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

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, 9/20/18):

1. The Miz welcomes Maryse to MizTV – 1.7 million views
2. Becky Lynch celebrates her title win – 1.1 million views
3. AJ Styles vs. Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas – 667k views
4. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Rusev – 568k views
5. Randy Orton reviews his assault of Jeff Hardy at Hell In A Cell – 434k views
6. Kofi Kingston vs. Cesaro – 210k views
7. Billie Kay vs. Asuka – 190k views

Topping this week’s SmackDown Live YouTube Report is our opening segment of the show where a surprise guest was teased for MizTV, however it merely turned out to be Maryse. It wasn’t a stellar night for the blue brand in terms of stories or big names, but this clip was the follow-up to arguably SmackDown Live’s hottest angles. Add that Daniel Bryan was involved, Maryse announcing she will be gone again for a while and just having more time to be viewed and you’ve got a clear cut number one.

The second spot in our list is reserved this week for the other angle that has an argument for being the blue brand’s best, Becky Lynch and Charlotte. This was the main event segment and regardless of how people have felt about Becky’s booking, they’re interested, which is the most important factor. I’m mostly interested to see where they go with this feud from here and with 1.1 million views, I don’t believe I’m alone on that.

Numbers three and four this week were two tremendous matches that draw well enough to get high spots on a lackluster list. While in-ring action is great and what a lot of fans (at least on social media) tune in for, it just plain doesn’t draw to the level people think it does. If that were the case, AJ vs. Almas would have been number one. Nakamura vs. Rusev is interesting because we finally saw the official split of Rusev Day. I’ve argued before that Rusev isn’t as over as people think and I feel like this is more evidence of that. It’s a moment that’s been teased for a while that finally happened, so why aren’t people more interested?

The last three spots on our list…well, they are there by default. There were only seven clips to choose from this week, so basically all you had to do was be on the show to rank this week.

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