Penta headlined the highest-viewed episode of WWE Monday Night Raw in five months. Netflix released the numbers for the September 14 show from Mexico City this week, and they landed well above what the red brand has been doing all summer. The main event was a World Heavyweight Championship match against Roman Reigns.
The September 14 episode pulled 3.1 million global views across seven days, according to Netflix data. Only the post-WrestleMania 42 show from April 20 has done better this year, at 3.3 million. Raw had not cleared three million at any point over the summer. The jump from the previous week was substantial.
Netflix logged 2.6 million views for the September 7 episode, leaving the Mexico City show 500,000 ahead of it and 600,000 above the rolling nine-week average. Global hours viewed came in at six million, up 1.5 million week over week and the best mark since June 1. Raw ranked sixth globally among English-language series for the week and fourth in the United States. The show also placed inside the top ten in 24 countries. Arena CDMX hosted the broadcast for the first time in 15 years.
AAA General Manager Rey Mysterio built an eight-man tournament around the Mexico City return, drawing luchadors from Raw, SmackDown, and AAA. The winner got Reigns and the world title in the main event. Penta beat Laredo Kid on August 10, La Parka on August 24, and Rey Fenix in the August 31 final from Cleveland.
The tournament run followed a year already worth noting. El Zero Miedo became the first Mexican-born wrestler to hold the WWE Intercontinental Championship, then dropped it to Chad Gable at SummerSlam Night 2 on August 2. Winning the bracket provided a path back up the card within weeks.
Reigns retained in Mexico City with a Superman Punch and a Spear. The champion admitted beforehand that the lucha style presented problems he had not faced. WrestleVotes reported on Fightful Select afterward that several people in WWE now view the challenger as a legitimate main event player.
The 946 faction abducted Solo Sikoa on Monday’s Raw from San Antonio before his qualifying match. Royce Keys, Bronco Nima, and Lucien Price loaded him into an SUV and drove off. Adam Pearce responded by installing Penta in the triple threat against Dominik Mysterio and Dragon Lee.
The replacement won it. An exposed turnbuckle set up a springboard Mexican Destroyer on Mysterio, and the pinfall closed the show. Trick Williams, Bron Breakker, and Je’Von Evans have also qualified for the October 10 ladder match in New Orleans.
The ceiling question has an answer now, and the answer is the top of the card. Raw put a masked luchador in the main event against the biggest star of the era, in a building WWE had not visited in 15 years. The audience responded with the best number since the night after WrestleMania. Nothing about that reads as a novelty booking that happened to work.
The context makes the figure look better rather than worse. Raw drew 3.1 million against Monday Night Football, on a night when the summer average sat at 2.5 million, with a runtime nearly two hours long. Viewers stayed for six million hours, the strongest mark since June. Audiences do not hang around that way for a match they consider a foregone conclusion.
The tournament deserves credit for the setup, because WWE did not simply hand over a title shot for the sake of a hometown pop. Beating Laredo Kid, La Parka, and Rey Fenix over three weeks gave the challenge weight before anybody reached Mexico City. Wins that are earned on television are what separate a main event player from a well-liked act. The company treated him as the former all the way through.
Losing to Reigns changes none of that, and the booking since has confirmed it. Pearce put the luchador into a Money in the Bank qualifier on no notice and let him win the main event of the following Raw. A briefcase and a cash-in are the obvious next step, and the numbers say the audience would show up for it. Penta is a main eventer already, whatever the win-loss column says.
If you love sports, download Stadium Rant from the Apple App Store and join one of the fastest-growing social sports communities. Be sure to follow us on socials too — you can find all our profiles on our Linktree.
