Despite facing it's toughest competition in a long time with the U.S. vs. Belgium World Cup game that had over 50 million viewers, #WWERAW Netflix views for last Monday's episode (7/6 with CM Punk defeating Sami Zayn for the title) were the best since May.
The show scored 2.5M views globally for the week per Netflix data (⬆️9% from the prior week) with 5M hours viewed (⬆️11%).
The views were tied with the 5/25 show as the best since May 18th, while the hours viewed were the highest since April 27h.
The show ranked #4 for the week in the U.S. on Netflix (⬆️from #6 the prior week) and #6 globally (⬆️ from #7). The U.S. ranking was tied with 3 other episodes as the second best this year.
Year-over-year, views were down 4% while total hours viewed were up 6%. Last year's episode ranked #4 for the week in the U.S. and #6 globally.
Miguel Almiron literally got booked for diving after a VAR review earlier in the tournament. Why are people acting like this is the first time they’ve seen it happen at this World Cup just because it’s Argentina?
A little late to the topic, but just wanted to say this:
This “CM Hogan” or “Punk became what he hated, he’s a part timer” discourse is incredibly stupid. Even the comparison with The Rock is hilariously ridiculous.
For one, Rock barely showed up and didn’t wrestle on TV from 2011-2013.
CM Punk ever since returning:
-2023: Shows up to TV, works house shows.
-2024: Even tho he got injured shows up on TV, works PPVs, works house shows.
-2025: Shows up on a LOT of TVs, works TV matches, works PPVs, works house shows.
-2026: Shows up on TV, works TV matches, works PPVs, works house shows.
He’s earned everything through his hard work. Trying to blame him for Sami Zayn’s 9 day reign when in reality Punk vs Cody was ALWAYS the plan regardless of who was the Champion is dumb as well. Wanna blame someone? Point the finger at Triple H and creative for hot shotting Sami’s victory if they weren’t going to commit.
And the funniest part is calling him a part timer for taking an 11 week break after carrying the World title from November to April and being full time ever since 2023.
He’s such a part timer that he’s gonna show up from now on a lot of Smackdown episodes, right?
“But CM Punk said this on a promo, but CM Punk said this on a podcast”. His main gripe in all the things he said was WWE never treated him as the guy and nowadays he indeed is treated as such. So there’s no “hypocrisy” anywhere.
The reality is a lot of you parrot this shit solely for engagement without reflecting or putting any thought into the things you’re saying lol.
CM Punk has joined an exclusive club.
Superstars who lost a championship and then won a championship in their very next match:
🏆 Stone Cold Steve Austin (1998)
🏆 The Rock (1999)
🏆 John Cena (2006)
🏆 CM Punk (2026)
A rare accomplishment in WWE history.
@bierman00@Jwrasslintakes There was not supposed to be a Sami Reign. He was a transitional champion and he played his part. So nothing was sacrificed. The story was always Punk & Cody for World Championship. Literally everyone knew Punk was going to return in Chicago.
@K__Med Manhunt 1&2 are peak and Bully was a banger. People still want a sequel to that game. The only bad game here is the remaster trilogy which wasn't handled by them. 🤦🏻♂️
@TheTom2O@wwarrior_1 The issue is that Part I portrayed long distance travel as one of the biggest challenges in the setting, while Part II frequently treats those same journeys as things that happen off screen whenever the plot needs them to.
@_BasedPerry@wwarrior_1 Part II has multiple characters making massive journeys off screen with far less narrative weight given to the risks and logistics. That's a consistency criticism, not a complaint that people traveled between states.
@_BasedPerry@wwarrior_1 You're arguing against a point I didn't make. The first game didn't pretend cross country travel was easy. It built an entire game around how dangerous and difficult it was.