After scoring their highest audience since the night after WrestleMania, WWE Monday Night Raw pulled in strong viewership on Monday night. Though the 4th of July was the next day, amid a barren night on television, WWE Raw still held in and delivered ratings very close to its 2023 average.
July 3, 2023’s numbers checked in at an average of 1,828,000 viewers for WWE’s flagship show on USA Network. Their P18-49 demo number clocked at 0.49, according to Wrestlenomics.
WWE Raw on USA Network on Monday, 8-11pm:
1,828,000 viewers
P18-49 rating: 0.49
📊https://t.co/qDSSxyAPtr pic.twitter.com/p5V9bFEur8— Wrestlenomics (@wrestlenomics) July 5, 2023
These numbers do rank them slightly below what they charted last week. Raw drew 1,973,000 the previous week and a P18-49 demo of 0.61. But this is not a staggering drop-off by any means. Given what was on the show, that’s emblematic of a few things, almost all entirely positive.
Among the few things advertised for Monday night’s episode of Raw was a Women’s World Championship match between longtime veteran Natalya and mega-star Rhea Ripley. Fans had to wait until the end of the second hour to see the burgeoning Ripley, and the audience swelled for the match. Citing Wrestlenomics’ quarter hours report, Ripley and Natalya’s match reeled in the night’s biggest audience. The show peaked with their match dominating the ninth quarter-hour, as the match scored 1,950,000 viewers.
The ensuing quarter-hour went down to 1,725,000, a sizable drop indicating things are working in Ripley’s favor. Monday night’s audience came to see Rhea wrestle Natalya. As the show wore on, they stuck around — also significant for several reasons — and then came out in droves for her.
Although there have been criticisms about Ripley and her title run, viewership doesn’t join forces all the way with that thought. She’s a star and appears to have become appointment viewing for many. Monday night might be Ripley’s most significant and loudest trick yet.
But what viewers didn’t expect was what happened for what amounted to half the entire telecast.
In the fourth quarter-hour, around 8:45 p.m., Ronda Rousey came to the ring. Rousey was betrayed at this past Saturday’s WWE Money in the Bank event in London by longtime friend and tag team partner Shayna Baszler. Baszler then came to the ring to have a back-and-forth segment with Rousey. This was just the start of a fascinating 90 minutes of television.
Once that segment concluded, Raw moved on to new Women’s Tag Team Champions Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez. Morgan and Rodriguez, fan favorites, joined ringside for a previously unadvertised Tag Team Turmoil match. The match pit ten women in five teams — Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell, Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville, Emma and Nikki Cross, Dana Brooke and Tegan Nox, and Katana Chance and Kayden Carter — against each other. This was set up to determine the next contenders for Morgan and Rodriguez’s championship. The match lasted nearly 12 minutes and took up the brunt of that time.
Then, after the commercial, multi-time Women’s Champion and future Hall of Famer Becky Lynch continued the parade of women as she went to the ring for a segment. Lynch, WWE legend Trish Stratus and newcomer Zoey Stark, who are entrenched in a personal feud, had an entertaining promo segment that helped continue their storyline. After that, a six-person tag team match took the stage. And it was once again the women who became the focal point.
Newcomer and rising fan-favorite Maxxine Dupri delivered a plain ol’ Vertical Suplex on Valhalla that got the crowd fired up. Dupri won the match for her team, Alpha Academy, which features former U.S. Olympian Chad Gable and fan-favorite Otis. After this, Rhea and Natalya took the stage until about the telecast’s 10:15 p.m. Eastern Time mark.
WWE has made a lot of improvements in the presentation of its women. You don’t have to ask many wrestling fans how poorly they were treated. Problems still emerge today and shouldn’t go unnoticed, for sure. However, one thing that also shouldn’t go unnoticed is their willingness to take a bath—a willingness to let things happen and make them work, despite potential consequences. Of which there were absolutely none this past week.
Much of the women’s tag team turmoil match featured wrestlers who haven’t gotten a lot of screen time over the past few months. Some have not even appeared since the WWE Draft earlier this spring. Still, viewership didn’t taper off dramatically at all. It didn’t taper off much at all throughout the telecast, in fact. PW Torch reported only a 67,000 viewer drop from the first to the third hour. They logged 1,854,000 in hour 1, 1,843,000 in hour 2, and 1,787,000. That Hour 2 stayed consistent, with women comprising almost the entire hour front-to-back, is a massive positive. And it shouldn’t be construed as anything else.
WWE viewers were not only not turned off by the number of women on the show, not turned off by the fact that they took up the entire hour, but they even grew the audience regarding Ripley’s championship match. So the work that’s been done and the work being done has been more than enough not to induce fatigue or irritation among the majority.
As women’s sports continue to rise around the U.S., it seems WWE and its audience are also moving to that beat. The fact that the company paraded 21 different women, one after another, for 50 percent of the telecast — and to not experience any significant tapering – is all the proof in the pudding you need. It also indicates Rhea’s current star power, which sometimes has felt limitless. She has a legit following, and right now, they are moving right with her in and out of the telecasts.
(One might even ask themselves if it’s time for an Evolution sequel, as well)
After this week, WWE Monday Night Raw is averaging 1,820,926 viewers on the year with an average demographic rating of 0.55. Monday night’s viewership increased the average this year from 1,819,885 up to its newfound standing. Its 0.55 demo average was maintained despite going from 0.61 to 0.49.
So, in other words, it was another night at the office for WWE. Even with an abrupt, unadvertised, but apparently welcomed change of pace during the show.
[data cited by Wrestlenomics; PW Torch]
