The April 4 episode of Monday Night Raw drew a 0.63 rating and an average viewership of 2.101 million viewers, making it easily the most-watched episode of 2022. According to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, the viewership is up six percent from the go-home episode of Raw before WrestleMania and up 14% in the target ratings demographic. That’s the best rating since Aug. 23, 2021 (the episode after that year’s SummerSlam) and highest viewership since Jan. 4, 2021.
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The episode was highlighted by Cody Rhodes’ first promo since making his WWE return at WrestleMania, Bron Breakker winning back the NXT Championship in a rematch from NXT Stand & Deliver and Roman Reigns taking a victory lap after becoming the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion by beating Brock Lesnar in a Winner Take All Match.
Rhodes spoke with a number of outlets following his debut and addressed the situation surrounding his departure from AEW back in February. Despite being one of the founding members of the company, he wound up becoming its first major departure.
“I chose to remain silent about my departure from AEW and I’m going to keep my word on that,” Rhodes told Variety. “There’s no shoot interview. There’s no nefarious tale that’s going to be told. There were all these different theories and none of them are correct. I mean, there were things about money and creative control. They were printed as fact and it’s been a very difficult two months to see that, when the reality is it was just time. It was a personal matter and we couldn’t move past it. I have nothing but respect for Matt [Jackson], Nick [Jackson] and Kenny [Omega]. I’m rooting for Tony Khan. His name is going to be in the history books as someone who helped to bankroll and support this entire alternative and revolution that AEW became but for me, it was just time to move on. I get an opportunity at my dream, I get another chance at it. And you really can’t leave any stone unturned with that.”
“Unfortunately, I can’t comment on the personal matter itself,” he elaborated in an interview with Ariel Helwani (h/t Fightful). “Tony Khan, who I have genuine respect for and I hope history is really kind to because he bankrolled this entire grassroots movement starting in ROH, then All In happened, AEW happened, then he was able to buy that footage back. I felt like we were drifting apart. Had I asked him for ‘this,’ he’s the type of man that would have given it to me. It just genuinely felt like it was time, I can’t comment on the personal nature, it was nothing nefarious or scandalous, just we couldn’t agree. Nothing but respect for him, his family, and the infrastructure there. I have a watch collection that I just started. The first nice watch I ever got was from him. I gave him one last year as a return gift and I thought, ‘do I not pack this? Is this chapter over?’ I packed it because it’s never over. Part of who I am is from those ten years and part of who I am is from the last six as well. It’s something that I don’t know if he’ll ever share ultimately what went down, but it was nothing crazy, it was a rather easy decision,”
