Universal Title Match Keeps WWE Smackdown Rating High

The ratings are out for Friday Night wrestling and sports entertainment. There was competition on cable this week for AEW with the start of College Football. Smackdown also faced competition from football, but once again dominated network TV, especially in the key 18-49 demo.

WWE Smackdown Numbers Rise Again, AEW Holds Steady

Let us start with WWE Smackdown. Smackdown was viewed by 2.20 million people on Friday. This number was slightly down from the previous week. In addition, Smackdown did .62 in the 18-49 demo which is about 805,000 people viewing in the key demo. That number is up from the previous week. These numbers are courtesy of Showbuzzdaily.com

WWE Smackdown on Friday on Fox: 2,220,000
18-49: 805,000 (0.62 rating)

AEW Rampage on TNT: 696,000
18-49: 397,000 (0.31)

Countdown to All Out Special: 361,000
18-49: 230,000 (0.18)

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— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) September 7, 2021

This week’s Smackdown was highlighted by the Universal Title match between Roman Reigns and Finn Balor. This was a solid match for the main event of the show. Smackdown continues to be the stronger of the two shows. They are continuing to build off the Summerslam momentum with Becky Lynch and Bianca Belair. In addition, with Smackdown going to Madison Square Garden this Friday and the return of Brock Lesnar, the show should continue to pull a high number.

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AEW Rampage Continues To Do Well

AEW Rampage ratings were down again this week. But there was stiff competition from College Football. However, they still pulled off a strong number for the final go-home show heading into ALL-OUT. The show did 696,000 viewers. In addition, Rampage did a .31 in the 18-49 demo which is 397,000 viewers. AEW still finished fourth on cable for the night. The highlights of the show were Miro and Eddie Kingston squaring off ahead of their TNT title match. In addition, we had CM Punk on commentary for Darby Allin’s match.

Tony Kahn is not worried about these numbers as this show is doing better than most people expected considering the 10 pm timeslot. AEW’s Road To All Out special did well too 361,000 viewers at 11 pm at night. They did a .18 in the 18-49 demo. That is better than some NXT shows.

So things are going well on all fronts for AEW and WWE Smackdown.