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, 6/28/18):

1. Daniel Bryan vs. Harper, Kane returns – 1.3 million views
2. James Ellsworth calls out Asuka – 1 million views
3. United States Title: Jeff Hardy vs. Eric Young – 680k views
4. Jeff Hardy & The Usos vs. SAnitY – 547k views
5. Daniel Bryan confronts The Bludgeon Brothers on MizTV – 434k views
6. Rusev vs. Xavier Woods – 284k views
7. Becky Lynch vs. Sonya Deville – 254k views

After a string of struggling to hit the million mark, SmackDown Live’s (arguably) most popular Superstar, Daniel Bryan, claims the number one position this week with 1.3 million views in the main event against SmackDown Tag Team Champion Harper. Obviously, the surprise return of Kane and subsequent Team Hell No reunion gives a boost here, something that some fans thought would go down at WrestleMania 34 as Shane McMahon’s status was uncertain for the event. I can safely say this because SmackDown Live’s opening segment that involved the same parties plus The Miz saw an enormous difference of nearly a million views and only came in at number five.

Number two is a pretty big surprise as James Ellsworth hits the million mark with a simple promo. To be completely transparent, I have no idea how you explain this, since Asuka didn’t even appear (even though she was called out), but instead General Manager Paige interrupted to put him in a match against ‘The Empress of Tomorrow’ next week. Last week Ellsworth did pretty well on YouTube, but it was his first appearance on the blue brand when he was joined by Carmella and Asuka. The only sense of it I can make is that this week’s show was one of SmackDown Live’s poorest efforts (which I realize isn’t entirely their fault) and this was one of the only parts of the show that was somewhat entertaining.

The third and fourth spots see our United States Champion Jeff Hardy slide in with 680k and 547k respectively. I know I’ve brought this up before, but Jeff doesn’t draw like a top star on YouTube (like somebody had previously tried to tell me that he does). He may have had a lot of buzz for YouTube following his return the night after WrestleMania, but it has clearly not continued. Of course, this can’t all be put on Jeff this week due to his scheduled title defense against Shinsuke Nakamura being changed because of a very unusual circumstance (which you can read here). Just under 700k views is certainly nothing to scoff at, but that’s generally around the mark you’ll see for Asuka, Sasha Banks and other Superstars that I’d deem popular, but not “top draws”.

Our last two spots at six and seven are taken up by the only other action on the blue brand this week as Rusev kept his momentum rolling towards Extreme Rules with a victory over Xavier Woods, followed by Becky Lynch vs. Sonya Deville. I still argue that Rusev’s not over, but the ‘Rusev Day’ chant is. Guys that are over by the true meaning of the word (in wrestling terms) don’t generally perform this poorly. I can’t even remember the last time ‘The Bulgarian Brute’ showed up with stellar numbers in our YouTube reports (outside of being involved in the Gauntlet Match last week), not since I’ve been doing them at least. Overall, it was a rough week for the blue brand.

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