Rhea Ripley's RAW return draws major numbers for WWE

The WWE Universe continues to buzz over the surprise return of Rhea Ripley. The top star made her comeback at the end of RAW with a twist, and since then interesting details have surfaced about her future plans. Ripley's return also looks to be one of the biggest for the company in a while.

The Eradicator returned to RAW right after the main event, which saw Dominik Mysterio and Liv Morgan defeat Rey Mysterio and Zelina Vega. Caught up in the excitement, Dominik hugged Liv but quickly backed off, realizing his mistake. The Women's World Champion took advantage by jumping into his arms, and straddling him on the mat. That's when the music hit and Ripley blew the roof off Ottawa's Canadian Tire Centre.

Ripley went for Morgan but she ran away, the Aussie Superstar then came face to face with Dirty Dom as RAW went off the air. Fans have watched the action a few million times, and that's just based on view counts for the official WWE accounts on X and YouTube. In the 17 hours since upload, the Ripley return clip has a YouTube view count of 1,795,357.

To compare, the next highest view count for an official WWE YouTube video from this week's RAW is the opener with CM Punk and Seth Rollins. The video, which features the full segment, currently has 956,730 views. The top clip from last week's RAW is Liv's involvement in Mysterio vs. Mysterio with 886,451 views as of this writing, just beating the 864,513 drawn by The Wyatt Sicks interrupting Chad Gable and Jey Uso.

The original return clip posted to WWE's official X account has 3.3 million views, while a clip from the actual match has 1.1 million. The official clip of Liv's backstage reaction has 2.7 million views, footage of Dom apologizing to his Mami has 1 million, and 833,100 have viewed a photo post featuring Ripley's return.

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WWE makes major change for Rhea Ripley?

Rhea Ripley was regarded as one of the strongest heels in pro wrestling before she was forced to take time off for a shoulder injury earlier this year. Due to the ongoing heel antics of Liv Morgan and Dominik Mysterio, fan support for The Eradicator has seemingly increased.

Backstage sources reported after RAW that Ripley is now listed internally as a babyface, according to PWInsider. This confirms what has been in the works on TV for some time, and is needed if they're going to do the Rhea vs. Liv feud.

WWE did not elaborate on Ripley's new character during Monday's segment as she was only on TV for a few seconds. It also wasn't clear how this would align with the rest of The Judgment Day.