Due to the knee injury suffered by now-former WWE Champion Seth Rollins on the first night of their tour, the WWE has made immediate changes to balance out the star power of the two touring groups, sending Dean Ambrose and WWE Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens to the “Rollins tour”.
Starting tonight at London’s O2 Arena and for the rest of the tour, Owens vs. Ambrose will be moved from the Roman Reigns led-tour to the former Rollins tour, main eventing those shows in IC title matches. The Genting Arena in Birmingham, UK, where Sunday’s show was to be headlined by Rollins vs. Kane, is already now listing the new main event. Ambrose and Owens were originally scheduled for Barcelona, Spain, with the Reigns tour.
Kane vs. Big Show (the main event for Thursday’s Cardiff, Wales, event), is now billed as the No. 2 match on the show, while WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day vs. Dudleys is also advertised.
The Reigns tour top three matches going forward, and as scheduled for tonight are:
– Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt street fight
– Ryback & The Usos vs. Braun Strowman & Erick Rowan & Luke Harper
– U.S. Champion Alberto Del Rio vs. King Barrett vs. Neville
– Enzo Amore def. Angelo Dawkins with a DDT off the middle rope. Sloppy in parts as Dawkins missed some boots in the corner by a mile.
– Billie Kay (w/ Sylvester LaForte) def. Gionna Daddio. Daddio had Kay pinned with a jumping enziguri but LaForte put Kay’s foot on the rope. Daddio went after Sylvester and got pinned with a roll-up. They played the wrong music at the end. Gionna got stiffed in the nose mid-match, requiring the ref to get the gloves out.
– Riddick Moss def. Josh Woods with a neckbreaker. Woods is an ex UCF wrestler doing an MMA gimmick, wearing the shorts with logos on it.
– Next came a wacky segment. Levis Valenzula Jr. came out to dance and say how happy he was to be here. Emma came out to say that dancing got her nowhere. Valenzuela danced anyway, and developmental guys came out, including Josh, Sara Lee, Mada and Patrick from Tough Enough, and did a conga line around the ring.
– Solomon Crowe def. Tino Sabatelli. Tino is ex-Bucs player Sabi Piscatelli and was pretty good in the ring for a beginner. Good charisma and has a build like Orton from the mid-2000s (similar trunks too).
– Jason Jordan and Chad Gable def. Marcus Louis and Sawyer Fulton. Louis has a new gimmick where he shook hands with Gable and then enjoyed smelling his hand. Yup.
– Bull Dempsey def. Alexander Wolfe
– Nia Jax def. Aliyah. Jax played heel and won when Aliyah jumped off the top rope and got power bombed.
– The Vaudevillains def. NXT Tag Team Champions Dash and Dawson by DQ in a title match. English and Gotch hit their finisher but Dash pulled the ref out of the ring during the count for the DQ. Enzo came back out to save the Vaudevillans from a beat down to end the show.
– Lilian Garcia was the ring announcer for the night, and she began the show with an impressive rendition of the Scottish national anthem, ‘Flower of Scotland’. This was the first time I had heard this sung prior to a WWE live event in Scotland.
– Neville beat Stardust, pinfall after red arrow.
– Damien Sandow beat Heath Slater, schoolboy roll up for pinfall. The match lasted less than one minute. Sandow was the babyface but using original gimmick with navy blue robe, pink trunks, purple knee pads. Slater’s entrance theme was the ‘3MB’ version, with distinct lyrics stating: ‘We’re a three-man band!”
– Jack Swagger beat King Barrett, submission to patriot lock. Barrett cut excellent pre-match promo in a mock (but reasonable attempt at) Scottish accent, playing on the fact he is English and the rivalry between the countries, saying that he was the crowd’s local hero because there are no Scottish wrestlers in WWE because they are “pish”.
– The Wyatts (Braun Strowman, Luke Harper, Erick Rowan) beat The Usos and Dean Ambrose, one of the Usos (I was too far away to tell which one) submitting to Strowman’s standing triangle choke). Wyatt family entered to Luke Harper music and video (one with crazy eyes).
– Ryback beat WWE Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens, disqualification after eye rake by Owens.
– Natalya and NXT Women’s Champion Bayley beat Sasha Banks and Tamina Snuka (w/ Naomi ringside), Tamina submitting to Natalya sharpshooter. Bayley entered to generic rock music and not her regular NXT theme. A no frills entrance without inflatable, waving figures. Garcia announced Tamina Snuka as ‘accompanying team BAD members Naomi and Sasha Banks’ but Snuka wrestled the match with Naomi ringside.
– WWE U.S. Champion Alberto Del Rio beat Fandango, pinfall after double-foot stomp into Fandango who was balanced between middle ropes on turnbuckle. Del Rio came out waving Mex-American flag.
– Lucha Dragons beat Los Matadores and The Ascension in a triple threat, pinfall by either Sin Cara or Kalisto on either Diego or Fernando [can’t remember which]. El Torito ran out to generic music to aid the Lucha Dragons against Los Matadores and turn the match.
– Roman Reigns beat Bray Wyatt in a no holds barred fight, pinfall after spear. Reigns entered through crowd, despite logistical difficulties in SSE Hydro arena layout, while Wyatt entered alone. Use of kendo stick, chairs, steel steps (once quite inventively) and tables, with both competitors put through a table, Harper and Rowan ran down ramp to interfere, Usos made the first save, Strowman followed and destroyed Usos single-handedly while Ambrose made second save
Notes:
Biggest pops of the night were for the use of tables in main event!
Reigns was extremely over with young fans and sold lots of merchandise.
There was problems with the PA/sound, with Garcia’s mic failing for periods at a time
– Ric Flair out to start with a basic ‘hello Wales’ promo and wave at the nice people. Nice work if you can get it!
– Dudleys over WWE Tag Team Champions New Day (all three) in a handicap tables match. Fine. Short. Xavier took the plunge.
– Cesaro over Miz. Cesaro was actually, probably the most popular guy of the night, close call between him and Dolph. Plenty of Cesaro section signs. Obviously not connecting still. Really good match actually, my favorite of the night. 31 second swing and sharpshooter finish.
– Miz whined. R-Truth came out and beat him in seconds.
– Becky Lynch over Brie Bella. Not good. Becky seemed lost and her offense was weak, especially leg drops that weren’t even coming close to connecting.
– Curtis Axel over Bo Dallas. Yep, you read that. As rubbish as you’d expect.
– Dolph Ziggler over Tyler Breeze with a superkick and zig zag. Long match but very good towards the end. Great false finish with all the kids rushing the barrier as Tyler kicked out of the first zig zag.
– WWE Divas Champion Charlotte over Paige via Figure 8. Paige was cheered but they didn’t flip roles. Better than the other women’s match but still lackluster. I just can’t get into Paige, she seems so confused about who and what she is. Audience wasn’t that interested.
– Finn Balor over Sheamus, sunset flip out of the high cross. Good final five minutes but the first 10 was pretty much a slaughter. Sheamus gave him nothing and the lack of hope spots made for a very subdued audience. Good pop for the Balor win, nobody seemed to expect that.
– Kane over Big Show in a street fight after a choke slam off the top through a table. Insane bump for Show at his size and age. Dull match though, crowd weren’t really feeling it. Tyler vs. Dolph would have better to close with. We want Cena/Cena Sucks chants during the main event!
Notes:
– Great efforts by Cesaro, Miz and Dolph.
– Enjoyable show though it didn’t really feel enough effort was made to replace Seth Rollins. Tricky, I appreciate, but given he was the top guy on the bill, replacing him with Show (which is how they presented it despite Show having already been advertised) didn’t really feel good enough. They offered refunds during the first match but after driving a couple of hours with a couple of excited kids in tow, not an option!
Rollins was doing a power bomb spot out of the corner when his knee buckled and he collapsed. He finished the match but then needed to be helped to the back afterwards.
Because of the severity of the injury, WWE has announced that his scheduled match with Roman Reigns will not take place at November 22nd’s Survivor Series in Atlanta, GA, and he is being stripped of the WWE Title. It appears from the WWE.com story that the plan is to run a tournament at the Survivor Series pay-per-view to crown a new WWE Champion.
With John Cena, Brock Lesnar, and Randy Orton among the major stars on hiatus for various reasons at the moment, the timing of this injury could not be worse. One WWE source noted that some phone calls are likely already being made to some very big names.
– Air Date: November 5, 2015 (Nov 4 in Canada) – Location: World Arena in Colorado Springs, CO
The Big News:
Kevin Owens escaped a non-title match with Dean Ambrose by tricking the referee.
Show Recap:
They announced two matches for tonight – a “traditional” four vs. four Survivor Series tag match, and Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens non-title (as usual, they didn’t mention that it was non-title).
Alberto Del Rio and Zeb Colter came out to start. Colter said there was no room for hate in MexAmerica and he called the people haters. He said everyone has people they hate, and he called those people black hearts. Ok? Del Rio said Viva MexAmerica. Jerry Lawler and Rich Brennan were both confused. Me too. Why are they heels if they want to bring people together and eliminate hate?
Non-Title: U.S. Champion Alberto Del Rio (w/Zeb Colter) beat Neville via pinfall
Lawler said he wasn’t sure if Neville has faced anyone with the experience of Del Rio. Neville almost beat John Cena a few months ago. Neville hit a hurricanrana and had control early until Del Rio used a back stabber. During a commercial break, Del Rio launched Neville into the barricade. Neville fought out of a headlock and used kicks and a moonsault to the outside, followed by a rana into a pin attempt for a near fall.
Del Rio was able to knock Neville off the top and hit a weak-looking double footstomp for the win. After the match, Del Rio jumped back in the ring and superkicked Neville and applied the arm bar. Neville tapped wildly until Jack Swagger ran out to make the save. The two men faced off but Del Rio wagged his finger and left. Neville sat up at this point and I wondered why he didn’t just run after Del Rio. The match was alright.
The Usos beat The Ascension via pinfall
The Usos got a good reaction and people were doing their chant as the match started. Ascension worked over Jimmy briefly until he made the hot tag. Jey used a Samoan drop and running hip attack on Viktor but Konnor broke up the cover. Jimmy hit Konnor with a superkick, but Konnor bounced off the ropes, so Jimmy and Jey did a double superkick to knock him out of the ring. They also did a double superkick to Viktor and Jey finished him off with a flying splash for the win. Booker called the Usos the most exciting tag-team in history.
8-Man Elimination Tag Match: The Wyatt Family beat Prime Time Players & Lucha Dragons
The Wyatts took turns working over Darren Young. Eventually, Braun Strowman applied the head-and-arm choke, with the ropes separating himself and Darren. Strowman let go after the referee counted to four, and Darren dropped to the outside where he was counted out. Titus went to check on him so Strowman attacked him from behind. The Lucha Dragons just stood there and watched.
After a break, they worked over Titus until he made a tag to Sin Cara, who used a hurricanrana on Harper and suicide dive to Rowan. Sin Cara did a rana into a pin for a two count and a tornado DDT, but Rowan broke it up. Harper came back with a discus clothesline for the pinfall.
Kalisto used kicks on Harper but got nailed with a suplex and the Wyatts took over again. Kalisto crawled for a tag but two Wyatts took Titus off the apron. Kalisto came back anyway with a spike hurricane on Harper and springboard kick to Bray. Titus was still out, allowing Rowan to hit a tackle and full nelson slam. Rowan pinned Kalisto.
Titus made his comeback on Harper, including a power slam for two. He followed with a sitout powerbomb but Bray and Rowan broke up the cover. Strowman put him in the head-and-arm choke, Bray tagged himself in and hit Sister Abigail for the win. Clean sweep for the Wyatts.
Recap: Braun Strowman eliminated Darren Young via countout, Luke Harper eliminated Sin Cara via pinfall, Erick Rowan eliminated Kalisto via pinfall, Bray Wyatt eliminated Titus O’Neil via pinfall. This wasn’t much of a match outside of Kalisto’s offense.
Backstage, Dean Ambrose told Renee Young that he prepared for tonight by waking up early, around 11:00 AM, taking in some fresh Colorado air and by speaking with John Denver (who’s dead.) Owens walked up asking what Ambrose was talking about. Owens said he was annoying Renee and told him that he’d be facing the greatest Intercontinental champion of all-time. Ambrose laughed and said he can pin Owens tonight just like he did on Raw. Owens said tonight wouldn’t be a 10-man circus like Raw and Ambrose said we’ll see. Owens walked away.
Ryback beat King Barrett via pinfall
Barrett had the heat for a few minutes but Ryback won with a shell shocked.
Backstage, Sasha Banks told Renee that they gave Natalya the attention she wanted by attacking her. Renee said Natalya challenged the “leader of Team B.A.D.” tonight. Naomi said that stuff might work on Team P.C.B. but it won’t work on them, because they know who their leader is. Sasha intimated that it was her who would accept the challenge and walked off. Naomi gave her a look before following. Tamina gave Renee a look, but Renne just smirked because she’s not intimidated I guess.
Natalya beat Tamina (w/Naomi & Sasha Banks) via pinfall
Tamina stepped in and took the challenge. Naomi and Sasha were just fine with this. Tamina had the heat for a while until Natalya came back with a clothesline. She went for a sharpshooter but Sasha distracted her, allowing Tamina to hit a Samoan drop. Tamina went for a splash but Natalya got her legs up and followed with a school boy for the win. Tamina is bad so this was not good. The crowd didn’t care either, outside of some light chants for Banks.
Non-Title: IC Champion Kevin Owens beat Dean Ambrose via DQ
After a break, Owens had control after tossing Ambrose into the barricade twice, hitting a senton and gutbuster. Ambrose came back with a superplex and tornado DDT for a near fall. Owens tried a pop-up powerbomb, but Ambrose jumped over him. Owens hit a superkick, but that sent Ambrose into the ropes and he bounced back with a clothesline.
Ambrose kicked Owens in the gut (to set up Dirty Deeds) but Owens dropped down and sold it like he was kicked in the nuts. The referee checked on him and called Ambrose for the DQ. They showed two replays and Ambrose clearly kicked him in the gut. The referee saw the replays and began yelling at Owens, who grabbed his title and began leaving since the match was over.
As Owens left, Ambrose nailed him with a suicide dive, then hit another one on the other side of the ring. Ambrose went after him but Owens bailed through the crowd. Ambrose was pissed but posed in the ring as the show ended. Match was good while it lasted.
Final Thoughts:
Thanks to a skeleton crew, this was basically a straight wrestling show with only two backstage interviews and the usual Raw highlights. And not a particularly good one.
Since not much happened, a minor point: The Lucha Dragons should not have been fed to the Wyatts. They just come off two big wins in a row (Smackdown last week and Monday’s Raw) and this was a total setback. The Wyatts winning their match in a clean sweep is perfectly fine, it just should’ve been against some other team with PTP.
Also, if you care, at least five different wrestlers used superkicks tonight.
Cesaro was super over in Dublin with Miz playing his part as the heel very well telling the crowd to shut up when he raises his hand. Cesaro hit the big swing and finished with the Sharpshooter for the win. Curtis Axel then came out and for a moment played the face but then told the Irish fans when his hand goes up, everyone shows up. He says he respects the Miz and he is the WWE’s must see superstar. Axel then says he and Miz could beat anybody in the arena or in the back.
Big Show vs. The Miz & Curtis Axel
Big Show comes out and sets up a 2 on 1 handicap match against Axel/Miz. Finishes with a double chokeslam Big Show win.
Bo Dallas vs. R-Truth
R-Truth gets a great reaction in Dublin for his What’s Up gimmick. R-Truth wins. Bo then looks upset before shouting Boo You Boo You at the Irish fans before running to the back.
WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day vs. the Dudleys
Both got a good reaction from the crowd. TND did the bit where they pretend to throw the crowd their shirts but fake it and leave it on the ring apron. Good back and forth match between the two teams with the New Day getting the roll-up for the win. Xavier attacked Bubba after the match and jumped on the turnbuckle to celebrate. Dudleys clean house and Xavier gets hit with the 3D.
Tyler Breeze vs. Dolph Ziggler
Breeze and Summer come out and Summer says “I’m so happy to be back in London, England” to a lot of boos from the Irish fans. Ziggler out with his hair long and straightened look like a glam rocker. I thought this was a great match with a few near falls and some good chemistry between the two. Ziggler eventually hits the superkick into the zig zag for the win.
Brie Bella & Alicia Fox vs. Becky Lynch & WWE Divas Champion Charlotte with Paige as special guest ref
Strange thing I found here was Becky came out with Charlotte to Charlotte’s entrance music. Thought the hometown girl would have got an entrance. Not a bad match. Paige doing a lot of heel ref work stopping Becky helping Charlotte, etc. Becky got the win with the disarmer, then they played her music for a few seconds before turning back to Charlotte’s.
Finn Balor vs. Sheamus
Best match of the night for me. Both got good reactions from the crowd. Started off slow but then near falls and some good action in and out of the ring. Balor got the win to a huge reaction from the crowd. Sheamus and Finn then shook hands after the match which the fans loved.
WWE Champion Seth Rollins vs. Kane — No DQ
Rollins out doing his usual heel work. Kendo sticks were used. Kane was put through two tables. Rollins seems to have injured himself going for the monkey flip into powerbomb through the table. Seemed to tweak his knee and the match could of been ended a bit early, but I’m not 100% on that though. Rollins got the win and when was then helped to the back by a WWE trainer.
Rollins was defending his title against Kane in the main event, and was doing a powerbomb spot out of the corner (which started as a sunset flip) when his right leg gave out and he clutched at the knee. A table had been set up in the ring and Rollins looked to be getting ready to powerbomb Kane through it.
He did get up and continue the match, including doing the power bomb through the table, but had to be helped out of the ring. The severity of the injury is unknown as of this writing. Obviously, if Rollins continues to work the tour, it wouldn’t appear to be a serious injury.
A split WWE crew is working twenty different house shows over the next eleven days. Rollins is scheduled to defend the WWE title against Roman Reigns at the Survivor Series pay-per-view on November 22nd at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, GA.
The Big News: Samoa Joe turned heel at the end of an excellent NXT Title match between Finn Balor and Apollo Crews. Baron Corbin got more heat than he has ever gotten in his life when he ran in to make the DQ.
More Big News: Seth Rollins may have been injured during a WWE Live Event tonight. I am sure people who know much more about this stuff than I do will keep you up to date.
The Medium-sized News: Despite losing a #1 Contender’s Match 2 weeks ago, Dash & Dawson were announced as being #1 Contender’s and will face The Vaudevillians next week.
The Little Beaver-sized News: Both Cameron and Eva Marie returned and wrestled on this show.
Asuka submitted Cameron
Asuka is here to kick off NXT, going one on one with Cameron, of all people. Cameron has fallen off the face of the Earth and has now resurfaced here on NXT. During her hiatus Cameron dyed her hair the exact same purple of her hair.
Cameron nearly wanted to run away 30 seconds into the match when Asuka snapped off a Hurricarana and turned it right into an Armbar. Cameron did battle back and broke out her Split Legdrop, but unlike that time she did it on Raw, Asuka was on her back, so Cameron didn’t look stupid in demanding a count from the ref. Asuka threw her body at the face of Cameron before finishing off the former Funkadactyl with the Asuka Lock.
– Carmella tried cutting a promo giving us the status of Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady when Dash & Dawson walked in and bragged about taking them out. They are sorry they didn’t take them out sooner and next week they get a shot at The Vaudevillians for the NXT Tag Team Titles. I should point out that it was just 2 weeks ago when Dash & Dawson lost a #1 Contender’s Match. Anyhoo, Dash & Dawson left a wheelchair for The Vaudevillians, saying they will need it after next week.
– Earlier today, Jason Jordan & Chad Gable said they aren’t where they need to be. Gable made Jordan feel better by pointing out they are still on the way up. Gable referred to them as the World’s Greatest Tag Team, but Jordan cut them off. Jordan said they should challenge the best tag team in NXT history. Gable pointed out they couldn’t wrestle themselves, so Jordan instead issued a challenge to The Ascension. Chad challenged them to come back if they are Ready, Willing and Gable.
Bull Dempsey has crappy new entrance music and if you remember how bad his music used to be, this is really saying something. Angelo Dawkins came out to theme music for the first time ever. His and Fulton’s Titantron is less creative than David Flair’s famous one was. This was literally just their names over and over and over again. There wasn’t even a disappointed Ric Flair in there.
Dawkins kept Bull in a chinlock forever until Bull decided it was time to Hulk Up. Bull used a series of punches and won with the sitting splash off the top rope, which used to be Doink’s Whoopee Cushion. I remember when he showed that move to the kids on Tough Enough and I remember saying Bull had never used that move in his life. After the match, Sawyer Fulton was upset, so he left the ringside area. Yes, I am sure they will be so much better apart than they have been together.
-The Vaudevillians were quite offended that Dash & Dawson left them a wheelchair. They plan on beating their toughest challenge to date and use this to become one of the greatest teams in NXT history.
– Apollo Crews was sitting in his locker room with a bunch of children’s drawings hanging up next to him. He got up, stared at Finn Balor’s championship (which was conveniently near where he was sitting) and left.
– Bayley has tag team partners for the 6-person tag team match against Blake, Murphy & Alexa. Remember when I knew it would be The Vaudevillians? It was so much worse. It was the Hype Bros and next week they will be having a tag match.
Eva Marie pinned Marley
On the same show, we have both Eva Marie and Cameron. They did not name Eva’s opponent, so I did some research and my good friend Steve Juon stated that her name was Marley. I will avoid making jokes about her name. This match was a lot better when Marley was on offense, mind you it looked like she kicked Eva right in the face. But don’t worry because Eva then kicked her in the face and while Marley was on her knees, Eva gave her an STO for the win.
– Emma stated that she is not scared of Asuka, instead saying she doesn’t respect Asuka smiling at her. Both Emma and Dana stated that they have nothing but respect for Asuka, but were offended by Asuka patting Dana on her head. Emma said she will give Asuka a proper welcome.
Apollo Crews defeated NXT Champion Finn Balor by DQ
Main event time! They did the big main event intros, but this time they turned off all the lights in the arena except a blue spotlight in the middle of the ring where champion and challenger stood. This is Balor’s first tv defense since NXT Takeover: Brooklyn, but in the meantime he won the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic with Samoa Joe. Meanwhile Apollo Crews has been undefeated since debuting that night in Brooklyn.
Crews began the match by taking it right to Finn. Crews hit every big move in the first 2 minutes, but then ran right into Finn’s foot, which slowed him down. Crews tried to comeback with a sunset flip, but Balor kicked him with both feet in the face. Crews then replied by kicked Balor right in the head and ascending to the middle rope, which caused Finn to jump into the air and kick Crews in the head, sending him toppling to the arena floor.
These two men are not shy about hitting each other as Finn gave Apollo a chop that Apollo is still feeling, 2 weeks after the show was taped. Apollo hit the Gorilla Press Slam, but Finn got his knees up on the standing moonsault. Finn hit the running dropkick to the corner, but Apollo moved from the Coup De Grace. Apollo kicked Finn in the face, which turned Finn around and Balor hit the Pele Kick!
The two men laid there for a good 30 seconds when Baron fricking Corbin ran in to attack Apollo for the DQ. That caused a crap ton of heat from the audience. The fans went silent as Baron’s attack continued on both men until Samoa Joe ran in for the save. Of course Joe did not run in for the save. Instead Baron ran away and Joe took Finn’s head off!
The fans exploded as Joe pounded away on the NXT Champion with stomps and punches. Joe tore at his hair and then placed Finn on the turnbuckles. Joe grabbed Finn’s face, yelling “I did this to you!” before dropping him with the Muscle Buster. Joe grabbed the NXT Championship and dropped it on Finn’s body before leaving.
Apollo Crews should give Tyler Breeze a phone call. Breeze became #1 contender in May 2014 and got his title shot a few months later. That match ended in a DQ when Tyson Kidd ran in to attack Adrian Neville. Let it be known, that well over a year later Tyler still never got a one-on-one rematch for the championship.
But with that out of the way, that does it for another week of NXT. This show you can skip half of it, but as long as you watch the main event then you will be quite happy. Until we meet again, remember to say your vitamins and take your prayers!
In a press release today highlighting its January premieres, USA Network announced the move of WWE Smackdown from the SyFy network. What was notable from this release is that despite rumours of a possible move to Tuesday nights, airing live, the premiere was announced for January 7th, a Thursday, meaning it’s likely that this means the show will stay in the same Thursday time slot it’s been in for the last year.
This move is expected to increase audience viewership of the WWE’s #2 show, as the USA Network has a much higher average viewership than SyFy. Despite both networks being in virtually the same number of homes, USA averages about 1.6 million viewers in Prime Time (week ending Nov 1) vs about 770,000 for SyFy. Smackdown has consistently been the highest rated show on SyFy, averaging around 2.1 million viewers for the 2 hour show.
Smackdown has had many different TV homes over the years. The show debuted at the height of pro wrestling’s popularity in the US in August 1999 on the fledgling UPN network. In 2002, when the WWE did it’s brand split, Smackdown became it’s own “brand” and often had a higher viewership total than RAW, due to being on an over the air network.
In 2005, UPN moved the show to Friday nights. The show ratings predictably went down but it was still doing far better than what the network had previously been airing on Friday nights, usually old movies. In September 2006, Smackdown moved to the CW. Technically this was still considered a “network” but had far less penetration than UPN and the viewership numbers declined again.
During this time, the brand split gradually faded and the show was becoming more of a “B” show. In addition, WWE had revived the ECW brand, and the SyFy network had picked up that show. In 2008, Smackdown moved to another new network, MyNetworkTV. The premiere episode did 3.2 million viewers for a supershow featuring wrestlers from all 3 brands. While numbers were down for Smackdown it was still the highest rated show in MyNetworkTV history.
There was yet another move for Smackdown in 2010 as SyFy picked up the show after it was not renewed for the fall season by MyNetworkTV. While it was still the highest rated show on the network, the network was hemorrhaging money and the show was too expensive to retain. In 2011, the brand extension officially ended and wrestlers from RAW and Smackdown were able to appear on both shows (even though they’d already been doing that for years).
In 2015, SyFy announced that it was moving Smackdown back to it’s original Thursday night timeslot. This was expected to increase the viewership of the show as Thursday is traditionally a much more popular night for television viewing. This did not materialize as numbers continued to slide at a similar rate as on Monday Night RAW to get to the current 2.1 million level.
The move to USA network is expected to be accompanied by a renewed focus from WWE on the show to make it more relevant and a subsequent increase in TV viewers is the hoped for result.
