SmackDown Ratings Stay Strong For John Cena’s WWE Return
The September 1st edition of SmackDown was a big success and drew the second-highest number of viewers since July 7th.
The September 1st SmackDown started with John Cena making a big return and cutting a promo on Jimmy Uso. That segment ended with Cena hitting Jimmy with an AA.
That was followed by a tag team match between Austin Theory and Grayson Waller taking on Santos Escobar and US Champion Rey Mysterio. Theory and Waller won after pinning Escobar.
After that, Bobby Lashley had a talking segment with The Street Profits which concluded with Lashley basically saying that the three of them are going to be a new unit going forward.
Other key segments on the show included a quick win for tag team champions Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens, Shotzi beating Bayley, The Miz beating down LA Knight after another promo segment, and Solo Sikoa defeating AJ Styles in the main event.
With all of these segments, as well as the general build towards the Payback PLE, SmackDown had more eyes on it than usual. According to PWInsider, this show concluded with a viewership of 2,443,000.
By comparison, the previous week’s episode, which was the tribute show for Bray Wyatt and Terry Funk, drew 2,647,000 viewers.
WWE SmackDown maintains steady viewership numbers
SmackDown’s viewership has remained in the 2,000,000-2,500,000 range for several years now. Even during the COVID lockdown era, the show’s rating generally held firm.
The show’s ratings only dropped below seven digits on a handful occasions when the show was broadcast on FS1 instead of its usual slot on FOX.