Possible reason why WWE moved Bobby Lashley vs. Randy Orton to RAW – Reports

Bobby Lashley was scheduled to defend the WWE Championship against 'The Viper' Randy Orton at WWE Extreme Rules, but the match has been moved to this week's episode of Monday Night RAW.

According to Dave Melzter of Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon made changes to the show in response to AEW Dynamite beating RAW in key 18-49 demo. RK-Bro was originally supposed to defend their Raw Tag Team Championships against The Almighty and MVP, but plans changed significantly

“They moved the pay-per-view match to Raw," said Melzter. "Originally they were going to do the tag team title match. The whole show last week was built to set up this tag team title match on this week’s Raw and then they pulled the match because they lost in the ratings and they’re putting Randy Orton and Bobby Lashley, the pay-per-view main event on TV tomorrow night. Yea, that’s among the responses [to AEW]. I’m not surprised.” (H/T WrestlingNews.co)

They don’t want to wait for #ExtremeRules.@fightbobby will defend his WWE Championship against @RandyOrton tomorrow night on #WWERaw! pic.twitter.com/rh4sVDc0Fn

— WWE (@WWE) September 12, 2021

With the addition of former WWE stars including Daniel Bryan, CM Punk and Adam Cole to its roster, AEW has a lot of momentum and is creating a huge buzz in the wrestling industry. By advertising a WWE Championship match between Lashley and Orton, the red brand could possibly gain more viewers.

AEW Dynamite beat WWE RAW in the key demo for the first time ever

AEW Dynamite last night on TNT was watched by 1,319,000 viewers on average, the second-highest in the history of the show.681,000 were aged 18 to 49, a 0.53 rating, edging out Raw this week with 678,000 in the demo.Read more: https://t.co/Eb1yQbsqwF pic.twitter.com/sIun5LqaAo

— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) September 9, 2021

The fallout episode of Dynamite following AEW All Out brought in a reported 1.319 million viewers, which was way up from the previous week's 1.047 million. The show scored a 0.53 rating in the important 18-49 demographic, meaning that 681,000 viewers were in the age range compared to RAW's 678,000 viewership.

AEW stars such as Matt Hardy and Chris Jericho reacted to the report in a positive manner, with Tony Khan thanking fans for their support. The red brand still beat Dynamite with total viewership of 1.849 million viewers.

It'll be interesting to see if Dynamite can maintain those impressive numbers, as it looks like they managed to get Vince McMahon's attention.