According to Programming Insider , last Saturday’s (Jan. 24) episode of AEW Collision only drew a 0.02 rating in the key 18-to-49 year old demographic, which is the lowest such rating in the history of the show.
The average viewership of 253K also looks pretty bad. Things can actually get worse in that regard for this weekend’s episode (Jan. 31) because WWE’s Royal Rumble PLE is scheduled for the same date.
The Rumble takes place in Saudi Arabia, so it has an earlier start time of 2 pm ET. Even so, the data overwhelmingly shows that AEW struggles to draw viewers airing on the same date as WWE PLEs, even when the show times do not overlap. AEW has reacted to that obvious pattern by sometimes moving Collision off of Saturdays when WWE has a special event lined up the same day, but this weekend’s Collision is staying put in its normal time slot on TNT and MAX.
President Tony Khan is trying to mitigate the inevitable slaughter to some extent by loading up this weekend’s show with the in-ring debut of The Razcals vs. CRU, Babes of Wrath (c) vs. Sisters of Sin for the AEW women’s world tag team championship, and Tommaso Ciampa’s first AEW match, where he is challenging Mark Briscoe for the TNT championship.
Just a short while ago, a third title match was added to the Collision card. It will be AEW International Champion Kazuchika Okada vs. Adam Priest, based on the events of tonight’s ROH on HonorClub episode.
Top babyface Darby Allin is also now booked on Collision. He’s finally moving on from the Death Riders and will wrestle a singles match against Clark Connors.
Do you plan to check out this episode of AEW Collision after the Royal Rumble is over to see Ciampa, The Razcals, multiple title matches, and Darby Allin? Or will you forego WWE in Saudi altogether and instead get your wrestling fill with this Collision card?
Let me know how much wrestling you intend to watch on Saturday, if any at all, in the comments below, Cagesiders.
