WWE Tribute To The Troops Draws More Viewers That RAW

WWE Tribute to the Troops drew around 2 million viewers on Fox this Sunday, Wrestlenomics says. The hour-long broadcast garnered a .51 in the key demo of 18-49. That’s equivalent to 663,000 viewers. The rating does come with a few caveats.

This week’s WWE RAW brought an overnight average of 1.585 million with a .42 in the 18 to 49 demographic. That was with an increase since last week.

The show aired on Sunday at 5PM in most markets in the United States. The ratings for the show included a total viewership higher than the most recent episode of Monday Night Raw. The ratings war continues, only now it’s WWE against themselves. And, of course, the National Football League will play a factor in how the rating ultimately pans out.

It should be noted that the number would be higher than expected against Raw, which airs on cable. Tribute to the Troops was available as a free broadcast. The numbers also may be skewed by markets that either chose not to carry the game or had a local NFL game overlap.

Fox carried the 1PM Steelers-Lions game which ran long due to overtime. They also carried the 4PM Vikings-Chargers game which was shown in the massive New York and Los Angeles market. Adjustments on how much that affects viewership might come later. It’s unclear if this was taken into account in the numbers from Wrestlenomics.

For now, WWE has to consider the show a success. The final number will likely dip below two million, but for a special broadcast on a Sunday afternoon that wasn’t even consistently shown at the same time nationwide, it wasn’t bad. Previous broadcasts drew significantly lower ratings.

Oddly, the show ended with heel Roman Reigns standing tall. Three matches from the event aired on the special. WWE Champion Big E defeated Dolph Ziggler, Bianca Belair beat Liv Morgan, and Reigns defeated IC champ Shinsuke Nakamura in a non-title main event.

What did you think of WWE Tribute to the Troops? Share your thoughts in the comments!