Moving the WWE championship match between Bobby Lashley and Randy Orton to Raw was apparently WWE officials’ response to AEW’s recent success.
Dave Meltzer talked about this change on the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio. He explained how the big title match was moved to weekly television from the PPV event because WWE lost to AEW in 18-49 demo:
“They pulled the match because they lost in the ratings and they’re putting Randy Orton and Bobby Lashley, the pay-per-view main event on TV tomorrow night. Yea, that’s among the responses [to AEW]. I’m not surprised.”
Meltzer also mentioned how the original plans were for RK-Bro to defend the Raw tag team championship against Bobby Lashley and MVP. They spent last week’s episode of Raw building this match only for it to be changed.
Lashley and MVP had won a tag team turmoil match on Raw to earn the right to face the current Raw tag team champions this Monday. Randy Orton had been announced to challenge the All-Mighty for WWE championship at Extreme Rules.
While the latest episode of Monday Night Raw still garnered more viewers than Dynamite overall, AEW’s show was able to beat WWE’s red brand in the 18-49 demographic for the first time.
Reports suggested that the WWE officials held meetings after Dynamite’s victory over Raw. Now it has been confirmed that the title match was shifted from the PPV as a result of the TV ratings.
