Raw ratings with Shane McMahon return, plus WWE Extreme Rules is back

The return of Shane McMahon to start the show appears to have impacted the viewership of Raw greatly, or it was that and a combination of the bump caused by coming a day after the PPV.

Last night show did 3.87 million viewers, the best number since the day after the Royal Rumble doing 4.09 million viewers.

It’s hard to know how much the McMahon return would mean since it was a shock, but it was also at the beginning of the show, meaning word may have gotten around quickly causing people to tune in.  The show ended up having a huge third hour drop, at a larger levels than most weeks, but the third hour was still ahead of every third hour since the day after Rumble show.

The show was up 12 percent from last week’s 3.46 million viewers, which was the second lowest number for a non-holiday show outside of football season since 1997.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 4.20 million viewers
9 p.m. 4.06 million viewers
10 p.m. 3.40 million viewers

Tickets went on sale for the Payback PPV on 5/22 in Newark, NJ at the Prudential Center, and then Ticketmaster changed the name of the show to Extreme Rules.

There will still be a Payback show on 5/1, but the location hasn’t been announced.

We have three audio shows up talking WWE and Shane McMahon’s return:  Monday’s Wrestling Observer Radio, a breaking news audio Tuesday morning, and Wrestling Observer Live.