By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

WWE Raw on Monday, April 30 following Extreme Rules scored a 3.33 rating, up from a 3.07 overall rating last week (3.31 standard two-hour rating). It was the third-highest rating of the year, trailing the night after the Royal Rumble and night after WrestleMania.

-- Raw averaged 4.88 million viewers, the most since the night after WrestleMania 28. Outside of the night after Mania, Raw averaged the second-most viewers of the year.

Raw was boosted by 4.99 million viewers in the first hour for the immediate fall-out from Extreme Rules and the Brock Lesnar-Triple H 20-minute opening segment. The first hour beat the night-after-Mania's first hour of 4.96 million viewers.

After the Lesnar-Hunter angle played out and WWE shifted to the Beat the Clock Challenge, the second hour declined five percent to an average of 4.77 million viewers. This was fewer than the final hour viewers for last week's three-hour Raw (4.83 million viewers).

-- On cable TV Monday night, Raw's overall viewership ranked #1, edging out the NBA Playoffs. In key adult demos, Raw was #2 behind the NBA. The first hour of Raw ranked #1 among teen males.

-- Despite the overall rating increasing, the key demos were virtually even with last week or showed slight declines. Notable was the m18-34 rating down one-tenth of a rating compared to last week's full three-hour rating.

Caldwell's Analysis: Good showing for Raw this week. But, WWE won't have the momentum of a big Brock Lesnar PPV return match to boost next week's Raw, and the show will be up against high-profile NBA Playoffs games, so I expect the decline from the first hour to second hour to continue to next week's show. How WWE handles Lesnar's temporary storyline write-off could be key to the next few weeks going in and out of another PPV.

We suggest these recent related articles...

WWE NEWS: Superstars SPOILERS - Results from Chicago Raw

WWE NETWORK: Monday, Oct. 12 Schedule - Raw pre-show, Sting DVD preview

WWE NEWS: Lana & Rusev reportedly engaged - follow the interesting 2015 timeline