Here’s How AEW Dynamite’s Winter Is Coming Special Performed in the Ratings

AEW Dynamite: Winter Is Coming lived up to the hype of being one of the biggest episodes in the show’s young history. On top of WWE Hall of Famer Sting making his surprise debut for the company, Kenny Omega dethroned Jon Moxley to become the new AEW World Champion in the main event. Don Callis, who helped Omega cheat to win by passing him a microphone, then set the wrestling world ablaze by revealing the two would be on Impact Wrestling next Tuesday, starting up a crossover between the two promotions.

AEW president Tony Khan then popped up on Thursday afternoon with the ratings results, revealing the special gave the show its highest viewership since September (the last time it broke one million viewers on Sept. 9) and a 0.42 rating in the target demo. That’s the highest rating Dynamite has been able to produce all year.

In a new interview on the Living The Gimmick Podcast this week, the Young Bucks revealed this crossover was Impact was something they had wanted to do for years.

“Two years ago, this is something Nick and I actually brought up and we wanted to get this going,” Matt Jackson said. “And for whatever reason, it just didn’t work out. I don’t know if that was more on our side or what, but we just couldn’t get everyone to agree on what the creative would be. But when Nick and I were stopping at all the indy shows and popping up at shows, going to AAA and Mexico, that was one of the suggestions we had was what if we show up in Impact? This is something we’ve been whispering in Tony Khan’s ear for two years. So we’re all about collaboration and partnering with everyone and working together. This is what we’ve always done. Even back when we were with Ring of Honor and we got the Hardys to come in when they were apart of Impact, that was also apart of our plan. So this is something that we truly wanted to do for a very, very long time. And I guess the timing was right and we got done.”

“It’s still so early, I don’t think we, all of us, collectively know what this means,” he continued. I think we’re just dipping our toes in right now and we’re going to see what we can get out of it. But there are immediate plans that I can’t exactly just give away right now. But my dream, if I had it my way, I just think about the possible dream matches. People are already hitting me up like, ‘Oh my god, can you imagine if it was the Young Bucks and the Motor City Machine Guns 10 years later?’ How can you not jump ahead and fantasize and fantasy book?”