Roman Reigns retained his World Heavyweight Championship in Mexico City. (Credit: Rich Freeda/WWE via Getty Images)
WWE via Getty Images
Roman Reigns and Penta made some magic on last week’s episode of Monday Night Raw, in more ways than one.
On the Sept. 14 special edition of Raw from Mexico City, “The Tribal Chief’ put his World Heavyweight Championship on the line against hometown hero Penta, and it paid off big time for WWE. According to Tudum (h/t Fightful), ”WWE Raw on September 14 drew 3.1 million global views on Netflix. The show ranked sixth globally and fourth in the United States. It’s the most viewed episode since April for the Raw After Mania episode.”
Reigns’ highly anticipated match against Penta was his first world title defense on either Raw or SmackDown since June 2022, when he defeated Riddle to retain WWE Championship on an episode of SmackDown. Over the past several years, Roman Reigns matches in general have become increasingly rare. Non-PLE matches? Even rarer. Non-PLE title matches? Rare too.
The stars aligned, however, for Reigns to face the red hot Penta in Penta’s home country, and with SmackDown’s WWE Championship recently changing hands multiple times after brief reigns on SmackDown, there was an obvious air of excitement that Penta could follow in the footsteps of Sami Zayn and pull off a monumental upset.
With the buzz surrounding Penta’s push and a rare Reigns match, Tudum (h/t Fightful) added that the Sept. 14 Raw featuring Reigns vs. Penta as the main attraction resulted in an additional 500,000 viewers from the previous week’s Raw: “The September 7 episode scored 2.6 million global views. It ranked seventh globally and fifth in the United States.”
According to date compiled by Wrestlenomics (h/t Wrestling Inc), “Raw did not not hit the three million mark over the summer, with the highest global views for an episode coming on August 17 at 2.7 million.”
What makes that number even more impressive is that Raw was going head-to-head with the season debut of the NFL’s Monday Night Football on ESPN. According to ESPN, the Week One game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos topped 23 million viewers, making it the most watched Week One edition of Monday Night Football since it moved to ESPN in 2006.
Reigns is widely considered to be one of WWE’s biggest draws, having recently led the company to its biggest boom since the Attitude Era alongside top names like Cody Rhodes and CM Punk. Reigns’ impact on Raw’s Netflix viewership doesn’t come as much of a surprise, but it does speak volumes for Penta, a newcomer to the main event scene in WWE.
Although there was some disappointment among fans that Penta did not pull off the upset over Reigns on Raw, WWE reportedly now views the high-flying luchador as a top star for the company. Just this past week on Raw, Penta was a last-second replacement for Solo Sikoa in a Money in the Bank qualifying match, and he went on to win it and earn a spot in the men’s match at next month’s PLE.
With the excitement surrounding Penta playing a key role in Raw’s best viewership since April, that could bode well for the former AEW star, who now appears to be the leading candidate to win the coveted briefcase.
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