EA’s Weekly SmackDown Live YouTube Report (10/16/18)

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, 10/18/18):

1. Batista takes a dig at Triple H during Evolution’s reunion – 4.3 million views
2. Rey Mysterio vs. Shinsuke Nakamura – 1.6 million views
3. Charlotte Flair attacks Becky Lynch on The Cutting Edge – 927k views
4. The New Day vs. The Bar – 676k views
5. AJ Styles & Daniel Bryan vs. The Usos – 565k views
6. The Undertaker has a message for DX – 384k views
7. The Miz vs. Rusev – 326k views

The top of the rankings are strong for SmackDown’s 1000th episode this week, as Drax the Destroyer shines during the Evolution reunion and teases a possible future match against Triple H. Batista was on his game and was the only really entertaining part of this segment, as nostalgia was obviously the driving force. Dave’s been pretty outspoken about wanting to have one last match with Trips and after needling ‘The Game’ here, fans unquestionably want to see it.

Number two is a little surprising considering some of the other names on the show, but it’s not unreasonable to expect Rey Mysterio’s return match to do good numbers. We’ve been over it before, but legends generally equal ratings and Rey’s definitely one of them. Plus, our usual stew that includes action revolving around an upcoming pay-per-view, 1.6 million might even be a bit shorter than what I anticipated for this one.

The third spot this week is for another returning legend, as Edge is inserted into this paragraph of the Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair story. He played his role perfectly as well and while this clip drew pretty well, I also expected more. It’s a bit surprising to me that my formula of legend + hot feud + upcoming PPV doesn’t equal at least a million views here. Our other clip with a returning legend in the top seven, The Undertaker’s message for DX, is another case where that formula doesn’t work. However, The Undertaker clip can be explained away since it took him longer to get to the ring than it did to utter the five or six words he spoke.

The rest of our top seven this week is allocated to the action from SmackDown 1000. At number four, we got a title change as The Bar have now joined the 5-time champions club by defeating fellow 5-time Tag Champions, The New Day, with a little help from the 1000th (sarcasm) heel turn by Big Show. Oddly enough, you would think SmackDown Live’s top two babyfaces in AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan would draw better, yet they’re only at number five this week and don’t even crack 570k views. Then lastly, another brief clip as The Miz defeats Rusev to advance to the World Cup in less than a minute’s time.

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