SmackDown takes a dip in rating despite highly-praised episode

SmackDown has done far better in the ratings over the last few months than Monday Night RAW, consistently hitting over the 2 million mark on an average. The quality of the SmackDown episodes has been praised as well, with many fans believing that it's been the better show to watch this past summer.

Unfortunately for SmackDown, it suffered a dip in ratings despite a fantastic episode, averaging 1.954 million viewers, reportedly down by 16.1% from last week, which averaged 2.329 million viewers.

Showbuzz Daily also reported that SmackDown drew an average of 0.5 in the 18-49 demographic - ranking #1 on the night. Last week's episode drew 0.6 in the same demographic.

As a whole, SmackDown came #6 on the night in terms of TV viewership. The episode was headlined by a Samoan Street Fight where Universal Champion Roman Reigns teamed up with his cousin Jey Uso to defeat King Corbin and Sheamus.

Some of the other significant moments on the show included Jeff Hardy announcing that he wanted a Triple Threat ladder match at Clash of Champions, while Sasha Banks made a return for a sit-down interview, only to be assaulted by Bayley.

SmackDown's lowest viewership since moving to The ThunderDome

The ThunderDome era of SmackDown has been well-received from a creative standpoint. While WWE had a few hiccups at first with certain fans taking advantage of the ThunderDome screen to put out various messages, they seem to have found a way around it.

Either way, this past episode of SmackDown saw the lowest viewership since WWE moved to The ThunderDome (Amway Center) in Orlando last month. WWE reportedly booked the ThunderDome for two months for all shows - RAW, SmackDown, and PPVs.

While fans may not be present, the ThunderDome is perhaps the closest we've gotten to WWE going back to the way they used to be. Many will hope for fans to return soon, but the entire process of letting fans back in has to be done in a selective process and not all at once.