The Undertaker's Return Boots WWE Smackdown's 900th Episode Ratings

Smackdown's landmark 900th episode - and the return of The Undertaker - meant a much-needed ratings boost for the blue brand, but it still wasn't enough for the show to score its first post-split victory over Raw.

Last week's Smackdown was expected to suffer in terms of ratings, as it was going up against multi-network coverage of the U.S. presidential election. It ended up drawing 1.921 million viewers, far and away the lowest number since the WWE draft and the move to a live format. This week, the show ended up with 2.725 million viewers, the third-highest number since the draft. The only episodes to do better numbers were the first post-draft show and the August 30 episode, which was built around Daniel Bryan's response to The Miz's insults on Talking Smack the previous week.

Raw drew respectable numbers as well, garnering 2.878 million viewers for a Survivor Series go-home show that saw the first Bill Goldberg-Brock Lesnar face-off in over 12 years. Though the first six weeks of post-draft Raw all drew above 2.9 million viewers, since then, the numbers have fallen off.

This week's episode was actually the second-highest-rated show since September 5, falling only behind Goldberg's return on October 17.