Backstage Notes On The Overrun For The WWE RAW Wedding, Randy Orton's Injury Angle At Live Event
This week's WWE RAW overrun was a one-time thing for the wedding of Bobby Lashley and Lana, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio. WWE can always negotiate another overrun with USA Network officials for future angles, but this week's extra time does not mean it will be a regular thing moving forward.
The ten-minute overrun was said to be up in viewers, and did not lose the audience. This is interesting as there are often big drops for the RAW overruns on the USA Network. WWE officials reportedly expected the wedding to go on, especially with the various twists & turns, including the surprise appearances by the returning Liv Morgan, Rusev, and the mystery spouses played by enhancement talents. The ratings for the overrun wedding angle were said to be "way up" and the creative was credited to RAW Executive Director Paul Heyman, but Vince McMahon likely had input as well.
As noted before at this link, Lana claimed big ratings success for the angle this week. She tweeted, "I hate to rub it in all my haters & naysayers faces right now but MY wedding on #Raw was the highest part of #MondayNightRAW going up 40 percent from the rest of the show & the highest ratings of the year ! #LanaAndLashleyWedding #Lana #movingtheneedle"
On a related note, we noted before at this link how Randy Orton did not suffer an injury at Sunday's WWE live event in Hershey, PA, as the injury angle was done for the RAW ruse that saw Orton take out AJ Styles with the RKO. Meltzer also credited Heyman with this angle. The reported idea was that Heyman wanted fans to feel like they may see something important happen in the storylines at non-televised live events. WWE live event attendance has been down, mainly due to fans feeling like the live events don't matter these days, and the company has wanted to change that for some time now. There's been a feeling that they should shoot everything good or important on TV because 3+ hours of TV is a lot of content to fill, but it looks like we may start seeing more angles that are done like this was.
For those who missed it before, you can click here for rumors coming out of the RAW wedding angle, including Vince McMahon's reaction. You can click here for our report on this week's RAW viewership.
Stay tuned as we will have full ratings data on the wedding overrun later.