WWE News: SmackDown Live Weekly YouTube Report (5/22/18)

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, 5/24/18):

1. Daniel Bryan vs. Jeff Hardy – 1.1 million views
2. Shinsuke Nakamura reveals his stipulation for MITB – 1 million views
3. MITB Qualifier: Lana vs. Billie Kay – 878k views
4. Big E vs. The Miz – 554k views
5. MITB Qualifier: Naomi vs. Sonya Deville – 523k views
6. Tag Title #1 Contender’s Match: The Usos vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson – 452k views
7. MizTV with The New Day – 353k views

Coming in at number one for the second week in a row is the new face of SmackDown Live, Daniel Bryan, in the night’s main event against US Champion Jeff Hardy. These numbers are nearly identical to what Bryan took in the week before, except this week it was against a much more known opponent and the match had MITB implications. Except last week was not a match, but just merely a segment involving Big Cass. With viewership down again this week on television following a slight uptick last week, I chalk Bryan’s drop up to that.

At number two is our WWE Champion yet again, as Nakamura and AJ Styles keep with their consistent numbers and hover around the one million mark once again. This also had MITB implications and doesn’t appear that the viewership decline affected (what I still believe to be) SmackDown Live’s hottest feud.

Moving onto number three, this is a complete outlier. Is Billie Kay responsible for this? Absolutely not. Some have griped about people (male fans) only caring about Lana for her looks, but also like to leave out that a lot of women feel the same about someone like Roman Reigns. WWE is a business and even though Lana needs work in the ring, PEOPLE CARE. That’s all that matters.

Numbers four and seven are intertwined with The New Day and The Miz. We’ve seen The New Day struggle recently with drawing YouTube views and even with The Miz’s appeal outside of WWE, it doesn’t help at all here. On a night when there was something on the line in every match, this wasn’t the case here and it had to only hurt. How do I know this? Numbers five and six. Both had outcomes that affect MITB and weren’t too far off from matching what the opening Big E/Miz match did. Naomi and The Usos have been a bit of a “powerhouse” for YouTube views in the past, but only when they’ve been together.

What you won’t see here is one of SmackDown Live’s newest Superstars, Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas. Granted, it was another squash match against an enhancement talent, but a massive dip from his debut last week as he pulls in less than 200k. This is more proof in my eyes that fans who watch RAW and SmackDown Live don’t necessarily watch NXT. If they did, Almas would do better.

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