Did WWE SmackDown Beat Raw in Viewership for Final 2016 Shows?

WWE SmackDown toppled Raw in the mini-ratings battle between the two shows for the final week of 2016.

Before the WWE brand split, Raw used to crush SmackDown in the weekly ratings with good reason. The Monday night show was promoted as the must-watch program by WWE, building off its longevity and due to it being live. SmackDown, taped on Thursday nights, received almost one million fewer views. They would even be on a Friday night timeslot of 8:00 p.m. ET for years until finally getting changed in 2015.

Throughout the brand split, SmackDown has seen inconsistent numbers with Raw still outdrawing the show. That changed for the final week of 2016 with ShowBuzz Daily noting that the Blue Brand won the ratings battle for the week of December 26 with 2.885 million viewers. This is in comparison to 2.855 million for Raw.

This week’s episode of SmackDown saw the return of John Cena and three title matches. This included American Alpha winning the SmackDown Tag Team Championship and AJ Styles successfully defending the WWE Championship against Baron Corbin and Dolph Ziggler. Cena and Styles then closed the show by setting up their title match for the Royal Rumble pay-per-view.

This represents a culmination in the gradual swing of viewers, mostly seeing an increase for SmackDown. Raw has been criticized by fans for most of the brand split while Tuesday nights have received plenty of praise. Maybe the only surprise here is that it took so long to see this happen.

Could this be the start of a trend? With Cena back, it’s possible fans tune into see the Face That Claims He Still Runs the Place more often than not. His program with Styles also proved to be successful throughout the summer, so that could be a focus of viewership as well.

SmackDown beating Raw could represent a change in the guard. Like it has been for months, this could be gradual, but also hardly a guarantee to happen. Do you think it will, though?