The Road to WrestleMania has officially begun. Following the 2024 Royal Rumble, fans have witnessed some exciting moments such as Dwayne Johnson’s return, Bayley declaring her WrestleMania 40 opponent, and the Kickoff Press Event which was held this Thursday. However, the aftermath of this press event might have negatively impacted WWE. While fans were expecting to see Roman Reigns and The Rock on this week’s SmackDown, their absence had done some numbers on the show’s viewership.

The absence of the Samoan brothers hurts SmackDown viewership

According to Programming Insider, the absence of Johnson and Reigns from this week’s SmackDown has affected the viewership count. While WWE might have thought that the press conference would help in increasing the numbers, it proved to be otherwise. The viewership saw a slight dip this week. This week’s total viewership was 2.461 million viewers. This is less when compared to last week’s number which was 2.469 million viewers.

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While the viewership suffered a bit due to their absence, the ratings saw a rise. Last week, the rating in the key demo which is 18 to 49 years was 0.66. This week, the ratings were 0.69 and reached 0.74 by the time the show ended. The reason why last week’s episode might have seen a high viewership could be attributed to the fact that Cody Rhodes was going to challenge Roman Reigns for WrestleMania 40.

However, Johnson came in sweeping and the speculation was that he would be taking Rhodes’ spot. But after an aggressive online campaign by fans, the storyline has changed and it looks like Johnson has sided with Reigns.

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This week, the most-watched segment of the show was Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque trying to reassert his authority following the kick-off press event. While the Samoan Stars are confirmed for next week, the question is how the interaction will be between Johnson and The Hunter.

The Rock and Triple H come face-to-face

Following the press event this Thursday, fans saw Johnson talking with Triple H and used some not-so-safe words. In a way, WWE has established that Johnson has turned heel. And when you have a heel that was notorious during the Attitude Era, you need someone like H to keep him in check. This was the main reason why the company’s CCO lost his cool.

Triple H‘s demeanor this week gave many fans some hope that he might enter the ring to square off with Johnson. However, it might be something that almost everyone is unsure about as the former champion has had a health scare in the past. But that is not going to stop him from keeping the stars in check. Is this the start of the fall of Bloodline? Will Cody Rhodes finish his story this year? Let us know in the comments below.

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