WWE will look to build on its post-WrestleMania XL momentum during Fox’s April 12 Friday Night SmackDown telecast after posting its best yearly viewership numbers for its Monday Night Raw earlier this week.
USA Network’s April 8 three-hour Monday Night Raw event — airing a day after WWE’s April 6-7 WrestleMania XL weekend “premium live event” streamed on Peacock — averaged 2.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen numbers published by Cagesideseats.com. It marks the first time the long-running series has hit the 2 million viewer mark this year.
The Monday Night Raw show featured appearances by WWE superstars Cody Rhodes and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who both appeared in WrestleMania XL’s main-event match, in which Rhodes won the WWE Universal Championship from Roman Reigns. Its strong viewership came despite competing against the March Madness men’s championship game between UConn and Purdue, which drew a combined 14.8 million viewers across TBS, TNT and truTV.
Overall, WrestleMania XL’s weekend audience on Peacock was up 41% across both nights compared to last year, according to WWE, although neither the streamer nor WWE released specific numbers. The two-night event was the most socially viewed WrestleMania of all time, with more than 660 million views consumed over the two days, WWE said.
Both Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown will soon have new distribution homes. USA signed a five-year deal to air SmackDown beginning this October, while Netflix will exclusively stream Monday Night Raw in 2025 as part of a 10-year, $5 billion deal with WWE parent TKO Group Holdings reached this past January.
