News

WWE News: SmackDown Live Rating Increases Yet Again, #1 For The Night (7/31/18)

Published

6 years ago

August 2, 2018

With this week’s episode of Monday Night RAW seeing a ratings increase, on top of ranking number one in the 18-49 demographic for the first time since last August, it was the blue brand’s turn on Tuesday night to see if they could keep their momentum rolling. SmackDown Live has seen a ratings increase for four weeks straight no, but could this week’s show continue that?

The ratings are in and Tuesday night’s episode of the blue brand saw an increase in numbers for the fifth week in a row with a 2.401, a jump of 2.6% from last week and a 19.3% increase overall since July 3rd. Here’s a look at the last four weeks of numbers for SmackDown Live:

July 10th: 2.183
July 17th: 2.293
July 24th: 2.340
July 31st: 2.401

Also, SmackDown Live jumped back up in the Cable Top 150 Rankings for the 18-49 demographic after being knocked down last week by Discovery’s Shark Week programming to take back the number one position:

SmackDown Live – USA Network – 0.75
Below Deck Mediterranean – BRAVO – 0.58
Miz & Mrs. – USA Network – 0.46
The Challenge: Final Reckoning – MTV – 0.44
Deadliest Catch – Discovery – 0.43

EA’s Take: Get it, SmackDown Live! The blue brand has been on quite the run of late and with RAW seemingly leaning on their big names like Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey this week like crutches, the blue brand just continues to put on a more quality program from beginning to end. It still puzzles me that they don’t reach the level of ratings as RAW though, likely because WWE has always treated it like a second class citizen so the casuals tend to look at it that way. Or, is this a case of those same casuals not actually caring about what happens in the ring? I’ve always said that great in-ring work doesn’t sell to the mainstream/casual and let’s face it, that’s what SmackDown Live is really built on. I’d be willing to bet that if Brock and Ronda had been on the blue brand, the ratings may be swapped with RAW being the show to do just a little bit less.

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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!