Yeowch. The October 25 Episode Of SmackDown Live Set A Viewership Record And Not In A Good Way (This Is Bad).

There is no positive way to spin this one. Earlier this month, WWE managed one of the biggest successes in their history as SmackDown was put on FOX. This made the show available to the masses at a level that the company has never seen before. It was a huge opportunity for the company and things….have been a bit rocky. The first week drew some incredible numbers but things have gone downhill in a hurry after that. Things were going to get even worse on the October 25 show when the fourth episode was moved to Fox Sports 1 due to the World Series airing on FOX. Now we know just how bad it was.

According to ShowBuzzDaily, last week’s episode of SmackDown drew 888,000 viewers on Fox Sports 1. According to 411mania.com, this is the lowest audience in the over twenty year long history of the show, beating the previous record held by the December 31, 2015 episode, which drew 1.6 million viewers. The show was up against game three of the World Series, an NBA game on ESPN and a Bellator mixed martial arts event. WWE announced that the show would be airing on Fox Sports 1 in advance.

Since you probably didn’t see the show, check out some of the highlights from Friday night (and there were some good ones):

Opinion: I don’t think there is much good that can be said about something like this and I can’t say I’m all that surprised by the situation. There are only so many things that can be done to overcome some bad choices in the booking and that is what has been taking place on SmackDown as of late. Above all else, at least in my case, was seeing Chad Gable being called Shorty G. and wearing an outfit that looked like it belonged in a basketball cartoon. WWE certainly didn’t seem to be taking him seriously, so why should the fans take the show they were airing seriously?

Did you watch the show? How have you liked it since the show moved to FOX? 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 30 wrestling books. His latest book is KB’s Complete 2004 Monday Night Raw Reviews.

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