By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

Last night's episode of WWE Raw scored a 3.34 rating, which was up from last week's 3.29 rating.

The Raw episode last night completing the Summerslam build-up was down slightly from the five-week average of a 3.37 rating from July 12 to August 2.

-- Raw averaged 4.63 million viewers over the course of the two-hour show, which was down slightly from last week's 4.66 million viewers.

The first hour opened with 4.42 million viewers, which was down from last week's first hour of 4.52 million viewers.

The second hour grew to 4.84 million viewers, which was more than last week's second hour with 4.81 million viewers.

-- The demographics tell the story of where the ratings increase came from this week. The show was up to a 3.25 rating among male teens 12-17, compared to a 2.88 rating in the demo last week.

Ratings among adult males and overall adults were down slightly compared to last week's episode. However, Raw was the #1 ranked show among males 18-49 on cable TV last night. Also, the second hour was the #1 ranked show among adults 18-49 on cable TV.

The Nexus angle, plus John Cena in jeopardy, appears to be connecting with younger viewers, as evidenced by the strong ratings with teen males. Also, the overall product seems to be connecting with adults, which could be a good sign for Summerslam buys.

-- The following is a break down of Raw's TV ratings over the last month, including last night's show.

July 12: 3.32 rating
July 19: 3.39 rating
July 26: 3.50 rating
Aug. 3: 3.28 rating
Aug. 10: 3.34 rating

-- The following is a break down of Raw's TV viewership over the last month with the last six episodes of Raw.

July 5, 12 & 19: 4.78 million viewers
July 26: 5.19 million viewers
Aug. 3: 4.66 million viewers
Aug. 10: 4.63 million viewers

Caldwell's Analysis: Interesting results this week. Ratings were up, overall viewership was down, TV viewership in the second hour was up, and Raw had its lowest overall viewership in six weeks. In the long-term picture, the paying audience is soft on WWE's product right now (as evidenced by the second quarter earnings results), but there have been a variety of short-term boosts in Raw viewership (overall and with specific demographics) throughout the course of the Nexus storyline.

Last week's Raw seemed to cut off the momentum from July's strong TV ratings, but it could also be a good sign. If WWE is drawing more "quality" viewers, who are more likely to order the Summerslam PPV, and losing some casual viewers, it's a good sign for WWE's business. Based on the strong hype for Summerslam on last night's Raw, WWE recognizes the need to draw a decent PPV buyrate and recover from the Q2 results.

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