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WWE Hopes To Recover Lost Viewership
The Big Show made his WWE return last month, working his first match since his appearance following the main event of Wrestlemania 36.
Over the last several weeks, Big Show and Randy Orton have been teasing a match, with many thinking it would take place at WWE Extreme Rules.
This past Monday on RAW, it was announced their match will happen the following week on the July 20 edition of the show.
Dave Meltzer noted in the latest edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the “Unsanctioned Match” between Big Show and Randy Orton was added to RAW due to a significant decline in raitngs.
With Raw ratings declining so significantly, the Big Show vs. Randy Orton match will air on the 7/20 Raw show in an unsanctioned match. That does make sense because that match isn’t going to add any network buyers, which is how you make money today off a PPV, but after this past week’s record low, Show vs. Orton should avert coming even close to another record low next week. At least they’d better hope for that, because it will be scary if they put that match on television and don’t get a significant improvement.
This past week’s episode of Monday Night RAW had an average viewership of 1.561 million, drawing the was the second-lowest viewership in modern history.