How Did AEW Collision's Ratings Do Against WWE SummerSlam and UFC on ESPN 50?

AEW Collision's ratings take a hit due to some massive competition

By Connor Casey

AEW Collision faced the toughest competition of its young life this past Saturday, going up against WWE's SummerSlam 2023 pay-per-view, UFC on ESPN 50 and the Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz boxing pay-per-view. All Elite Wrestling tried its best to combat the heavy competition, featuring a number of championship matches like CM Punk vs. Ricky Starks while also making big announcements for the All In pay-per-view like FTR vs. The Young Bucks III and Punk vs. Samoa Joe. Unfortunately for the young promotion, it wasn't enough to stop Collision from bringing in a smaller audience. 

Per Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, the show drew an average of 417,000 viewers with a 0.13 rating, finishing 16th in the 18-49 demo. It's the lowest viewership since the show launched in June 17, but Thurston pointed out there's some positivity in the show managing to bring in a double-digit rating. Meanwhile, UFC on ESPN led cable with a 0.35 rating and a viewership that just managed to break one million.

CM Punk on AEW Collision's Competition

CM Punk made his return to AEW programming when Collision launched and has been a consistent presence on the show ever since. He recently spoke with Sports Illustrated about Collision and pointed out how it'll consistently have stiff competition given its Saturday night timeslot. 

"We are not competing with SummerSlam," Punk said. "We are going to go up against college football soon. We have already been up against monster UFC cards every single Saturday. We are not competing with them. We are competing with what we did last Saturday. I am competing with who I was yesterday as a human being and a pro wrestler, and we, as the Collision team, are competing with what we did last Saturday. That's always going to be what we are striving to do, and I think that's an important message for the fans to understand."

Punk will be back on Collision this week alongside FTR to challenge The House of Black for the AEW World Trios Championships. Stay tuned for full coverage of the event!

AEW Dynamite Card (Aug. 9, 2023)

  • The Young Bucks vs. The Hardys
  • AEW Women's World Championship: Hikaru Shida vs. Anna Jay 
  • FTW Championship: Jack Perry vs. RVD
  • Lucha Bros. vs. Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli)
  • Promo from MJF & Adam Cole
  • Jericho Appreciation Society "Mandatory Meeting"

AEW Collision Card (Aug. 12, 2023)

  • AEW World Trios Championships: The House of Black vs. CMFTR
  • Kris Statlander & Willow Nightingale vs. Mercedes Martinez & Diamante
  • The Acclaimed in action
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