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What's the story?
Wrestling Inc. has provided the viewership numbers for WWE SmackDown Live the night after Raw 25 and which is the final episode before the Royal Rumble this Sunday. Many expected a decent rise in the viewership for this Tuesday, but that didn't happen.
In case you didn't know...
Raw 25 gave Monday Night Raw a gigantic boost in the viewership this week with 4.53 million viewers tuning in, up from 3.25 million the week before. It was the first time since the Raw after WrestleMania 32 in 2016 that Monday Night Raw topped the 4 million mark for viewership.
The heart of the matter
The viewership this week largely remained the same from the January 16th edition of SmackDown Live as this week only saw a 0.8% decrease to 2.58 million viewers. The January 16th edition of SmackDown Live had 2.60 million.
With the Royal Rumble being the official start of The Road To WrestleMania, there typically is an increase in both Raw and SmackDown's ratings on the first episode after that particular pay per view. It's safe to say that we'll see a decent increase in viewership on SmackDown Live next week.
It'll be interesting to see how many of the tremendous 4.53 million viewers of Raw 25 will be retained on the night after the Rumble.
What's next?
Next up for the WWE is the Royal Rumble this Sunday from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In addition to the men's and first ever women's Royal Rumble matches, the WWE Championship will be defended when AJ Styles takes on Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens in a handicap match. The WWE Universal Championship is also up for grabs when Brock Lesnar defends against Kane and Braun Strowman in a triple threat match.
Author's take
I'm honestly surprised that with it being the night after Raw 25 and the go-home show for the Royal Rumble that SmackDown Live didn't get a boost in the ratings. Those that didn't tune in missed one of the best editions of SmackDown Live in some time.
The opening segment with AJ Styles, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn was great. The match between Shinsuke Nakamura and Baron Corbin was tremendous especially with Randy Orton coming "out of nowhere" to hit both competitors with an RKO.
The interaction between Bobby Roode and The New Day was great. The main event was delivered in a big way to advance the storyline between Styles, Zayn, and Owens.
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