WWE Smackdown Draws Big Viewership Thanks To The Rock

Welcome back to another edition of the weekend wrestling ratings with WWE Smackdown and AEW Rampage. The way Rampage is being booked and watched, the numbers continue to dip for AEW with that show. However, WWE Smackdown on Friday drew some big numbers especially in the first hour thanks to Pat McAfee and The Rock.

This was a great surprise for many people in attendance. Smackdown was live in Denver, Colorado. The Rock and Pat McAfee were in Boulder, CO for their respective shows including College Gameday on Saturday. So it made sense for them to show up on Smackdown. Again who knew this was going to happen months ago when fans bought tickets? But WWE did a good job of keeping their returns or guest appearances a secret.

This week’s edition of WWE Smackdown was viewed by 2,569,000 million people and did .70  in the 18-49 demo.

WWE Smackdown, Friday on Fox:
2,569,000 viewers
P18-49 rating: 0.70

AEW Rampage, Friday on TNT:
335,000 viewers
P18-49 rating: 0.09
📊 https://t.co/qDSSxyAPtr pic.twitter.com/BG3ROOz5bm

— Wrestlenomics (@wrestlenomics) September 18, 2023

The Bloodline story segment was viewed by 2,563,000 million people and did .73  in the 18-49 demo when Roman Reigns was given his new championship belt. So this segment beat the Rock and McAfee returning in the demo. But remember that segment was advertised, but their returns were not.

The first two quarter-hours of Smackdown, Friday on Fox, with the surprise appearances of The Rock and Pat McAfee averaged 2.80 million and 2.79 million viewers, respectively, the highest quarter-hours of the show.

Those 2 quarter-hours are only topped by 3 other Smackdown QHs so far in 2023.

“Tribal Court”, July 7: 3,070,000 viewers

Roman Reigns 1000-day celebration, June 2: 2,901,000 viewers

Bray Wyatt & Terry Funk tributes that opened on Aug 25: 2,893,000 viewers.

So we know the Bloodline storyline runs things. But how many people jumped over to Fox once people were talking about The Rock? That is the key. Because all those who were probably going to DVR Smackdown are putting it on because of the People’s Champion.

WWE Smackdown was number one on network television and cable. The Rock’s segments on YouTube combined for over 10 million viewers. We know the Bloodline segment for Reigns’ 1000 Days as Champion had over 40 million viewers. It is the most-watched WWE Smackdown clip of 2023.

Not shockingly the rest of the number for Smackdown dipped after this. Even with John Cena on the program later in the night, they did not recover to the first two-quarters of the program. Remember Fox is not interested in renewing the rights for WWE, even though it is the most-watched show on cable on Fridays. You have to wonder if they will be missing on numbers like these despite what the company says about WWE coming up short on expectations and delivering.

Nobody expects wrestling ratings to be what they were during the height of the Attitude Era and the Monday Night Wars between Raw and Nitro. Smackdown is rating well consistently well over 2 million viewers every Friday night. That is really good.

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On the other side of things, AEW Rampage continues to tread water on Fridays at 10 p.m. The show was viewed by 335,000 people and did .09 in the 18-49 demo. That is the worst demo rating in the show’s history. Again 10 pm is tough for wrestling fans considering what is on before and during Rampage.