The penultimate week of TV before this year's SummerSlam pay-per-view, Ronda Rousey's in-ring TV debut, and the latest developments in the Brock Lesnar/Paul Heyman/Roman Reigns saga all equaled to these results for this week's YouTube and Facebook video upload views:
YouTube
- Ronda Rousey vs Alicia Fox (Raw) 1.8m views as of ~4pm ET Aug. 7
- Paul Heyman interview (Raw) 1.1m
- Roman Reigns confronts Baron Corbin (Raw) 886k
- Shinsuke Nakamura vs R-Truth (SmackDown) 776k views as of ~4pm ET Aug. 8
- Reigns vs Corbin (Raw) 743k
- Daniel Bryan invades The Miz's interview (SmackDown) 571k
- Braun Strowman vs Jinder Mahal (Raw) 469k
- Randy Orton promo (SmackDown) 451k
- Strowman tips over The Kevin Owens Show stage (Raw) 385k
- AJ Styles responds to Samoa Joe's promo (SmackDown) 367k
- Seth Rollins vs Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre (Raw) 346k
- Charlotte Flair & Becky Lynch vs the Iiconics (SmackDown) 296k
- Lana vs Zelina Vega (SmackDown) 295k
- Bobby Lashley attacks Elias (Raw) 294k
- Sasha Banks & Bayley vs Riott Squad (Raw) 274k
- The New Day vs The Bar (SmackDown) 265k
- Reigns sitdown interview (Raw) 227k
- New Day celebrate with Styles (SmackDown Fallout) 222k
- The Bludgeon Brothers vs 3SK (SmackDown) 191k
- R-Truth challenges Nakamura (SmackDown) 178k
- Rousey vs Fox (Raw) 1.5m
- Reigns vs Corbin (Raw) 994k
- Strowman destroys Owens' set (Raw) 867k
- Shinsuke Nakamura vs R-Truth (SmackDown) 759k
- Reigns confronts Corbin (Raw) 727k
- Lashley attacks Elias (Raw) 663k
- Rollins vs Ziggler & McIntyre (Raw) 545k
- Deleters of Worlds attack the B-Team and the Revival (Raw) 402k
- Heyman interview (Raw) 310k
- Bryan attacks Miz (SmackDown) 288k
- Orton promo (SmackDown) 274k
- New Day vs The Bar (SmackDown) 262k
- Flair & Lynch vs Iiconics (SmackDown) 246k
- Tyler Breeze offers his services to Rollins (Raw) 235k
- Ruby Riott interview (Raw Fallout) 219k
- Bludgeon Brothers vs 3SK (SmackDown) 216k
- Titus O'Neil vs Rezar (Raw) 189k
- Banks & Bayley vs Riott Squad (Raw) 185k
- Lana vs Vega (SmackDown) 163k
- Hideo Itami vs Mustafa Ali (205 Live) 155k
- A clear win for this week's Raw main event as the Ronda effect isn't going away any time soon, and it should be on at least 3.5m views by the time you read this. Heyman usually does well on his solo appearances but the effect of last week's rampage has clearly intrigued enough people... unless you're a Facebook user, in which case he's only nearly as popular as his former guy Curtis Axel. That actual B-Team vs Revival match only registered at #23 on YouTube, just one TV segment drawing less views. The former had a two week period of grace and have dropped off alarmingly since, the latter have never got going since the initial injury, but at least someone is engaged by Raw's tag scene. The minor classic Smackdown tournament final between two strong teams and merch sellers deserves a lot better, and as it's hardly short of engaging, over characters and superior workers it's hard to tell why the blue brand's tag scene has done so very badly outside the Bludgeons vs Usos feud that drew over a million views twice.
- The numbers were always going to be down compared to last week's fireworks but it's a slightly strange week all round, with a Braun feat of strength barely registering with YouTube users who also preferred to hear Roman talk than wrestle, while on both formats R-Truth turns out to be the spark Nakamura's US title reign needed. At least the Lashley momentum that kept up through the Zayn and Reigns stories remains intact to some extent on Facebook, where Bryan-Miz takes the crown off Rollins for being the hot angle that falls flattest.
- Another contextual oddity: the battle of Rusev and Almas' partners missed the YouTube top 20 last week, and now with pretty much the same set-up and result it's outdoing Sasha/Bayley (although their match has since overtaken Lashley and Elias' segment) and has within a three figure amount of the number of views Tea-Generation X have achieved a week after Charlotte's hot return. Meanwhile it's third of three on Facebook but two of those - including the match she actually go involved in - are outdone by the untelevised backstage interview with the returning Ruby Riott, which clocked just 88k views on YouTube. Maybe it's best not to look for consistent patterns in these things.