USA Network Pleased With WWE’s Recent Changes
USA Network is the home of WWE Monday Night Raw with a new report stating that executives at the channel, as well as parent company NBC Universal, are happy with WWE’s recent changes.
It’s been a summer full of changes in WWE with former CEO & Chairman Vince McMahon’s sudden retirement on July 22 leading to his daughter Stephanie McMahon-Levesque taking over as Chairwoman as well as the Co-CEO with Nick Khan. Meanwhile, Paul “Triple H” Levesque has taken on more roles within the company including the Head of WWE Creative and running Talent Relations with the new job title of Chief Content Officer.
A recent report from Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select has noted that NBC Universal and USA Network official are very happy with the changes that WWE has made. There’s more in-ring action on Raw now among other things.
Another person claimed that the recent viewership numbers for Raw are more of what USA Network expected when the new Raw contract started in October 2019. USA Network is paying WWE $265 million per year for Raw, which runs three hours live every Monday (it may be taped on a few occasions per year) from 8pm ET to 11pm ET. One of the sources at USA Network said that at “one point they also didn’t expect Raw to be back over 2 million viewers regularly, which happened in August.”
Another source that’s part of Universal said that the buzz surrounding the backstage changes in WWE can’t be argued with while also believing that Smackdown’s television audience on Fox should see an increase as well.
The story goes on to note that many people at USA Network were happy to see creative changes to the WWE product with Triple H running things. The source also believes that USA will likely negotiate with WWE to keep Raw when negotiations for a new contract begins in October 2024 while adding that WWE is in a better position now than they were before Vince McMahon retired.
Some of the current champions on Raw right now include Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair, the United States Champion Bobby Lashley and the team of Raquel Gonzalez & Aliyah hold the Women’s Tag Team Titles that allows them to be on all of WWE’s brands. The Usos hold the Raw Tag Team Titles, as well as the Smackdown Tag Team Titles, and Roman Reigns is the current WWE Champion (normally exclusive to Raw) while also holding the Universal Championship.
USA Network also airs WWE’s third brand NXT on Tuesday nights.
In January 2023, WWE and USA Network will celebrate 30 years of Raw.