SmackDown Live viewers down this week, blue brand loses badly to Raw in ‘ratings war’

WWE decided to bring a “ratings war” into storylines this past week on television because SmackDown Live had more viewers than Monday Night Raw last week. That was because Raw failed to promote anything ahead of time while SmackDown delivered a pay-per-view (PPV) worthy card with the return of John Cena added in.

And the blue brand still barely beat the red.

This week, all returned to normal. Raw drew 3.04 million viewers for Goldberg’s return while SmackDown Live dropped down to 2.59 million for Dean Ambrose winning the Intercontinental championship from The Miz.

So much for that war?

SmackDown will hope to bounce back next week with three announced matches: American Alpha vs. The Wyatt Family for the tag team titles, John Cena vs. Baron Corbin, and Natalya vs. Nikki Bella. They’re likely going to get trounced again, however, because Raw will see the return of both Undertaker and Shawn Michaels.

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.