SmackDown has best rating on TV while Rampage has their worst of 2022 - Cageside Seats — cagesideseats.com

The ratings are in for Feb. 25, and it meant a return to normal for both Friday night wrestling shows. That meant different results for WWE & FOX and AEW & TNT, however. SmackDown was live with its Elimination Chamber fallout show. Surprisingly, that meant an almost 3% decline from Feb. 18’s pre-taped episode in total viewers. 2.114 million isn’t bad though, especially not when paired with .57 rating among 18-49 year olds. The was a 5.5% improvement over the previous Friday, and beat ABC’s Shark Tank (.55) for the best number on television for the night. Over on cable, Rampage was back at its usual 10pm ET start — which is good for stability, but remains an empirically bad time slot. The audience was up a smidge (> .5%) to 473K. The demo rating of .18 was a 10% week-to-week drop, and the show’s lowest number of the year in that metric. It led to AEW finishing 46th among cable originals on the night. NBA led the way on cable as usual, and news coverage had a big night as people continue to pay attention to the situation in Ukraine and its impact on global politics. From SmackDown and Rampage’s numbers, it’s hard to say what effect that had on pro wrestling viewership though. We’ll see how it goes this week, as SmackDown continues with the push toward next month’s WrestleMania 38, and Rampage puts the finishing touches on AEW’s build to Sunday’s Revolution PPV. Numbers via Showbuzz Daily

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