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WWE News: SmackDown Live Audience Only Sees Slight Increase This Week
Last week saw a very unusual up-and-down trend when it came to WWE’s viewership of RAW and SmackDown Live on cable and YouTube. Last week’s RAW (which I felt was not the best show) did much better than the blue brand (who I thought had a better product) both on cable and YouTube. This week, RAW’s cable audience continued its trend upward over the past two weeks (which you can read here), meanwhile the red brand dropped some huge YouTube numbers (you can find that here).
The “scores” are in for last night’s final edition of SmackDown Live before Sunday’s Money In The Bank pay-per-view and while it’s not significant, the audience number has started back in the right direction with a 2.183. This is up 2.1% from last week’s 2.138, the lowest viewership for the blue brand since October 2017.
This week’s SmackDown Live remained at the number one spot for the 18-49 demographic in the top 150 cable rankings, putting it ahead of Below Deck: Mediterranean, Deadliest Catch, Chrisley Knows Best and Expedition Unknown.
Here’s a look at the ratings for SmackDown Live over the past four weeks:
- May 21st: 2.195
- May 28th: 2.195
- June 5th: 2.138
- June 12th: 2.183
Source: Showbuzz Daily
EA’s Take: Again, this is quite strange. I found last week’s episode of SmackDown Live to be better than this week’s, yet this week draws better with both basically having no competition that I’d deem as “tough”. It was a “go-home” show before a PPV though, which always helps out at least a little bit. My biggest question is, “What are the FOX executives thinking about this?”. You have to wonder if they’ve received some assurances from WWE that there will be more emphasis put on the product when it moves, but putting the blue brand on Friday’s will only hurt in my opinion because FOX is clearly after that younger demographic. That’s the night younger people are going out because it’s time to get drunk, time to get laid or do whatever else it is they do now. Just something I’m looking forward to seeing play out.
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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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