News

WWE News: SmackDown Live Weekly YouTube Report (5/15/18)

Published

6 years ago

May 17, 2018

As we all know, social media and other outlets have become a huge means of drawing in interaction and viewers for WWE. Most people will point to television ratings like they did during the Monday Night Wars in the late 1990’s, however that can be skewed with so many various means of watching today that do not include cable television.

As you’ve become accustomed to, here is this week’s RAW YouTube Report (2:30 PM EST, 5/17/18):

Daniel Bryan gets some revenge on Big Cass – 1.2 million views
*TIED* Royal ‘Mellabration & AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura – 1 million views
MITB Qualifier: Becky Lynch vs. Mandy Rose vs. Sonya Deville – 547k views
MITB Qualifier: The New Day vs. The Bar – 432k views
Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas debuts – 409k views

One week after coming in at the top, Daniel Bryan does it again with the exact same number of views. He’s clearly the most over man on the roster and outside of Randy Orton, AJ Styles and The Miz, is the most recognized Superstar on SmackDown Live for mainstream purposes. He proves that here, drawing 1.2 million with just a segment. Last week was a match (find that here). This also proves my continued words about Rusev to be more correct as well. He was Bryan’s opponent last week and the beneficiary of that, whereas this week his backstage segment again failed to draw. We saw the same thing in our SmackDown YouTube Report prior to Backlash (check that out here).

After barely being involved last Tuesday, a big match with Money In The Bank implications brings the WWE Champion AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura back towards the top of the pack. What’s surprising to me though, is the fact that SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella ties them with her ‘Royal ‘Mellabration’. This was the most promoted segment for SmackDown in terms of length of time, being announced last week. Does this play a role? Perhaps, but I think at this point you can’t rule out that this was also a taped episode and those that saw it wanted to see Asuka. Honestly, I’m just spitballing here, but does anybody still think Carmella has “go away heat”? The numbers don’t lie, so read ’em and weep.

Numbers three and four remain consistent with everything we’ve seen since Backlash, as Money In The Bank Qualifying matches continue to become the focuses of RAW and SmackDown Live on a weekly basis, at least right now. Now, the participants in these matches aren’t necessarily what you would consider draws, but The New Day not doing better surprises me. There was a lot of talk among those here at The Chairshot regarding whether New Day should be split during the Superstar Shake-Up. We’ve also seen reports that they aren’t selling merchandise like they used to, so all things are trending in the wrong direction for them.

Lastly at the fifth spot comes the long-awaited debut of Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas. I have to be frank here, I don’t put much stock in what we see here. I’ll give you that a lot of the fans familiar with his NXT work were waiting for his arrival, but it was only a squash match against an enhancement. Not to mention, the only other match left on the card and any ring action almost always outdraws any segments. I’m not ready to say Almas is a draw, it’s way too soon.

Continue following TheChairshot for all the latest skull smashing opinion, news, reviews and so much more! @theCHAIRSHOTcom on Twitter
Always #UseYourHead

Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!

Up Next

WWE News: Big Show Confirms Injury Setback, Talks New Contract

Don't Miss

WWE News: Shane McMahon Undergoes Successful Surgery

AEW Coverage

Mitchell’s AEW Continental Classic Update! (11/27/23)

What a start to the tournament!

Published

5 months ago

November 27, 2023

Steven Mitchell

Did your picks win points?

The AEW Continental Classic is underway, with almost everyone competing. Check in here if you haven’t seen the winners and losers of week 1!

Here are your Gold League standings!

Jon Moxley: 1-0, 3 points
Swerve Strickland: 1-0, 3 points
Jay White: 1-0, 3 points
Rush: 0-1, 0 points
Mark Briscoe: 0-1, 0 points.
Jay Lethal: 0-1, 0 points

Here are your Blue League standings!

Brody King: 1-0, 3 points
Claudio Castagnoli: 1-0, 3 points
Daniel Garcia: 0-1, 0 points
Eddie Kingston: 0-1, 0 points
Bryan Danielson: Yet to Compete
Andrade El Idolo: Yet to Compete

My Thoughts:

Nothing too crazy, nothing too wild, this tournament only just got started. The only disappointing point is that they could not get Bryan “cleared to compete” Saturday night. Not sure how much of that is shoot given the bad eye, but this was kinda the problem of wanting him in the tournament over tons of other choices. Bryan wants to face Okada for WrestleKingdom 18, how is Bryan supposed to do that at his best if he’s also gonna be in a round robin, doing five top level matches in about as many weeks? And it takes away from Andrade being able to do something. Also a little surprised we didn’t even hear from Andrade on Saturday.

Now as we heard on Saturday, round two’s matches are set. Gold League will see Mark Briscoe VS Rush, White VS Swerve, and of course, Moxley VS Lethal. Nice variety there, a couple 0-1 guys facing off, as well as two 1-0 guys, and then 1-0 VS 0-1. No offense to Lethal, but he feels like an 0-2 going up against Moxley. Hard to call the other ones but that’s the fun of it. Meanwhile, Blue League sees Brody VS Claudio in a showdown to be 2-0, then Bryan and Andrade finally jump in, Bryan against Eddie and Andrade against Garcia. Sadly, feels like Eddie and Garcia are going 0-2, no way Tony Khan is booking Bryan and Andrade to lose their first shots.

In fact, that could be half the reason they did wait on those two, that’s almost too good for just a first round opener. But I still would’ve done it, same as NJPW does stuff like that for round robins, which this is all modeled after anyway.

Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!

AEW Coverage

AEW announces Continental Classic entrants

The C2 is set!

Published

5 months ago

November 22, 2023

Steven Mitchell

Tony Khan Reveals the Blue and Gold “Leagues!”

Originally livestreamed, Tony Khan and Tony Schiavone officially announced the twelve total entrants and divided them into the two round robin blocks known as the “Blue League” and “Gold League.” If you don’t feel like sifting through the almost 30 minute video, the groups are:

Blue League

Bryan Danielson
Andrade El Idolo
Brody King
Claudio Castagnoli
Daniel Garcia
Eddie Kingston

Gold League

Jon Moxley
Swerve Strickland
Rush
Mark Briscoe
Jay Lethal
Jay White

Tony Khan also explains the rules for the Continental Classic:

Every match has a 20 minute time limit
The winner of each match earns 3 points, losers earn 0, 1 point for a draw
EVERYONE ELSE is banned from ringside for true 1v1 action

Eddie Kingston also joined the selection special as his “life’s work” is on the line in this tournament, both the ROH World Championship and NJPW Strong Openweight Championship on the line as part of the modern day North American Triple Crown Eddie, Tony Khan, AEW, ROH and NJPW are looking to create together. Gold League competes tonight on Dynamite while Blue League will have their start this Saturday on Collision. Look for more articles like this one to keep up with the Continental Classic standings over the next six weeks of tournament action!

Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!