FanPost

Most viewed WWE YouTube videos from Raw and SmackDown (Jan. 15 - 16, 2018)

WWE.com

Another week of WWE TV gone, another set of immediate reaction views taken from the official WWE YouTube channel to count up and analyze.

Fair to say one man dominates proceedings this week just as he dominates small heavy duty vehicles and set design:

1 Braun Strowman flips a semi-truck (Raw) 2.3m views as of ~4pm ET Jan. 15
2 Seth Rollins vs Finn Balor (Raw) 1.35m
3 Strowman attacks Michael Cole (Raw) 1.02m
4 Strowman is fired (Raw) 972k
5 Bobby Roode vs Jinder Mahal (SmackDown) 923k views as of ~4pm ET Jan. 16
6 Strowman's backstage trail of destruction (Raw) 854k
7 Roman Reigns vs the Miztourage (Raw) 610k
8 Asuka vs Nia Jax (Raw) 566k
9 Xavier Woods vs Jinder Mahal (SmackDown) 479k
10 Enzo Amore consoles Jax (Raw) 370k
11 Goldberg Hall Of Fame announcement (Raw) 337k
12 Bobby Roode vs Mojo Rawley (SmackDown) 335k
13 Paige injury update (Raw Fallout) 291k
14 Matt Hardy vs Heath Slater (Raw) 284k
15 Sasha Banks vs Sonya Deville (Raw) 278k

ANALYSIS

Well, as said here last week and implied for a few weeks before that, nothing grabs the general attention like prime beef, and especially not when it's doing extraordinary things. The ambulance overturning was the most viewed TV clip of 2017, last week's fun with scaffolding sailed over two million within a day and a half, and this week's chaos unleashed by the Monster Among Us has captured the imagination just as much - 24 hours later it's just gone over four million views, with the other three videos picking up in the region of another quarter of a million apiece.

With big numbers, both here and more importantly for the TV ratings, expected due to the promotion and the bankable returning stars on next week's special show, it just makes you wonder whether the opportunity is there for his popularity to be capitalized upon...

Aside from that, the sudden rise of Finn Balor since his Club formed around him continues, a match with no real stakes and with Seth doing alright but rarely getting into seven figures in singles competition taking off maybe because the upload title hints at his breaking out the Curb Stomp/Blackout.

With no Brock or Kane to leverage that Strowman popularity against, a lot of recent trends otherwise generally continue... except for a sudden decline in Woken Matt's popularity. Hardy over half a million against Curt Hawkins last week, but the diminishing returns of having him wrestle instead of cut inset promos have kicked in very early.

It's also very interesting to see the first official acknowledgement of Paige's injury issue is attracting attention, not only making the list with a Fallout video - something only the Shield and Kurt Angle, both incredibly bankable at all times, have previously managed since this feature began - but its views a day later closing up to right behind the Hall of Fame announcement of the only really reliable ratings grabber of the 2016 football season while the big victory for her Absolution team-mate has now almost stalled well behind it.

Not much to add about SmackDown, the tournament final attracting a good amount of attention to the US title scene for once, though it feels like heel Mojo Rawley isn't catching on like he should. The cruiserweights have returned to their standard levels after last week's mini-revival even with Goldust's involvement. Cedric Alexander vs Tony Nese registering at 107k, below the figure for the announcement of the women for Raw 25, both Bobby Roode Fallout videos and and - this is worth noting for future reference - both Fallouts from the Mixed Match Challenge opener.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Cageside Seats readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats editors or staff.