This week’s edition of WWE Smackdown Live featured an opening promo from AJ Styles and John Cena that teased a match between the former rivals, but perhaps predictably, the end result was the popular duo teaming up in the main event. What did that mean for the Smackdown ratings? It was good news, even though WWE faced tough competition from the Major League Baseball All-Star Game on Tuesday night.
Smackdown did 2.465 million viewers, according to TVBythenumbers. That’s up from the 2.33 million from last week, which was seen as a major positive for WWE since it was the Fourth of July, which is obviously not a big TV-viewing night in America.
As for the MLB All-Star game, it did 9.28 million viewers on Fox. That’s a big number and strong competition for WWE. It will be interesting to see how Smackdown does, now that Cena is back, without any major competition from another network or a holiday taking place on a Tuesday. The June 20 and 27 editions of Smackdown did around 2.6 million viewers, so most likely that’s where things should land next week and through the summer.
The main event of Smackdown this week was Cena and Styles beating Rusev and Kevin Owens in the most predictable main event of the year. It was obvious what the outcome was when it started, but at least WWE should be pleased by the numbers.
I think Smackdown was the better show most weeks, but Jinder Mahal as WWE Champion isn’t exactly lighting the world on fire with excitement. It should be interesting to see if WWE chooses to put the WWE Championship back on Randy Orton at Battleground on July 20, or maybe Cena will win his record-setting 17th World Title from Mahal at SummerSlam. Then again, maybe WWE rides it out with Jinder and he carries it longer. Don’t forget about Baron Corbin with the Money in the Bank briefcase, either.
