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Former WWE writer Vince Russo bashed last week's WWE SmackDown show, which did not capitalize on the NFL lead-in that they got. Russo was a guest on Sportskeeda's Legion of RAW, where he spoke about this week's RAW, as well as touched upon one aspect of last week's SmackDown.
Last week's SmackDown show had a huge increase in viewership numbers as it received an average of 3.335 million viewers. The Blue brand had 4.097 million viewers in the first hour, but the numbers dipped in the second hour as 2.574 million viewers tuned in.
Vince Russo spoke about WWE creating storylines around wrestlers fans don't care about. He compared WWE shows to The Walking Dead, which is one of the most-watched TV shows currently in the world. Russo said that The Walking Dead can make fans care about at least three characters in an hour. He then spoke about last week's SmackDown, which had good numbers in the first hour, thanks to the NFL lead-in, but tailed off in the second hour.
"Did you see those numbers of SmackDown, when they had the lead-in from the NFL? Did you see - by the time we got to the second hour, half of those people left. They were not interested in the... that's got to tell you something - how does the WWE not give 'em a story? A story in the first hour to grab these people... nothing. When I saw where they went from hour 1 to hour 2, I'm like, 'holy...'. If that doesn't tell you everything you need to know, I don't know what will," said Vince Russo.
Russo stated that WWE have tried to push wrestlers that fans are not invested in as the story being told hasn't captured the attention of the viewers.
WWE SmackDown after TLC
The SmackDown after TLC which aired last week, was an action-packed one. The night kicked off with a rematch from TLC as Roman Reigns faced Kevin Owens in a Steel Cage match and the former came out on top. The Women's Tag Team titles were also on the line, and the champions, Asuka and Charlotte Flair, retained their belts.
The big story to come out of last week's show was Big E's Intercontinental Championship win as he defeated Sami Zayn for the title.
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