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 SmackDown Live YouTube Report (2:30 PM EST, 12/27/18):

1. AJ Styles punches Mr. McMahon – 1.6 million views
2. United States Title: Rusev vs. Shinsuke Nakamura – 915k views
3. Mandy Rose tries getting Jimmy Uso under the mistletoe – 766k views
4. Daniel Bryan ruins R-Truth & Carmella’s Christmas celebration – 694k views
5. Daniel Bryan attacks Mustafa Ali – 453k views
6. Mustafa Ali vs. Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas – 445k views
7. Jeff Hardy vs. Samoa Joe – 442k views

This week’s SmackDown Live YouTube Report differs from that of RAW (see RAW’s YouTube Report) in that we do have Superstars with multiple clips in our top seven, however not at the top. Number one this week stays within the McMahon Family after Shane came in first last week, but this time it’s Vinnie Mac getting dropped by AJ Styles. It looks like they’re trying to sprinkle some “Vince dust” onto AJ and possibly help get him to that top of the pack level where the likes of Roman Reigns, John Cena and Brock Lesnar reside. Either that or we’re going to see a more aggressive Styles moving forward, maybe even perhaps a combination of both.

At number two was our blue brand main event this week featuring two Superstars who almost never get this close to the million view mark in Rusev and Shinsuke. So what’s the difference this time? The title change. Even fans who knew it was coming due to reading spoilers will still tune in for a title change, as we’ve previously discussed in our YouTube Reports.

Sliding into third this week is the continuation of the feud between Mandy Rose and Naomi, but now with a new twist as Mandy got under the skin of ‘The Glow Queen’ by using her husband. Personally, this rivalry that started on social media does nothing for me, but if you’re going to use Jimmy and give it the ‘Total Divas affect’, we’ve seen it be successful with him and Naomi in the past on YouTube. So maybe this is what this feud needs.

One of our two “repeat offenders” for SmackDown Live on YouTube this week comes in at number four with the WWE Champion Daniel Bryan spoiling R-Truth and Carmella’s fun. I’m fully behind this character change for Bryan, it’s obviously something he can get behind and the realism of it makes it all the more interesting. Plus, he’s helping put others on the map such as Mustafa Ali, as their issues continue in the fifth spot, which the follow-up to the clip at number six. I think we all know Ali is likely never going to be anything more than MAYBE a United States Champion, but considering his fight to even get here, that’s a win for him.

Finishing up our top seven this week was the next step in the heated rivalry between Jeff Hardy and Samoa Joe. Quite frankly, this could very easily be in the fifth or sixth spot, so there’s nothing really negative I can say about it. Outside of our top two/three clips this week, a pretty standard showing for SmackDown Live on YouTube overall.