WWE SmackDown on Fox Ratings Up Slightly with Goldberg-Fiend Main Event Segment

Friday's episode of WWE SmackDown on Fox saw a slight uptick in viewership with the first face-to-face meeting between Bill Goldberg and "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt headlining the show.

According to Showbuzz Daily, SmackDown averaged 2.49 million viewers during its two-hour broadcast, which was up from 2.464 million last week. SmackDown also had the No. 1 rating for the night in the 18-49-year-old demographic with a 0.7.

Goldberg and Wyatt are set to clash in a Universal Championship match at WWE Super ShowDown in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday, and Friday's SmackDown marked the first time they were in the ring together.

Wyatt accepted Goldberg's challenge a couple of weeks ago from the Firefly Funhouse, and he once again addressed Goldberg in a Firefly Funhouse segment Friday, but The Fiend then emerged behind Goldberg in the ring.

Goldberg hit The Fiend with a spear that seemed to stun the Universal champion, but the lights went out, and The Fiend was gone when they came back on.

In another major segment, Naomi defeated Carmella to become the No. 1 contender for the SmackDown Women's Championship.

By virtue of her win, Naomi will face Bayley at Super ShowDown in the first Women's Championship match to ever be held in the Middle East.

Also, The Bella Twins officially announced that they will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in April as part of WrestleMania 36 weekend in Tampa, Florida. The Bellas revealed the news during a Moment of Bliss segment with Alexa Bliss.

Other happenings on the show included The Usos and New Day beating The Miz, John Morrison, Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode, Braun Strowman and Elias beating Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro in a Symphony of Destruction match and Sheamus announcing his entry into the Elimination Chamber match at March 8's Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.

Next week's SmackDown will occur the day after Super ShowDown, so it will likely feature plenty of fallout from the event, plus the return of John Cena.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).