WWE is pretty much in a lose-lose type situation and all because they rushed NXT to cable tv without planning ahead or thinking of the consequences.

If they increase the delay to something like RAW and Smackdown, that removes a big selling point for the Network since PPV and NXT have been the main drivers of subscriptions. Since WWE executive pay bonuses are now tied into Network viewership numbers, they'd take a big hit in their wallets if subs start to decrease in large numbers just to bail out NXT's tv viewership.

If they do nothing, AEW will continue to have the advantage over NXT even if NXT produces better shows in terms of in-ring quality.

I think they're in far more control than that. Triple H has been subtly brilliant bringing along NXT. He's not hot-shotting anything. He's letting AEW have their pomp for a few weeks, and then things will get tighter. The one thing he can't do is run bigger venues, because AEW is already doing that and taking up that segment of fan. But when that starts to cool, he can leave Full Sail, if he really wants (he may not want to).

They may not need anything else for the Network. They may not need advertisers if they can get sponsors, and they might be able to secure that by revealing to them the demo that between the USA Network and the WWE Network. They are also still producing Takeovers and When Worlds Collide (to sort of take over from Takeovers on big PPV weekends). And the gap between AEW and NXT might tighten and even switch if AEW cools down and NXT heats up.

Triple H and NXT itself haven't been subtle at all with how things have been handled since the move to USA Network.

They went extra heavy on in-ring action for the first few weeks thinking AEW was going to do the same only to see the opposite happen. Rushed together a Takeover-caliber card and got an overrun quickly added solely to take the steam out of AEW's debut and saw that plan backfire spectacularly.

Then tried a similar tactic with having another overrun for this week's show and got less in return than last week.

In terms of title belts, they've hotshot 2 title changes since moving to USA and 1 shortly before the move because of what they had planned for the debut when in the past that was a lot more rare and usually happened after feuds were developed and/or fleshed out.

AEW's Dynamite show is a lot closer to what NXT actually was during the Network era than what NXT has been on USA Network.

SD dropped almost a million less views than last week:lol:

That's what happens when you false advertise guys people actually care about.

Lolllllll FOX is gonna get buyers remorse so fucking fast

http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/wp-cont...Oct-11-FRI.png

2,898,000 viewers, down from last week's 3,869,000

But much higher ratings than any other network show in the "key demos" I guess

http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/article...0-11-2019.html

At least people will talk about this more than AEW losing 300k viewers

I am guessing the million viewers who didn't tune back in were like lapsed fans and potential new viewers....bizarre they spent the first eps revolving around people who won't all be on the show on a regular basis.

They really spent 40 minutes on Becky in ep 1 and put her in the intro and she won't be on the show

Such a Vince thing to do

That entire week did very little to entice anyone to continue watching if they were tuning in out of interest. They did barely anything to convert people to tune into Hell In A Cell, and if anyone did tune in to that show they were hardly rewarded.

I split the Network with a friend, it costs me £5 a month, it still feels like too much.

Wouldn't be surprised if next week was in the 2.5 million range since last night's show was not that interesting overall and WWE did a poor job handling the Draft.


Worst part is FOX had the chance to keep Becky on Smackdown since WWE gave both networks their roster list to see if they were ok with it and if any changes needed to be made. FOX decided to do nothing despite demanding Becky as one of the top stars for their brand leading to the SD's move to the network.

It makes sense that Lynch and Rollins would have to stay on the same brand, so they prob had a choice between Rollins or Reigns and picked Reigns

Completely disagree. I think that’s how Meltzer’s telling it, but he wants AEW to succeed and look better as much as anyone.

NXT has always been heavy on the in-ring, and they were always going to put on a stacked show opposite AEW. The card was actually pretty predictable, minus Strong vs. Dream happening earlier. But they have a Takeover card developing anyway.

Overruns are a classic move, and an obvious thing to do. I don’t think it “backfired” at all. Just because it didn’t win them the night or anything doesn’t mean it’s even a failure, let alone a reversal of fate.

I don’t think moving two belts is the definition of hot-shotting. Especially when talking about the CW and NA. They’ve also kept the NXT and Women’s right where they are.

Outside the brawl at the end of episode one, have we even seen an angle? We haven’t seen a turn. Balor is back down there, but the place isn’t crawling with main roster stars like Meltzer suspected it would be.

Triple H is letting AEW have their catwalk for a little while, because they were always going to get it. The big stuff is going to happen after AEW cools off.

Yes for TakeOvers but weekly tv rarely was like its been the past 4 weeks on USA Network. Way more often than not you'd get one big match or on rare occasions two big matches and the rest of the time spent moving along storylines or building new stuff. On some occasions you'd get a high profile match that would have been Takeover worthy in terms of status. First three weeks of NXT on USA was basically a roided up version of Network era NXT and last week being closer to normal but still leaning wrestling-heavy.

They literally put a WWE-like effort on the build for the Cruiser title change and rushed Strong's title win solely so they could lazily have the storyline of Undisputed Era holding all the gold be done on week 1.

Oh, you're right about the first part. That was always going to be the case when they moved to USA. I'm not suggesting that they are slumming it, but there's this myth around places that Triple H is really sweating this thing. He's letting AEW tire themselves out before going for the KO.

I actually thought they would do Dream vs. Strong on the third episode. But I don't think it was surprising or rushed.

Of course he's not sweating it. That's just as dumb as saying Vince is sweating anything. They're not going to lose their jobs or their salaries, etc. The fact that they're truly changing anything and can't really beat out their competition is telling though.

The issue isn't whether WWE can survive. WWE is basically too big to fail at this point. They're not going anywhere. AEW is the one who has all the pressure and will continue to do so.

That doesn't make WWE's product better though, because it's not. WWE's product is simply there because the money and name allows it to be. That doesn't equal quality, and in fact it's actually usually trash overall. That's something many folks and especially those in WWE just either don't get or refuse to accept or acknowledge, for whatever reason.

Raw

In a way not surprised it dropped. Combo of last week's episode being really abysmal and Friday's Draft show did a terrible job maintaining the hype for Monday's show.

1st hour was stronger than last week and 2nd hour was almost the same but any gains got trashed because of another instance of 3rd hour doing more damage than help for RAW.

AEW is going to fizzle hard, and I think they all know it. They’re waiting. No one expected them to beat AEW for the first few weeks (in the USA vs. TNT battle anyway). They’re not going to bring out their big guns. It’s why the promotion for them on Raw has been weak too. They want to leave “the machine” out of these early defeats.

It’s got nothing to do with quality. It’s the size of the moves. NXT has been making small moves, whereas AEW is going pretty hard.

So, you don't actually dispute anything I said, but come to the conclusion that AEW is going to eventually bomb because you're assuming AEW has been trying harder than NXT and NXT hasn't? If that's the case, then based on $ to spend on potential bigger moves, then of course NXT is going to win by default. Again, that doesn't make NXT better quality or more interesting in terms of content, it just means they have more potential resources to crush AEW. Congrats to NXT for not actually having to be as creative or work as hard, I guess. If that's what you want to see, what is essentially more of the same crap that is ultimately meaningless, okay then. Keep ultimately supporting Vince I guess.

I'm not making a statement for or against them, honestly. I truthfully do enjoy NXT a bit more, because AEW's got worse stuff on the bottom that irritates me more than NXT. I don't think that the NXT shows have necessarily been bad by any stretch though.

AEW is shooting through a lot more is my point. They can only end with a brawl so many times. They can only run Jericho vs. Cody for the first time once. The freshness is eventually going to wear off and they're going to have to be honest-to-god good, which is going to get dicey once you get past the main event stuff.

In my opinion, NXT would be foolish to hammer out their best shit now. The hardcore fans are still going to watch AEW live and at best DVR NXT or watch it on the Network the next day. At least for now. When AEW starts to cool, that's when you can do your big feud for Ciampa as champion -- whether that be something very subtlely set up in the background with Matt Riddle, or a big program with a main roster star -- fuck, it wouldn't shock me if they roped in Cena to do some NXT appearances instead of main roster ones to give them a boost. But you do this after AEW has cooled and the narrative isn't necessarily going to be "Oh man! That shitty WWE pumping up NXT against AEW! Boo!"

How you feel about it is fine. If AEW cools off and doesn't have that top dollar bargaining power because it's just not as viable as WWE, then it's bad for everyone. I don't want that, even if I were predicting it. But I'm just not on-board with this idea spread by Meltzer and lots of people on the internet that NXT is getting its ass kicked even though they're trying so hard and putting all their resources in lolololol yay.

WWE are the heels. I get that. It's fun to cheer against them. But I think as we head out of Full Gear and into 2020, the story as to who is trouncing who every night changes. That's just my prediction. I haven't gotten the feeling that Triple H is going hard at this at all. To the contrary, all his moves have been relatively measured, especially considering AEW has more wriggle-room right now (getting to the bigger venues, being the "it" promotion, etc.).

Like, with the move to USA weeks before AEW debuted on TNT, was that because they "wanted to get the jump" as Meltzer says? Or was it because Triple H wanted to debut unopposed so WWE has got a figure to shop around the next time they want to get something on a network. We know that ~1 million people will tune in to a debuting WWE wrestling program with minimal promotion.

If they debuted at the same time then you've got the fresh AEW beating the fresh NXT, which is a slightly different story to the fresh AEW beating NXT in its third week. It's not "good," but it's preferable to have that tiny bit of distance. I think the story that WWE wanted to get NXT into that slot so that no one would be watching AEW is just a bit naive with some wishful projection.

But then again, this is WWE, and they prove themselves to be fucking idiots all the time. That being said, this does seem to be a Triple H project as much as anything has been, and while I'm not the biggest Triple H defender in the world -- and am skeptical that he would run the main roster WWE like he does NXT -- this isn't main roster WWE and his ego is invested in winning and winning means being different.

If AEW falters and becomes TNA 2.0, then my crazy hope is that Triple H proves he can run wrestling to Vince and to shareholders and they allow their different shows to be handled in different ways as Vince inevitably needs to start stepping back. I know people think it will never happen, but it's got to at some point, and the dude's got to be tired. If Triple H can handle NXT, maybe Vince steps back off Raw and lets Triple H handle that in a supervisory position as Heyman books. I dunno, that's all I'm left with.

The issue though isn't who has the advantage or who's trying harder or hardest. If it was, just based on pure money alone WWE has the clear advantage and WWE is spending way more money than AEW. The issue is which promotion is most effectively working to actually consistently put on quality shows and build for the future.

WWE simply isn't doing that, and it's not because NXT is necessarily bad, but simply because NXT at the end of the day is meaningless. Nothing that happens in NXT matters because NXT is a stepping stone to the main roster or the road to elsewhere/indies for the talent. That's because everything that happens or that gets successfully built up or over in NXT becomes meaningless when the talent gets called up to Raw or SD, or they eventually get released to go elsewhere.

That's why I don't give a shit about WWE, including NXT. It's not because AEW is "cool" currently, and thus WWE is a "heel" promotion. With rare exception, I wasn't really watching any WWE product prior to AEW, including NXT, and I'm likely watching even less now, if that's even possible. Meanwhile, watching AEW, at least for the time being, while not perfect or always great, feels easy, different, and fresh, and I don't feel like it's meaningless or a waste of time, or that I'm being treated like an idiot by the talent or the folks in charge.

Comparing WWE (NXT included) to AEW however, outside of Jericho, Cody, Moxley, (a little bit about) Pac, and Jake Swagger/Hager (who is not actually listed on their roster), I have no clue who most of the AEW talent is. Still, they're actually building guys up to be potential future main eventers/title contenders. MJF, Omega, Page, Darby Allen, have all been made to look like potential future main eventers who can compete with the main event guy's that I do know more about. They've also actually all got some character development and differences too.

The only way WWE makes any legit long term changes is if WWE starts to get slaughtered and lose money and viewers to their competition, or, if Vince dies and no one who shares his vision of what is supposed to happen creatively on the main roster is allowed to take over. Neither of which are likely to happen based on who he's surrounded himself with, (yes men and folks who share/agree with his vision,) and thus who will likely be chosen to replace him.

I wouldn't have disagreed before this AEW/NXT thing started. I'm on record here basically saying "Who cares? They're going to ruin her anyway" when people were speculating on what Asuka was going to do on the main roster. But that dynamic changes somewhat now that NXT is a USA Network property.

You might be right about the replacing of Vince. I'm probably smoking some good shit to think that Triple H running NXT is an audition/proving ground. But it might be. I mean, people were predicting Vince's fingerprints all over NXT when it was first confirmed for USA and that didn't happen, because it doesn't make sense. There seems to be some sliver of common sense coming out of that little building in Full Sail.

When it comes to promotion, I just think that the subtle approach by NXT early on, at least, has been intentional. They want people to slowly discover it. They want to be able to pump up promotion later. If they went full speed into this, they are still going to get beaten by AEW early on, but there's also nowhere to go. That's my point with this. I think people who are rubbing their hands at AEW busting ass out the gate and beating NXT when they're hot and NXT is not are kind of sleeping on just how much NXT is saving -- big stars coming in, big promotion, crossover angles, big things happening on the show itself.

As I don't really ever watch it, I'm in no position to question the quality of NXT. By all accounts, it's a solid to really good weekly show.

For the sake of argument, let's say you're right. HHH is and will remain, for the immediately foreseeable future, in charge of NXT. Let's also say HHH is slow playing this thing and is simply waiting for the right time to go all out for NXT, and/or until AEW has peaked. Why, and to what end?

If HHH were to bring in bigger WWE stars like Cena, Rollins, Lesnar, Bryan or others, to compete in NXT, what's the plan? Let's say those big stars come to NXT to find out or prove they can still compete with the best of the next generation of young talent. Then what?

You're either going to shit on the NXT talent by having them lose to the bigger stars, or you're going to shit on your company's biggest stars by having them lose to guys on your B or C level show, or, you can have a meaningless draw that basically means/does nothing. Also, good luck having Vince allow HHH to stay in charge of an NXT that features one or more of his biggest stars, at least for long, let alone having NXT talent go over his bigger Raw/SD stars.

Let's say HHH gets the young NXT talent over without bringing in any bigger WWE talent. Then what? Well, Vince either brings the NXT talent up to Raw or SD and makes the talent meaningless and thus AEW likely keeps competing with or beating NXT. Or NXT does so well that it regularly beats AEW and thus also competes/beats with Raw and SD. Good luck having Vince keep HHH in charge of an NXT show that either, continues to struggle with AEW, or an NXT that regularly competes or beats Raw or SD, even if it's beating AEW in the process.

Good and bad news regarding week 3 of the AEW vs NXT war.

Good news was AEW managed to improve from #8 to #5 in terms of ranking this week although it did suffer a small decline of around 4k viewers since this week was 1.014 million overall.

Bad news was NXT dropped in rankings from #27 to #30 and suffered another sizeable decline of 78k viewers since this week was 712k overall.

In terms of key demo, AEW got a 0.44 and NXT got a 0.20.

Also in terms of the old people demo where NXT has held the advantage, AEW closed the gap to just 0.02 of a point (0.35 for NXT vs. 0.33 for AEW). Last week it was 0.40 vs 0.30 in favor of NXT.

I wonder if USA decides to back out of NXT if the ratings continue to drop

2.44 million is the average for SD week 3


https://i.imgur.com/5NUZ3ab.png

Here is how all the big stuff compared for the week:


RAW: 2.28 million
18-34: .48
18-49: .74


AEW: 1.01 million
18-34: .29
18-49: .44


NXT: 720 thousand
18-34: .14
18-49: .20


Smackdown: 2.44 million
18-34: .55
18-49: .75

SD on FOX:


week 1 - 3.89

week 2 - 2.90

week 3 - 2.44

SD is now under the boost average of 2.5 million Meltzer predicted the show would get due to FOX's higher status than USA Network but still above the 2.2 million level that FOX considers to be their floor to remain happy.

Only real saving grace is SD still kept the top spot for the 18-34 demo but not at the numbers needed to make up for the weaker ad rates.

Well they will likely fall below 2.2 within two weeks.

I expected them to sit at 2.5. This really does suggest that WWE is losing its appeal faster than thought.

According to the Observer, seems FOX might have been lowering their expectations for Smackdown these past few weeks.

Went going into the new tv deal of FOX potentially expecting in the 3 million range as an average to being happy with a 2.2 million as a floor average 2 weeks into SD's debut to now a potential 1.7 million as the floor for FOX to stay happy.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">When they get to 1.7 million viewers I'd start thinking about it. FOX right now is very strong on this project and think it's a winner. <a href="https://t.co/TyAbsOVpW9">https://t.co/TyAbsOVpW9</a></p>&mdash; Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) <a href="https://twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/status/1185615921232019456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Also SD's numbers looks even worse compared to what aired during the same week last year.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Last Man Standing was at the 8est time slot this time last fall and drew a 1.8 in the 18-40 demo and 8 million viewers total <a href="https://t.co/D2YkOvTrUs">https://t.co/D2YkOvTrUs</a></p>&mdash; Trump eats boogers (@Arwood_Lucilath) <a href="https://twitter.com/Arwood_Lucilath/status/1185618946390659072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Live TV Ratings for RAW are in:

Hr 1 - 2.48
Hr 2 - 2.37
Hr 3 - 2.18

Avg - 2.34 million
(credit - showbuzzdaily)


Most Watched on YT:
Cain saves Rey - 1.9 million
Rusev goes berserk- 845k
Seth ve Humberto - 694k

Bit surprised it actually went up considering the opposite usually happens the week after a RAW or Smackdown special episode.

Rare instance where the 3rd hour ended up being the reason it didn't have an overall drop since it was the only hour to do better than last week's Draft show.

I'm crediting this to Sin Cara and Shelton Benjamin.

Live TV Ratings for AEW and NXT are in:

AEW - 963k
18 to 49 - .45
18 to 34 - .39

NXT - 698k
18 to 49 - .21
18 to 34 - .13

Considering both shows were going up against the World Series and NBA season openers, those are not bad numbers overall.

Both shows also managed to improve in rankings which was great as well. Only real surprise was the big boost AEW got from the 18-34 demo and NXT not suffering a big drop in the 50+ demo like AEW did.

I mean together they lost 500,000 people, to opening night of the NBA and the World Series. That's a pretty good sign for 2 new competing shows. That still means roughly 1.65 million fans picked wrestling over big sports leagues. That's a good showing I think.

Kind of interesting: Dynamite is more popular than Raw in NYC in the 18-49 demo, according to Meltzer:

I really want know the calculation for AEW views throughout the week, replays and cord cutting apps and all. To me that info next to WWE's breakdown would be the most interesting info. I get that LIVE VIEWING is a bigger money prospect for ad sales but IDGAF about that. I want to know what the real difference is with viewers throughout the span of a week. I think that is reasonable.

They've been averaging in the high 300k for the initial replay but if I had to guess, probably around 500k to 600k total for the combined extra viewership.

Smackdown's been averaging in the high 100ks for combined viewership post-FOX debut based on PWInsider's reports.

I’m more interested in how big the drops are. 5% and 2% are not that much different, but it does seem that AEW has the steeper declines. It will be interesting to see where both level out and then how NXT starts to build themselves up.

Observer's Dave Meltzer had an interesting tidbit about the ratings for this week's shows plus last week's Smackdown and the costs associated with them.

Also thinks 1.6 million would be the best case scenario for Smackdown's viewership this week.

WWE cynicism aside, they are very good value.

Live TV Ratings for #WWE #SmackDown are in:

888k viewers
(credit - showbuzzdaily)

Note - This episode aired on FS1 and not FOX

Most Watched on YT:
Brock Attacks I - 2.5 million
6-man tag - 1.1 million
Brock Attacks II - 831k

Oof. That is not a good number, regardless of where they are.

lol...

Even though the number has a built-in excuse, that should be a huge wake up call to WWE both in regards of what their future could look like if FOX ever kicks them off the main network and what they are currently doing for Smackdown hasn't been working.

Sensing SmackDown gets like 2.1 million or below on FOX next week

I don't watch much tv, just streaming stuff. I don't know how prominent FS1 is in terms of availability (I had to look at my channel guide for the first time in at least 5 years), but if anything I think that low of a number helps WWE.

Fox now knows they can't stick a billion dollar show on FS1. They lose just too much value going from 2.5 on network to .88 on cable.

That feels about right.

WWE's Saudi shows usually don't provide a notable ppv-bump and SD has weak momentum going in since last week's show was mostly boring.

They do the opposite, they drain any and all momentum.

Name 1 thing that has come out of any of these shows since the beginning.

They build up these shows like a PPV, but then book them like a house show in that they are completely inconsequential to anything good, just hurts the wrestlers long term who are buried in these stupid house shows.

WWE Backstage at #42 for Friday Night w/ 426k, a .14 in 18-34 and .08 in 18-49

Not a good sign for Backstage since the first preview show from two weeks ago managed to generate 597k viewers.

Next week should be different since its the official debut and loaded with marque guests but also likely going to follow the same WWE trend where the week after drops big.

Apparently WWE was expecting at least 2 million for last week's Smackdown even with the change from FOX to FS1 due to the World Series.

Guess they should have paid Phil.

I don’t see how a show with wrestlers talking about wrestling is going to do well when no one wants to watch the fucking wrestling.

Honestly, even if it’s a work, Vince should announce that he is stepping away from creative. That alone would alter the perception of WWE.

He sort of did that with their last investor's meeting about how Heyman and Bischoff would be taking over more creative duties while he slowly moves to the side in order to focus on the XFL's revival.

Considering things got a lot worse since that announcement, investors probably would have very mixed feelings if he actually left creative either for real or as a work. Think they also still have very mixed feelings on the idea of Triple H and Steph running the company in the future.

wow

RAW:

Hr 1 - 2.33
Hr 2 - 2.15
Hr 3 - 1.93

Avg - 2.14 million viewers
(credit - showbuzzdaily)



Most Watched on YT:
Rusev crushed - 3.2 million
Seth vs Rowan - 1.1 million
AJ vs Humberto - 648k

Thanks. I’ve been hanging out for this number. It’s the good goss in wrestling right now.

Not surprised at all the 3rd hour tanked that badly. Whoever came up with the idea for the divorce court segment probably should get removed from creative.

Also not surprised that segment has a huge lead in the Most Watched category since I'd assume the majority of those views are due to morbid curiosity and not because it was a great segment.

As someone who has all but given up on even keeping track of Raw, I can honestly say that’s the only segment that might draw a curiosity view from me. Especially since “Seth vs. Rowan” sounds like a jobber match and I have no idea who Humberto is.

It can not be overstated, as a lifelong wrestling fan, how sad it is to choose “just turn the TV off” over wrestling on a Monday night.

It's not like WWE all of a sudden began producing boring tv recently.

For me I think it goes back to the big speech of "we are gonna listen and change", and the multiple times since then that they tried to put out how "here is the new change" with things like bringing in Heyman/Bischoff, changing channels, the draft, etc. Calling attention to the "bad product" but then continuing to deliver they same bad product just burns any benefit of the doubt they had.

You then combine that with them seemingly throwing in the towel and downgrading quality elsewhere (The shitty WWE Network upgrade, WWE 2K20) and it just proves they have no pride in their product and/or are to lazy to give a shit.

I honestly don't see them turning it around. It feels like they are just going through the motions. I think they will ride out their current TV deals, and maybe with a year or so left cash out to something like Disney who will just stick the tape library on ESPN+ and call it a day.

It’s been a long time coming. The product has been conditioning is to expect the worst forever.

dude come on. It's been awful since mid-2001

Yeah, I don’t even know what “we are gonna listen and change” speech xrod’s referring to but I’m sure it was way, way WAY past the point of rescue.

Rusev and Lana video currently has 4.4 million views on YouTube... second highest is the Rollins match at 1.4m and everything else is mostly far below 1m.

Everyone is shitting on the angle and it is not necessarily "good" but it was also the only interesting thing on Raw to me, like you said...

But they didn't come out and admit it and promise to be better until lately.


This bs where they didn't do anything but get worse.

Shane McMahon came out in 2016 and said Raw sucked and he was going to bring change. Then...failed.

WWE might be the only TV show in the world that tells you it is awful. It’s so weird coming from a wrestling promotion.

Live TV Ratings for AEW and NXT are in and as predicted, both took a big hit from the World Series, which had 23 million viewers.

AEW - 759k
18-34: .19
18-49: .33

NXT - 580k
18-34: .15
18-49: .18

Only real bright side is AEW just missed out being in the Top 5 by 0.01 in the key demo ratings. Unlike last week, the boost they got from the 18-34 demo to offset losing older viewers didn't happen.

On the flip side, the boost NXT got this week from the 18-34 demo wasn't enough to cover the losses elsewhere. Also even with NXT getting a recap show as the lead-in, the fallout from Balor's heel turn, and hyping up Poppy making an appearance, it still was ineffective in regards to closing that big gap in the key demo.

Live TV Ratings for Takeover: Smackdown are in:

Not only was it larger than last week's special occasion on FS1, which was expected, it also was larger than 2 weeks ago on FOX which is good for both WWE and FOX.

Mix of NXT surprises and general curiosity of how WWE was going to handle missing most of SD's roster ended up paying off very well. Also helped that it arguably was the best show SD has had since it moved to FOX.

Better rating than I expected. Will be interesting to see if this segues into bigger things for NXT. As AEW is on the cool-off, they are now giving NXT its initial “main roster” push.

RAW:



Hr 1 - 2.35
Hr 2 - 2.21
He 3 - 1.85

Avg - 2.13 million viewers
(credit - showbuzzdaily)


Most Watched on YT:
Brock Attacks Dio - 1.7 million
HHH tempts Seth - 1.3 million
Seth vs Cole - 1.2 million

RAW numbers barely being up overall and also dropping big for the 3rd hour is not that good of a sign for the level of interest people have towards this NXT invasion storyline. The bulk of NXT related stuff last night happened during the 3rd hour.

Smackdown had the benefit of both the surprise factor and missing the bulk of their roster which meant Creative had to do things different than usual and resulted in a pretty great show overall.

I’d blame Seth for this. He’s been ratings poison lately.

2.13 and not lower is NXT mitigating it.

While I respect you, I feel like you're essentially sucking HHH's and/or NXT's metaphorical dick. Even if it tastes "just as bad" or worse than any WWE/NXT "competition".

WWE's entire product is trash. WWE's entire product is going to be trash. At this point, nothing matters. Until Vince is dead and in the ground. The End.

Considering Monday Night Football was up 40% from last week, I’m surprised the hit was so low.

I wasn’t being completely sincere, but I honestly would blame Seth and Raw’s humdrum vibe before I laid the blame at new guys most people haven’t seen before to even decide if they don’t like them yet.

I’ve been hyper-critical of Triple H in the past. I’ve called the WWE/NXT machine out on what I thought it was: promises that they can’t keep. That being said, they’ve been super-smart in their approach to AEW, which has been trash outside its main event scene, and I think they’re going to kill off its buzz soon. I don’t even watch NXT every week, so I wouldn’t say it’s a horse I’m backing. It’s more a prediction than a wish.

Bet FOX and/or FS1 officials are not happy at all with how badly their new WWE Backstage show tanked.

For some reference, the two preview shows drew 597,000 viewers on Oct. 15 and 426,000 viewers on October 25th.

That’s an awful fucking rating. I mean, I didn’t expect it to do well. Actual wrestling shows are struggling with wrestling. It wouldn’t surprise me if this becomes a one-hour studio wrestling show at some point, or something. They’ll need to do something.

Turn it into a show where the talent basically call their own shots. Like Talking Smack but with some wrestling too. This is where you can do things like Daniel Bryan vs. Drew Gulak without disrupting the flow of your SmackDown shows.

I can't imagine they expected much for an 11:00pm cable show, but 49,000 is very low.

49K

They should have just paid Phil...

This week's AEW vs NXT ended in favor of AEW but also had the smallest gap of just 9k viewers.

AEW got 822k viewers and a #8 ranking while NXT got 813k viewers and a #12 ranking.

18-49 demo ratings were 0.35 for AEW and 0.30 for NXT. AEW also held the advantage in the 18-34 demo while NXT held the advantage of 50+ demo.

NXT w dat Raw bump

According to this week's Observer Newsletter, only reason AEW won this week was solely due to the starting gaps between both shows.

Also more signs pointing to the viewers AEW has been losing are not directly switching over to NXT based on the recent trends for quarter-hour breakdowns.

Also the over-run once again has been the biggest boost for NXT's numbers.

Smackdown:

Hr 1 - 2.73
Hr 2 - 2.51

Avg - 2.62 million viewers
(credit - showbuzzdaily)

Most Watched on YT:
Tyson Fury/Braun team up - 1 million
Roman vs Corbin - 539k
Fiend attacks DBry - 464k


https://i.postimg.cc/YSLJdPv3/Fast-D...Nov-08-FRI.png

Smackdown going up despite being taped and in the UK feels like that might be a first for WWE.

Surprised to see SmackDown do that well. There seems to be interest a-brewing.

New low for RAW

non-holiday new low*