Roman Reigns has been a major player for WWE SmackDown for several years. However, his appearance on Friday night’s show couldn’t save the brand from continuing a downward trend.

The September 13, 2024 episode of SmackDown marked the brand’s USA Network premiere. Roman Reigns returned on the show to save Cody Rhodes, but his appearance couldn’t save the show from registering a drop in ratings.

This latest edition of SmackDown underwent similar treatment, according to WrestleNomics. The Original Tribal Chief and The American Nightmare appeared for a brilliant pre-shot promo, but their appearance couldn’t help the blue brand recover from the ratings slump.

WrestleNomics reported that the ratings went below the 1.5 million mark after a while. The show registered 1,494,000 viewers, a 13 percent reduction from a week earlier.

It was also reported that when compared to the trailing four-week average, the show saw an even bigger drop, decreasing by 21 percent. The key 18-49 demographic rating saw an even bigger drop compared to the previous week’s show, as the September 20 episode secured only a 0.45 rating. This means the show dropped 18 percent in ratings from the September 13 show.

Last week’s SmackDown had something to gloat about as it ranked #1 on cable for the night, ahead of ESPN’s College Football Prime game between Stanford and Syracuse, as per Programming Insider.

Triple H and his team will likely work harder to elevate SmackDown’s ratings, especially with next week’s show being the penultimate one before WWE’s next PLE, Bad Blood. The episode could have some surprises in store for fans.

The September 20, 2024 episode of SmackDown featured Roman Reigns, even though The Original Tribal Chief wasn’t in the arena for the event. Instead, WWE aired a great promo between The OTC and Cody Rhodes that built towards their tag team match against Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu.

The upcoming episode of the blue brand will mark Solo Sikoa’s return, as the self-proclaimed Tribal Chief wasn’t seen on last week’s episode. He will likely cause some problems for Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens on the show, bringing out The OTC to the middle.

WWE will rely heavily on Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, Kevin Owens, and Nia Jax to boost the ratings in the coming months. All four superstars are doing top-quality work to carry the brand forward.

Edited by Debottam Saha