This week’s edition of WWE Raw posted the best number for the Monday night program in over three months thanks in large part to the heavily promoted triple threat match between Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman and Samoa Joe that ended when Reigns pinned Joe. I would have said main event, but it didn’t go on last.
According to Showbuzz Daily, this week’s Raw did 3.163 million viewers with all three hours topping the three million mark. Hour one did 3.194 million viewers, the second hour is usually highest and it was again this week with 3.275 million viewers and the third hour was the lowest like usual with 3.021 million viewers. The WWE office should be happy with that number since it’s an improvement over the 3.067 million viewers from last week and a slight improvement over the 3.153 million viewers from two weeks ago. Remember that the show from two weeks ago on July 17 had Samoa Joe vs. Roman Reigns with the Universal Title shot on the line and the mystery angle about Kurt Angle as well, so that was a heavily promoted show.
The good news is that it was the highest number of viewers since the April 17 episode with 3.346 million viewers, which was when they did the Superstar Shake-up and there was a lot of interest because we wanted to find what wrestlers were moving over from Smackdown to Raw.
One of the big topics with this week’s show was the match order. A lot of fans were confused by why WWE would put Reigns vs. Joe vs. Strowman on at the end of hour two and to start hour three rather than the actual main event slot. They chose to put the boring Big Show vs. Big Cass match in the main event, which didn’t mean a hot ending for the show.
The simple explanation as to “why” is because WWE looks at the numbers like we do. If the second hour does the best every week, which it does, then you might as well put the most important segment at the end of it. Since WWE has quarter hour breakdowns as well, they know when more people are watching. With that said, as viewers we have become used to seeing the most important match or segment as the true “main event” of Raw and when it’s not, fans are left to wonder what WWE’s creative team is thinking. Raw ending with a great match won by Reigns would have ended it on a positive note rather than Big Show’s music playing to end the night. Big Show doesn’t exactly bring the excitement anymore, no offense to him.
I think advertising a big match like Reigns vs. Joe vs. Strowman was a great move. It’s something WWE should do more often especially once September gets here and they are competing against Monday Night Football again. For now, WWE should be pleased with the highest number of viewers in over three months. Even though the show wasn’t very good, it’s something they should be happy about.
