Tag: WWE Raw

First Raw of Triple H era posts highest ratings numbers in 2 years

The Aug. 1 episode of WWE Raw, the first with Paul Levesque in charge of creative, drew ratings numbers not seen in two years.

The combination of post-SummerSlam fallout and curiosity around the first episode with Paul “Triple H” Levesque in charge of creative was enough to draw more viewers back to watch WWE Raw live on Monday, Aug. 1 than at any point in the last two years.

As reported by Variety and a number of news outlets, the most recent Raw drew an average of 2.3 million viewers and scored a 0.6 rating in the crucial 18-49 demographic. Both numbers were up more than 20% over the previous week, and were the highest posted for Raw since 2020.

Dave Meltzer offered additional context in his article for Wrestling Observer:

The show was first in every key demo on cable, doubling everything but Better Call Saul in men 18-49. It also beat every network show in 18-49 except The Bachelorette, including first-run shows on ABC in hour three, NBC in hour one, and Fox all night.

In total viewers, Raw was fifth behind four news shows.

While the first Raw under Levesque didn’t mark a radical departure in terms of content or presentation from when Vince McMahon was in charge, there were a few noticeable differences. Several commercial breaks during matches were taken in a picture-in-picture format, something AEW does regularly but WWE has rarely tried.

The show also featured IYO SKY and Dakota Kai, two performers either rumored to be leaving or already gone from the company, and for whom the feeling around the industry was that they would likely not have returned had McMahon still been running the show. That, plus the elevation of Ciampa thanks to a big victory over AJ Styles, suggested that booking will indeed be a big different going forward.

The obvious question now is how many people who tuned in for this highly anticipated episode will stick around going forward. If even a good chunk of them do, that’s good news for WWE as it fully transitions to life without the all-watching eye of the man who’s guided it for the last four decades.

WWE Raw live results: SummerSlam fallout in Houston

Check out live WWE Raw results for the August 1, 2022 episode from the Toyota Center in Houston.

August is usually when people start referring to the dog days of summer, where thoughts of back to school and a bit of a grind set in. Not so for WWE, which feels rejuvenated after the departure of Vince McMahon and an entertaining SummerSlam. Raw will look to keep that vibe going tonight from the Toyota Center in Houston.

While the aftereffects of the Biggest Party of the Summer are sure to be felt throughout the show, we’ll get some fresh matchups as well. There will be no rest for The Usos after they fended off the Street Profits in Nashville, as their undisputed WWE tag team titles will be on the line against The Mysterios. Rey and Dominik should be confident after defeating The Judgment Day, albeit with an assist from Edge.

Opportunity will also come knocking for six men vying to become the No. 1 contender for Bobby Lashley’s United States Championship. Raw will see a pair of Triple Threat Matches take place; one with Dolph Ziggler, Ciampa and Chad Gable, and the other featuring AJ Styles, Mustafa Ali and The Miz. The winners of those two bouts will then face each other, with the victor earning a shot at Lashley.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that rumors are circulating about other potential returns in Houston, and the Raw after SummerSlam is also a prime time for possible callups from NXT. Add it all up and it’s a Raw you won’t want to miss.

But … if you’re otherwise engaged tonight or simply not within range of a TV with USA, we’ve got you covered. Bookmark this page and check back throughout the night as we update it with the latest WWE Raw results from Houston and you won’t miss anything significant. We promise.

WWE Raw live results from MSG: 20 years of Rey, Impaulsive TV and more

Get live WWE Raw results from the July 25, 2022 episode at MSG, featuring a six-man main event, 20 years of Rey Mysterio, and Logan Paul.

A WWE event at Madison Square Garden is always a big deal. When it’s a live episode of Raw at MSG, that makes people sit up and pay attention even more.

Add in the fact that Vince McMahon is now retired and Paul Levesque (you might know him better as Triple H) is now in charge of creative and you have an MSG Raw that has the eyes of the wrestling world firmly on it less than a week out from SummerSlam. And it’ll have a big main event, with Roman Reigns and The Usos pitting their combined might against Riddle and the Street Profits.

Tonight’s show will also be a celebration of 20 years of Rey Mysterio. The word is that plenty of former friends will be on hand to honor him, but he’s got business to attend to as well. Rey and son Dominik will have another fight against The Judgment Day. Have Finn Balor and Damian Priest truly given up on recruiting Dominik, or do they have another surprise in store?

Logan Paul is also scheduled to appear tonight, continuing his feud with The Miz. Last week, Miz claimed Paul could never do what he did, in the ring or as a talk show host. But Paul accepted the challenge of the second part, saying he’d introduce the world to Impaulsive TV at MSG, and do what Miz does even better.

There are bound to be some surprises as well, given the venue, the looming big event in Nashville and the crazy news that has already hit this week for WWE. It’s a show you’ll absolutely want to watch live if possible, but if you can’t, simply bookmark this page and revisit it throughout the night to get the latest WWE Raw live results from MSG, updated as they happen.

WWE Raw live results: Bianca Belair-Carmella II, plus Logan Paul arrives

Check out WWE Raw live results for the July 18, 2022 episode from Tampa, including a Raw Women’s Championship rematch and Logan Paul.

As the old saying goes, if at first you do succeed but don’t win the championship because you won by countout, try, try again.

OK, that’s not actually how any adage goes, but it does apply to the situation Carmella finds herself in as WWE Raw heads to the Amalie Arena in Tampa tonight. Because Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair kept getting distracted by the presence of Becky Lynch, Carmella was able to beat Belair, even though it didn’t mean the title changed hands.

Can she depend on Big Time Becks still living rent-free inside Bianca’s head and parlay that into a championship during the rematch this week? Probably not, since Belair vs. Lynch at SummerSlam is the more marketable option, but it’s interesting to ponder.

Also, you may have heard that The Miz and Logan Paul teamed together successfully at WrestleMania only for Miz to stab his partner in the back after the bell. Big shocker, that.

Miz thought the two men would bury the hatchet and re-form their team, but Paul put the kibosh on that as soon as he signed his WWE contract. He’s made no bones about the fact that he wants a match against Miz for SummerSlam, but so far it hasn’t been finalized. Paul will be on Raw tonight, so that might change by the end of the show.

Not in Tampa nor around a TV tonight? We’ve got you covered, as we’ll be updating this very post with WWE Raw live results all evening long. Drop back in any time between 8 and 11 p.m. ET for the latest.

Opening Bell: Barbed wire, shark cage on Dynamite, Belair-Carmella II on Raw

Get set for the week in WWE and AEW with Opening Bell: quick previews of Raw, SmackDown, Dynamite and Rampage for the week of July 18.

Welcome to the Opening Bell, where we round up what’s been announced for WWE (Raw and SmackDown) and AEW (Dynamite and Rampage) programming for the week we’ve just begun.

WWE Raw preview – Monday, July 18, Amalie Arena, Tampa

Are you ready for Logan Paul, sympathetic babyface?

That appears to be where we’re headed for SummerSlam, beginning with his appearance this week on Raw. He’s looking for some payback on The Miz for his betrayal at WrestleMania, and all indications are that he’ll get his chance for exactly that.

As far as in-ring action goes, Raw has a Raw Women’s Championship rematch on tap between Bianca Belair and Carmella. Because of her inability to focus on the task at hand, Bianca actually lost to ‘Mella the first time, but because it was by countout, she retained her title. She’ll try to win this second go-round and move on to what awaits in Nashville.

AEW Dynamite preview – Fyter Fest Week 2 – Wednesday, July 20, Gas South Arena, Duluth, Georgia

AEW remains in the Peach State for the second week of Fyter Fest, and it’s got an explosive bout as the headliner for Dynamite. Eddie Kingston will get his wish for “barbed wire everywhere” to make Chris Jericho bleed, but The Wizard has promised it’ll be his Painmaker persona who shows up for the Barbed Wire Death Match. Also, Jericho Appreciation Society will be suspended above the ring in a shark cage for reasons.

Also on tap for this week’s Dynamite:

WWE SmackDown preview – Friday, July 22, TD Garden, Boston

Hey, this is a big city and deserves a big SmackDown, right? WWE has obliged by promising an appearance by Brock Lesnar ahead of his Last Man Standing Match with Roman Reigns at SummerSlam. It’s been strange to have the build done without the two combatants in the same place at the same time, but it’s possible for two big attractions like these, and because Paul Heyman continues to keep the story moving along.

In contrast, Liv Morgan will come face to face with her SummerSlam challenger this week … but may wish she didn’t, as the challenger in question is Ronda Rousey. Will WWE do what it should probably have done a while back and just let Rowdy be a heel?

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Also advertised for SmackDown:

  • Shinsuke Nakamura has a second match against Ludwig Kaiser
  • The only thing that really matters: The Maximum Male Models show off their 2022 Beachwear Collection, and introduce the world to Max Dupri‘s sister, Maxxine Dupri

AEW Rampage preview – Fyter Fest Week 2 – Friday, July 22, Gas South Arena, Duluth, Georgia (taped on July 20)

Fyter Fest will look to close out with a bang, not a whimper, and should get a boost from Dante Martin vs. Lee Moriarity as Martin has already promised it will be a “Guaranteed Banger.”

We should learn more about the rest of the card on this week’s Dynamite, so stay tuned for what should be a good way to close out the week in Big 2 televised wrestling.

Goodbye PG Era: Raw goes to TV-14 rating starting next episode

With a TV-14 rating as it had in the past, WWE Raw will be open to some content it couldn’t show for more than a decade.

WWE Raw could be getting a little more raw as soon as this coming week.

Andrew Zarian, host of the Mat Men podcast and Wrestling Observer Live, tweeted the news that WWE’s long-running Monday night show will return to a TV-14 rating on July 18 after more than decade rated TV-PG.

The “PG Era” that Zarian refers to was WWE’s conscious effort to differentiate its programming from the Attitude Era that lasted from the late 1990s into the early 2000s. In July 2008, Raw received a TV-PG rating for the first time in nearly 11 years, and has been that way ever since. Figure Four Online notes that SmackDown has been rated TV-PG since its debut in 1999.

The change doesn’t necessarily mean WWE plans on taking Raw back to its less all-ages appropriate roots. But the TV-14 rating includes stronger cautions for parents on several fronts, including “strong language” as opposed to “infrequent coarse language,” along with “intense sexual content” versus “brief sexual content.”

There’s also a differences in the warning over violence: “intense” instead of “mild.” Vince McMahon suggested in the past that WWE wouldn’t do “blood and guts and things of that nature,” but the new Raw rating would allow the company to show blood and more explicit violence more freely.

It’s possible there won’t be many noticeable changes at all in the way Raw is presented on a weekly basis, and that the only differences will be the producers needing to be less wary about when Brock Lesnar is on the microphone — as was the case this past Monday when they edited out a mild curse from his promo. But it is quite literally the end of an era, and could make for an interesting point on the WWE timeline when looking back on the company’s history several decades from now.

WWE Raw live results: Brock Lesnar returns to Monday nights

Get the latest WWE Raw live results from San Antonio, featuring the Monday night return of Brock Lesnar.

We promised ourselves we weren’t going to start off this post with any kind of “everything is bigger in Texas” joke, but … come on, who are we kidding? WWE Raw is objectively the biggest wrestling show of any given week at three hours, and tonight’s episode from San Antonio has a big return. So much bigness!

As you may have heard, Brock Lesnar is back in the world title picture, probably because WWE called him and said something along the lines of “hey Brock, we’re really in a bit of a pickle here since Cody is injured and we’re trying to save Drew for the Wales show, would you mind being a pal and helping us out?” At least that’s how we like to imagine that conversation going.

One thing we all should know by now is that Brock wouldn’t be back in WWE if he didn’t want to be, and that it’s only for the biggest of matches. There’s that word again. In this case, it’s a Last Man Standing Match for all the gold against Roman Reigns at SummerSlam.

Because this is a pairing we’ve already seen plenty of times before, WWE is pushing this one hard as the final go-round. And maybe it will be, assuming injuries and other unforeseen factors don’t cause them to go back to this well sometime down the road. But we can’t lie, the possibility that it might be the final time they throw down does have us a bit intrigued.

Also there will be other stuff on Raw. Like, plenty of other stuff. Remember, three hours to fill! A really big show! And if for some reason you aren’t able to watch live, just bookmark this here post because we’ll be adding the latest WWE Raw live results as they happen from San Antonio.

Opening Bell: Lesnar gets Raw, Dynamite explodes into Fyter Fest

Get set for the week in WWE and AEW with Opening Bell: quick previews of Raw, SmackDown, Dynamite and Rampage for the week of July 11.

Welcome to the Opening Bell, where we round up what’s been announced for WWE (Raw and SmackDown) and AEW (Dynamite and Rampage) programming for the week we’ve just begun.

WWE Raw preview – Monday, July 11, AT&T Center, San Antonio

It’s almost certainly not like this at WWE HQ, but it occasionally feels like someone says, “oh crap, SummerSlam is coming up fast, we better start promoting the main event!” Roman Reigns did his part on SmackDown this past Friday, making a now somewhat rare appearance.

Brock Lesnar will return the favor tonight, as WWE is telling the world that the Beast Incarnate will be on this week’s show. We’re not exactly sure what he’s going to do, but the official Raw preview poses the question, “what will Lesnar have to say about squaring off with Reigns one last time?”

Someone may get an F-5. If my name rhymed with Saul Layman, I’d probably just stay in the back when Lesnar is out in the ring.

AEW Dynamite preview – Fyter Fest Week 1 – Wednesday, July 13, Enmarket Arena, Savannah, Georgia

Of the themed episodes of AEW television, Fyter Fest might be right near the top. Not because there’s a special gimmick match or anything like that, but simply because its name is partially a reference to and parody of an infamous event that may otherwise have faded from the memory of everyone except those unlucky enough to attend it.

In any case, Fyter Fest Week 1 will be coming in hot with a three-way tag team championship match featuring the Young Bucks defending against both Swerve in Our Glory and Powerhouse Hobbs and Ricky Starks. The big question here is whether the challenging teams will be able to focus on the gold since they have long-running beef with each other.

Here’s what else to expect on Wednesday night:

WWE SmackDown preview – Friday, July 15, Amway Center, Orlando

WWE has fairly often not provided any clue as to what to expect on SmackDown recently until it is close to the show (as in sometimes the same day), but has helpfully given Orlando-area fans two matches to look forward to come Friday night.

The first is one of the trends we dislike, a Championship Contender’s Match where you have to beat the champ to get a shot at the champ for their title. In this case, the champ in question is Liv Morgan, and the wrestler gunning for another chance to face her with higher stakes is Natalya. Considering Liv already has a formidable foe lined up for SummerSlam in Ronda Rousey, she’ll hope to get past Nattie as quickly as possible.

And after saying last week he’d like to see if it’s possible to stuff the entire Money in the Briefcase inside the big mouth of Theory, Madcap Moss will get the chance to do just that. Smart money says he fails, even though plenty of people would love to see him succeed.

AEW Rampage preview – Friday, July 15, Enmarket Arena, Savannah, Georgia (taped on July 13)

This really is a red letter week as even Rampage has a few matches that have been revealed ahead of time. With the next ROH event less than two weeks away, it’s only right that the company’s world champion, Jonathan Gresham, is in action against Lee Moriarity, particularly since Gresham sold out Moriarity mid-match last week and aligned himself with Tully Blanchard. As one does.

Plus the Lucha Bros. take on Private Party in a tag team match that should give AEW fans who have down since day one pleasant memories of 2019. We mean that in a good way, too.

WWE Raw live results: The Miz has something to say to Logan Paul

Check out WWE Raw live results from the Pechanga Arena in San Diego, two days after Money in the Bank.

WWE Raw is live from San Diego just two days after Money in the Bank … but you wouldn’t know it from WWE’s official preview for tonight’s show.

Playing things extra close to the vest, WWE.com has offered up just one confirmed thing we’ll see, which is The Miz answering the challenge thrown out by new signee Logan Paul.

While the A-Lister seemed pretty confident that Paul would team with again even after getting ambushed with a Skull-Crushing Finale at WrestleMania, Paul made no bones about the fact that he would much prefer to wrestle against The Miz instead. Are they on a collision course for SummerSlam? It would make a lot of sense if they were.

Of course, there’s bound to be some fallout from Money in the Bank whether WWE promotes it or not. Theory sleazed his way into the main event after losing his United States Championship earlier in the show, emerging with something even more valuable in the form of the men’s briefcase and the contract within. It would be pretty off-brand if we didn’t hear him gloat about that tonight.

Can’t watch as the action unfolds from San Diego? Just bookmark this page and check back throughout the evening, as we’ll update it with the latest WWE Raw live results as they unfold.

WWE Raw live results: Celebrating 20 years of John Cena

Check out WWE Raw live results from Laredo, Texas, featuring the return of John Cena and Kevin Owens facing Ezekiel or one of his brothers.

Unless you’ve been living under a WWE-proof rock for a bit, you already know what the big hook is for tonight’s episode of WWE Raw from Laredo, Texas. John Cena is back, and the fans should treat him like a returning hero instead of … well, other ways they’ve responded to him at points of his career.

Speaking of said career, it’s a big milestone for Cena as well, a cause for celebration: It’s been 20 years since his first appearance on WWE television (albeit on SmackDown, not Raw), when he displayed his “ruthless aggression” to Kurt Angle. Time flies.

The question worth watching for now is how long he’ll be hanging around. It’s been long rumored that WWE might be building up to a match between Cena and Theory at SummerSlam, and nothing those two gentlemen have been doing on social media has done anything to cool down that speculation. Any number of people might come out to either congratulate or harass Cena, but we’re expecting Theory will be one of the latter.

Another thing we’re not 100% sure about is who Kevin Owens will face tonight. He challenged either Ezekiel or Elias after his quest to prove they are one and the same hit a new low last Monday, and then said it could even be their  “even younger brother” Elrod. We can’t be the only people hoping it is, indeed, Elrod who walks down that ramp. Wink, wink.

If you can’t watch the action go down live from Laredo, just bookmark this page as we’ll be updating it throughout the show with the latest WWE Raw live results.