WWE News: SmackDown Live viewership increases for chaotic episode

What's the Story?

The unexpected SmackDown Women's title match and the tag team gauntlet match did wonders for SmackDown Live's viewership this week.

The March 26 edition of SmackDown averaged 2.39 million viewers, the highest numbers of 2019 thus far.

In case you didn't know...

The show started with Vince McMahon booking Xavier Woods & Big E in a tag team gauntlet match to determine whether Kofi Kingston would get his shot at the WWE Championship at WrestleMania.

However, the biggest moment of the entire show occurred when as Charlotte Flair defeated Asuka to win the SmackDown Women's Championship for the third time in her career.

The heart of the matter

SmackDown's viewership has been unable to surpass 2.3 million viewers since 2019 began until this week's episode which averaged 185,000 viewers more than last week's show on March 19.

This week's show generated the most viewership for the blue brand since SmackDown 1000 which generated 2.55 million viewers with the return of Evolution.

A fatal four way between Naomi, Carmella, Mandy Rose, and Sonya Deville was supposed to take place to determine Asuka's challenger at WrestleMania, but the plans were changed before the show.

The title change caused an uproar on social media with fans not understanding why Asuka wasn't allowed to defend her title at WrestleMania after losing the championship to Flair at last year's event.

There has been no confirmation regarding the plan for the SmackDown Women's Championship at WrestleMania 35 with rumors suggesting the titles could be unified or that Flair could be booked in another match earlier in the night to protect her from her inevitable loss.

What's next?

With no more surprises left for WWE programming, SmackDown Live's viewership will probably decrease before WrestleMania but their viewership jump for the SmackDown after Mania is always one of the highest viewed episodes of the year.