WWE News: SmackDown Live ratings increase after Raw invasion angle
What's the story?
WWE SmackDown Live last night, the 14th of November 2017, achieved a slight increase in ratings compared to the previous edition of the show.
The final episode of SD Live before this Sunday's Survivor Series PPV was action-packed, and gathered 2.607 million viewers, up just a bit from last Tuesday's 2.603 million.
In case you didn't know..
SmackDown Live aired this week from the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, and it did not disappoint as WWE heads into Survivor Series.
On the show, we saw two title matches and a RAW ambush:
Baron Corbin retained his US Title against SinCara (which means he will definitely face RAW's Intercontinental Champion The Miz at Survivor Series now).
Charlotte managed to DEFEAT Natalya for the SmackDown Live Women's Championship to become the new Champion, which now means she will instead face RAW Women's Champion Alexa Bliss at the Survivor Series PPV.
Charlotte's father Ric Flair, the 2-time WWE Hall of Famer and 16-time World Champion who had suffered a health scare recently, came out to a big pop in his native state to congratulate his daughter.
The show's main event saw The New Day take on Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, but this was expectedly interrupted by Monday Night RAW's The Shield, who then proceeded to attack their Survivor Series opponents The New Day.
Many others from RAW including Braun Strowman, Finn Balor, Alexa Bliss, Samoa Joe and General Manager Kurt Angle then arrived on the scene to invade and totally destroy the SmackDown Live roster, including the Commissioner Shane McMahon.
This was in retaliation for SmackDown attacking RAW a few weeks ago as the two brands prepare to battle it out in multiple matches this Sunday at Survivor Series.
The heart of the matter
This time around, SmackDown Live was 7th in cable viewership. College sports on ESPN, Curse of Oak Island, Sean Hannity on Fox and Rachel Maddow on NBC were the shows that beat it out in that regard.
In the 18-49 viewership demographic, SmackDown was 5th last night, with college sports on ESPN and American Horror Story being two shows that got more among this group.
What's next?
With Survivor Series taking place this Sunday from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. next week's SmackDown Live shall be interesting with the fallout from the PPV.
Author's take
Therefore, in my opinion, if the highly anticipated Survivor Series meets fans' expectations this Sunday, again more people will watch SmackDown Live next week.
It would be safe guess to say that will be the case, with the many great matches lined up for Survivor Series. Take a look at the stacked card yourselves:
WWE Champion AJ Styles vs. RAW Universal Champion Brock Lesnar
Team RAW (Kurt Angle, Triple H, Samoa Joe, Finn Balor and Braun Strowman) vs. SmackDown Live (Shane McMahon, Randy Orton, Bobby Roode, Shinsuke Nakamura and JOHN CENA) 5-on-5 Elimination match
Women's Team RAW (Alicia Fox, Nia Jax, Sasha Banks, Bayley and Asuka) vs. Team SmackDown (Becky Lynch, Naomi, Tamina, Carmella and TBD)
Miz vs. Baron Corbin, Enzo Amore vs. Kalisto, Charlotte vs. Alexa Bliss, The Bar vs. The Usos and last but not the least, New Day vs. The Shield.
SmackDown did well this week to once again deservedly get over 2.6 million viewers. Both RAW and SmackDown have been near perfect leading up to Survivor Series.
With many rumours regarding a RAW Siege on SmackDown Live, it was obvious more people were going to tune in last night to see if it would happen.
WWE's plan worked, will it again next week?