By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
The two-hour AEW Rampage television show delivered 640,000 viewers for Friday’s episode on TNT, according to Showbuzzdaily.com. The combined number for the two-hour special was down from the previous week’s 642,000 viewership count.
Powell’s POV: The first hour delivered 727,000 viewers and finished first in Friday’s cable ratings with a 0.32 rating, which was a big increase over last week’s numbers. The second hour of Rampage delivered 552,000 viewers and finished fourth in Friday’s cable ratings with a 0.25 rating.
“Anyway, this was one of the best of the seven Rampage shows to date. We knew it was going to be because Wednesday was so unforgettable.”
McGuire was wrong again.
The second hour was the horrific 8 man spotfest, the barely mediocre women’s match, and the garbage brawl tag match, and everything about it was just shitting all over what pro wrestling is.
That second hour drew 150k fewer people than hour 1, because why would anyone want to see that on TV.
Last Wednesday showed us that AEW can put on a really good show from start to finish. Last Friday showed us they still don’t have a clue what’s good and what isn’t about their own product.
Overall viewership, with all the new names and coming off the buzz from Dynamite, was down from the previous week. That’s a problem that someone in AEW needs to finally acknowledge and work to fix. They can pop a rating with a debuting star, a celebrity, or with a loaded PPV caliber card, but things always start going right back down afterwards.
They’re not keeping those new viewers who check the shows out in any appreciable amount, and continuing to do spotfests and garbage matches is just going to continue the trend. They had everything in their favor and dropped the ball by putting on a stunningly bad 2nd hour of Rampage.
They didn’t have much to keep people tuned in at that later hour and it is easy to see why the viewership declined. Also I can see why they begin the show with the marquee match coming out of the Dynamite taping; when these shows are taped in a marathon session it certainly stands to reason that by the late stages that the audience will be fatigued, ready to go home, and will not be as involved with the in-ring action.
Oh please, who are you? Effin Jim Cornette?
Does someone holds you at gunpoint to watch a show you hate or do just read the reports to sh.. all over it.
You may not believe it but there are people who love spotfests, garbage brawls and all kinds of stuff (especially if it imvolves the like of Moxley and Suzuki).
AEW needs to bring a different vibe and program to cater to another audience on another, later time slot.
And they are doing ok so far.
Maybe if they catered more to that audience who liked the first half and not to the audience who who like hardcore shitfests headlined by Homeless Jon, their ratings in the second hour wouldn’t have dropped by 170000 fuckin’ people?
Rampage ratings by week:
740,000
1,129,000 (CM Punk debut)
720,000
696,000
670,000
642,000
640,000
The Dynamite after Punk debuted was up 197,000 from the week before, but they dropped 125,000 the next week. Then they had the TV debuts of Danielson and Cole to jump up 272,000 only to lose 144,000 and then 98,000 the two following weeks. That means they’ve had 3 big name debuts, a PPV that their fans erroneously claim had the “best cage match of all time” on it, and a truly good show at the Arthur Ashe stadium and they’re only 102,000 viewers ahead of where they were before that and trending downward.
They cannot keep things going upward without WWE made stars, celebrities, or loaded cards.
Defend it all you want, but they’re shitting their pants on TV on a regular basis, and it’s turning off pro wrestling fans that want a good product instead of the cheap indy version of WWE.