WWE's Post-SummerSlam Raw Does Highest Total Viewership in Years

World Wrestling Entertainment has began a new chapter, and the numbers are indicating it's already a successful one. The post-SummerSlam edition of Monday Night Raw drew 2.23 million viewers with a 0.61 rating in the key demographic of 18-49. This was the first episode of Raw with Paul "Triple H" Levesque truly in charge of creative, as last week's Raw was reportedly largely written before The Game was promoted that same day. As Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics points out, the August 1st edition of Raw did the highest total viewership for the show since March 16th, 2020, which did 2.33 million viewers. That Raw was the first to emanate from the vacant WWE Performance Center and would start a 16-month stretch of crowd-less WWE shows.

That 0.61 rating in the 18-49 demographic is the highest since the April 12th edition of Raw, the post-WrestleMania 37 episode, which did a 0.54 in the same demo. This is also a significant boost from the prior week's episode, which did a 0.50 in the 18-49. The 2.23 million viewers is also up big time from the previous week, which did 1.91 million viewers.

This post-Summerslam episode and the first Raw since Paul Levesque took over creative, is the highest total viewership since March 16, 2020, the first Raw without an audience due to Covid.

P18-49 was the highest since the post-Wrestlemania Raw in Aprilhttps://t.co/s1CKyIMlmi pic.twitter.com/6n9WkZlemB

— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) August 2, 2022

This week's Raw peaked in the first hour, drawing as high as 2.43 million viewers. Check out the hourly breakdown below:

• First hour: 2.433 million viewers, 0.65 in the 18 to 49 demographic
• Second hour: 2.288 million viewers, 0.62 in the 18 to 49 demographic
• Third hour: 1.969 million viewers, 0.56 in the 18 to 49 demographic

While there were no monumental surprises or returns on this week's Raw, there was a focus put on under-utilized aspects of the show. Ciampa, a former two-time NXT Champion who was largely directionless upon his main roster call-up, picked up two victories en route to a shot at WWE United States Champion Bobby Lashley. Bayley's new stable with Dakota Kai and IYO SKY were included in multiple segments throughout the broadcast. There was a general emphasis on wrestling throughout, as multiple matches like SKY vs. Bianca Belair and Montez Ford vs. Seth "Freakin" Rollins were given substantial time while in-ring promos and backstage segments were kept short and to the point.

WWE's next main roster TV show, SmackDown, airs this Friday.