WWE SmackDown Ratings Up with Rob Gronkowski Appearance, WrestleMania Build

Friday night's episode of WWE SmackDown on Fox at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, saw its viewership rise compared to last week.

According to Showbuzz Daily, SmackDown averaged 2.563 million viewers during its two-hour broadcast, which was up from last week's 2.470 million, provided the overnight ratings hold.

Friday's episode marked the second consecutive week that SmackDown was held at the Performance Center in front of no fans because of the coronavirus pandemic. Despite that, WWE continued to build toward the two-night WrestleMania 36 extravaganza from April 4-5.

It was previously announced that former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski will be the host of WrestleMania, and he appeared on Friday's SmackDown to discuss his role.

Gronk was interrupted by King Corbin, who had some choice words for the three-time Super Bowl champion, leading to a stare-down, potentially setting the stage for a future match. Elias showed up and made fun of Corbin through the gift of song, which led to Gronkowski advocating for a match between Corbin and Elias at WrestleMania.

Also, WWE continued the trend of replaying past matches to fill time by showing John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt from WrestleMania 30. Presenting the match was fitting, though, since Wyatt said last week that the loss to Cena led to the creation of The Fiend and set up the rematch between them at WrestleMania 36.

Another major segment on SmackDown included Paige announcing that Bayley will defend the SmackDown Women's Championship at WrestleMania in a Six-Pack Challenge against Lacey Evans, Naomi, Dana Brooke, Tamina and her best friend, Sasha Banks.

The main event segment saw Roman Reigns and Goldberg sign the contract for their Universal Championship match at WrestleMania after a tense exchange.

Next week's show figures to be a newsworthy one, as The Usos and The New Day will face off to determine who will challenge The Miz and John Morrison for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships at WrestleMania after Miz and Morrison beat Heavy Machinery by disqualification Friday. Drew Gulak will also face Shinsuke Nakamura and will earn Daniel Bryan an Intercontinental Championship against Sami Zayn at WrestleMania if he wins. 

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