WWE Friday Night SmackDown Results: News And Notes After Roman Reigns And Daniel Bryan Win Again

WWE Friday Night SmackDown aired a harmless broadcast, albeit one devoid of any developing story. After a season premiere and a WWE Draft in weeks one and two, it'll be interesting to see how Week 3 of Friday Night SmackDown fares in viewership.

WWE Friday Night SmackDown saw a steep decline of over one million viewers from its inflated premiere as 2.899 million tuned into Week 2 of Friday Night SmackDown and its poorly received WWE Draft.

Major League Baseball American League Championship Series, Game 5: Houston Astros at New York Yankees

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• October 11, 2019-2.899 million viewers
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• October 4, 2019-3.869 million viewers (Friday Night SmackDown Premiere)
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• September 24, 2019-2.099 million viewers
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• September 17, 2019-2.064 million viewers
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• September 10, 2019-2.061 million viewers

WWE Total YouTube Viewership for Friday Night SmackDown: 7,901,084 views (down from 15,221,494)

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• Most-Viewed: Cain Velasquez Stares Down Brock Lesnar (2,889,491 views)
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• Least-Viewed: Fox Celebrities Featured on WWE Draft (90,028 views)
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• Median Viewership: 345,945

Average WWE Friday Night SmackDown Ticket Price at the Banker's Life Fieldhouse: $106

Estimated Live Gate for WWE Friday Night SmackDown: $688,576

Roman Reigns really worked this crowd into thinking he could actually win the Intercontinental Championship, and when King Corbin put an end to all that they absolutely hated him for it.

Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan don't have a cute team name just yet, but it feels inevitable.

Chad Gable is like one of the walking dead in The Sixth Sense. Despite seeming alive and well with this push, he'll be the last to find out that his career was dead this whole time.

Chad Gable, whose gimmick is being short, appears to be shortening his name more and more with every passing week. How poetic.

Whether or not WWE felt it was protecting Kofi Kingston (likely the latter) by allowing him to be a bystander for a comedy match, this all but confirmed this man is right back to where he was in 2016. All things considered, it's quite the soft landing.

What's the over/under on combined matches for Sami Zayn and The Miz on a two-hour, A-Show version of Friday Night SmackDown?

For a company that prides itself on putting smiles on peoples' faces, WWE sure seems to love exploiting angry and crying children, whether it's this kid, this kid or this kid.

Bayley did an admirable job memorizing her first heel promo.

Dana Brooke cut a promo about being "underutilized" that I'm guessing she stole from a Subreddit.

I find it fascinating how the team of "Sasha Banks and her best friend Bayley" has slowly morphed into "Bayley and her best friend Sasha Banks" all because Bayley got to turn heel again.

Bayley and Sasha Banks should take turns alternating "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" t-shirts every couple of months.

I don't know what's more Pavlovian on WWE commentary, Raw commentators assuming that every black wrestler is "Dio Maddin's friend," or SmackDown commentators making mention of Carmella dating Corey Graves every time she's on TV. Also, this was an awful match.

The only time people find out that Drew Gulak used to be WWE cruiserweight champion is when he was being fed to Braun Strowman. Poor Drew.

Braun Strowman's gear in Drew Gulak's PowerPoint animations was better than his actual gear. It was also encouraging to hear some people remembered Gulak's PowerPoints.

If nothing else, we learned, that after going 0-2 on the night, Shinsuke Nakamura is a terrible Intercontinental champion.

Roman Reigns replacing Seth Rollins as team captain is ironic in that Seth Rollins has felt like an inferior replacement to Roman Reigns for months now as Universal champion.

It's encouraging WWE went with Ali and Gable for Team Hogan. Those guys need everything they can get right now, especially Shorty G.