WWE Smackdown Ratings Dipped Slightly For Payback Go-Home Show

The September 1 episode of "WWE SmackDown" saw a five-percent drop in its viewership from the prior week. According to Wrestlenomics, the episode was watched by an average of 2,443,000 viewers overall. The week prior, August 25, drew 2,581,000 total viewers, the highest of the year so far.

Looking at the key demo, which is people between the ages of 18 to 49 years old, last Friday's episode drew 848,000 viewers for a 0.65 rating. That is down 15 percent from the prior week's 0.76 rating. The August 25 episode featured tributes to the late Windham Rotunda (WWE's Bray Wyatt) and Terry Funk.

Last Friday's episode, which was the Payback go-home show included the return of John Cena. His last WWE appearance was back on July 1 at the Money in the Bank premium live event, where Grayson Waller confronted him and Cena ended up giving him the Attitude Adjustment. 

During this past Friday's episode, Cena started off the show by confronting another star: Jimmy Uso, while The Miz and L.A. Knight had a segment before their Payback match (which Knight ended up winning with Cena as the special guest referee). Also, Damage CTRL's Bayley lost to Shotzi, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn were in action against the Latino World Order, and in the main event, Solo Sikoa defeated A.J. Styles.

Per the Wrestlenomics report, the most popular YouTube video from last Friday's "SmackDown" was "John Cena criticized Jimmy Uso after turmoil with The Bloodline" at 768,295 views, and the second most popular video was "Does Jimmy Uso want back in The Bloodline?" with 763,00 views. The third most viewed video with 392,298 views was "LA Knight and The Miz exchange words ahead of Payback."