WWE takes shot at UFC with SmackDown ratings 'smashing' the Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 16

WWE has never been shy about bragging, as the promotion routinely showcases a graphic on Monday Night Raw each week touting some new and usually meaningless factoid like "John Cena has more Facebook 'Likes' than NASCAR." They can get pretty obscure but they're also useful to advance storylines, as they did when Cena was feuding with The Rock and the factoids had to do with how many Twitter followers they both had.

Now, though, the game has changed just a little bit.

That's because WWE directly took a shot at the UFC during last night's (Oct. 1, 2012) episode of Raw with the graphic you see above. They want you to know that SmackDown crushed The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 16 in the ratings with three times as many viewers.

The assertion is true, of course. Here's how the numbers break down:

SmackDown: 2.63 million viewers
Ultimate Fighter: 775,000 viewers

Yes, that's a huge disparity but there are important factors to consider here, namely the key male 18-49 demographic both shows are targeted towards. To that end, SmackDown was ranked number one but TUF was number three. So while it looks like a blowout in total viewers, that's not nearly as important as the key demo.

Still, TUF has been declining in viewership each week since its debut, going from 947,000 down to 775,000, and there's nothing to indicate any rebound is forthcoming. SmackDown, meanwhile, is a Friday night staple on SyFy and it will continue to do solid numbers every week for as long as it's around.

And WWE will continue bragging about it.