WWE vs. FIFA World Cup

The ongoing delight that is the 2018 FIFA World Cup has been stomping a mudhole in WWE this week.

According to the Wrestling Observer, Money in the Bank received a thrashing from the World Cup in internet searches on Sunday, finishing in 4th place with 200,000 searches. The World Cup took the top three spots.

Those numbers are fairly typical for a WWE B-show and nowhere near ‘Big Four’ level. Considering Ronda Rousey was on the card, that should be considered a disappointment. In an interesting side note, CM Punk alone got more searches last week than the entire Money in the Bank show.

WWE also suffered at the hands of the World Cup last night, with the UK Tournament struggling to draw due to going head-to-head with the England vs. Tunisia game. Those in the building reported that the venue was 2/3rds full, with many tickets having been given away free to venue staff and the UK wrestling media.

The England game pulled 18.3 million viewers – the highest number of anything on UK TV this year – with 69% of the TV viewing audience tuning in. WWE, frankly, had no chance.