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What’s the story?
The numbers for the WWE Network programming are in and the majority of their recent shows have come in at high numbers.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that Battleground and the post-Battleground Talking Smack were the most popular programs on the WWE Network for this week.
In case you didn’t know...
The programs that aired on the WWE Network this week were the Battleground Pay-Per-View, the post Talking Smack and the PPV pre-show, 205 Live, and a Table for 3 episode featuring Corey Graves, Lita, and Renee Young.
Battleground was regarded by many fans as one of the worst SmackDown PPVs since the Brand Split's revival as well as one of the worst pay-per-views of 2017.
The heart of the matter
The following are the list of top programs for the WWE this past week:
1. Battleground
2. Talking Smack (Battleground Edition)
3. Battleground Pre-show
4. Table for 3 w/Lita, Corey Graves, and Renee Young
5. Great Balls of Fire
6. NXT (July 19, 2017)
7. Table for 3 w/The Godfather, Mark Henry, and Ron Simmons
8. WrestleMania 33
9. WWE 24: Kurt Angle
10. Post-Raw Interview with Kurt Angle and Jason Jordan.
Despite the fans negative opinions of Battleground, the show was the highest viewed program for this week. This week’s episode of 205 Live was barely in the top 20 for show viewership and was one spot behind a previous episode of NXT, but one spot above the Stone Cold Podcast with Triple H from 2015.
What’s next?
205 Live has not been a popular program since its inception so expect it to maintain its place at the bottom of the popularity poll.
It’s also fairly interesting how many fans are still re-watching WrestleMania 33 despite it occurring almost four months ago.
Author’s take
As we get closer and closer to SummerSlam 2017, expect to see previous SummerSlam pay-per-views make their way into the top ten programming.
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