Credit: WWE.comCredit: WWE.com
Styles defeated Jinder Mahal to win the WWE Championship on the November 7th edition of SmackDown, and according to WrestlingNewsWorld.com, the blue blue brand's viewership has been up every week since "The Phenomenal One" won the title:
- November 7th: 2.603 million
- November 14th: 2.607 million
- November 21st: 2.662 million
- November 28th: 2.680 million
That marked just the second time this year that SmackDown viewership was up for four straight weeks, and the only other time came in March and April during the lead-up to WrestleMania 33, which tends to be the best time of the year for WWE's TV ratings. What's that say about the blue brand? Well, for starters, it's clear that fans were excited to see Mahal's lackluster title reign come to a screeching halt, but it also suggests that Styles is perhaps the biggest draw currently on the blue brand.
In fact, Styles, who previously held the WWE title from September to 2016 to January 2017, played a big role in SmackDown's TV ratings jumping up a whopping 17% by the end of 2016. Styles was the focal point of the brand for much of that stint and had two tremendous feuds with John Cena and Dean Ambrose, respectively, that established the WWE Championship as the company's most prestigious title and made SmackDown the clear-cut No. 1 show in WWE.
Even after Styles dropped the WWE title at the 2017 Royal Rumble, he remained one of WWE's biggest draws (based on YouTube data) and one of its most popular fan favorites. Unsurprisingly, the quality of SmackDown dipped considerably after Styles lost the WWE title this past January, and this summer, the star-studded Raw show that featured the likes of Brock Lesnar, Samoa Joe, Braun Strowman and Roman Reigns feuding for the Universal title obviously reestablished itself as WWE's premiere show.
But fast forward to Styles' second WWE title win last month, and that's when it became quite evident that SmackDown is once again threatening Raw in the battle for brand supremacy.
With no Lesnar or The Miz for the foreseeable future, Raw has taken a noticeable hit in the star power department. And it's shown. According to WrestlingInc.com, last week's "SmackDown, featuring Kevin Owens defeating Randy Orton in a No DQ main event, drew 2.680 million viewers" and was within 100,000 viewers of the same week's episode of Raw:
In comparison, Monday's RAW drew 2.759 million viewers, down from last week's 3.074 million viewers. It beat SmackDown by only 3%, which is the smallest margin between the two shows this year.
That also is the closest SmackDown viewership has come to beating Raw's since December 2016, when the blue brand actually toppled the red brand in the ratings while, you guessed it, Styles was holding the WWE Championship. Now, SmackDown is in prime position to overtake Raw once again both as WWE's best weekly show and in terms of generating the highest average viewing audience.
">WWE SmackDown is on the verge of catching Raw, both in the ratings and in terms of overall quality, and we can thank AJ Styles for that.
Credit: WWE.comCredit: WWE.com
Styles defeated Jinder Mahal to win the WWE Championship on the November 7th edition of SmackDown, and according to WrestlingNewsWorld.com, the blue blue brand's viewership has been up every week since "The Phenomenal One" won the title:
- November 7th: 2.603 million
- November 14th: 2.607 million
- November 21st: 2.662 million
- November 28th: 2.680 million
That marked just the second time this year that SmackDown viewership was up for four straight weeks, and the only other time came in March and April during the lead-up to WrestleMania 33, which tends to be the best time of the year for WWE's TV ratings. What's that say about the blue brand? Well, for starters, it's clear that fans were excited to see Mahal's lackluster title reign come to a screeching halt, but it also suggests that Styles is perhaps the biggest draw currently on the blue brand.
In fact, Styles, who previously held the WWE title from September to 2016 to January 2017, played a big role in SmackDown's TV ratings jumping up a whopping 17% by the end of 2016. Styles was the focal point of the brand for much of that stint and had two tremendous feuds with John Cena and Dean Ambrose, respectively, that established the WWE Championship as the company's most prestigious title and made SmackDown the clear-cut No. 1 show in WWE.
Even after Styles dropped the WWE title at the 2017 Royal Rumble, he remained one of WWE's biggest draws (based on YouTube data) and one of its most popular fan favorites. Unsurprisingly, the quality of SmackDown dipped considerably after Styles lost the WWE title this past January, and this summer, the star-studded Raw show that featured the likes of Brock Lesnar, Samoa Joe, Braun Strowman and Roman Reigns feuding for the Universal title obviously reestablished itself as WWE's premiere show.
But fast forward to Styles' second WWE title win last month, and that's when it became quite evident that SmackDown is once again threatening Raw in the battle for brand supremacy.
With no Lesnar or The Miz for the foreseeable future, Raw has taken a noticeable hit in the star power department. And it's shown. According to WrestlingInc.com, last week's "SmackDown, featuring Kevin Owens defeating Randy Orton in a No DQ main event, drew 2.680 million viewers" and was within 100,000 viewers of the same week's episode of Raw:
In comparison, Monday's RAW drew 2.759 million viewers, down from last week's 3.074 million viewers. It beat SmackDown by only 3%, which is the smallest margin between the two shows this year.
That also is the closest SmackDown viewership has come to beating Raw's since December 2016, when the blue brand actually toppled the red brand in the ratings while, you guessed it, Styles was holding the WWE Championship. Now, SmackDown is in prime position to overtake Raw once again both as WWE's best weekly show and in terms of generating the highest average viewing audience.
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