News

WWE News: SmackDown Live Weekly YouTube Report (5/22/18)

Published

6 years ago

May 24, 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 SmackDown Live YouTube Report (2:30 PM EST, 5/24/18):

Daniel Bryan vs. Jeff Hardy – 1.1 million views
Shinsuke Nakamura reveals his stipulation for MITB – 1 million views
MITB Qualifier: Lana vs. Billie Kay – 878k views
Big E vs. The Miz – 554k views
MITB Qualifier: Naomi vs. Sonya Deville – 523k views
Tag Title #1 Contender’s Match: The Usos vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson – 452k views
MizTV with The New Day – 353k views

Coming in at number one for the second week in a row is the new face of SmackDown Live, Daniel Bryan, in the night’s main event against US Champion Jeff Hardy. These numbers are nearly identical to what Bryan took in the week before, except this week it was against a much more known opponent and the match had MITB implications. Except last week was not a match, but just merely a segment involving Big Cass. With viewership down again this week on television following a slight uptick last week, I chalk Bryan’s drop up to that.

At number two is our WWE Champion yet again, as Nakamura and AJ Styles keep with their consistent numbers and hover around the one million mark once again. This also had MITB implications and doesn’t appear that the viewership decline affected (what I still believe to be) SmackDown Live’s hottest feud.

Moving onto number three, this is a complete outlier. Is Billie Kay responsible for this? Absolutely not. Some have griped about people (male fans) only caring about Lana for her looks, but also like to leave out that a lot of women feel the same about someone like Roman Reigns. WWE is a business and even though Lana needs work in the ring, PEOPLE CARE. That’s all that matters.

Numbers four and seven are intertwined with The New Day and The Miz. We’ve seen The New Day struggle recently with drawing YouTube views and even with The Miz’s appeal outside of WWE, it doesn’t help at all here. On a night when there was something on the line in every match, this wasn’t the case here and it had to only hurt. How do I know this? Numbers five and six. Both had outcomes that affect MITB and weren’t too far off from matching what the opening Big E/Miz match did. Naomi and The Usos have been a bit of a “powerhouse” for YouTube views in the past, but only when they’ve been together.

What you won’t see here is one of SmackDown Live’s newest Superstars, Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas. Granted, it was another squash match against an enhancement talent, but a massive dip from his debut last week as he pulls in less than 200k. This is more proof in my eyes that fans who watch RAW and SmackDown Live don’t necessarily watch NXT. If they did, Almas would do better.

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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!