CM Punk appeared on RAW for the first time in nearly a decade on Monday and closed out the show. Randy Orton, meanwhile, opened it for a confrontation with Rhea Ripley which led to him squaring off with Dominik Mysterio in the main event (the first time he's wrestled on the show since May 2022).
Well, the ratings are in and RAW managed a whopping 1,884,000 average viewers and a 0.65 rating in the key 18-49 demographic.
This is the highest rating since the RAW after SummerSlam and the biggest demo since the RAW after WrestleMania. Tellingly, it also marked a 29% boost in viewership from the previous Monday and a 34% rise in the 18-49 demo.
The show opened to 2,058,000 viewers and closed with 1,768,000, a terrific hold which is a far cry from the days of that third hour crashing and burning.
This comes at an ideal time for WWE. Why? Well, it's being reported that Triple H was absent from Monday's RAW because he's doing the rounds with WWE President Nick Khan in Los Angeles to secure a new rights deal for the longest-running series in weekly episodic entertainment.
SmackDown has already been acquired by the USA Network (meaning it will leave FOX in 2024), while NXT is heading to The CW. It seems a lot of parties are interested in WWE's flagship show and being able to tout this level of engagement has no doubt helped massively. There are even rumblings online that RAW could be worth close to $400 million per year for any broadcaster or streamer interested in the product.
On Monday, Punk kicked off his promo by saying, "Once upon a time, an 'American Dream' taught me that if you speak from the heart, you cannot go wrong because it is the truth and this is the truth: I'm home."
Thanking the WWE Universe for never forgetting him, Punk referenced his wife (and former WWE Superstar) AJ Lee and even shared a nod to his former manager and longtime friend, Paul Heyman.
"A wiseman told me that for me to get everything I need out of this place, I'd have to leave and come back," he said, later acknowledging that he'd been welcomed back with open arms by "almost everybody" in WWE. He then signed off by making it clear he's not in WWE to make friends; he's there to make money!
You can check out some key moments from RAW's start and finish below.