Welcome back to another edition of the weekend wrestling ratings. WWE Smackdown was back live on Fox after a week off. While AEW Rampage was at its normal 10 pm timeslot.
WWE Smackdown was viewed by 2,271,00 million people and did a .58 in the 18-49 demo, which is about 756,000 viewers. The number is down from two weeks ago. The demo was also down from a week ago when WWE Smackdown did a .52 in the 19-49 demo. WWE Smackdown was third-best on network TV in the demo and fourth overall between cable and network in the demo.
WWE Smackdown, Friday on Fox 8-10pm:
2,271,000 viewers
P18-49: 0.58 rating (756,000)AEW Rampage on TNT 10-11pm:
588,000 viewers
P18-49: 0.24 rating (308,000)📊 More demos & analysis: https://t.co/wfnt6G2JZF pic.twitter.com/6HccXb1jnB
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) January 10, 2022
One of the reasons this was such a good show was the fact WWE continued the storyline between Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar, and Paul Heyman. The three men opened the show as Heyman was right in the middle of things. Despite Brock being the WWE Champion and Roman being Universal Champion, WWE is heading towards a Roman vs Brock Wrestlemania Match. Roman was not done for the night as it was revealed that Seth Rollins will fight him at the Royal Rumble for the Universal Title.
In addition, we saw Charlotte cut a promo about how she will win the Royal Rumble as champion as she played a video of the participants in the Women’s Royal Rumble. WWE has opened the “Forbidden Door” as Impact’s Knockouts Women’s Champion Mickie James will be in the Royal Rumble. Plus there was a great main event between the Usos and New Day for the Tag Team Titles.
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After Dynamite debuted to high numbers on TBS, Rampage was on TNT prior to Battle of the Belts on Saturday night. AEW Rampage continued the momentum as the show was viewed by 588,000 people and did a .24 in the 18-49 demo, which is about 308,000 people. These numbers are both up from the previous week. AEW Rampage was seventh on the night on cable according to Showbuzzdaily.com.
This was an entertaining card for the first episode of the year. Adam Cole vs Jake Atlas kicked off the show. Good match, but it was a shame Atlas got hurt. The place went nuts for Hook as he squashed Aaron Solo and laid out QT Marshall. There was a women’s tag team match featuring Riho, Ruby Soho, Jamie Hayter, and Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. In the main event Eddie Kingston, Santana & Ortiz took on Daniel Garcia and 2Point0
