By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

Mark Henry's fake retirement and ruse on John Cena scored a big TV rating at the top of the third hour Monday night on Raw.

PWTorch has received quarter-hour TV ratings for the males 18-49 demographic, which indicates that Henry-Cena scored a 2.47 rating in the demo. The next-closest rating was a 2.24 rating in the sixth quarter-hour for A.J. Lee vs. Stephanie McMahon.

By comparison, the over-run featuring the end of C.M. Punk vs. Alberto Del Rio and Brock Lesnar's surprise return scored a 2.14 rating.

Interestingly, looking at the m18-49 minute-by-minute ratings, the A.J.-Stephanie segment actually contained the most-watched minute of the entire show, narrowly edging out the peak of Henry-Cena.

At 9:26 p.m. EST, Raw averaged 1.696 million viewers for the peak of A.J.-Stephanie, then went to break with 1.661 million viewers. By comparison, Cena-Henry peaked with 1.663 million viewers at 10:12 p.m. EST. Raw then went to break with 1.594 million viewers.

Raw did not come close to the peak of Cena-Henry the remainder of the show. The closest was 1.366 million viewers at 11:04 p.m. EST for Brock Lesnar's surprise return to confront C.M. Punk at the end of the show.

Interestingly, C.M. Punk's Raw TV return in the first segment of the show contained two minutes that drew more viewers than during the over-run. At 8:12 p.m., Raw averaged 1.369 million viewers and at 8:14 p.m., Raw averaged 1.378 million viewers leading to commercial.

First-Half Highlights

- Q1: The m18-49 viewers are usually slow to check into Raw in the earlier timeslot, but the audience was there in big numbers for the immediate Payback PPV fallout. This week, Q1 scored a 1.93 rating and averaged 1.206 million viewers. Last week, Q1 scored a 1.38 rating (40 percent increase this week) and averaged 864,000 viewers.

The most-watched minute of the first hour was the end of Punk vs. Alberto Del Rio on the microphone with 1.378 million viewers at 8:14 p.m. EST.

- Q4-Q5: After hitting a valley in Q2, Q3, and the first-half of Q4, Raw hit 1.326 million viewers at 8:59 p.m. for the start of Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan.

After a mid-match commercial break, the match built to a peak audience of 1.514 million viewers at 9:12 p.m. when the match was stopped and Bryan stomped off backstage.

- Q6: After Bryan-Orton, Raw kept up the momentum with the A.J. Lee-Stephanie McMahon segment.

Inside the Segment: 1.476 million viewers at 9:22 p.m. when A.J. was speaking, jump to 1.618 million viewers at 9:23 p.m. when Stephanie interrupted, peak at 1.696 million viewers at 9:26 p.m., and head to break with 1.661 million viewers at 9:28 p.m.

Second-Half Highlights

- Q7-Q8: The Kane vs. Dean Ambrose and Antonio Cesaro vs. William Regal matches held up okay, ranging between 1.3 and 1.4 million viewers, but not reaching 1.5-million-viewers territory.

- Q9: Cena-Henry delivered in a big way at the top of the third hour.

Inside the Segment: 1.403 million viewers at 10:00 p.m. EST for the start of Cena's promo, then a jump to 1.549 million viewers at 10:04 p.m. when Henry interrupted. Raw then built to 1.625 million viewers at 10:11 p.m., peaked with 1.663 million viewers at 10:12 p.m., and went to break with 1.594 million viewers at 10:13 p.m.

- Q10: After Triple H buried 3MB earlier in the show, the Chris Jericho vs. Heath Slater "comedown match" only topped out with 1.320 million viewers at 10:24 p.m. EST.

- Q11: The McMahons arguing backstage drew peak viewership of 1.350 million viewers at 10:41 p.m. prior to ring introductions for the main event.

- Q12: There was not significant interest in the C.M. Punk vs. Alberto Del Rio main event from the m18-49 demographic. The match started with 1.114 million viewers, and only peaked with 1.247 million viewers before a mid-match commercial.

After a mid-match commercial took away part of the audience, Raw only reached 1.205 million viewers at 10:59 p.m. EST leading into the over-run.

The over-run picked up some steam, though. As Del Rio was counted out, Raw increased 150,000+ viewers to 1.356 million at 11:02 p.m. EST. Dolph Ziggler attacking Del Rio then drew 1.340 million viewers at 11:03 p.m., Brock Lesnar's return increased to 1.366 million viewers at 11:04 p.m., and Raw went off the air with 1.339 million viewers at 11:05 p.m.

M18-49 Show Summary

Hour 1 - 1.85 rating / 1.157 million viewers
Hour 2 - 2.07 rating / 1.293 million viewers
Hour 3 - 2.00 rating / 1.253 million viewers
Over-Run - 2.14 rating / 1.336 million viewers
OVERALL - 1.99 rating / 1.242 viewers (up 22.5% from last week)

M18-49 Quarter-Hours

Q1: 1.93 rating (vs. 1.38 last week)
Q2: 1.85 rating (vs. 1.38 LW)
Q3: 1.75 rating (vs. 1.46 LW)
Q4: 1.87 rating (vs. 1.53 LW)
HOUR: 1.85 rating (vs. 1.44)

Q5: 2.02 rating (vs. 1.64 LW)
Q6: 2.24 rating (vs. 1.62 LW)
Q7: 1.98 rating (vs. 1.61 LW)
Q8: 2.02 rating (vs. 1.58 LW)
HOUR: 2.07 rating (vs. 1.61)

Q9: 2.47 rating (vs. 1.80 LW, 1.47 2WK)
Q10: 1.87 rating (vs. 1.82 LW)
Q11: 1.89 rating (vs. 1.75 LW)
Q12: 1.78 rating (vs. 1.63 LW)
HOUR: 2.00 rating (vs. 1.75 LW)

Over-run: 2.14 rating (1.88 LW)

OVERALL SHOW: 1.99 rating (vs. 1.62 rating last week)

Caldwell's Analysis: What's interesting is that viewer-fatigue for m18-49 seemed to kick in during the third hour after the Cena-Henry segment to the point where this week's Q10 rating almost came down to last week's Q10 rating. This could be because a big wave of m18-49 viewers tuned in earlier than usual for immediate PPV fall-out, so they got in their two hours of Raw viewing before tuning out.

It appears some m18-49 viewers came back for the over-run, but it was unusual because most weeks the m18-49 audience builds throughout the show after a slow start. Whereas, the general audience usually tunes in at the start, then fades out in the third hour and is replaced by the older male demo for the conclusion.

We suggest these recent related articles...

WWE NEWS: Superstars SPOILERS - Results from Chicago Raw

WWE NETWORK: Monday, Oct. 12 Schedule - Raw pre-show, Sting DVD preview

WWE NEWS: Lana & Rusev reportedly engaged - follow the interesting 2015 timeline