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What's the story?
WWE's tendency of losing their audience for pre-recorded episodes of Monday Night Raw was broken after this week's show increased viewership for the second week in a row.
The May 13 edition of Raw averaged 2.35 million viewers, which was an increase of over 100,000 compared to last week's episode.
In case you didn't know...
WWE dominated Monday night cable beating Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta on VH1 and the NHL conference finals for the number one spot.
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Raw was up by 10 percent from last week's episode which averaged 2.24 million and featured the return of Vince McMahon and Roman Reigns as well as a WWE Championship match between Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston.
The heart of the matter
Raw's viewership usually doesn't increase for pre-taped episodes or go-home shows, but this week was an exception to that historic trend.
The following is the hourly breakdown of the May 13 edition of Raw as per ShowBuzzDaily:
Hour one: 2.576 million
Hour two: 2.391 million
Hour three: 2.080 million
The show opened with a MIZTV segment featuring Wild Card Superstar Roman Reigns, which lead to the opening match with Reigns and The Miz facing Bobby Lashley & Elias.
Becky Lynch's contract signings with Charlotte Flair and Lacey Evans kicked off the second hour, followed by a match between Ricochet and Baron Corbin.
Raw lost nearly 500,000 viewers by the third hour which featured the women's fatal four way, Rey Mysterio vs. Cesaro, a new Bray Wyatt Firefly Funhouse segment and Sami Zayn versus Braun Strowman in the main event.
Despite the increase, Raw was down 14 percent from the May 14, 2018 episode, which averaged 2.74 million which featured and Intercontinental Championship match between Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins.
What's next?
The Money in the Bank pay-per-view will take place this Sunday May 19, which means WWE's viewership should increase again.
However, game four in the NBA playoff series between the Golden State Warriors and the Portland Trailblazers is scheduled to start during the second hour of the show and may lead to a decrease in viewership.
