WWE’s Royal Rumble event saw possibly the hottest Superstar in the company, Becky Lynch, win the Women’s Royal Rumble. The Smackdown Live Superstar wasn’t originally booked to appear in the match following her loss to Asuka. The ‘Lass Kicker’ took Lana’s place when she was unable to compete, outlasting Nia Jax and Charlotte Flair in the final 3 to win the match and headline WrestleMania.
On Monday’s RAW Becky Lynch appeared to confront Ronda Rousey and demand that she got her chance to face the ‘Rowdy’ RAW Women’s Champion at WrestleMania.
With the success of Lynch at the Rumble it was likely that the Smackdown Live ratings would be positively affected. However, this was not the case. The post Rumble Smackdown was slightly down but essentially even with the last two weeks. Last night’s show averaged 2.137 million viewers, which made it ninth for the night on cable.
According to the Wrestling Observer the show finished second in the 18-49 demo with a 0.70 rating. The only major sports competition on television that night was NBA game on TNT, which did 1.113 million viewers. Smackdown retained around 79 percent of the RAW audience, which is reportedly lower than usual. It’s fairly clear that after a 2 hour NXT Takeover, 6 1/2 hours of Rumble PPV and a 3 hour RAW fans are burnt out.
