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WHY RAW WAS FORMATTED THE WAY IT WAS LAST NIGHT AND WHAT WWE WAS HOPING TO ACCOMPLISH

For those of you wondering why the climactic brawl between John Cena and Brock Lesnar took place not at the end of Raw, but towards the latter part of the show's second hour, there's a one word answer to that question.

Football.

As I reported last night in the Elite section of PWInsider.com, WWE sources stated that the segment was placed where it was specifically in an attempt to get fans to watch during the half-time of last night's NFL broadcast. That was why Cena used the "half-time" verbiage during his initial segment with Paul Heyman that opened the show; they were specifically trying to tell the audience that might tune out for football when they could come back to see Brock and Cena.

The usage of Paul Heyman and John Cena over the first half of Raw was also specifically designed as a way to counter-program the NFL game based on the results of rises in the minute to minute Nielsen ratings when Lesnar, Cena and Heyman have interacted on Raw over the last month. The hope was that by creating an ongoing storyline across the early portion of the broadcast they would get some of the audience to want to remain or at the very least, switch back and forth.

So, the show was designed to "peak" with that angle, leaving Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins as the "main event match" followed by Mark Henry and Rusev facing off in the show closing angle as a way to drive attention for those bouts on the Night of Champions PPV as well.

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