By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
The AEW Rampage television show delivered 394,000 viewers for Friday’s episode on TNT, according to Showbuzzdaily.com. The number was down from the 409,000 viewership count from the previous week’s edition.
-The AEW Revolution countdown special that followed Rampage delivered 184,000 viewers and a 0.04 rating.
Powell’s POV: Ouch. Friday’s Rampage finished 32nd in Friday’s cable ratings with a 0.10 rating in the 18-49 demographic, down from the previous week’s 0.11 rating in the same demo. Last year’s Revolution countdown special averaged 269,000 viewers and a 0.08 rating. The March 4, 2022 edition of Rampage delivered 545,000 viewers with a 0.22 rating in the 18-49 demographic.
2.057 million people watched two hours of pro wrestling on Friday and then stopped, even though there was another hour immediately following.
This number, combined with the Wednesday night drop after yet another god awful “huge announcement” from TK, has to make you wonder what the real numbers will be for Revolution (TK will absolutely lie about them and Meltzer/Alvarez will stooge for him). Obviously there’s a built in fanbase that will watch/buy every single thing AEW does, but will a PPV full of mostly predictable matches really move the needle for them at all? Will anyone who isn’t already a fan of the Moxley bloody brawls or Elite spotfests care one bit about the regular fanbase and dirtsheet writers raving over the PPV?
The number for Dynamite this Wednesday will be very interesting.
Does it matter when those who watched Rampage saw four matches that had little or nothing to do with the pay-per-view? As I noted in audio, Smackdown opened with a Reigns and Rhodes segment to promote a show that was a month away at the time, while Rampage opened with a random four-way tag team match two nights before Revolution. It seems like AEW is more concerned with finding matches for wrestlers who didn’t make the PPV cut than actually trying to selling their PPV. It’s baffling.