WWE Smackdown and AEW Rampage Sees Nice Holiday Viewership

Welcome back to another edition of the weekend wrestling ratings. This week Smackdown was aired on Christmas Eve. While AEW Rampage was pushed to Saturday night Christmas Day.

WWE Smackdown was viewed by 1,972,000 million people and did a .48 in the 18-49 demo, which is about 630,000 viewers. The number is down from a week ago. The demo was also down from a week ago when WWE Smackdown did a .52 in the 19-49 demo. WWE Smackdown was number two in the demo for Friday night on network TV behind NBC Movie Special.

WWE Smackdown on Fox on Christmas Eve, Friday:

1,972,000 viewers
P18-49: 630,000 (0.48 rating)https://t.co/Ku6ukCyRUr pic.twitter.com/rsdnxeKulZ

— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) December 28, 2021

One of the reasons this was such a good show was the fact the continued storyline between Roman Reigns, Paul Heyman, and Brock Lesnar. Lesnar and Reigns were not on the show this week. This week the show opened with Paul Heyman being interviewed. Heyman what is next for him in his career now that he has been fired by Roman Reigns. With the Universal Title match set for Day 1 and no go-home show as now for Smackdown on New Year’s Eve, we have to wonder what role Heyman will play in the outcome of this match.

In addition, we saw Charolette taking on Toni Storm for the Smackdown women’s title. Sami Zayn prevailed in a 12-man, 12 Days of Christmas Gaunlet match to earn a shot at the Intercontinental Title. Plus Drew McIntyre & New Day defeated The Usos and Madcap Moss in a Street Fight to close the show.

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AEW Rampage was up from the previous week. This week Rampage was on Christmas Day due to the fact TNT was airing their annual 24 hours of a Christmas Story. Rampage was viewed by 589,000 people and did a .26  in the 18-49 demo, which is about 335,000 people.

AEW Rampage on Christmas night, Saturday at 9 pm on TNT:

589,000 total viewers
P18-49: 335,000 (0.26 rating)

📊 https://t.co/1SscdBCpr8 pic.twitter.com/d3hA7JJdjt

— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) December 28, 2021

AEW did well for being outside of its normal time slot of 10 pm on a Friday night. This was the highest 18-49 for Rampage since September 24th. And this was the highest total viewership for Rampage since November 5th. In addition, AEW Rampage saw growth throughout the hour from 9 pm to 10 pm, unlike on Friday night when they lose viewership.

This was an entertaining card for Holiday Bash Rampage with Cody Rhodes headlining the show with Sammy Guevara for the TNT Championship. Which by the way Cody won for the third time. More on that right here. The show opened with Jungle Boy and Isiah Cassidy. We saw Hook back in action as again he was super over. Plus a solid women’s match between Kris Statlander and Leyla Hirsch. Oh yeah, let us not forget the great promo by Miro.