Post-WrestleMania 36 Edition of WWE SmackDown on Fox Sees Drop in Viewership

The first episode of Friday Night SmackDown on Fox after WrestleMania 36 experienced a 3.9 percent drop in viewership compared to last week.

According to Showbuzz Daily, Friday's SmackDown averaged 2.304 million viewers in the overnight ratings, which was down from last week's 2.398 million. The rating in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic stayed the same at 0.6 and finished third for the night.

SmackDown—which once again took place in front of no fans at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando due to the coronavirus pandemic—was largely built around Braun Strowman after he beat Goldberg for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 36.

The Monster Among Men opened the show with a promo only to get interrupted by Shinsuke Nakamura. Strowman then beat Nakamura in a non-title match in the main event.

Just before SmackDown went off the air, Bray Wyatt appeared on the screen for a special episode of the Firefly Fun House. Fresh off his win over John Cena at WrestleMania, Wyatt made it clear that he is targeting Strowman and the Universal Championship.

Given that Strowman is a former Wyatt Family member and has no shortage of history with Wyatt, a feud between them over the title is a logical move.

Elsewhere on SmackDown, Alex Bliss and Nikki Cross successfully defended the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships against The Kabuki Warriors in a WrestleMania rematch, and they later agreed to eventually put the titles on the line against Carmella and Dana Brooke.

Also, The Forgotten Sons made a victorious debut after getting called up from NXT, Dolph Ziggler beat Tucker, Sheamus won a squash match, The Miz and John Morrison gloated about their WrestleMania win and WWE took a look back at Jeff Hardy's WWE career in anticipation of his return.

WWE also announced several matches and segments ahead of time for next week's episode of SmackDown to build some anticipation.

Most notably, The Miz will defend the SmackDown Tag Team Championships in a Triple Threat against Big E and Jey Uso, Tamina will face Sasha Banks for the right to challenge Bayley for the SmackDown Women's Championship and a pair of Money in the Bank qualifying matches will take place with Daniel Bryan facing Cesaro and Naomi facing Dana Brooke.

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