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WWE News: SmackDown Live Viewership Heads Upward For Second Straight Week
We saw some pretty brutal numbers in viewership for WWE’s SmackDown Live in late-May and early-June, but it looks like this past Sunday’s Money In The Bank may have helped boost those as we continue heading in the right direction. Last night’s episode, which was headlined by a Number One Contender’s Gauntlet Match with the winner getting a shot at AJ Styles’ WWE Championship at Extreme Rules. For the second straight week, we saw a jump up for the blue brand, going from last week’s 2.183 up to a 2.315, an increase of roughly 6%.
It was also more good news in the demographic department for SmackDown Live, once again coming in at number one in Cable’s Top 150 Rankings for the 18-49 segment of the audience. There was no real competition, as we reported with our RAW viewership due to the NHL, NBA and NFL all being in the offseason. Coming in at numbers two through four were Below Deck Mediterranean, Chrisley Knows Best (at 3 and 5) and four was Deadliest Catch.
Here’s the last four weeks of ratings for SmackDown Live:
- May 28th:Â 2.195
- June 5th:Â 2.138
- June 12th:Â 2.183
- June 19th:Â 2.315
Source: Showbuzz Daily
EA’s Take:Â Things are starting to make more sense now after some really strange weeks for the blue brand. I’ve always been of the opinion that SmackDown Live has consistently been better than RAW, but it doesn’t always show in the ratings. To reiterate my previous prediction, I still believe we’ll see this continue to trend upwards as we get towards SummerSlam in August now that we’re nearly out of the annual low period. Add on top of that the only other sport on television right now is MLB, which has had dying interest in the last number of years and that’s a recipe for success.
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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.
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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!
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