Bayley, saw its ratings decrease compared to last week. 

According to Showbuzz Daily, Raw's three-hour broadcast on USA Network averaged 1.687 million viewers, which was down from last week's 1.735 million.

Raw's main event saw Asuka and Bayley meet in a singles match for the first time in over two years, and they put on a great showing. The match was especially significant since Bayley's best friend, Sasha Banks, is scheduled to challenge Asuka for the Raw Women's title at Extreme Rules.

Kairi Sane got involved in the match at different points, but it was Nikki Cross who was the deciding factor. Bayley's opponent for the SmackDown Women's Championship at Extreme Rules was thrown out while on commentary, but she resurfaced in the crowd and distracted Bayley, which allowed Asuka to score the win.

Earlier in the night, Sane made her return after several weeks away and faced Banks in an impromptu match. Kairi won by disqualification when Bayley got involved, and that set the stage for the main event.

Sane later challenged Bayley and Banks to a match for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships on next week's episode of Raw, and Sasha accepted, which Bayley didn't seem especially happy about at first.

Raw opened with a promo of WWE champion Drew McIntyre before he was interrupted by his Extreme Rules opponent, Dolph Ziggler. In addition to refusing to reveal the stipulation of their title match, Ziggler claimed McIntyre turned his back on many people on his way to the top.

As proof, Ziggler brought out Heath Slater, who was released by WWE in April. Slater claimed that McIntyre never called to check on him after his release despite the fact that they had been friends for years.

That led to a match between McIntyre and Slater that McIntyre won quickly. Ziggler attacked Slater afterward, and McIntyre ran him off before embracing Slater and doing the hand gesture they used to utilize while they were part of 3MB.

Other key moments on Raw included Rey Mysterio and Kevin Owens beating Seth Rollins and Murphy, which allowed Mysterio to set the stipulation of "an eye for an eye" for his match against Rollins at Extreme Rules. Plus, MVP introduced a new United States Championship belt ahead of his title match against Apollo Crews at Extreme Rules, and the team of Randy Orton, Andrade and Angel Garza beat Big Show and The Viking Raiders in a six-man tag team match.

Next week's Raw will be the go-home episode before Extreme Rules, and it will feature a championship match between The Kabuki Warriors and the team of Sasha and Bayley.

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