CM Punk vs. Daniel Garcia
AEW Rampage viewership continued its weekslong precipitous drop, garnering 502,000 viewers, with a 0.17 rating in the 18-49 demographic per Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics.
This number is down 19% overall from last week’s previous record-low viewership of 622,000, as Rampage faced tough competition from the Major League Baseball playoffs. Rampage was No. 15 on cable Friday Night and up 7% from an alarmingly low overnight rating of 466,000, with 196,000 in the 18-49 demographic.
This marks the seventh consecutive week Rampage has garnered a record-low audience as the AEW B-Show has not increased in viewership since the August 20 broadcast from the United Center dubbed “The First Dance,” hyping CM Punk’s return.
WWE SmackDown garnered 2.147 million viewers with a 0.52 rating in the 18-49 demographic.
AEW Rampage Ratings | October 8, 2021
- AEW Rampage Total Viewership—502,000 Viewers
- AEW Rampage Rating in 18-49 Demo—0.17 Rating
Rampage may continue to find tough sledding this Friday despite going live from Miami. In addition to potential head-to-head competition from baseball’s LCS series, which start on October 15, 2021, the first half-hour of Rampage is set to go head-to-head with a Supersized SmackDown. WWE, and its hyper-competitive Chairman Vince McMahon, are set to pounce on AEW Rampage with 30 minutes of commercial-free broadcasting on FS1. The loaded show is advertising Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks and an appearance by Brock Lesnar. Rampage, meanwhile, is advertising CM Punk vs. Matt Sydal and The Inner Circle vs. The Men of the Year and Junior Dos Santos as its top matches.
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AEW President Tony Khan welcomed competition from WWE in a tweet saying he can’t wait to beat the promotion’s A-Show. Khan recently spoke on his desires to recreate the “competitive spirit” of the Monday Night Wars in the ‘90s.
“If I’m not sweating it, you shouldn’t be either,” Khan said of Friday’s upcoming showdown in response to a fan on Twitter.
“This is what sports are about, set a goal & try your best. We’ve got a great #AEWRampage card Friday + big Dynamite matches Saturday. I expect to do well, but regardless of next Friday’s stats, it’ll be a great weekend for the fans.”
“Twitter’s the child of the boards/chat rooms that thrived during the 90s wrestling war,” Khan continued.
“Part of my business plan is recreating that competitive spirit while avoiding WCW’s errors, which is why I pace/don’t blow thru matches. AEW has many years’ worth of big matches up my sleeve.”
Though Khan’s competitive spirit is admirable, that spirit in the ‘90s also came with an ugly, personal side as both promotions aimed to put one another out of business, particularly in the case of WCW. Former President Eric Bischoff made it part of his mission statement to put WWE out of business.
“[Eric Bischoff] had, like, team meetings. Two of them, I recall. One of them was in St. Louis, at the TWA Dome/Stadium. And he said ‘I guarantee you WWE will go out of business in six months,’” said former WCW star and current AEW star Chris Jericho. Former WCW top star Kevin Nash confirmed this story.
WWE has employed a similar strategy in attempting to put AEW out of business. WWE has used counterprogramming in the past in an attempt to sabotage AEW, including an unsuccessful attempt to air WWE NXT head-to-head with AEW during the short-lived Wednesday Night Wars.
With much more star power against a weakened AEW Rampage, WWE figures to find more success in its next head-to-head ratings war against AEW this Friday, albeit on a much smaller network in FS1.
