WWE News: SmackDown Live YouTube Report (5/8/18)

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, 5/10/18):

1. MITB Qualifier: Daniel Bryan vs. Rusev – 1.2 million viewers
2. MITB Qualifier: Jeff Hardy vs. The Miz – 1 million viewers
3. MITB Qualifier: Charlotte Flair vs. Peyton Royce – 489k viewers
4. Becky Lynch vs. Mandy Rose – 407k viewers
5. Xavier Woods vs. Cesaro – 354k viewers
6. Shinsuke Nakamura says he’s not finished with AJ Styles – 230k viewers
7. AJ Styles vows to finish Nakamura – 181k viewers

Just as we’ve seen with television viewership for both RAW and SmackDown Live, as well as the red brand’s YouTube numbers, everything remains down. Similarly to RAW, the top three spots are all occupied by Money In The Bank qualifying matches, with the ultra-popular Daniel Bryan coming in at number one. Sorry, Rusev fans, but he’s just the benefactor here, not much of a contributor if you’ve seen what ‘The Lion of Bulgaria’ has drawn in previous weeks.

I find it interesting that Becky Lynch vs. Mandy Rose ranks ahead of the only other match that didn’t revolve around MITB. There’s definitely a pocket of fans who vehemently support Becky, but she doesn’t receive the mainstream attention of say, Sasha Banks or even Bayley. ‘The Lass Kicker’ has seemingly been on the back-burner of SmackDown Live’s Women’s Division, so what’s the explanation? It’s got to be Mandy Rose, who mainstream fans likely remember from her brief run on Total Divas or maybe even from Tough Enough. Plus, she has quite the male following, if you catch my drift.

Numbers 6 and 7 come in with really low numbers, but in comparison to what similar segments on RAW did, it’s comparable. There wasn’t much in the way of backstage stuff outside of these, but even if there was, these two both revolve around the hottest feud on the blue brand. Not to mention your WWE Champion, so it would have outdrawn anything similar had SmackDown had it.

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