Smackdown Rating: Jinder Mahal’s title victory celebration, Shinsuke’s in-ring TV debut, stats and perspective on viewership (w/Keller’s Analysis)

Last night’s WWE Smackdown Live rating, coming two days after the eventful WWE Backlash PPV with Jinder Mahal’s WWE Title win over Randy Orton, drew a 1.64 rating. The rolling ten week average going into this week was 1.77. This week’s number is above last year’s rating the same week of 1.57. The average for May so far is 1.60.

Actual viewership was 2.328 million on average during the two hours, above the 2.175 million last week.

The average rating for Smackdown so far this year is 1.80 million, edging the 2016 average at this point of 1.73 million.

Keller’s Analysis: Shinsuke Nakamura’s in-ring debut on Smackdown in a loaded tag team match along with the fallout of Jinder Mahal’s title victory on Sunday led to a small bump compared to last week’s 1.53, but it’s hardly a “ratings pop” by any reasonable definition considering it’s still below the ten week average headed into this week.