EA’s Weekly SmackDown Live YouTube Report (1/8/19)

A look at the YouTube performance for this week’s 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, 1/10/19):

1. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Carmella – 819k views
2. Naomi attacks Mandy Rose backstage – 742k views
3. Rey Mysterio & Mustafa Ali vs. Samoa Joe & Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas – 492k views
4. The Usos vs. The Bar – 439k views
5. Daniel Bryan is sick of consumerism – 430k views
6. Daniel Bryan vs. R-Truth – 359k views
7. Rusev seeks out Shinsuke Nakamura – 305k views

Yikes, quite the disparage in views between SmackDown Live and RAW (see that here) this week on YouTube. The red brand sports nearly a full top seven of clips with at least a million views, meanwhile the blue brand doesn’t have one. Topping SmackDown Live was the main event of the night that saw Becky Lynch, Carmella and Charlotte Flair battling for a shot at Asuka’s SmackDown Women’s Title at Royal Rumble. I may have addressed this before, but can we stop with comparing Becky to people like ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin? There may be some similarities, but it’s still way too early in her rise to go there. If anything, interest has dropped since her initial hot streak if you go off of YouTube numbers.

Sliding into second this week is another clip that will go into my “Evidence Of Prior Statements” book with Naomi going after Mandy Rose after she had cost The Usos their match against The Bar, which comes in at number four. This doesn’t seem like a clip that should be this high up on the list on any given week, especially considering what it’s beating out. Hardcore wrestling fans will deny the importance of mainstream or casuals until they’re blue in the face, but they consistently show up for Naomi and Jimmy Uso clips. Why? Total Divas. So you may wonder why Mandy’s interference in the number four clip doesn’t help it out some. I’d say it’s because of no Naomi.

In third for SmackDown Live this week was easily the best match of the night, but honestly all of the clips from here on down performed poorly. This tag match was a bit of a Men’s Royal Rumble Match showcase with all four Superstars being entrants, but outside of a good match, there was nothing on the line and was of little importance.

The WWE Champion Daniel Bryan continues to stay low on the YouTube charts, coming in this week at numbers five and six with our opening segment and first match of the night. R-Truth doesn’t move the needle on YouTube, so that certainly isn’t helping Bryan’s YouTube performance this week. At the same time, it’s pretty fascinating to see how easy it was for Bryan to make the WWE Universe hate him after loving him for so long. Finishing things up at number seven is the next step in the feud between Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura, which really is only here because there was nothing else on SmackDown Live to challenge it on our list. Just a disappointing effort from top-to-bottom really.