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Monday Night RAW has dominated wrestling television for nearly three decades since launching in 1993. However, in 2020, we consume content in a much different way than we ever have before causing a decline for traditional cable ratings.
Gone are the days of having to wait until the next week to see what happens on your favourite show, gone are the days to having to wait months or a season to conclude. With streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and Disney Plus you can now watch your favourite show in a matter of days.
Why is this important? It's important because you can no longer judge the WWE or any television product solely on its cable ratings these days. The WWE has been smart and proactive to also reach out to the younger and more electronically save generations and allow them to follow their product on other platforms, such as social media.
Mike Johnson of PWInsider this week reported that WWE makes around $13 Million per month from YouTube.
Taking that on an average means they make nearly as much from YouTube as they do from the WWE Network. So today we are going to look at the top five most-watched YouTube videos from the January 6th, 2020 Monday Night RAW.
#5 Rey Mysterio attacks Andrade for ripping off his Mask
After successfully retaining his title, Andrade would be seen backstage holding up Rey Mysterio's mask as a trophy. After the match, the United States Champion ripped off the legendary Superstar's mask and gave it to Zelina Vega almost as a trophy.
The segment happened earlier in the first half of the show which saw higher ratings than the third hour, this is important to note as many people may have decided not to watch this segment on YouTube and instead catch-up on the third hour where nearly 300,000 people tuned out.
Viewership Total: 427,000
#4 Brock Lesnar To Enter at No.1 In Royal Rumble Match
The first RAW of this year opened with Brock Lesnar and his advocate standing in the middle of the ring stating there is no one on the roster worthy of facing the champion. This would lead to Heyman announcing that not only would the champion be entering himself into the Royal Rumble match but he would also be entering in the No.1 position, meaning that anyone who wants a shot at The Beast will have their opportunity according to Heyman.
It's intriguing to me that this video is so low on the list. Generally, Lesnar videos do quite well on YouTube and major announcements to open RAW are higher on the list. This maybe due to this segment seeing a nice viewership number of 2.5 million viewers or could also be that the clip doesn't have much replay ability.
Viewership Total: 681,000
#3 Rusev presents Lana-Lashley a special Wedding Album
This angle I believe has more people looking at YouTube metrics than ever before. The Lana, Lashley and Rusev angle has been an extremely polarizing one since the beginning. Many people such as myself would point to the angle working in a positive way for all parties.
This is due to the heat the angle is getting for the live audience with the former Ravishing Russian and Lashley being booed at all times, as well as Rusev getting his best cheers in a long time.
You could also point to the metrics however in this case to show that the angle is working as this has been the most viewed YouTube segments for over a month, posting over ten million views in totality. The angle once again approaches one million in less than 48 hours, which is actually a decrease for the trio.
Viewership Total: 898,000
#2 Big Show Returns To Help Owens and Joe vs. Rollins and AOP
In the first hour of RAW this week, we were treated with Samoa Joe and Kevin Owens backstage discussing how they would like to get back at Rollins and AOP.
This led to Joe stating that they would be teaming up to take on the new heel trio and that they would have a mystery partner in their corner.
This lead to much speculation on social media about who would be the partner throughout the night. Some believed it would be Aleister Black due to a dark room the mystery person was being seated in and some believed it would be an NXT Superstar to help promote the upcoming show, and some thought it would be Ricochet.
Instead, we were treated with the return of The Big Show, who had been out with a hip injury for over a year.
Viewership Total: 1.3 Million
#1 Big Show, Kevin Owens, and Samoa Joe vs. Seth Rollins and AOP
The actual match was the highest viewed video clip from Monday Night's event in Oklahoma City. Interestingly enough when people saw the Big Show make his return many believed he would turn heel and join Rollins and AOP.
While this is still a possibility in the coming weeks, this match would actually just be a setup for a special stipulation for next week's show.
Next week, there will be a six-man tag "fist fight" on RAW and this match is what led to it. It is nice that AOP and Samoa Joe, three guys who haven't had enormous continued success on YouTube, got some shine.
It could also be explained that many people after tuning out of RAW in real time came back and watched the end of the show on YouTube. Once again there was nearly a 300k viewership loss between the first and third hour.
Viewership: 1.64 Million
