WWE SmackDown's Go-Home Show Before WrestleMania 36 Draws 2.38M Viewers

The go-home SmackDown for WrestleMania 36 saw a slight ratings increase on Friday night. 

Per Mitch Metcalf of Showbuzz Daily, Fox averaged 2.375 million viewers in overnight ratings for the two-hour broadcast and a 0.6 rating in the 18-49 demo. 

Ratings were mostly steady throughout, with the first hour averaging 2.407 million viewers and the second hour dipping slightly to 2.342 million. 

Last week's episode averaged 2.374 million viewers, but it was one-tenth of a point higher in the 18-49 rating than the go-home show (0.7). 

Friday's show was WWE's final build to its biggest event of the year. The main event was a promo segment featuring John Cena accepting "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt's challenge to a Firefly Funhouse match at WrestleMania. 

WWE also officially announced that Braun Strowman would be replacing Roman Reigns in the Universal Championship match against Goldberg at the pay-per-view. 

There were also three matches on the show. Tamina defeated Naomi and Lacey Evans in a triple-threat match that also featured Bayley and Sasha Banks on commentary. All five women will be in the Fatal 5-Way Elimination match at WrestleMania for Bayley's SmackDown women's title. 

Tucker defeated Dolph Ziggler by disqualification after Ziggler used the ring steps in a match building to Ziggler's singles bout with Tucker's tag team partner, Otis, at WrestleMania. 

Daniel Bryan beat Shinsuke Nakamura by disqualification after outside interference from Cesaro. Sami Zayn also got involved in the attack, hitting Bryan with a helluva kick after the match to build toward their intercontinental title match at the pay-per-view.