The news involving Big E. adds to the previously announced matches for tonight’s show:
*WWE Championship: Bobby Lashley (champion) vs. Randy Orton
*Non-title: Charlotte Flair vs. Shayna Baszler
*Damian Priest’s U.S. Championship Open Challenge
*Natalya vs. Rhea Ripley
*Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, Mansoor & Mustafa Ali vs. AJ Styles, Omos, T-Bar & Mace
Well it’s a nice “ratings grab” to lure views into watching the show tonight (He ain’t cashing in tonight, I know).
What would made this even better if he mentioned this on SmackDown last week or the week prior. WWE relies too much on building stroy lines on social media and not on their own broadcast thinking that their 11.6 million followers on Twitter will spread the word faster than their under 2 million viewers who watch their shows weekly.
What a way for me to ramble on just to say, (Heavily) promote to your viewers who are then watching, not the 11.6 million Twitter followers who may or not see it?
EDIT: While looking up to see how many Twitter followers WWE has, The posted that Jeff Hardy has answered Damien Priest’s US Open Challenge.
Gee, sounds like other MNF szn Champions who just didn’t do it in the ratings…
Can we seperate our happiness for Big E the talent/performer/person and the reality of what WWE did last night?
With no build they crowned what should be one of their most popular champions. Used Mental Health as a source of babyface sympathy earlier in the day. And aired a huge moment to what was predictably one of the lowest audiences of the year.
Short Term: Happy for Big E
Long Term: This was another shit move that will not resonate half as much as had they really built up the character into the moment and then aired the moment to as big an audience as possible. Hell, they spent less than 24 hours promoting this moment against the very first MNF game. Tell me you arent trying without telling me, please!
Now quick - somebody show me YouTube #s that prove this was a massive success. Next week’s number should bounce strong if true.
Yup I have no problem with Big E as champion (he should have been a main eventer years ago) but give us a story or any semblance of a build.
This was thrown out on social media the day of the show. They could have done a lot more to make this a special moment.
On another note, I hate how every new champions first moment is an MITB win now. A baby face shouldn’t be challenging a heel moments after he just won a long match. Just makes no sense.
MITB has long worn out it’s welcome to be used in this way. A baby face should be laying out a challenge well in advance - but again this would require long term planning. So good luck
If the Big E quarter did 1.8M as suggested by Ratings God himself Brandon Thurston, that is actually encouraging. Telegraphing moments does ratings. A tried and true method
Zooming Out, knowing the tease, viewers didn’t tune in til the very end and what does that mean going forward. Maybe next week won’t see the Big E bump, it looks like the Big E bump took place in that final quarter.