WWE Rumors: Vince McMahon's Reason for Booking Reigns vs. Big E vs. Lashley Revealed

WWE reportedly altered its plans for the main event of Monday night's episode of Raw because of happenings on untelevised live events leading up to the show.

According to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t WrestlingInc.com's Jason Ounpraseuth), the original plan called for the six-man tag team match between New Day and The Bloodline to close Raw.

Instead, that match served as the opener, with Universal champion Roman Reigns scoring the win for his team after interference from Bobby Lashley. That led to Lashley, Reigns and WWE champion Big E squaring off in a Triple Threat main event.

Meltzer noted that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon was such a fan of the Reigns vs. Big E vs. Lashley Triple Threat match at live events in Augusta, Georgia, and North Charleston, South Carolina, that he wanted it to occur on Raw as well.

It was also reported by Meltzer that the change was made with an eye toward boosting Raw's ratings as it went head-to-head with Monday Night Football.

The decision was successful, as Raw averaged 1.86 million viewers and a 0.49 rating in the 18-49-year-old demographic, per Showbuzz Daily. According to WrestlingInc.com's Marc Middleton, Raw was up 7.37 percent in overall viewership and 13.95 percent in the demo.

It marked the first Raw with Big E as WWE champion after he cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Lashley the previous week, and it also featured Reigns, who is a SmackDown Superstar.

With both Big E and Reigns working twice on the show, Raw was able to hold the interest of fans far better than the previous week.

WWE has pulled out all the stops on Raw since the start of the NFL season, and based on the positive gains it saw last week, that could continue to be the case moving forward.

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