News

EA’s Weekly SmackDown Live YouTube Report (10/9/18)

Published

6 years ago

October 11, 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 (2:30 PM EST, 10/11/18):

Big Show vs. Randy Orton – 1.2 million views
Aiden English’s plan is foiled by Rusev & Lana – 931k views
The Miz stirs the pot between AJ Styles & Daniel Bryan – 694k views
Becky Lynch defends her title against Charlotte Flair – 612k views
Relive Randy Orton’s career – 599k views
Jeff Hardy vs. Samoa Joe – 536k views
AJ Styles vs. Shelton Benjamin – 333k views

When you bring back a legendary Superstar, it always leads to great things on YouTube and that’s what we get this week for SmackDown Live. A lot of fans like to rag on the guy, but Big Show is indeed a legend and his first match back in over a year, plus the appeal of Randy Orton who has been on a roll and a World Cup spot on the line leads them to be the only clip to reach a million views. Plus…how good has Orton been lately? ‘The Viper’ is red hot, so much so that a career highlight video is good enough to land him on our list a second time at number five.

Number two was the continuation of the one night in Milwaukee reveal, which hasn’t gone how I hoped. Many fans still wanted to know the payoff and despite my feeling that it has all been a bit of a let down, Rusev and Lana having it blow up in Aiden’s face was a nice and entertaining touch. I just don’t see much coming of this route unfortunately.

Sliding into the third spot is the build to AJ Styles’ next WWE Championship defense against Daniel Bryan at Crown Jewel. There’s nobody better to be the one trying to stir the pot between them than The Miz and was a great way to kick this off, but you have to wonder why this clip didn’t draw more. Is this not the type of match smart fans clamor to see? Seems like this is the quintessential dream match and there would be more excitement for it.

The fiery feud over the SmackDown Women’s Title comes into number four this week with a rematch from Super Show-Down that opened the broadcast. Becky and Charlotte got a large chunk of SmackDown Live’s airtime and produced another quality match, but again the draw feels lower than you’d expect. My best theory would be perhaps it just seemed inevitable we were going to see it again at Evolution and maybe people expected a finish that wasn’t clean.

Lastly, SmackDown Live’s second World Cup Qualifier takes home fifth as Jeff Hardy advanced over Samoa Joe to earn his spot at Crown Jewel. It was Hardy’s return after being off television since Hell In A Cell, but the match left a lot to be desired and ended abruptly via referee stoppage with Joe still selling his damaged knee from Super Show-Down. The important part is that Hardy return however, which is good enough to carry it away from the bottom of the SmackDown Live barrel this week.

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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!