SmackDown Live Live SmackDown Discussion thread, January 7th 2022: Roman Reigns medically cleared to return to SmackDown

[Marty McFourth]

Might try and catch Rampage now

 

[Mox Girl]

adam pearce you magnificent bastard

 

[Mox Girl]

oh im so happy, ive wanted this for MONTHS

 

[Marty McFourth]

Should be VERY interesting with this current Seth character

 

[Chris]

Heel vs heel works so much better nowadays too, no reason to completely limit yourself

 

[Chris]

Fans mostly doing their own thing and all

 

[Mox Girl]

its gonna be so funny with seth as a troll and roman just being like can you please be serious

 

[Mox Girl]

if we dont get shield references ill be upset lol

 

[Butters]

Isn’t Rollins on Raw? or did we stop caring.

 

[Chris]

Hopefully they stopped caring yeah

 

[Hoss]

I like that Noami is mixing it up with Charlotte. She been kept so far away from the title picture for a while, it's a refreshing change of pace.

Mickie James coming back for the Rumble Motherfuckers gotta stop sympathizing with wrestlers when they get released and complain about how they were treated, cause apparently it don't bother them that goddamn much.

 

[Butters]

That whole rumble promo seemed lackluster. barely any pops for the balls, mickie, or lita being in the rumble. seems like it should be a bigger deal.

 

[Marty McFourth]

That whole rumble promo seemed lackluster. barely any pops for the balls, mickie, or lita being in the rumble. seems like it should be a bigger deal.

It was kinda weird how they did it honestly. I would have saved Lita and Mickie pops for the Rumble, but ah well. Still looking forward to seeing them in it either way. Feel like Rumble matches sells itself for the most part, and they have Brock/Lashley and Roman/Seth. So I don't imagine they'll have trouble filling seats.

 

[Y2Jayne]

The Usos vs the New Day? How refreshing.

 

[Deezy]

Friday Night SmackDown was bolstered by the return of Roman Reigns leading to its best demo figure since October.

The first SmackDown of 2022 averaged 2,271,000 viewers with approximately 756,000 (0.58) in the 18-49 demographic, according to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.

It was the show’s highest 18-49 performance since October 22nd episode the day after Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia that also featured Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar prominently.

In overall viewership, it was their highest since December 17th and second-best number since September 10th.

It was the first live edition of SmackDown on Fox since December 17th after a taped show aired on Christmas Eve and a special ‘Top 10 Moments of 2021’ aired on FS1 last week.

Friday’s episode was advertised around Lesnar confronting the returning Reigns, who missed the Day 1 event due to a positive COVID-19 test.

Among network programming on Friday, SmackDown finished third in the demo behind ABC’s Shark Tank (0.75) and 20/20 (0.70). SmackDown was second in 18-34 with 0.37 underneath Shark Tank.

In Canada, SmackDown averaged 167,600 viewers and 65,900 in the 25-54 demo on Sportsnet 360. It was #4 among sports programming for the night, which was topped by the Toronto Raptors vs. Utah Jazz game.



Box office Brock