SmackDown, AEW & NXT Viewership, Daniel Cormier Rips Lesnar

RAW, AEW: Dynamite, NXT And SmackDown Viewership

This was arguably the biggest week in pro wrestling since the Monday Night Wars between WWE and WCW. Some 20 years later and it is now WWE taking on AEW. This week alone, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) debuted on national TV, NXT became a two hour show on the USA Network and SmackDown moved to Fox. Now, the ratings are in.

AEW Dynamite aired its first episode on the TNT channel from 8 PM EST to 10 PM EST, running at the same time as NXT. The upstart promotion garnered an impressive 1.409 million viewers, with the replay doing 423,000 viewers. PAC vs. “Hangman” Adam Page, the first Women’s Champion being crowned and a six person main event were the big draws. 

As for NXT, they garnered 891,000 viewers. The show opened with Adam Cole retaining the NXT Championship over Matt Riddle. Post-match, Finn Balor came to the ring and announced that he is once again part of the NXT brand. There were no title changes, but Tommaso Ciampa returned from neck surgery at the end to confront Cole.

SmackDown’s 20th Anniversary also happened to fall on their big move to Fox, earning 3.869 million viewers in the process. This was up 84% from last week’s final episode on the USA Network. Shane McMahon was fired, The Rock returned, Brock Lesnar became WWE Champion and Cain Velasquez made his debut. 

Monday’s RAW season premiere drew an average of 2.571, which was slightly up from the week before.

Daniel Cormier Tsunts Brock Lesnar Over Cain Velasquez’s Surprise SmackDown Appearance

Speaking of SmackDown, there was another familiar face watching at home. UFC’s Daniel Cormier, who was rumored to face Lesnar for the Heavyweight Championship, saw Cain Velasquez get the better of Brock Lesnar. 

Cormier and Cain are fiends, working out of AKA together. After seeing the beating Lesnar took thanks to Cain, Cormier could not help but give his two cents in this NSFW post.

There has been lots of talk about Cormier working for WWE once he finishes up with the UFC. There is already a storyline in place against Lesnar, so it would not take WWE much to make the match happen.