WWE and AEW Ratings Took Major Dives This Week

By Matthew Aguilar

The WWE and AEW debates often include people bringing up the ratings of one or the other from week to week, but whether you love AEW, WWE, or both, neither did especially well in the ratings last week. In a post from The Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer, it was revealed that SmackDown's ratings were the lowest since they started having shows in arenas again, and in the 18 to 49 demographic AEW Rampage hit its third-lowest rating. Meanwhile Raw hit its lowest rating ever and NXT had its second-lowest rating ever, so it seems like losses across the board.

Meltzer wrote "Not a good week for wrestling on TV overall. SD was its lowest since going back to arenas, Rampage was among its third lowest in 18-49, Raw was its lowest ever and NXT was its second-lowest ever."

It's interesting on a number of levels. SmackDown was a pretty packed show, complete with the return of Brock Lesnar after his kayfabe suspension and $1 million dollar fine. We also got the announcement of several matches for the Day 1 pay-per-view. Meanwhile, NXT was setting its WarGames pay-per-view, and Rampage was planting seeds for Winter Is Coming.

It wasn't all just filler to move to the next point, so it is interesting that this was such a low ratings driver. It remains to be seen if this week's episodes can bounce back across the board.

Someone replied to Meltzer's tweet saying that wrestling is a dying business, and he pointed out that both AEW and WWE have had record-setting revenues this year. Cable television has struggled against the rise of streaming, but both companies are doing just fine in the financial department.

That's actually been part of the criticism towards WWE this year and last, as they set records for revenue but end up releasing so much talent from their rosters. That has led to some theorizing that they are setting up for a sale, but nothing has been confirmed on that front.

0comments
Start the Conversation

of