Raw has been on a bit of a slump in recent months, and to be bluntly honest, WWE has created its own mess.

Roman Reigns' battle with illness can't be changed of course, but they could have dealt with the aftermath a lot better.

Vince McMahon decided to place the Universal Championship once again on Brock Lesnar, who will now be absent until probably the Royal Rumble, leaving the supposed number one brand without a world champion.

The second-in-command belt - the Intercontinental Championship - has been almost forgotten about in a feud between Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose that doesn't need a title - and the main event is being dominated by Baron Corbin.

So it's no wonder that fans are deciding to tune-out on Monday nights in big numbers, last week posting their fourth-lowest viewership number in the modern era - 2.37 million viewers.

It was revealed during last weeks much-criticised Raw that Vince 'decided to write most of the show himself' according to Dave Meltzer, after becoming restless at some point during creative proceedings.

And this week he decided to take drastic action yet again.

As per NoDQ, Meltzer reported that McMahon made wholesale changes to the Raw script from what was originally planned for one reason only - the death of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush.

Bush had died aged 94 just three days before the Raw broadcast, which was situated in the city that he lived in - Houston.

Vince apparently showed up just three-and-a-half hours before Raw went live, at some point decided that he wanted to send the fans home happy because of the events that had transpired over the weekend.

This could explain why Dolph Ziggler got a shock victory over the previously-unpinned Drew McIntyre - with the assist from Finn Balor of course - and finished with Ronda Rousey standing tall with Ember Moon to close the show.

Once again though, fans at home voted with their feet, with just 2.29 million in the States choosing to tune in, which tells you all you need to know about the current state of Monday Night Raw at the moment.

Please SUBSCRIBE to our GiveMeSport WWE YouTube channel where we have exclusive interviews and inside scoops.

LISTEN TO OUR LATEST WWE PODCAST WHERE WE TALK TO XAVIER WOODS AND AJ STYLES, AS WELL AS REVIEWING WWE 2K19 AND OUR TRIP TO THE WWE PERFORMANCE CENTER