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What's the story?
After a very solid viewership number last week, spurred mainly by the return of Vince McMahon, SmackDown Live experienced a massive drop this week. The drop was as massive as 8.6% when compared to last week's numbers.
The main event saw the women in a Fatal 4-way match to determine the Number 1 contender for Natalya's championship. We bring you the statistics via WrestlingInc.
In case you didn't know...
The final segment, last week, had a 72-year old Vince McMahon take a stiff headbutt from Kevin Owens, and also a frog splash, soon thereafter. The headbutt made waves around the world and went viral on social media, almost instantly.
While the vicious attack was discussed in great detail this week, and the show was far from a dud, it was nowhere close to the amazing show from last week.
The heart of the matter
Last week's episode did 2.754 million viewers, which was easily the best number they've done since April. That was, in part, because of the three title matches that had been advertised for the Sin City Special of SmackDown Live. Unfortunately, the multi-woman match and AJ Styles vs. Baron Corbin for the US Championship, drew a far smaller number, this week.
This week's episode of SmackDown Live did a mere 2.510 million viewers. This is one of the weaker numbers over the past month, Even RAW's number fell from last week's solid 2.903 million viewers to only 2.833 million, tuning in to watch the go-home show for No Mercy.
What's next?
Things move into high gear, as we inch ever closer to Hell in a Cell. We wonder if WWE will announce any special matches for next week's show, to make viewers tune in and raise the numbers.
Author's take
The Sin City special of SmackDown Live was an anomaly, and it is impossible for WWE to bring us that kind of action on a weekly basis. Better writing is the need of the hour, to make SmackDown Live a must-watch program, every single week.
RAW just feels like a more important show, to me!
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