EA’s Weekly SmackDown Live YouTube Report (11/13/18)

A look at the YouTube performance for this week’s WWE SmackDown Live!

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 RAW YouTube Report (3:00 PM EST, 11/15/18):

1. *TIE* Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles/Becky Lynch picks her replacement – 1.8 million views
2. Becky Lynch injured while invading RAW – 921k views
3. Daniel Bryan & AJ Styles brawl to open SmackDown Live – 824k views
4. Rey Mysterio vs. The Miz – 586k views
5. The Usos rally Team SmackDown before Survivor Series – 476k views
6. Daniel Bryan offers little explanation for his actions – 406k views

Not much of a surprise what tops our list this week, as I felt that our two clips tied at the top would most likely be neck-and-neck for that spot this week. Daniel Bryan’s big WWE Title win and heel turn, along with what was to become of the Becky Lynch vs. Ronda Rousey match were without question the two biggest talking points of the night. I find it interesting that Bryan is actually the one who wanted to turn heel (see that story here), so I think he may have been feeling what I was and that is him becoming a bit stale. Smart move by WWE to pull the trigger on the same night as Becky’s announcement, seemingly replacing one red hot angle with another all at once. Proving that is seeing four of the top six spots revolving around the segments.

Sliding into the third spot this week is Rey Mysterio taking on The Miz as he successfully hung onto his spot at Survivor Series. Oddly enough, the other match on this night with Survivor Series implications does terribly, as Jeff Hardy vs. Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas only pulls in 280k views. What this tells me is that despite how high on Almas the smart marks are, he’s still not translating in the mainstream and even Jeff Hardy couldn’t help out this week. Rey on the other hand, has continued to perform well in our YouTube reports, but this is easily his weakest showing since returning.

Our final clip at number five is the reveal of the rest of Team SmackDown for the 10-Team Survivor Series Elimination Match. Honestly, this is the definition of a “best of the rest” clip because we didn’t learn anything that couldn’t have been predicted. The Bar’s already booked, The Usos and The New Day were already on the team, so with three spots left, there’s only three other tag teams currently on the blue brand. So by default, Gallows and Anderson, The Colons, SAnitY…you’re in.

What do this week’s YouTube results for SmackDown Live tell you? Let us know on social media @theCHAIRSHOTcom and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!