WWE held the Trial of the Tribal Chief segment with Roman Reigns, The Usos, Paul Heyman, and Solo Sikoa on last Friday’s episode of SmackDown to set up a brawl that ended with the show closing with Jey issuing a match challenge to Reigns at SummerSlam next month.
The show drew huge ratings on FOX with 2.561 million viewers and a 0.76 rating in the all-important 18-49 demographic. As the segment went on for nearly 40 minutes, the ratings grew.
Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio today there was some concern in WWE over the length of the segment as some people thought it going long might tune out viewers while others thought it would grow the ratings.
WWE has yet to confirm Reigns’ status for Friday’s episode of SmackDown.