News

EA’s Weekly SmackDown Live YouTube Report (7/31/18)

Published

6 years ago

August 2, 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 (8:20 PM EST, 8/2/18):

Randy Orton & Shinsuke Nakamura leave Jeff Hardy laying – 1.2 million views
Charlotte Flair returns to Becky Lynch’s aid – 991k views
Charlotte Flair vs. Carmella – 833k views
Daniel Bryan addresses The Miz’s actions from last week – 637k views
Samoa Joe sends a message to AJ Styles – 426k views
Lana vs. Zelina Vega – 370k views
The Usos vs. The Bar – 345k views

For the second week in a row now, ‘The Viper’ Randy Orton takes the top spot in the SmackDown Live YouTube Report. Like I said last week, Orton is just one of those names, a bonafide Superstar who’s been one of the company’s top names for over a decade. He’s the only guy to crack a million views for the second week in a row too, likely the additions of Jeff Hardy and Shinsuke Nakamura helping to get there.

At numbers two and three is the returning Charlotte Flair and basically the big focus of the entire show. I had totally forgotten this was the week she would be getting cleared, even after she openly said it would be July 31st. A lot of fans aren’t happy with how she’s used here though, thinking Becky Lynch should be getting a singles match for Carmella’s title at SummerSlam. The company knows it too, since that’s the angle they’re going for and it makes the whole story much more interesting. We’ll see if that continues to translate into YouTube views in the coming weeks.

Daniel Bryan slides in at number four with a pretty big drop from last week of nearly 300,000 views. I don’t think it’s so much an indictment on Bryan or even this angle with The Miz. We’ve all been waiting for it, so the interest is there. It just seems like there’s only ever 1-3 segments tops on SmackDown Live to do well on a given week. Maybe had they announced their match for SummerSlam (that we all know is coming) then things would have been a little different.

The remaining 5-7 spots on SmackDown Live fall into my “Best of the Rest” category, which seems to be a pretty reoccurring theme for the blue brand every week. Samoa Joe with a pretty simple promo comes in fifth, making things more personal for his title shot against WWE Champion AJ Styles at SummerSlam. Number six is our second women’s match of the evening, that I thought might be a trainwreck. That wasn’t the case and it was watchable. Lastly, the next match in the tournament to crown The Bludgeon Brothers’ number one contenders as The Usos faced The Bar in a tremendous match. Unfortunately, the Tag Team Division never pulls numbers (except for the brief Team Hell No reunion), no matter how great the action is.

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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!