Major Uncle Howdy Spoiler, WWE RAW Business, Steve Austin, WrestleMania Sets Record - Wrestling Inc.

How has RAW fared under Triple H than with Vince McMahon? We take a look. Plus, an update on the identity of Uncle Howdy.

Possible Uncle Howdy Spoiler For WWE Raw

BY ROBERT GUNIER | JAN. 9, 2023

It's another Monday, meaning fans have "WWE Raw" to look forward to later this evening. Tonight's episode doesn't have a lot of matches and segments advertised yet, but one thing they are assuring is the continuation of the Alexa Bliss — Bray Wyatt story that has recently been heating up.

In a new update, Fightful has confirmed that Bo Dallas, who is suspected to be playing the role of "Uncle Howdy" in the storyline, is currently backstage at "Raw." There has been no definitive answer on who the person portraying Howdy is, as the person behind the role puts on and takes off their wardrobe in private.

PWInsider expressed more confidence in the idea, saying that Dallas' presence at "Raw" "confirms 100%" that Dallas is playing Uncle Howdy.

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A Look At WWE RAW Ratings Year-Over-Year

BY RAJ GIRI | JAN. 9, 2023

WWE RAW averaged 1,758,347 viewers in 2022, which excludes the “Best of” show as well as two episodes that aired on SyFy due to the Olympics. That is up slightly, 0.11%, from the 1,756,442 viewers that the show averaged in 2021. It is the first time since the show moved to three hours that the audience increased year-over-year.

RAW averaged a 0.47 P18-49 rating in 2022, which again excludes the “Best of” show as well as two episodes that aired on SyFy due to the Olympics. That is down 6% from the 0.50 P18-49 rating RAW averaged in 2021. However, it is the smallest year-over-year P18-49 drop since I started tracking 18-49 ratings in 2015.

You can see the audience and rating changes year-over-year in the chart below:

RAW started the year off appearing to be down significantly from the prior year. The first quarter of 2022 averaged 1.763 million users (-5% from 2021) and a 0.47 P18-49 rating (-16%). However things turned around in the second quarter, and the last two quarters of 2022 were up from 2021 in total viewers, and even in 18-49 as seen below:

Vince McMahon announced his retirement on July 22nd, and Triple H took over as head of creative. The July 25, 2022 episode of RAW was the first under the new regime. From that episode until the end of 2022 (excluding the “Best of” episode), RAW averaged 1,765,318 viewers and a 0.472 P18-49 rating. The audience was actually up from 1,716,783 viewers and the 0.466 P18-49 rating during the same time frame in 2021 when Vince McMahon was in charge of creative. So the Triple H era has been outperforming the Vince era the year before, despite numbers usually dropping year-over-year.

We will look at NXT ratings tomorrow.

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Wrestling Inc. Podcast: Vince McMahon, WWE SmackDown Review, AEW Rampage, Battle Of The Belts V

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Quote Of The Day

Conrad Thompson on 83 Weeks talking about WWE possibly going private:

"I have heard that [WWE going private] was actually something that was discussed long before any of the other shenanigans. This is something that has actually been beat up for a while ... That would take an incredible amount of cash. I don't know. Five, six, seven billion. Maybe in the scheme of things that's not that much money for a property like this, but still, a substantial investment."

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More News

WrestleMania 39 has already broken the all-time WrestleMania gate record. This is unprecedented news, especially considering how the card for WrestleMania 39 hasn't even started to be announced. The previous record was held by 2016's WrestleMania 32 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, which generated $17.3 million, although WWE didn't reveal what the new record is.

Vince McMahon has the current titles of Co-Founder and Former Chairman and CEO on the WWE corporate website.

Chelsea Green has been signed to WWE for a while and is reportedly still waiting to see the company's plan for her, according to Fightful.

Chris Jericho and the rest of his Jericho Appreciation Society faction showed up at Pro Wrestling Guerrilla's Battle of Los Angeles 2023 event this past weekend.

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin was back in the gym Monday morning, fueling more questions from wrestling fans as rumors about a potential WrestleMania 39 return continue to hover around the Attitude Era legend. Austin, who turned 58 last month, shared the video below on Instagram this morning that showed him working out in a hotel gym, lifting 40-pound weights in each arm as part of a bicep workout that he splits with slow treadmill breaks in between sets. Many fans commented on the post, referencing that he looks to be getting back into in-ring shape with WrestleMania around the corner.

steveaustinbsr

A post shared by Steve Austin (@steveaustinbsr)