UPDATE: Per Post Wrestling, the ratings originally reported for the third hour of this week’s RAW were incorrect. The correct figure is 1,586,000, making the show the lowest rated of 2021 but only the second-lowest of all time.
WWE’s flagship show has broken an unwanted record as Monday’s Memorial Day episode of Raw drew the lowest rating in the show’s 28-year history.
According to the Nielsen ratings reported by PWTorch, Monday’s edition of Raw drew an average of 1.418 million viewers on the USA Network. That rating is down 12.5% from the previous week’s show which drew an average rating of 1.621 million viewers.
The breakdown of the hourly ratings for Raw shows that the third hour dropped off massively this week leading to the lower average. The first hour drew 1.536 million viewers and the second drew 1.549 million viewers, both those numbers are slight declines from the week previous. However, the third hour of Raw only drew 1.168 million viewers, which is a drop-off of nearly 400,000 from the week before.
The all-important 18-49 key demographic also saw a dip this week reaching the second-lowest point it has been in Raw’s history. It dropped 2.22% from last week which means the only episode of Raw lower than this weeks using this metric took place on the 14th of December 2020 when it went head to head with the NFL.
Memorial Day weekend is a holiday in the US which could attribute to the record low number. Comparisons with last year’s Memorial Day show saw this year’s viewership down a massive 18% from 2020. The 18-49 demographic also dropped 10.2% from last year’s holiday weekend show.
Some of WWE’s biggest hitters competed on Raw with the former fourteen-time champion of the world Randy Orton compete against New Day’s Xavier Woods. Charlotte Flair was also in action, albeit in a two-minute challenge match with Nikki Cross. The main event saw two former WWE Champions go head to head to become the new number one contender to Bobby Lashley. Drew McIntyre claimed that spot by defeating Kofi Kingston in Raw’s main event.
Raw also proved to be the last outing in WWE for Lana. She teamed with Naomi but fell to defeat at the hands of Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke. Lana was released from her WWE contract along with five other WWE Superstars including former WWE Universal Champion, Braun Strowman.