Tony Khan Announces Bryan Danielson In A Match On YouTube During SmackDown

By AG

Posted on October 13, 2021

• Tony Khan Announces Bryan Danielson In A Match On YouTube During SmackDown

This Friday’s “Supersized SmackDown” will air on FS1 instead of FOX (because of the MLB Playoffs), and it will be a 2.5 hour show.

This means SmackDown will go head-to-head with AEW Rampage from 10 PM EST to 10:30 PM EST.

This led to AEW President Tony Khan tweeting the following:

“I saw you’re doing a half hour head-to-head with us. I can’t wait to finally beat your main show head-to-head. It’s been a long time coming. See you next Friday for #AEWRampage on @AEWonTNT!”

WWE then raised the stakes for this highly anticipated battle, as they announced that the last 30 minutes of SmackDown (where they will battle Rampage) will be commercial free.

This led to Tony announcing a “Buy In” show (pre-show) for Rampage, which will start at 9 PM EST and will air live on AEW’s YouTube channel.

The following has been announced for this pre-show:

– Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki

– Bobby Fish vs. Lee Moriarty

With this move, Tony is trying to hurt SmackDown’s viewership, which will already be down due to the show being on FS1.

For comparison purposes, here’s how last week’s SmackDown & Rampage performed:

SmackDown: 2.03 million viewers (with 596,000 viewers in the 18-49 demo)

Rampage: 466,000 viewers (with 196,000 viewers in the 18-49 demo)

However, SmackDown usually draws below 1 million viewers on FS1.

With Rampage being live next week on TNT, and SmackDown being on FS1, Rampage defeating SmackDown, both in terms of viewership and the 18-49 demo, does look possible here.

Pre-taped episodes of Rampage are getting viewed in the 600,000 range on an average, but a live episode might do better, especially given the fact that Tony has issued a challenge, which means the hardcore AEW fans and the anti-WWE fans will definitely make sure that they watch Friday’s episode of Rampage live.

Below is the match-card for Friday’s Supersized SmackDown:

– Brock Lesnar will appear on the show

– SmackDown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks

– Sonya Deville vs. Naomi

– Carmella vs. Zelina Vega in a Queen’s Crown tournament match

– Finn Balor vs. Sami Zayn in a King Of The Ring tournament match

Below is the match-card for Friday’s AEW Rampage:

– CM Punk vs. Matt Sydal

– Ruby Soho vs. The Bunny

– Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Jake Hager & TNT Champion Sammy Guevara) vs. Men of The Year (Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky) & Junior Dos Santos

Also Read: Tony Khan Reacts To Vince McMahon Saying He Doesn’t Consider AEW As Competition

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