Real Reason Triple H Missed WWE Raw This Week
Bruce Prichard ran WWE Raw in Triple H's absence. Here's why...
Paul 'Triple H' Levesque missed this week's episode of WWE Raw, leaving Bruce Prichard to run the show, as Levesque and WWE President Nick Khan were tending to important company business elsewhere.
PWInsider's Mike Johnson reports that Khan and Levesque had spent the days surrounding Raw in Los Angeles, California. There, the duo were working on "securing the media rights deal for Monday Night Raw going forward."
Raw's television deal is currently up for re-negotiation. PWInsider believes that several suitors remain in play for the red brand, which currently goes out on USA Network every Monday.
It's entirely possible that the televised wrestling landscape will look completely different in 2024. One major change has already been confirmed, with WWE SmackDown leaving FOX for USA Network next October. This September, CNBC reported on a five-year deal with around $1.4 billion, bringing SmackDown back to cable television after five years on network.
In early November, FOX CEO Lachland Murdoch claimed disappointing advertising numbers motivated the network not to renew SmackDown:
“We look at all of our sports portfolio the same way and new rights the same way. Based on the analysis, on both an advertising point of view, we were not hitting the advertising numbers due to the audience of WWE … for our return on investment to be above the levels that we would accept."