WWE loaded up on Raw on 10/19, bringing back Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, Undertaker and Brock Lesnar, and drew the company's lowest non-holiday rating for the show since February 17, 1997, with 2.20 rating and 3.35 million viewers.
The actual audience was up 80,000 viewers from the prior week due to a strong 1.59 viewers per home, the highest total of the year. Total viewers were in the same range as the show has been doing against football all season, and even though the competition was tough with baseball playoffs, the NFL and the debut of the "Star Wars" trailer. But this was a show WWE had been peaking for, including Austin, the biggest arena and merchandise draw in company history, appearing on Raw for the first time in four years.
The Austin return was largely a waste, in the sense WWE didn't advertise him as being on Raw anywhere except in Dallas until a little more than three hours before the show started. It's been constantly proven how breaking news on Twitter is a constant disappointment when it comes to sparking ratings, but that's a lesson that seems to go unlearned, with this being the latest example. Still, the other four were pushed all week on television, and the company had made the announcement of all the names several weeks ago. In addition, the company had heavily promoted Austin doing a podcast with Lesnar after Raw.