By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

WWE Raw on Monday, June 17 scored a 3.03 rating following the Payback PPV, flat with a 3.04 rating last week despite significant buzz coming out of the PPV and offering a hot show.

In the key demographics, Raw ranked among younger viewers and with the general audience, but Raw was topped by the NHL Stanley Cup Finals in males 18-34 and males 18-49.

The positive for Raw is the key demos increased one-tenth to two-tenths of a rating to four-week highs. It appears the show scored a flat rating due to a weaker performance outside of the key demos.

- Raw averaged 4.15 million viewers, up four percent from the PPV lead-in show. By comparison, the post-Extreme Rules episode in May averaged 4.27 million viewers with considerable less buzz.

Hourly Break Down: 4.027 million first hour viewers for immediate PPV fall-out, bump to 4.263 million second hour viewers (most-watched hour since post-Extreme Rules), and decline to 4.172 million third hour viewers.

Caldwell's Analysis: Last week's Smackdown generated huge social media buzz, but drew the lowest rating of the year. This week's Raw scored the highest social media score since the night after WrestleMania, but was flat compared to the PPV lead-in show.

Based on new research PWTorch has received over the past few weeks, what appears to be happening is WWE is drawing an older-skewing audience (i.e. less socially-active), so if that audience drops off, it affects the overall rating. Right now, WWE is struggling to attract new viewers to their programming and the WrestleMania Season audience has not tuned back in.

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