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WWE News: SmackDown Live Rating Goes Back Down, Takes Back #1 In Top 5 (9/25/18)
While we’ve seen continued decreases in Monday Night RAW’s viewership over the past handful of weeks, including this week’s lowest rating in the show’s history, SmackDown Live is coming off of a slight increase last week. Could the blue brand keep it up?
The numbers are in for last night’s SmackDown Live and the rating is back down, dropping 3.85% to a 2.193. Here’s a look at the last four weeks of ratings for the blue brand:
- September 4th:Â 2.319
- September 11th:Â 2.229
- September 18th:Â 2.281
- September 25th:Â 2.193
Although SmackDown Live’s rating is heading back in the wrong direction, the blue brand has reclaimed its number one spot in the Cable Top 150 Rankings for the 18-49 demographic this week. Previously, Mayans MC had stopped SmackDown Live’s weeks-long streak. Here’s a look at the top five:
- SmackDown Live – USA Network – 0.72
- Mayans MC – FX – 0.59
- The Challenge: Final Reckoning – MTV – 0.45
- The Purge – USA Network – 0.44
- Rachel Maddow Show – MSNBC – 0.36
EA’s Take:Â Per usual, we get a stark contrast when it comes to RAW and SmackDown Live’s ratings. Oddly enough, RAW outdraws the blue brand by a considerable margin, but it still is the worst in the red brand’s history. It’s funny that had these programs swapped nights, RAW would have easily been number one in the Cable Top 150 while SmackDown Live wouldn’t even have cracked the top five. It’s no surprise the blue brand takes back that spot this week, as Mayans MC was steadily losing its portion of that demographic ever since the show’s premiere episode. I still couldn’t tell you if it’s worth tuning into, but this is almost always the case with new programs. Overall, some lackluster efforts on both RAW and SmackDown Live this week and it certainly doesn’t help the numbers out. This could very well shape up to be one of the worst Fall-Winter stretches for WWE programming if they can’t keep interest up. Does that mean panic? Absolutely not, not unless they start getting killed in the Cable Top 150 Rankings, which doesn’t seem to be coming regardless of the ratings.
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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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