Daniel Bryan’s Return Ignites “Smackdown Live” Ratings

The power of the beard. Yesterday, the wrestling world was turned upside down when Daniel Bryan was cleared for in-ring competition. Bryan has been out of the ring for over two years now, cutting short one of the hottest careers in wrestling history. Now that he’s back though, the question is how well would the fans react.

Miss last night’s show? Here are some quick highlights:

Top 10 SmackDown LIVE moments: WWE Top 10, March 20, 2018

According to 411mania.com, last night’s episode of “Smackdown Live” drew a .99 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 2.888 million viewers. These numbers are up 9% and 4% respectively over last week’s .91 demographic rating and 2.771 million viewers. Both are the highest since April 11, 2017. The show was bookended by Bryan appearances, starting on his own and finishing with an attack at the hands of Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens.

You can see last night’s results here.

Opinion: It’s hard to imagine that these numbers are due to much other than Bryan’s return. That story was a huge deal both in wrestling circles and on Twitter, which would make me want to see where things are going. It’s hard to say if Bryan is a huge draw going forward, but he was last night and that’s at least some hope.

They certainly gave you something to go out on.

Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn unleash a brutal assault on Daniel Bryan: SmackDown LIVE, March 20, 2018

What did you think of last night’s show? Will Bryan be a draw going forward? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his Amazon author page with 26 wrestling books. His latest book is the History of the WWE Championship.

Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for “GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES” to sign up. We are proud to offer our popular Wrestling Rumors app and encourage you to download it for an optimized user experience. It is available for Android and also on iOS. Thank you for reading!