The latest overnight ratings numbers are in for WWE Friday Night SmackDown. This week’s episode saw the network television staple fall below 2 million viewers on a night that saw a main event that could have headlined WrestleMania.
According to ShowBuzz Daily, this week’s WWE SmackDown viewership came back with 1.923 million viewers, down from the 2.042 million viewers the April 23 episode drew. As far as demographics go, the 18-49 demographic saw no change for team blue. This week’s 0.5 rating was identical to the rating from last week. In the 25-54 demographic, SmackDown drew a 0.6 rating, down from last week.
This week’s episode of Friday Night Smackdown had two pay-per-view quality Championship matches including Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan facing off for the Universal Championship in the main event. Because Roman Reigns defeated Daniel Bryan with the Guillotine Choke, Daniel Bryan is now banished from the SmackDown brand.
Also, Big E once again faced Apollo Crews for the WWE Intercontinental Championship. However, for the first time, Apollo was the one defending the championship. That match ended by disqualification and as of now, there is no confirmation that there will be yet another match between these two rivals.
As for the other Champions on the brand, the Tag Team Champions and the Women’s Champion we’re on opposite sides of the same six-person tag team match as SmackDown Women’s Champion Bianca Belair teamed with her husband, Montez Ford, and Angelo Dawkins, The Street Profits, to defeat SmackDown Tag Team Champions Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode, and their partner, Bayley.
Next week, SmackDown will be heading back to the future with a special throwback episode. As of now, no special guests or retro matchups have been confirmed but in a WrestleMania 37 rematch, Cesaro will face Seth Rollins one-on-one.
