WWE’s Numbers Surge with Randy Orton’s Return Announcement

Randy Orton is approaching his in-ring return, set to take place at this Saturday’s WWE Survivor Series premium live event, where he is slated to participate in the likely main event. That brought a lot of interest from fans, as it was widely expected that the Apex Predator is coming back.

Randy Orton will join forces with Seth Rollins, Sami Zayn, Jey Uso, and Cody Rhodes to face off against The Judgment Day (Finn Balor, Damian Priest, Dominik Mysterio), Drew McIntyre, and JD McDonagh in the Men’s WarGames Match.

The former WWE Champion had been sidelined since last May due to a back injury. This injury led to him and Matt Riddle relinquishing the Raw Tag Team Titles to The Usos before taking time off. This setback also resulted in the cancellation of WWE’s plans for an Orton vs. Riddle feud, as Orton later required back fusion surgery. Riddle has since been released from the company.

Randy Orton’s return was announced in advance of Survivor Series, a move made to diminish any speculation regarding CM Punk’s return at the event held in Chicago. The announcement was revealed during the closing moments of Monday’s Raw by Rhodes.

Brandon Thurston of WrestleNomics highlighted the notable fan reaction to the reveal. The video on YouTube garnered over a million views in just a little over 24 hours.

Raw’s viewership for the episode reached 1.459 million, with a key demo rating of 0.49. Notably, this marked Raw’s highest rating in the key 18 to 49 demographic since September 4th, even though it aired against a historic NFL game. For the record, the show’s big competition, the Eagles vs Chiefs game on Monday Night Football, was the most-watched Monday Night Football regular season game in 27 years with 28.96 million viewers on Monday Night Football across ABC (15.55M), ESPN (11.49M) and the Peyton and Eli “Manningcast” on ESPN2 (1.92M)

The final segment of WWE RAW on 11/20, which featured Drew McIntyre vs. Jey Uso and included the expected announcement, saw a +7 increase in total viewership and a 5% uptick in the key demo rating. Raw’s third hour typically experiences a drop in ratings, and this trend continued this week until the final segment.

We will have to see how Randy Orton’s return to WWE pans out. We already reported on the most likely spoilers for the Survivor Series event. For more on this story, and many more, please keep checking back with us here at Ringside News.

What is your take on Randy Orton’s return to WWE? Did you miss him? Let us know what you think about this in the comments section!