WWE

A writeup in this week's edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter sheds new light on the extent of WWE's TV woes in the UK.

Raw and SmackDown's British numbers aren't always circulated in wrestling media so this makes for some interesting reading. Per the report, the 14 October Raw drew 38,000, down 10,000 from the previous week's show featuring Tyson Fury, who is a huge star in his home country. The 18 October SmackDown compelled 23,000 to tune in. Then, on 21 October, Raw drew just 3,000 viewers.

3,000. That is not an error.


This number is so low that Meltzer claims "people thought it was a computer glitch," but the data has since been confirmed legitimate. Naturally, people within WWE and Sky (their broadcaster) are stunned.

For context, Impact wrestling's 18 October episode had 77,000 viewers in the United Kingdom, which is approximately ten times their usual average in the US. AEW Dynamite, meanwhile, did a whopping 232,000 on ITV on 14 October.


The Impact and AEW shows are admittedly shown in friendlier timeslots, with Raw and SmackDown typically going out live at 1am. Regardless, that 3,000 on 21 Oct. is astounding.