WWE Smackdown and AEW Rampage Ratings Both Down

Welcome back to another edition of the weekend wrestling ratings with WWE Smackdown and AEW Rampage. This week both shows were live with AEW Rampage taking place at 7 pm while Smackdown was on its normal time.

This week’s edition of WWE Smackdown was viewed by 2,142,000 million people and did .48 which is about 623,000 people in the 18-49 demo. Both the demo and viewership numbers were down from a week ago. This was the lowest number in the 18-49 demo since July for WWE Smackdown on Fox. This was the lowest viewership for Smackdown since February 25th. Smackdown was rated number two in the demo this week for network TV behind Dateline NBC.

WWE Smackdown, Friday on Fox, 8-10p:
2,142,000 viewers
P18-49: 0.48 (623k)
Lowest P18-49 on Fox since July.

AEW Rampage, early start on TNT at 7p:
482,000
P18-49: 0.22 (288k)
Down 12% in P18-49 from last week w/ normal start.

📊 More demos & analysis: https://t.co/1SscdBCpr8 pic.twitter.com/WKuIaAkXSx

— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) April 18, 2022

This week’s episode was a typical episode of Smackdown. The feud between Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair continued. WWE set the rematch for Wrestlemania Backlash as it will be an I Quit Match. Good Ole Charlotte made Drew Gulak say the words I Quit. Only two matches were officially listed. One of which saw Ricochet defend the Intercontinental Title against Jinder Mahal. Also, Sami Zayn took on Drew McIntyre. WWE also set up a tag team title Unification match between RKO-Bro and the Usos.

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After one of its highest-rated episodes of AEW Rampage in a while, the show was back to normal numbers. This week’s AEW Rampage was viewed by 482,000 people and did .22  in the 18-49 demo which is about 288,000 people. Even the World Title match could not Rampage rise from their previous week‘s ratings as there was competition from the NBA. Though AEW Rampage still ranked 9th on cable according to Showbuzzdaily.com.

This week’s AEW Rampage was an excellent show from start to finish. To help boost ratings, the main event featured Adam Cole taking Hangman Adam Page for the AEW World Championship in a Texas Death Match. This was a solid match with the champion retaining. The show opened with The Blackpool Combat Club taking on The Gunn Club in a solid match. Wheeler Yuta continues to be put over as a new star in the making.