By James Caldwell, PWTorch columnist

WWE's continual international expansion led to success in Mexico this month, as WWE Smackdown's debut on October 3 on Azteca TV was the most-watched TV program in prime time from Oct. 3 to 19. The show drew a 9.0 rating and 1.2 million TV households tuned in.

Similarly, WWE Raw's debut on Sunday, Oct. 5 on Televisa drew a 7.1 rating and nearly one million households tuned in. The Raw and Smackdown debuts topped traditional lucha libre programming from CMLL, which averaged a 4.0 rating, and AAA, which averaged a 6.9 rating immediately after the Raw debut on October 5.

The Oct. 10 and 17 Smackdown shows then drew 1.2 million households and 1.1 million households to continue strong showings after the debut on Azteca. Raw's audience declined to 868,000 households on Oct. 12 and 940,000 households on Oct. 19 when the show was moved to 5:30 p.m. CST on Galavision 9 with AAA back in its original Sunday timeslot.

"We are ecstatic with the TV ratings for the debuts of WWE Raw and Friday Night SmackDown since we launched on open TV in Mexico," said EVP Shane McMahon in a WWE press release. "I would like to thank our TV distribution partners, TV Azteca and Televisa. These partnerships allow WWE the maximum TV household penetration in Mexico."

Caldwell's Analysis: WWE successfully pushing TV out just before their tour of Mexico two weekends ago was certainly one reason why they drew such great live event crowds in Mexico City. WWE is definitely pushing forward with a war against AAA and CMLL for talent and TV exposure in Mexico right now.

There is a massive appetite for wrestling right now, so it will be interesting to see how this "war" develops. One of the first "battles" was AAA getting its traditional Sunday TV timeslot back from WWE after Raw's debut on Oct. 5. WWE is no stranger to wars with TV networks, dating back to the national expansion in the early 1980s.

Source material: The Oct. 20 edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter with ratings information related to the first week of WWE vs. AAA and CMLL programming.

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