As we all know, social media and other outlets have become a huge means of drawing in interaction and viewers for WWE. Most people will point to television ratings like they did during the Monday Night Wars in the late 1990’s, however that can be skewed with so many various means of watching today that do not include cable television.

As you’ve become accustomed to, here is this week’s SmackDown Live YouTube Report (2:30 PM EST, 7/5/18):

1. Asuka vs. James Ellsworth – 1.3 million views
2. Team Hell No is confronted by The Usos – 930k views
3. Team Hell No vs. The Usos – 826k views
4. US Title Open Challenge: Jeff Hardy vs. The Miz – 527k views
5. AJ Styles vs. Aiden English – 342k views
6. SAnitY attacks during New Day’s pancake eating contest – 291k views
7. Becky Lynch vs. Peyton Royce – 232k views

We’re doing things “bass ackwards” this week, as the ratings for SmackDown Live on cable have been delayed due to the holiday and aren’t out yet as of this writing. While it seems as if being on the eve of Fourth Of July hurts SmackDown Live overall, James ‘Freaking’ Ellsworth is again in the number one spot for his intergender bout against Asuka, the second time in the last three weeks. It’s stunning, quite frankly, that his segment hits the million mark again and I’m wondering if WWE may start doing more intergender stuff just based off of how well it’s been drawing.

The second and third position is reserved for the reunited Team Hell No, their opening segment coming in with a bit higher of a number than the main event match. I felt like The Usos really saved the opener some and there’s really not a better tag team you could have stuck Bryan and Kane in there with to possibly knock off some of that rust of working together. Bryan’s segments have continued to be a bit of a struggle to hit a million views, seemingly becoming more of an on-again, off-again trend.

At number four is the United States Championship Open Challenge and in my opinion, the best match of the night as Jeff Hardy retains over The Miz. ‘The A-Lister’ seems to be in a bit of a purgatory right now, playing a side role in a couple of feuds over the past few weeks and with Nakamura still suffering from his dog bite, this was a good spot to give Jeff a big win. Personally, I’d love to see Miz get a run with the US Title and do what he did with the Intercontinental, but all signs are pointing towards a Shinsuke title win if you ask me.

Five, six and seven on the list this week are again “the best of the worst” in a sense. WWE Champion AJ Styles finally returned to action and made Aiden English tap out, but it didn’t seem to advance his story with Rusev much so close to their match at Extreme Rules. Does anybody else feel like Rusev has no shot? If you do, that’s because (as I’ve said before), HE’S NOT OVER. At six SAnitY ambushes The New Day and then seventh is the only other match on the show, Becky vs. Peyton. There’s really no other competition for these two spots outside of a backstage segment with Team Hell No (that wasn’t far behind Becky vs. Peyton at 229k views).

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