By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

WWE Raw on Monday, August 22 scored slightly below a 3.0 rating with a 2.97 rating. Raw was down nine percent compared to last week's 3.27 rating the night after Summerslam.

The overall rating was the lowest since a 2.90 rating on July 11 (the week after the Fourth of July Raw). Other than Fourth of July, it was the second-lowest rating since October 11, 2010.

Raw averaged 4.64 million viewers, down eight percent from last week's average of 5.05 million viewers the night after Summerslam. The first hour averaged 4.61 million viewers and the second hour only increased slightly to 4.66 million viewers despite John Cena vs. C.M. Punk in the main event.

ESPN's pre-season Monday Night Football increased to an average of 5.85 million viewers, up from 5.00 million viewers last week. WWE also faced tough competition from TNT's dramas and History Channel programming.

On cable TV Monday night, Raw ranked #4 in total viewers behind TNT and ESPN. Among key adults, Raw was #2 behind the NFL. Among teen males, Raw scored its second-lowest rating of the year. Raw typically dominates the teen male demo on Monday nights, but ranked behind Disney Channel and Cartoon Network programming.

Caldwell's Analysis: Not only did WWE lose adults this week, which is only the tip of the iceberg compared to when the NFL regular season starts, but teen male viewers are also dropping off. In the middle of the post-WrestleMania lull period in mid-June, Raw scored a 2.99 rating among males 12-17. This week's Raw was down to a 1.82 rating in the demo. One year ago this week, Raw scored a 3.23 rating in the demo.

There was intrigue from all audiences last week to see the fall-out from Summerslam, but WWE wasn't able to retain the audience this week. What WWE is doing isn't connecting right now. When the NFL regular season begins in a few weeks, it's not going to be pretty unless WWE has a major item up their sleeve to cover their short-sighted booking approach since WrestleMania. It probably means some desperation passes toward The Rock in the endzone, which could boost the product or water down his eventual WrestleMania 28 match.

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