Arturo Ruas: WWE Raw Underground Died Because Of The COVID-19 Pandemic

Arturo Ruas has revealed that Raw Underground was supposed to continually run throughout the WWE show but was halted due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Ruas made his WWE main roster debut as a part of Raw Underground in 2020, a weekly segment hosted by Shane McMahon which was first used in August. The gritty, 'real' feel to the segments were loved by some WWE fans, but were ultimately halted after a few weeks amid concerns that using superstars from different rosters could lead to another outbreak of COVID-19 among the talent.

Speaking to The Wrestling Inc. Daily, Ruas said: “I, like you, knew of this stuff as they are happening. I heard that they were bringing up a show that is going to have some street fight vibes. They were bringing people in with legit backgrounds to have a different layout of a match.

"They took down the ropes and they said to bring some street clothes to wear and to have street vibes, and I already got it. So when I came to RAW and I saw it, I was like, okay, I got it. It’ll be kind of real and all the matches were short and the interactions were real, you had to 100%. That was RAW Underground.

"RAW Underground was totally different than what we see in pro wrestling matches. I had so much fun doing it, and I had the opportunity to talk with a lot of people and that was very good to be there. I had so much fun on the show. It was supposed to be non-stop, running all the time, but the pandemic sucks, and the pandemic changed the lives of millions of people. So RAW Underground died because of the pandemic."