While wrestling has taken a beating on cable as a consequence of Nielsen’s latest viewership system, things have not gone significantly better for “Raw” on Netflix. September proved to be the worst month the red brand has had since joining Netflix in January, with three out of 5 episodes drawing 2.4 million total views or less, and the September 22 and 29 episodes specifically drawing a record low 2.3 million views over per week. And October hadn’t been much kinder, rising only to the two.4 million views range.
Fortunately, October 20 turned out to be the most effective “Raw” has done shortly. Wrestlenomics reports that the episode drew 2.6 million views over the course of the week. Not only was this up from October 13, however it represents the best variety of total views “Raw” has gotten in a month, because the September 8 and 15 episodes each did 2.6 million views. “Raw” was also up in hours viewed with 5.1 million, up from 4.6 million, and the best variety of hours viewed since 5.3 million on September 15.
The excellent news was also reflected in Netflix’s global and domestic rankings, where “Raw” has continued to position well even with lower than expected viewership. The October 20 episode placed sixth globally, the best “Raw” has ranked on this category since August 25. Similarly, “Raw” was as much as 4th place domestically, the primary time it had gotten that prime since September 22.
Last week’s “Raw” was built across the fallout of The Vision’s betrayal of Seth Rollins one week prior, and featured Rollins being stripped of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship as a consequence of the attack/shoulder injury. The show was important evented by a battle royal to find out who would face CM Punk for the vacant championship at Saturday Night’s Essential Event, with Jey Uso ultimately prevailing.