WWE Raw Rating: Did advertising Shawn Michaels give the show a ratings boost?

WWE Raw scored a dismal 2.99 rating, which rounds to 3.0, down from last week's 3.25 rating. The show averaged 4.12 million viewers overall, but the first hour averaged 3.92 million, making it the worst watched first hour since September 2011.

Shore's Slant: Ouch. The show failed to technically break 3.0 even with little competition. So what have we learned? New blood (relatively speaking) who has not had a story in months wins the Rumble and the show draws the highest rating in months. You advertise a retired star from the Attitude Era and the show does one off the worst first hours in months. Don't get me wrong, I''m not blaming HBK for this rating. But it is interesting that even when old stars like him and Rock are advertised the show has little or no increase, but shows that feature the current crop of wrestlers do much better (as a general rule).