This week's episode of Monday Night Raw experienced a considerable drop in viewership.

According to Showbuzz Daily (h/t Marc Middleton of WrestlingInc.com), this week's episode averaged 1.774 million viewers on USA Network.

This is the third time in five weeks where Raw fell under 1.8 million viewers, and it marks the fourth-lowest Raw viewership of 2021, via WrestlingInc.com's viewership tracker.

The show usually peaks in the first hour, but this week, the second hour drew the best viewership with 1.830 million viewers, per Middleton.

Last week's show averaged 1.907 million viewers, marking the third most-watched Raw episode of 2021. The post-WrestleMania 37 episode recorded 2.026 million viewers. Only the Jan. 4 "Legends Night" episode drew more viewers (2.128 million).

Monday Night Raw was largely focused on the WWE Championship picture ahead of WrestleMania Backlash.

Braun Strowman and Drew McIntyre teamed up for the second straight week against T-Bar and Mace, one week after losing via disqualification. This time, Strowman and McIntyre lost via countout.

WWE official Adam Pearce subsequently placed Strowman in a singles match against McIntyre. The stipulation was that if Strowman won, he would be inserted into the WWE Championship match at WrestleMania Backlash against McIntyre and Bobby Lashley.

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Strowman was able to defeat McIntyre via pinfall following a distraction from T-Bar and Mace, thus earning an opportunity at the Universal Championship.

Elsewhere, Charlotte Flair had her suspension lifted one week after attacking referee Eddie Orengo, who accepted her apology. Charlotte also defeated Mandy Rose in a singles match.

Not Much Progress In Ratings Ratings

The decline of Raw's ratings over the past few years have been well-documented. Although the numbers were strong in the previous two weeks, WWE just hasn't been able to find a way to consistently reach two million-plus viewers. Replacing Paul Heyman with Bruce Prichard hasn't changed much as far as ratings go. It's clear that WWE has plenty of work to do if they want to see a major increase in viewership.

NEXT: WWE WrestleMania Backlash: Match Card, Start Time, And How To Watch