The latest edition of WWE Raw wasn’t popular with fans, but it proved to be a success in terms of viewership.
With WrestleMania in the rearview mirror, WWE sent shockwaves throughout the world of wrestling with its Monday morning announcement that it would be merging with UFC to form a new $21+ billion entity under parent company Endeavor. Vince McMahon, who returned to the company in January to help facilitate a sale, will serve as Executive Chairman of the Board of the new corporation.
Despite WWE’s insistence that Triple H is still in creative control as Chief Content Officer, McMahon had his own office and was in Gorilla position all Monday night, with multiple reports saying he was back in charge and running the show.
McMahon reportedly made numerous last-minute changes to Raw, even while the show was on the air, and talent morale has taken a huge hit in the process. Some talent are even likely to request releases if things backstage continue as they were last night.
The Raw after WrestleMania has historically featured exciting surprises for the international audience in attendance, but last night’s show only featured one big return in the form of Matt Riddle confronting The Miz after being absent since December.
In the show’s opening segment, Cody Rhodes confronted Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa after Sikoa helped Reigns defeat Rhodes in the main event of WrestleMania. Rhodes demanded that Reigns face him in a rematch, but Reigns instead agreed to take on Cody in tag team action later that night, provided Rhodes could find a partner. However, Paul Heyman made the stipulation that whoever assisted Rhodes would never be able to face Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.
Brock Lesnar, unaffected by the stipulation as he’s already unable to face Reigns due to their SummerSlam clash, made a shock appearance to assist Cody and declared he’d be his teammate for the main event. However, before the match could begin, Lesnar attacked Rhodes, delivering a brutal minutes-long beatdown to send the show off the air.
WWE Raw Ratings “Above Expectations”
Fans blasted the episode online, rating it the worst episode of Raw ever on Cagematch.net. However, the show proved to be a huge success in terms of viewership. According to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, last night’s episode of WWE Raw drew an average of 2,260,00 viewers with a 0.76 rating in the 18-49 year old demographic. This is the highest rating the show has enjoyed since Raw’s 30th anniversary celebration in January, and the highest rating in the key demographic since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dave Meltzer also reported the numbers online, saying the “giant numbers” were “above expectations.”
Raw did 2.26 million viewers and 0.76 last night for the top spot on cable. Giant numbers. Giant numbers were expected but I'd say this would be above expectations.
— Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) April 4, 2023