Fan Photos Capture Yet Another Alarmingly Poor Attendance at SmackDown

It's hard to tell if WWE is actually suffering from poor attendance or if fans are taking opportunistically timed photos of empty sections of seats, but there is most certainly a trend.

Fans shared photos of a yet another sparse crowd at SmackDown. This comes just a day after photos of a poor RAW gate made the news. For last night though, WWE seemed to be expecting a thin crowd as multiple sections of the arena were tarped.

The Maharaja meets his fans... or lack thereof! #SDLive #WWEOakland pic.twitter.com/2SfCBRbGNi

— Alex C. (@TheEvolutionWWE) September 20, 2017

@WrestlingSoup The SmackDown crowd is again half empty, this is embarrassing and sad. pic.twitter.com/939sC0eNlS

— #Canada150 (@MauriceBear21) September 20, 2017

This is the Smackdown crowd...... it's so depressing to look at.... #SDLive pic.twitter.com/RbgovdVcaJ

— 🤤Jジェームス💰 (@SashaAndSami) September 20, 2017

#AndSTILL WWE United States Champion @AJStylesOrg! #USOpenChallenge #SDLive #WWEOakland pic.twitter.com/ucwiUCdrtW

— Alex C. (@TheEvolutionWWE) September 20, 2017

Should WWE simply shrug this off or is there a bigger issue at play? Well, for one, most of these poor showings happened in California (Anaheim, Oakland, San Jose) — while that may not be the smoking gun, it's a fact worth underlining.

If WWE is to be alarmed by this small trend of shoddy gates then the concern should be directed at RAW, not SmackDown. Despite moving to Tuesdays and going live, SmackDown is still WWE's B-show. Proof of this lies within RAW snatching multiple WWE Champions from Smackdown to bolster Monday nights, with the latest being a biggie, John Cena.

It will be interesting if this carries into pay-per-views as well. However, No Mercy should be sold out due to its WrestleMania Lite card. While Hell in A Cell may not have John Cena vs Roman Reigns, it does have Shane McMahon in a Hell in a Cell match. Chances are, WWE has a logical explanation for fans not coming in droves to see their events. Since we don't have the information we have to rely on speculation, which is normally wrong.

So before you go selling all of your WWE stock, ask if there is a reasonable explanation for thin audiences in September.

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