By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

WWE Raw on Monday, December 16 scored a 2.95 rating the night after the TLC PPV, up one-tenth of a rating (four percent) from last week's "Slammys" edition of Raw.

Raw fell in-between the last two post-PPV editions of Raw - 2.93 rating following Survivor Series in November and 2.98 rating following Hell in a Cell in October.

Also, Raw averaged 4.20 million viewers, up one percent from last week's "Slammys" edition of Raw. Viewership topped the previous two post-PPV Raws, which each averaged 4.16 million viewers.

Hourly Break Down:

- 4.417 million first hour viewers for the immediate TLC fall-out, which was the most 1H viewers since the night after WrestleMania (4.492 million viewers).

- 4.297 million second hour viewers, which was the most 2H viewers since the night after Summerslam (4.485 million viewers).

- Then, a 10 percent drop-off to 3.886 million third hour viewers.

The main event was Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton, which WWE initially raised expectations for by teasing a WWE World Hvt. Title match, but WWE progressively cued in the audience over the course of the show that the main event was non-title. Raw's final hour was also hurt by Monday Night Football remaining competitive all the way to the final minute of the game.

- On cable TV Monday night, Raw ranked #2 in viewers and all key male demos behind football. Raw's demo ratings in m18-34 & m18-49 were flat compared to last week, but the younger audience jumped significantly.

Notably, males 12-34 was up 12 percent compared to last week for a Fall Season high and teen males 12-17 jumped 42 percent to the highest rating of the year. This helped offset flat ratings in the other demos.

Caldwell's Analysis: There was definitely strong interest at the start of the show for the TLC fall-out, so that points to the Cena vs. Orton title unification build-up resonating. The question is whether first hour viewership at the Night-After-Mania level points to a lack of PPV buys, perhaps with irregular viewers tuning in at the start of Raw to see who won the previous night if they did not order the PPV. Now it will be really interesting to see what TLC buys look like considering a quick three-week build to the unification match and this Raw performance.

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