Current Intercontinental Champion John Cena wrestled during his final "WWE Raw" appearance at Madison Square Garden on November 17, and the appearance of "The Leader of the Cenation" on the red brand helped the show's viewership while the episode was still competing with "Monday Night Football."Cena's final "Raw" appearance led to the most-viewed episode of "Raw" over a seven-day period in recent memory.
According to Wrestlenomics, with data from Netflix, the November 17 episode of "Raw" drew 3.1 million global views over the course of seven days, up from 2.8 million the previous week, the episode where Cena won the Intercontinental title from Dominik Mysterio.The show ranked sixth globally among English language shows on the streaming service and took the third spot in the rankings in the United States, the same spot it took in America the previous week.
Cena's final "Raw" appearance did not beat out viewership for the first-ever episode of the show on Netflix back in January, which drew an estimated 3.4 million viewers over the course of a week, or the "Raw" after WrestleMania 41, which drew 3.6 million viewers.The increase in viewership is a win for the red brand, however, which had been averaging as low as 2.3 million viewers for the October 27 episode and multiple other episodes at the end of September.
In addition to Cena's last "Raw" appearance, the show saw Maxxine Dupri win the Women's Intercontinental Championship from Becky Lynch, with the help of a returning AJ Lee.Dolph Ziggler made his WWE return to lose to Solo Sikoa in the "Last Time is Now" tournament, and the main event saw a brawl between the men's WarGames teams, where both Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns returnedto align themselves with the heels and babyfaces, respectively.
