By Wade Keller, Torch editor

Monday night's Raw rating dropped to a 2.6 (2.5 first hour, 2.7 second hour), which would tie the lowest rating in the last 11 years. Back on Sept. 15, 1997, before the Monday Night War boom period, Raw drew a 2.6 also.

Keller's Analysis: Clearly the marquee Monday Night Football game took a chunk out of Raw ratings. Dallas and Philadelphia are major markets and the game was a high-scoring classic. However, Raw has faced many challenges over the years with marquee sporting events - baseball playoffs and Monday Night Football - and not for more than ten years has a September rating been lower. This is a result of a lot of things, with John Cena's absence near the top of the list. Rey Mysterio vs. Kane was not strong enough to carry a main event, the botched and bungled storyline leading up to their feud didn't help. Vince McMahon is likely to react to this rating if not by next week, the week after, if ratings don't improve, with major changes. It could be the return of Million Dollar Mania, his return as a regular character, an attempt to bring some star power back to the show such as Steve Austin in some sort of on-air role, if not more talent exchanges between Raw and Smackdown, and perhaps even a shift of Jim Ross back to Raw (although forces within WWE are unlikely to ever entertain the notion that Ross makes a difference to ratings).

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