This past Friday night was a roller coaster ride for pro wrestling fans tuned in to a special Tribute To The Troops-themed episode of WWE SmackDown. Notably, CM Punk returned to the blue brand for the first time in a decade to deliver a spirited promo that many enjoyed more than the one he delivered on WWE Raw. It also featured a match between Charlotte Flair and Asuka that went awry after The Queen appeared to injure herself.
Wrestlenomics reports that last Friday’s episode of WWE SmackDown drew an overall average audience of 2,384,000 viewers, with about 829,000 of those in the key P18 – 49 demo most attractive to advertisers. This is up 7% in average overall viewership from the week before and 7% in the P18 – 49 demo. Compared to the last four weeks of SmackDown, it was up 11% in average overall viewership and 6% in the P18 – 49 demo.
The highest quarter-hour in P18 – 49 viewership came at the top of the second hour when CM Punk appeared. During Punk’s address to the fans, the show pulled in 904,000 average overall viewers in the key demo, a 12% increase from the previous quarter-hour.
Punk drew 2,467,000 average overall viewers for his segment, just shy of the second quarter, which was the most-viewed quarter-hour, and pulled in an average overall audience of 2,499,000 viewers. The second quarter-hour featured the conclusion of Dragon Lee vs Santos Escobar and a backstage segment with Randy Orton and Nick Aldis.
AEW Rampage, which aired on Friday night and was the first AEW program that Punk appeared on, drew an average overall audience of 341,000 viewers, with about 155,000 in the P18 – 49 demo. That is down 2% in average overall viewership from the week before but up an impressive 20% in the P18 – 49 demo. Rampage was relatively consistent in its P18 – 49 viewership this week but saw its highest average overall audience in the demo during the final quarter-hour, which saw Bryan Danielson taking on Daniel Garcia in an AEW Continental Classic match.