:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/52511109/SDL_cover_1227.0.0.jpeg)
It finally happened.
SmackDown Live beat Monday Night Raw in viewers for the WWE Draft show back in July but that hardly counts, for obvious reasons. This week, however, the promotion loaded up its final blue brand show of the year with three title matches and the return of John Cena while the red brand offered up Braun Strowman maybe being on an even bigger rampage than last week.
The result: Raw drew 2.85 million viewers and SmackDown Live drew 2.88 million.
That’s up from last week’s 2.63 million viewers, which featured the long awaited AJ Styles vs. James Ellsworth title match. SmackDown has been on a bit of a roll over the past couple weeks and this is a strong close to 2016 but the numbers should even out next week without the big hook of Cena’s return or a pay-per-view worthy match card.
Not that a Dean Ambrose vs. The Miz Intercontinental title match isn’t PPV worthy.
For complete results and the live blog for SmackDown this week click here. To read a complete recap & review of all the night’s events click here. For a full playlist of the show click here.