WWE Reportedly Makes Major Change To Raw Due To AEW’s Ratings

This week’s episode of WWE Monday Night Raw was originally set to feature a Raw Tag Team Championship match, but it looks like the match has been pulled from the show. RK-Bro were set to defend the Raw Tag Team Titles against Bobby Lashley and MVP, but WWE has since announced that Randy Orton will be challenging Lashley for the WWE Championship instead.

Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that while AEW Dynamite did not beat Raw in overall viewership, Dynamite did beat Raw in the key 18-49 demo.

Bobby Lashley vs. Randy Orton for the WWE Title was recently announced for the Extreme Rules pay-per-view, but it’s being reported that the match was moved up to Raw because WWE is reacting to Dynamite beating Raw in the 18-49 demo. It’s worth noting that WWE is still advertising Orton vs. Lashley for Extreme Rules.

Last week’s episode of AEW Dynamite featured an appearance from CM Punk, as well as the first appearances from Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole on the show. Dynamite drew 1.319 million viewers and scored a 0.52 rating in the key 18-49 demographic.