After Smackdown landed its highest viewership and ratings since the episode after WrestleMania, Raw was poised to face stiff competition. But amid a Game 7 for the Stanley Cup Final and the deciding Men’s College World Series game, WWE’s flagship show held up and then some.
The June 24 Raw on USA Network episode earned its highest viewership figures since the night after WrestleMania XL. Raw averaged 1,814,000 viewers and scored a P18-49 rating of 0.61. Each figure is the highest the show’s fetched since that aforementioned episode on April 8, 2024.
Raw featured highlights from Liv Morgan, the Women’s World Champion, who played the role of the main character well. Morgan officially landed a title defense against Zelina Vega and then appeared to orchestrate a plan to land Finn Balor and J.D. McDonagh the World Tag Team Championships. Elsewhere, World Heavyweight Champion Damian Priest and Seth Rollins agreed to fascinating and exciting terms for their Money in the Bank championship match. Drew McIntyre also cut a promo after quitting last week and then assaulting CM Punk on Smackdown.
Also, an advancement into last week’s super-popular Wyatt Sicks angle continued with a deep and emotional promo from Bo Dallas.
Raw went head-to-head for the second consecutive week with a clinching game in a league championship final. Last Monday, the show went up against Game 5 of the 2024 NBA Finals. Last week’s episode averaged 1,747,000 viewers and a 0.55 rating, which were both up from the previous week’s numbers of 1,609,000 and 0.50. In 2023, against a Finals clincher, the show averaged 1,595,000.
While there’s no comparable data to last year’s Stanley Cup Final (which concluded on June 13), interestingly, last year’s show scored a similar average in a similar spot. The June 26, 2023, episode averaged 1,973,000 viewers and a 0.61 P18-49 rating.
In other words, summertime signals the summer rush for WWE. The usual spring lull came, and it went, and the last two weeks of television signal they’re ready to roll into high gear. A huge episode of Smackdown awaits this week at Madison Square Garden, and next week’s Raw looks loaded as well, going into Money in the Bank next Saturday.
[Data Cited from Wrestlenomics Patreon]
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022