The final episode of Smackdown Live in 2018 went off with a victory over the flagship brand.
Smackdown Live drew 1.904 on the Christmas episode, which featured Rusev defeating Shinsuke Nakamura to capture the United States title for the third time, Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas getting bested by Mustafa Ali, and Jeff Hardy and Samoa Joe ending in a DQ.
This is a drop from the 2.214 million a week prior, but that was to be expected due to a number of factors. However, The Christmas Eve episode of Raw drew a record low of 1.775 million viewers.
Next week’s New Year’s Day show will also be pre-taped, but it has been confirmed that John Cena will be making his SmackDown Live return on the show.