Monday Night RAW Weekly YouTube Report (4/28/18)

As we all know, social media and other outlets have become a huge means of drawing in interaction and viewers for WWE. Most people will point to television ratings like they did during the Monday Night Wars in the late 1990’s, however that can be skewed with so many various means of watching today that do not include cable television.

As you’ve become accustomed to, here is this week’s RAW YouTube Report (2:30 PM EST, 5/2/18):

1. Roman Reigns Addresses Greatest Royal Rumble Steel Cage Match – 2.9 million views
2. Strowman, Reigns & Lashley vs. Mahal, Zayn & Owens – 2 million views
3. Intercontinental Title Match: Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor – 1 million views
4. Natalya vs. Mickie James – 738k views
5. Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel Try Joining Rollins & Balor – 665k views
6. No Way Jose vs. Baron Corbin – 459k views
7. Sasha Banks vs. Ruby Riott – 440k views

On a night where there was no Brock Lesnar and the residual affects of the Superstar Shake-Up seem to have worn off, Roman Reigns dominates the evening with the top two spots to no surprise. People can continue to say what they want about him, but the bottom line is that he draws. It’s also interesting that his promo topped a match that included some other favorites like Braun Strowman, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, but it’s important to remember Roman’s promo was the opener of RAW. Thus, it’s had more time to be viewed as well.

The main event comes in at the third position, mostly because of people’s love for Rollins and Balor. Not to mention that they have a knack for putting on great performances. Most nights, viewership generally dips on television for the main event, but with this being YouTube, it’s much more convenient.

Some may look at Natalya vs. Mickie James in the fourth position and wonder why, but the answer’s quite simple: Ronda Rousey. Should she be featured in the title or main image for the video, I’d be willing to bet that number would be higher, as we’ve seen proof of her drawing power in previous YouTube reports. I believe we’ll see a trend of Nattie being featured in some of the higher viewed clips due to this association.

Lastly, for the second week in a row now Elias and Bobby Roode have struggled to bring in views. Just look at what’s ahead of them on this list. Baron Corbin vs. No Way Jose and Sasha Banks vs. Ruby Riott. Sasha is certainly a face of the Women’s Division, so a case could be made there, but I don’t know how you explain Corbin and Jose outranking Elias and Roode. Additionally, Elias and Roode was on earlier in the show, so you can’t even go with the “more time for more views” argument.

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