Rampage Down 20% In Early Timeslot

AEW’s Rampage viewership was way down from last week’s 2022-high of 600,000 viewers. Per Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, AEW Rampage garnered a total viewership of 482,000 and an 18-49 viewership of 288,000 for a live broadcast that featured an AEW World Championship main event between Hangman Adam Page and Adam Cole. Total viewership was down 20%, while 18-49 viewership was down 12%.

AEW Rampage opened with a Trios match between The Blackpool Combat Club and The Gunn Club, and also featured the return of Ruby Soho in an Owen Hart Foundation Tournament qualifying match.

Last week’s AEW Rampage number was bolstered by rare in-ring appearances from top stars Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson, who also wrestled on this week’s show. Last week’s Rampage may have also received a slight bump in interest from Tony Khan’s latest Twitter controversy as the increasingly thin-skinned AEW President lashed out at anti-AEW bots. Ever the promoter, Khan made sure to plug AEW Rampage in the process. This week saw a similar controversy as Khan went after fans on Twitter for criticizing the clumsy debut of Satnam Singh.

AEW Rampage Ratings | April 15, 2022

  • AEW Rampage Total Viewership—482,000
  • AEW Rampage 18-49 Viewership—288,000 (0.22 rating)

Rampage’s viewership was predictably hurt by a change in timeslot, as the broadcast aired at 7 p.m. EST/4 p.m. PST due to TNT’s coverage of the NBA Playoffs. Though much of the playoffs will air on the Turner-owned station, within the WarnerMedia-Discovery family, the NBA Playoffs will continue to hurt AEW’s viewership across many platforms. Not only was this dynamic evident in the AEW Rampage timeslot change, but Saturday’s Battle of the Belts broadcast on TNT went head-to-head against the Golden State Warriors, one of the NBA’s biggest draws led by superstar Steph Curry, as they opened their championship bid against the feisty Denver Nuggets. Battle of the Belts ratings will be available tomorrow.

Last year, four consecutive episodes of AEW Dynamite were bumped to Friday or Saturday night due to the NBA and NHL playoffs, with the broadcasts averaging just 535,000 viewers. This was down 40% from AEW’s 2021 average viewership of 891,810. Coming off Rampage’s best number since October, AEW programming will have tough sledding across the board over the next couple of months with stiff competition from the NBA postseason.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alfredkonuwa/2022/04/18/aew-rampage-ratings-rampage-down-20-in-early-timeslot/