WWE SmackDown Ratings Down Despite Drew McIntyre vs. Jey Uso Main Event
Friday night's episode of SmackDown featuring a main event between Drew McIntyre and Jey Uso saw its ratings decrease compared to last week.
According to Showbuzz Daily, Friday's SmackDown averaged 2.142 million viewers in the overnight ratings during its two-hour broadcast on Fox, which was down from last week's 2.209 million. SmackDown also did a 0.6 rating in the 18-49-year-old demographic, which was No. 2 on the night.
SmackDown opened with a promo by universal champion Roman Reigns, who discussed his upcoming match against WWE champion Randy Orton at Survivor Series. Reigns was surprisingly interrupted by McIntyre, who said he would be Reigns' opponent at Survivor Series after he beats Orton for the WWE title on Monday's Raw.
Uso stepped in and challenged McIntyre to an unsanctioned match, which Drew accepted. Reigns exploded on Jey for speaking out of turn and reminded him that he was the one who ran things on SmackDown.
Even so, the match occurred, and Reigns made an appearance in the latter stages, calling for Uso to beat McIntyre down rather than win the match, and that cost Jey as McIntyre turned the tide and beat him with a Claymore Kick.
Reigns and McIntyre then had a staredown to end the show, which could be a sign that WWE intends to have McIntyre win the WWE Championship back from Orton on Monday.
Also on SmackDown, Rey Mysterio beat Seth Rollins in a No Holds Barred match when Murphy interfered on his behalf, Sami Zayn retained the intercontinental title over Apollo Crews by count-out and Otis defeated Dolph Ziggler.
Also, Liv Morgan earned a spot on the SmackDown Survivor Series elimination match team when she won a Fatal 4-Way match over Natalya, Tamina and Chelsea Green.
Green made a surprise appearance backstage and was added to the match, but she was injured in the early going, and WWE announced after the show that she suffered a broken wrist.
Next week's SmackDown will be a big one as well since it will mark WWE's final weekly show before the Survivor Series pay-per-view Nov. 22.
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