By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

For the second consecutive week, the interaction between Daniel Bryan and Triple H/Stephanie McMahon positioned at the top of the third hour blew away the rest of Raw in the quarter-hour TV ratings.

In the key demo of males 18-49, Raw peaked between 10:02 and 10:12 p.m. EST for the meat of Bryan's "Occupy Raw" bit setting up Hunter accepting a WrestleMania match.

Numerically, the Q9 segment at the top of the third hour averaged 1.747 million m18-49 viewers and scored a 2.78 demo rating. This grew on last week's show-high Q9 performance of 1.620 million viewers and 2.57 rating.

The next closest segment this week was 1.534 million viewers in the over-run for Bryan & Big Show vs. Randy Orton & Batista.

For non-over-run segments, Q5 drew 1.494 million viewers for Paul Heyman-The Undertaker and Q7 drew 1.484 million viewers for the end of The Shield vs. Rhodes Bros.

Then, there was the first hour. The first hour was not even in the ballpark of Fall TV Season first hour, which ranged between 1.1 and 1.2 million viewers. This week's first hour did not reach 1.2 million viewers and did not reach 1.1 million viewers until Q3.

Raw Break Down - M18-49 Demo

- Overall Show: 2.19 rating and 1.373 million viewers

Q1: Raw opened with a measly 1.081 million viewers for Hulk Hogan opening the show, John Cena interaction, and Wyatt Family interruption. Either fans were mad after last week, Daylight Savings Time threw off viewers, or there were other reasons why this opening segment performed poorly.

Q2: Raw dipped to a show-low 1.021 million viewers for Cena vs. Erick Rowan, plus two commercial breaks.

Q3: Raw bumped up to 1.151 million viewers for The Authority making a speech, one commercial, and The Usos vs. Ryback & Curtis Axel.

Q4: Raw bumped up to 1.186 million viewers for Big E. vs. Jack Swagger and two full commercial breaks.

Q5: Raw got a 26 percent top-of-the-hour bump to 1.494 million viewers for The Undertaker returning and Paul Heyman confronting him, plus one commercial. The segment peaked with 1.700 and 1.701 million viewers before the commercial.

Q6: Raw dipped to 1.476 million viewers for the first-half of The Shield vs. Rhodes Bros. and one commercial.

Q7: Raw rebounded to 1.484 million viewers for the end of the tag match, one commercial, and a Divas tag match.

Q8: Raw fell to 1.434 million viewers for two commercials and the first-half of Daniel Bryan hi-jacking Raw. The segment started to build momentum at the end of the hour, peaking with 1.725 million viewers at 9:55 p.m.

Q9: Raw skyrocketed 22 percent to 1.747 million viewers for the Bryan-Hunter/Stephanie confrontation and one commercial at the end of the segment.

Peak viewership was a ridiculously-high 1.922 million viewers at 10:10 p.m., then 1.919 million viewers at 10:11 p.m. heading to commercial. From 10:02 p.m. to 10:12 p.m. viewership was between 1.7 and 2.0 million viewers.

Q10: Raw fell back to the pre-Q9 levels with 1.431 million viewers for the first-half of Sheamus vs. Christian and one commercial.

Q11: Raw inched up to 1.449 million viewers for the second-half of Sheamus-Christian, one commercial, and a backstage segment.

Q12: Raw dropped to 1.365 million viewers for pre-main event happenings, main event ring intros, and two full commercial breaks.

Over-run: Raw increased to 1.534 million viewers for Bryan & Show vs. Orton & Batista. The segment was up from 1.429 million viewers for last week's over-run, but last week's segment included a rare mid-overtime commercial.

Caldwell's Analysis: Bryan vs. Hunter is going to carry WWE to WrestleMania this year. Last year, it was the C.M. Punk-Paul Heyman interaction surrounding Punk vs. Undertaker. This year, it's the Bryan-Authority show. WWE just has to be careful with how they frame it by not going over-board on the "Hippies vs. Corporations" theme that could take viewers out of the moment of what has been an easy-to-follow "Underdog vs. Power-Hungry New Boss" feud.

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