WWE Has Considered Moving Raw Off Mondays To Avoid NFL Competition

WWE Monday Night Raw established an unofficial ‘pro wrestling night’ for fans around the world. When WCW wanted to compete with WWE in the 90s, they chose Mondays. It is a tradition for wrestling fans that some of the biggest television goes down on Monday nights.

One problem with that tradition is that for several months every year, WWE loses viewership to the much more popular National Football League. Monday Night Football has long been established as the premier sports program on that evening. MNF has been running in its time slot for decades longer than WWE.

On the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer discussed WWE’s viewership drops during football season. There was a very interesting tidbit revealed during the chat. WWE and USA once considered moving Raw to Tuesday nights to avoid competition from the NFL.

“There had been talk in the past of moving to Tuesday to get away from the NFL, because the NFL just would hurt them every year. But, Monday became the traditional night. Now, I cannot imagine USA making that call now, and nor should they. If they move nights, they will be hurt.

Advertising

Advertising

It’s not like Raw will drop 50%, but Raw will drop because of the tradition. Maybe it’ll help. Maybe in the NFL months it will help a little bit.

Obviously, they haven’t made that move. They know they go against the NFL every year. You could also do a thing where, ‘We’ll just move it to Tuesday during football season and then go back after football’s over,’ and they’ve never even done that so that tells you that they don’t want to mess with Monday.'”

USA Network doesn’t seem interested in breaking the tradition of Monday night wrestling. While it might help with ratings during football season, no such move has been made. It is fascinating to know that they did once at least consider it.

What do you think of this story? Let us know in the comments!

Transcription by Thirsty