Let us take a look at the top 8 WWE News & Professional Wrestling stories of the hour:
8. Raw Defeats SmackDown During The 1st Week of Brand Extension War
As we noted before, this week’s episode of Raw (which was the first Raw of this new Brand Extension era and was headlined by Roman Reigns vs. Finn Balor) drew 3.39 million viewers, which is up from last week’s 3.13 million viewers.
This week’s episode of SmackDown Live (which featured Randy Orton’s in-ring return, Rhyno’s main roster return, Shelton Benjamin returning to WWE announcement, and SummerSlam 2016 WWE Title match decision) drew 2.74 million viewers, which is down from last week’s 3.17 million viewers. It should be noted that SmackDown Live drew more viewership than Raw last week because the WWE Draft was held on it.
So Raw defeated SmackDown Live in this week’s viewership.
7. WWE Announces Record Revenue & Q2 Results, WWE Network Subscriber Count
WWE announced record revenue & Q2 results. You can check them out below:
– Revenue increased 32% (13% excluding the timing impact of WrestleMania) to a record $199.0 million as WWE’s Live Event and Network segments achieved their highest quarterly revenue in Company history.
– OIBDA2 of $7.5 million was in line with the Company’s guidance.
– WWE Network reached a record of 1.52 million average paid subscribers over the second quarter 2016, which represented a 25% increase from the second quarter 2015 (It should noted that that WWE announced a total of 1.82 million total WWE Network subscribers (out of which 1.45 million were paid subscribers and the rest were the subscribers who had their first month free).
– SmackDown transitioned to a live format on USA Network. Since July 25, WWE’s flagship programs, Monday Night Raw and SmackDown, have and will continue to feature unique talent and storylines.
– Through the first six months of the year, digital engagement metrics continued to grow with video views up over 100% to nearly 8 billion and social media engagements up 39% to 570 million versus the prior year.
– The Company announced a multi-year content distribution deal in China with PPTV, the return of a WWE live event to Shanghai in September and the signing of the first-ever Chinese talent.
