from BR:
In case you missed it, the ratings for last Friday's much ballyhooed episode of SmackDown were bad. Like, worst ratings of 2011 bad.
The episode received tremendous attention, and indirect hype, prior to its airing as news broke that internet icon Christian would be dropping the World Championship to Randy Orton just five nights after his historic first time title win. The quick title turnaround would extinguish a short-lived feel good moment of the year.
The news, now unofficially known as Spoilergate, led to overwhelming outrage as fans flooded relevant Twitter accounts with hate mail and negative feedback. There hadn't been this much outrage for something that hadn't yet aired since South Park teased that it would be drawing a cartoon of Muhammad.
Following the "any press is good press" theory, all the buzz appeared to have been good news for SmackDown. Orton was drafted to SmackDown to inject some life into the brand, and the big stink in which his World Title win created was the most buzz that surrounded SmackDown in years.
I myself predicted a sizable rating for the show, as A) fans would be curious to see how the whole thing went down, and B) world title matches on SmackDown are relatively rare and should have built-in intrigue.
The result, however, was the antithesis of the Mick Foley channel changing incident in 1999 that would eventually contribute to the downfall of WCW.
Bleacher Report are like the only people who write about the WWE. KEEP IT UP GUYS
