They were always gonna get big numbers, they went all out for this and advertised a lot of big names, especially The Rock, numerous others were advertised too, I haven't been watching much Raw or Smackdown live but when I heard who was gonna be there had to check it. They even brought through Tyson Fury and Cain Velasquez as surprises. Had the Brock vs Kofi title match advertised too. Those type of numbers won't be sustained unless they actively do things to continue or grow it, if they get complacent numbers will lower from there. Good numbers in this day and age though for sure.
Anybody mentioning AEW in a negative context in regards to this is probably trolling, no-one thought AEW was gonna come out the gate beating Smackdown on Fox lol, or Raw., haven't heard even 1 person say that. Their competition at this point is NXT, their goal in terms of competition should be to win the night.
AEW numbers were nice, it's a very solid start, projections by some were 600 thousand so they really exceeded expectations for a first show, there's potential for growth, over time, if they really build their shyt properly it can grow. WWE's numbers are all much improved from many of their ratings, it was a very successful debut for Smackdown, can't say I enjoyed the show though, it's a shame cause I feel like if they did shyt properly they could grow even those numbers long term, and could get back to a boom period but they get complacent and lazy often, shyt like the Brock vs Kofi match, squash championship matches I don't remember happening much back in the day, they've gone with very basic lazy shyt often. When Brock left I was hoping he was gone long term because he got too lazy, he's being paid so much money for so little. He is a name and a draw to an extent but not enough to cater for his laziness. Predictable and boring, how can you get excited for big matches with Brock knowing they could be like that? There was no excitement or entertainment in that much, just a disrespect of their champion. The occasional short victory that seems realistic can work but it's become a formula you expect.
