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WWE Raw Ratings Rebound with 1.92M Viewers for Becky Lynch Announcement
May 12, 2020
Monday night's post-Money in the Bank episode of WWE Raw on USA Network featured a rise in viewership compared to last week.
According to Showbuzz Daily, this week's Raw averaged 1.919 million viewers during its three-hour broadcast, which was up from 1.686 million last week. Monday's Raw also had a 0.57 rating in the 18-49-year-old demographic.
WWE advertised a huge, career-altering announcement to be made by Becky Lynch on Monday's show. The Man opened Raw by handing the Raw Women's Championship over to Money in the Bank winner Asuka and announcing that she is pregnant.
That ended Lynch's 399-day run as Raw women's champion, which is by far the longest reign in the history of the title.
WWE also advertised the return of Edge and Randy Orton to WWE programming for the first time since their Last Man Standing match at WrestleMania. Edge and Orton closed the show with a promo segment that set the stage for a rematch.
The Viper noted that while the "better man" won at WrestleMania, the better wrestler didn't. As a result, Orton challenged Edge to a regular singles match at next month's Backlash pay-per-view.
Edge didn't officially answer the challenge yet, but if he does accept, it will be his first normal one-on-one match since 2011. Since there are questions about whether The Rated-R Superstar can still go in the ring like he used to, the stipulation is a smart way to continue the rivalry between he and Orton.
In another newsworthy moment, The IIconics made their return to WWE programming after several months away. They beat WWE women's tag team champions Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross in a non-title match to set the stage for a championship match next week.
Also, WWE champion Drew McIntyre beat United States champion Andrade in a non-title match, Bobby Lashley defeated Humberto Carrillo and seemingly aligned himself with MVP, and Shayna Baszler beat Natalya after Nattie confronted her for criticizing Becky and her pregnancy.
Seth Rollins, who is the father of Lynch's child, was in an almost catatonic state following his loss to McIntyre at Money in the Bank, and he snapped during a tag team match by pushing Rey Mysterio's eye into the corner of the steel ring steps.
Rollins' brutality seemingly set the stage for he and Murphy to begin a rivalry with Mysterio and Aleister Black moving forward.
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