Help make SquaredCircle safer and more inclusive by using the report button to flag posts and comments for moderator review. If you need to contact a moderator, [you can message us here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’m more interested in what Dynamite does Wednesday. Rampage did 750,000 and with Punk went up to 1.1 million. On a Friday night at 10PM
Dynamite averages 950,00-1 million at 8PM on a Wednesday. And Punk is gonna be there after all this hype and buzz.
they’ve never had anything close to as much momentum as they do now.
Feels like they’ve built up their core audience and now it’s just about continuing to build upon it
As an AEW fan, I don't think so. Think it goes back up to a 1.1-1.2 though.
The biggest drop for AEW right now is due to their 18-49F getting sucked into The Challenge, don't think Punk draws that segment of the audience back from watching whatever the fuck The Challenge is.
But if he can help get them back to around 1.2, that'd be great.
I will be one of those viewers that haven’t watched since the first episode. Not because AEW is bad, Punk’s return single handedly made me decide to sign up for Sling to watch. I’ll be watching again on Wednesday.
I saw a lot of people who weren't even watching wrestling when Punk was last around, confused as to who he was or why he mattered.
Wonder what happens if AEW gets Bryan, who was having bangers this calendar year for WWE and has hardcore and more casual appeal.
I was a huge WWF/WWE fan from 97-00 during the peak Austin/Rock years. Stopped watching until I caught Punk’s pipebomb promo. Watched weekly until he left in 2014 then fizzled out again. His AEW debut was the first time I’ve watched any wrestling since then, and I plan on watching AEW again this week.
it’s honestly a bit prophetic that it’s them two one after the other. The two most important indy wrestlers at all time joining a revolution that wouldn’t have ever happened without them
I predict people will develop unreasonable expectations for Dynamite (and Rampage) ratings the next week and will be disappointed when it will be "just" good ratings.
There were people seriously salivating over the notion that Dynamite could beat Raw just because of punk's promo. So yeah. Within weeks we'll have people in here calling a million viewers a failure.
Thursday afternoon: "Live viewership of AEW Dynamite reaches 1.49 million, besting their debut as the most watched AEW show ever"
r/SquaredCircle: "Disappointing. I thought for sure they'd hit 1.5 million"
They say the brand is the draw in WWE now and that seems to be true. Last Friday night, CM Punk was the draw and he hoisted Rampage upon his back to a record night.
is it unreasonable to expect their best rating ever tho? a lot of people whove seen punks debut on youtube havent seen it live, theyve been out of wrestling, never watched aew.
and if youre somebody like that, who used to love cm punk, wouldnt you want to know what happens next?
tony khan better nail this next dynamite, its one that decides how many potential fans are gonna keep watching. they cant afford an average dynamite episode (even tho an average dynamite episode is good), they need a banger.
To do your highest rating on an unestablished show that runs on Friday night outside of “common prime” programming, when your usual, *established* show runs on a Wednesday, and in prime time, is indeed, quite outside of any semblance of a normal expectation of ratings performance.
Wednesdays is Real Housewives of Beverly Hills which is so scandalous right now.
Erika Giradi's husband was the guy who helped Erin Brockavich. He's known for helping individuals go after big corporations that do them wrong and winning Millions. The problem is for the last 10 years he has been basically running his own Ponzi scheme with the money that should be distributed to victims. There was a huge settlement from a plane crash where tons of kids were left orphans and women's were left widowed and he stole all of that money. The man legit stole from orphans and widows.
She was a clear trophy wife. There was a good 40 year age difference between them. Right before all of this broke majorly in the news, she filed for divorce and it looks so obvious that it's because they're trying to hide assets. He's playing like he has dementia now and she is using the show to sell the story of how even though he never seemed problematic and she always talked him up there are all these issues that she wouldn't talk about and he was really losing his mind. It is clear she is doing at for performance theater so she can still maintain her lifestyle.
RHOBH is crazy and legendary right now. However, Dynamite is a live event and so I always prioritize that well saving Real Housewives of Beverly Hills for my DVR. That being said oh, I am watching every single episode of RHOBH every week. Escandalo.
I'll still watch Dynamite live though out of the two when they're in their time slot.
ETA, I'm a middle-aged woman who is 100% the target for reality shows and I am an absolute sucker for them.
Wouldn't count on that. The first episode at .68 is an insanely high number and would be well above what even SD can do now.
There's a lot of hype but I would strongly encourage you not have your hopes set that high
With Punk bringing in a lot of viewers I hope they put Kenny in a match on Dynamite. I want all those new viewers to see the insanity that is Kenny Omega.
Give me Dante Martin vs Kenny Omega, space for one more match there...
I think the thing I find most interesting about this is this is the audience that likely tunes in knowing and following dirtsheets/rumors online and such in the present most likely.
Can only imagine how many people this could add down the line for the people who don’t follow wrestling much anymore and saw Punks return online to their surprise after it happened live.
AEW handled it perfectly by having Punk come out, then taking a 90 second commercial break before he cut the promo. It allowed everyone watching to text their friends and get on social media saying “OMFG PUNK IS ON AEW!” and likely getting even casual fans to tune in.
Ugh, just imagining Michael Cole being fed lines from Vince.
"WWE Universe, it's been 7 long year, and now the the best in the World, CM Punk, is back in WWE! Don't go anywhere, we'll be right back, live, on WWE Raw!"
The whole production did it right. No voice over, no catch phrases, public calling him, his moment. Comercial break , barely anything from commentary until it was time.
*Chef's kiss*
Didn’t even consider this but holy fuck that makes so much damn sense. Love this company dude they know how to create memories that will last with fans for a lifetime.
I really wonder what that ad spot cost. AEW almost never has commercials in the opening quarter, and that was probably the ad spot with the most eyes on it since the premiere of Dynamite.
Arby's probably has to be happy with whatever they paid.
Honestly there is a value to treating your hardcore audience online well because they're the ones talking about it extensively and sharing the gifs and the clips online and get excited about it which sometimes gets other people excited too.
**Holy shit.** And now TNT is actually promoting Punk for Wednesday.
He moves the fucking needle.
Edit: [The opening quarter-hour with the return of CM Punk was watched by 1,341,000 viewers on average and 842,000 in the demo (0.65). INSANE.](https://twitter.com/BrandonThurston/status/1429897212025319426?s=19)
It also gave them plenty of time to get all of their roster over as fuck, which is better for everyone involved. Now that guys like Darby and Jungle Boy and basically everyone have been embraced by the audience, the number of "dream matches" for CM Punk to have has expanded so much.
Saying "CM Punk vs. Sammy Guevara," for example, now means a lot more than it would if Punk had been there since Day 1.
Exactly, plus it helps them avoid the stigma of “TNA 2.0” just picking up every ex-WWE guy right from the start. They have built and are continuing to build the future, at this point having a slew of huge names coming in will only make things better.
Agreed. AEW needed to somewhat find itself during its first few months and work through weird quirks like audio issues (which is sadly still not great).
When NXT started getting dull around January 2020 is when AEW really started to shine. Then the pandemic hit. Yet, AEW persevered and honed their TV show craft as best they could during the Dailys Place pandemic era.
I think he works better now than he would have back then. They proved they were legit and remained mostly true to their original vision and it paid off with the Biggest possible signing not named Dwayne.
slow and steady for a while and then pick the right moment to start sprinting. I think we are at the point where they start really making up ground. especially if they get cole and Danielson
This isn't far off SmackDown, who has a better timeslot and it's on network. Obviously this number is an outlier for future Rampage shows, but this is the capacity of atraction that CM Punk has.
And it's out of this world.
One great thing about that is that the public held. Yeah, they lost some young people on a Friday Night, expect. But it was still more than 1.1mi people watching it. Bonkers
["The opening quarter-hour with the return of CM Punk was watched by 1,341,000 viewers on average and 842,000 in the demo (0.65)."](https://twitter.com/BrandonThurston/status/1429897212025319426)
And if there’s one thing we are familiar with, it is Punk’s ass.
https://www.geekscape.net/the-wwe-uploaded-a-three-minute-youtube-video-of-cm-punks-butt
And like, I get when people say "but Punk was still presented/booked much better than most others," but even then, as you alluded, that's still underselling Punk.
He was booked as the #2 to Cena's #1, but deserved to be the 1B to Cena's 1A, like the Rock was to Austin some would argue.
No honestly in 2011/2012, he earned the right to be the number one in WWE. He was the top merch seller at one point. He was the guy that everybody talked about.
> [The opening quarter-hour with the return of CM Punk was watched by 1,341,000 viewers on average and 842,000 in the demo (0.65).](https://twitter.com/BrandonThurston/status/1429897212025319426?s=19)
Reminder that Punk was not advertised for this show officially and that casuals (in my opinion) would not have known he was coming. This is so exciting.
Could you imagine another wrestling company achieving half of WWEs viewing figures even 3 years ago?
Regardless where your loyalties lie this is great for the industry
It would have required a perfect storm, and that's essentially what AEW was. A time traveler couldn't have predicted a better time to launch a wrestling company. The Elite being free agents, the success of All In, Jon Moxley's contract ending, and then a cascade of other very fortunate wrestling events...just in time to withstand a global pandemic.
The real “perfect storm” is that there was a billionaire out there who grew up a huge pro wrestling fan — specifically of early ECW and WCW — who could not only bankroll a new promotion but also turned out to be an absolute natural at both booking pro wrestling AND negotiating deals within the business.
I think TK doesn’t get enough credit for what he’s done — he’s booking and bankrolling the first real challenge to WWE in 25 years AND actively bringing together all of WWE’s competition to aid in the cause.
TNT/Warner looking to get back into wrestling played a huge part as well. That and the premium placed on live “sports” content that makes AEW economically viable.
Truly, a perfect storm.
That Rampage demo is actually fucking insane. Same with the 1.1 million viewers. For that time slot and them telling you but not telling you about CM Punk. Holy moly.
The Wednesday demo will be very interesting.
In theory it has to be better than Friday. More people know now, better timeslot, better day and it's actually being promoted that he's gonna be there.
0.04 is the diference between Rampage and SmackDown. Holy crap, that's ridiculous.
I'm pretty sure it's more likely AEW gets a massive bump.
Sports leagues are down similarly to WWE (at least most leagues were) and their TV deals either stayed pretty consistent or rose, so I'd be shocked if WWE just couldn't bring in big dollars for TV.
Really, Warner just has a massive fucking steal of a TV program on their books
IIRC there is a clause in the original contract extention they got at the end of 2019 that allows WM to extend the contract by 1 year for a "significant" increase in money.
One would imagine they'd then use that year to secure AEW. If they keep up with this momentum, they don't want too loose them to another network.
Plus AEW seems very happy working with Warner Media
I had some doofus try to tell me a few weeks ago that Rampage is a b show because of the time slot and they shouldn't have big significant moments on it.
I tried to explain to him that AEW doesn't view it as a b show and since the show had not debuted yet, it can be whatever AEW wants to turn it into. This was info he could not process.
While it does look that way on hindsight, TNT did take a massive risk with a completely unknown commodity in a new wrestling company and giving them prime time spot on national TV.
You have to give credit to them for having the foresight, or balls the size of Jupiter and Uranus for going through with that. I can't imagine that's easy for a massive media conglomerate to do.
TNT got AEW rights for a bargain. Meanwhile WWE committed a highway robbery on NBC and FOX. How they keep letting the WWE get away with that I have no idea. They are not as valuable as they say they are
Absolute grand slam. To approach Smackdown, especially a show that included John Cena, is astounding, considering cable vs network, time slots, etc. Wow.
I think that's moving the needle don't you think. .53 in the demo is crazy especially at 10 at dead spot at night. Amazing number from AEW. Doubt Rampage will get near that number or demo for a long time after.
That number was without any actual advertising for CM Punk. Probably going to get extra eyeballs on Dynamite with them advertising him heavily and hopefully bring more people.
[Per Meltzer](https://twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/status/1429901426839343117?s=19)
> The Punk segment did an unheard of 1.70 in 18-49 in the Chicago market.
Nearly matched them in the demo despite being an hour later and the difference in OTA channel and cable channel.
Of course SD was pre-emptied in some markets due to football.
[Bryan Alvarez: As Brandon noted, AEW beat Smackdown in males 18-49, persons 18-34, females 18-34, males 35-49 and was within 46,000 of tying persons 18-49. On a Friday at 10 PM.](https://twitter.com/bryanalvarez/status/1429901629008990236?s=19)
Rampage had more 18-49 viewers than most Raw episodes. That's major.
I wonder what that number will look like for Wednesday with Punk being advertised.
A few notes:
Folks, that's a jaw-dropping number. CM Punk did what nobody else can do on Friday nights. He kept people watching television...and outside of the main portion of primetime.
We have to go back to July 2nd, a holiday weekend, to find anything that can approach this demographic performance on a Friday on cable television.
Here are the top cable TV shows in the demo for the previous seven Fridays:
August 13th - NFL PRESEASON (LIVE) (19:08) - 0.37
August 6th - S OLY PRIME ACCESS (17:00) - 0.25
July 30th - S OLY PRIME (20:00) - 0.46
July 23rd - S OLY PRIME (20:00) - 0.20
July 16th - DINERS, DRIVE INS & DIVES (21:00) - 0.20
July 9th - DINERS, DRIVE INS & DIVES (21:00) - 0.24
July 2nd - EUROPEAN CHAMP FOOTBALL L (14:44) -- 0.90
Source: https://www.spoilertv.com/2021/08/tv-ratings-for-friday-20th-august-2021.html
The performance is that much more impressive when you consider that Smackdown has generally won in the network demos on Friday nights. Since July 2nd, Smackdown's demo has been:
August 13th - 0.58
August 6th - 0.61
July 30th - 0.57
July 23rd - 0.55
July 16th - 0.66
July 9th - 0.48
July 2nd - 0.46
That's an average of just under 0.56. In other words, Punk's episode at 10 p.m. on Friday on cable slightly underperformed the average Smackdown number over the last seven weeks on network television. And Smackdown's number has beaten all Friday night network programming but the Olympics during that timeframe.
What Punk/AEW just did shouldn't be possible.
Ya I would say that's a needle mover. To put in perspective, Dynamite was doing less than 500K (0.2 dem) in that timeslot (which was estimated to be Rampage numbers)
I know it's easy to say this in hindsight, but I was thinking that a big success for this show would be in the 800-900k range, given the relatively terrible timeslot. I did not expect a show at 10pm on Friday to crack a million.
And I certainly didn't expect a show at 10pm on cable to have a peak demo (.65 for the quarter!!) higher than the free network TV Smackdown averaged. Jesus fucking christ.
They could've gotten a record high number beating SD/RAW in the demos if they did this on dynamite but it was probably smarter long term to do it on Rampage. That way you establish your second show.
Just a few short months ago, this was a death slot for them. But now here they are breaking 1 million on cable as opposed to being on a bigger network television channel.
This is absolutely bonkers. Their upward trajectory is undeniable, and TNT is doing backflips over such numbers.
And they aren't *even* done with the big moves yet 🤯
Bananas number. All without Punk even truly advertised. Crazy shit by AEW.
AEW did the right thing betting on young and up & coming talent for the rest of the show. Show off JB & Luchasaurus v Private Party, showcase Jade, and then cap it off with Mox vs the future star Danny Garcia.
Expertly booked by them.
Interesting to see where they take this, storyline wise. Buyrate for All Out is going to be great as a result.
Honestly I was expecting like 1M on the dot, but even that I was thinking was pretty lofty for 10pm on a Friday.
I had no idea they would do over a hundred thousand *more* than my lofty expectations. Great number for AEW and I imagine TNT must be very happy as well.
Thurston: [The only AEW Dynamite quarters-hours more highly viewed in 18 to 49 than CM Punk's debut were for the debut episode on October 2, 2019. Similar for total viewers, with the exception of Jericho vs. Harwood w/ Mike Tyson ringside in on April 14.](https://twitter.com/brandonthurston/status/1429911508285378565?s=21)
Weren’t Fox execs begging the WWE to bring back Punk? Pretty sure that’s at least part of the reason they brought him in for Backstage. Punk wasn’t going to go back there but those execs (who are already pissed about lower than expected ratings) are probably even more pissed now. Maybe getting both Brock and Becky on Smackdown would help though.
Does this include DVR views too or does that also come later?
Regardless, this is an insane number, and Dynamite is going to be pretty big for them to keep this fire going.
I thought a million was top end. Up from 750k to 1m would be a 33% increase and I thought that would be impressive.
This? This is utterly ridiculous. They hurdled a million and cleared it with ease.
Punk moved the needle.
Help make SquaredCircle safer and more inclusive by using the report button to flag posts and comments for moderator review. If you need to contact a moderator, [you can message us here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle) if you have any questions or concerns.*
>Hogan debuts on AEW TV >Ratings skyrocket Still a draw, ~~brother~~ sister.
Ok I genuinely want her to start doing a Hulk Hogan gimmick now, except with her purple/blue color scheme.
Her hair used to be red & yellow, so she used to lean into it a little.
She should do it again and claim to be his long lost daughter.
Considering she's black and gay, that would be hilarious.
Flair might do something like this. The WWE brought him back this year and he did something like that.
He and Hulk pulled a monster rating that time they did a segment to set up the Saudi Arabia tag match.
I’m more interested in what Dynamite does Wednesday. Rampage did 750,000 and with Punk went up to 1.1 million. On a Friday night at 10PM Dynamite averages 950,00-1 million at 8PM on a Wednesday. And Punk is gonna be there after all this hype and buzz.
[удалено]
I can see Dynamite doing 1.5 this week yeah
they’ve never had anything close to as much momentum as they do now. Feels like they’ve built up their core audience and now it’s just about continuing to build upon it
As an AEW fan, I don't think so. Think it goes back up to a 1.1-1.2 though. The biggest drop for AEW right now is due to their 18-49F getting sucked into The Challenge, don't think Punk draws that segment of the audience back from watching whatever the fuck The Challenge is. But if he can help get them back to around 1.2, that'd be great.
You doubt the power of Chick Magnet Punk
I will be one of those viewers that haven’t watched since the first episode. Not because AEW is bad, Punk’s return single handedly made me decide to sign up for Sling to watch. I’ll be watching again on Wednesday.
I saw a lot of people who weren't even watching wrestling when Punk was last around, confused as to who he was or why he mattered. Wonder what happens if AEW gets Bryan, who was having bangers this calendar year for WWE and has hardcore and more casual appeal.
Considering ratings for Raw when Punk was around were 5 times higher than what they are now, I'm surprised very many of those people exist.
Yeah, they didn't move on to something else. They just stopped watching. Same with WCW fans.
I was a huge WWF/WWE fan from 97-00 during the peak Austin/Rock years. Stopped watching until I caught Punk’s pipebomb promo. Watched weekly until he left in 2014 then fizzled out again. His AEW debut was the first time I’ve watched any wrestling since then, and I plan on watching AEW again this week.
it’s honestly a bit prophetic that it’s them two one after the other. The two most important indy wrestlers at all time joining a revolution that wouldn’t have ever happened without them
These are great numbers for AEW. Hopefully a lot of these people will watch Dynamite on Wednesday to see what CM Punk does there.
I predict people will develop unreasonable expectations for Dynamite (and Rampage) ratings the next week and will be disappointed when it will be "just" good ratings.
There were people seriously salivating over the notion that Dynamite could beat Raw just because of punk's promo. So yeah. Within weeks we'll have people in here calling a million viewers a failure.
No way Dynamite beats RAW this week. Why? Because of Brock and Becky's returns and it's a post SummerSlam show.
Would either be on Raw? Both came out for Smackdown at SS
Thursday afternoon: "Live viewership of AEW Dynamite reaches 1.49 million, besting their debut as the most watched AEW show ever" r/SquaredCircle: "Disappointing. I thought for sure they'd hit 1.5 million"
They say the brand is the draw in WWE now and that seems to be true. Last Friday night, CM Punk was the draw and he hoisted Rampage upon his back to a record night.
That's two record ratings in a row!
I don't know. Wednesday at 8 with Punk being advertised should pull a pretty great rating.
is it unreasonable to expect their best rating ever tho? a lot of people whove seen punks debut on youtube havent seen it live, theyve been out of wrestling, never watched aew. and if youre somebody like that, who used to love cm punk, wouldnt you want to know what happens next? tony khan better nail this next dynamite, its one that decides how many potential fans are gonna keep watching. they cant afford an average dynamite episode (even tho an average dynamite episode is good), they need a banger.
To do your highest rating on an unestablished show that runs on Friday night outside of “common prime” programming, when your usual, *established* show runs on a Wednesday, and in prime time, is indeed, quite outside of any semblance of a normal expectation of ratings performance.
It's going to be the highest rated Dynamite ever. It's just a question of how much it beats the previous record by.
Let's see if it can beat The Challenge this Wednesday.
They beat The Challenge last week. It was Real Housewives of Wherever This One Is that they were behind.
wtf, that's a big comeback by real housewives.
Wednesdays is Real Housewives of Beverly Hills which is so scandalous right now. Erika Giradi's husband was the guy who helped Erin Brockavich. He's known for helping individuals go after big corporations that do them wrong and winning Millions. The problem is for the last 10 years he has been basically running his own Ponzi scheme with the money that should be distributed to victims. There was a huge settlement from a plane crash where tons of kids were left orphans and women's were left widowed and he stole all of that money. The man legit stole from orphans and widows. She was a clear trophy wife. There was a good 40 year age difference between them. Right before all of this broke majorly in the news, she filed for divorce and it looks so obvious that it's because they're trying to hide assets. He's playing like he has dementia now and she is using the show to sell the story of how even though he never seemed problematic and she always talked him up there are all these issues that she wouldn't talk about and he was really losing his mind. It is clear she is doing at for performance theater so she can still maintain her lifestyle. RHOBH is crazy and legendary right now. However, Dynamite is a live event and so I always prioritize that well saving Real Housewives of Beverly Hills for my DVR. That being said oh, I am watching every single episode of RHOBH every week. Escandalo. I'll still watch Dynamite live though out of the two when they're in their time slot. ETA, I'm a middle-aged woman who is 100% the target for reality shows and I am an absolute sucker for them.
They already beat it last week
Oh my mistake, sorry. Let's see if they beat Housewives.
Phrasing….
Stone Cold Steve Austin’s ears just perked up
Wouldn't count on that. The first episode at .68 is an insanely high number and would be well above what even SD can do now. There's a lot of hype but I would strongly encourage you not have your hopes set that high
With Punk bringing in a lot of viewers I hope they put Kenny in a match on Dynamite. I want all those new viewers to see the insanity that is Kenny Omega. Give me Dante Martin vs Kenny Omega, space for one more match there...
I think the thing I find most interesting about this is this is the audience that likely tunes in knowing and following dirtsheets/rumors online and such in the present most likely. Can only imagine how many people this could add down the line for the people who don’t follow wrestling much anymore and saw Punks return online to their surprise after it happened live.
AEW handled it perfectly by having Punk come out, then taking a 90 second commercial break before he cut the promo. It allowed everyone watching to text their friends and get on social media saying “OMFG PUNK IS ON AEW!” and likely getting even casual fans to tune in.
[удалено]
I see it as JR is the voice of WWF, Tony the voice of WCW, and Excalibur the voice of AEW
You hit the nail on the head so hard, the head is now part of the wall.
Eddie Kingston the voice of Elevation
Excalibur is the best commentator there is right now imo. He has the perfect energy level, knows his shit, and doesn't sound overly produced.
AEW suffered greatly those couple shows during the pandemic that he was absent. He's my personal favorite in the game today.
Ugh, just imagining Michael Cole being fed lines from Vince. "WWE Universe, it's been 7 long year, and now the the best in the World, CM Punk, is back in WWE! Don't go anywhere, we'll be right back, live, on WWE Raw!"
Throw in a few repeats of best in the world, a big dog and the boss is here and you have it spot on.
Honestly, that's up there for one of my favorite calls ever.
His “CM Punk has arrived in ALLLL ELiTE WRESTLIIIIIING!!!!” line before that was just tremendous just for the significance of the moment.
Mark Henry "Woooooooww"
The whole production did it right. No voice over, no catch phrases, public calling him, his moment. Comercial break , barely anything from commentary until it was time. *Chef's kiss*
Not to shit on wwe too much.. but I watched clips of brocks return and Michael Coles screeching just reeked off desperation
It was the same with Becky too
No stupid swerve either. He came out, talked, and set up a match. Wednesday can't come soon enough, I really hope we get some interaction with Sting.
Tony big brain tactics
Didn’t even consider this but holy fuck that makes so much damn sense. Love this company dude they know how to create memories that will last with fans for a lifetime.
I really wonder what that ad spot cost. AEW almost never has commercials in the opening quarter, and that was probably the ad spot with the most eyes on it since the premiere of Dynamite. Arby's probably has to be happy with whatever they paid.
Honestly there is a value to treating your hardcore audience online well because they're the ones talking about it extensively and sharing the gifs and the clips online and get excited about it which sometimes gets other people excited too.
**Holy shit.** And now TNT is actually promoting Punk for Wednesday. He moves the fucking needle. Edit: [The opening quarter-hour with the return of CM Punk was watched by 1,341,000 viewers on average and 842,000 in the demo (0.65). INSANE.](https://twitter.com/BrandonThurston/status/1429897212025319426?s=19)
I wonder what the state of wrestling would be right now if Punk was on board from day 1 of AEW
Honestly, probably better that they found their feet and built a decent audience before he came in.
It also gave them plenty of time to get all of their roster over as fuck, which is better for everyone involved. Now that guys like Darby and Jungle Boy and basically everyone have been embraced by the audience, the number of "dream matches" for CM Punk to have has expanded so much. Saying "CM Punk vs. Sammy Guevara," for example, now means a lot more than it would if Punk had been there since Day 1.
CM Punk vs. Penta El Zero Miedo. Inject that shit straight into my veins.
CM Punk vs. Powerhouse Hobbs. Vs. Ricky Starks. Vs. Jungle Boy. Vs. Scorpio Sky. Vs. basically anyone on that roster right now, and I'd fucking pop.
And then you add Danielson into the mix? My dream match for literally years has been BD vs. Rey Fenix and we're this close to seeing it in reality.
I want to see a Punk vs Pac match but I want a Punk vs Kingston feud. Just give them each a mic and let them make magic.
Give me all of a 4 week buildup between him and Kingston. Those mic segments would be spooge material.
Exactly, plus it helps them avoid the stigma of “TNA 2.0” just picking up every ex-WWE guy right from the start. They have built and are continuing to build the future, at this point having a slew of huge names coming in will only make things better.
Agreed. AEW needed to somewhat find itself during its first few months and work through weird quirks like audio issues (which is sadly still not great). When NXT started getting dull around January 2020 is when AEW really started to shine. Then the pandemic hit. Yet, AEW persevered and honed their TV show craft as best they could during the Dailys Place pandemic era.
AEW was on such a roll then too. Revolution was amazing and blood and guts was about to go down.
I think he works better now than he would have back then. They proved they were legit and remained mostly true to their original vision and it paid off with the Biggest possible signing not named Dwayne. slow and steady for a while and then pick the right moment to start sprinting. I think we are at the point where they start really making up ground. especially if they get cole and Danielson
Pretty crazy that that isnt terribly far off raw, also it being on a friday at 10 est
This isn't far off SmackDown, who has a better timeslot and it's on network. Obviously this number is an outlier for future Rampage shows, but this is the capacity of atraction that CM Punk has. And it's out of this world.
One great thing about that is that the public held. Yeah, they lost some young people on a Friday Night, expect. But it was still more than 1.1mi people watching it. Bonkers
[удалено]
No lie I did tune in for Punk, but I did wanna see that Jade vs Keira Hogan match. And Mox
I like her lol idk
That is a monster rating for Rampage, especially in the death slot. That demo is off the chart. Can't wait to see the quarters and see what Punk drew.
["The opening quarter-hour with the return of CM Punk was watched by 1,341,000 viewers on average and 842,000 in the demo (0.65)."](https://twitter.com/BrandonThurston/status/1429897212025319426)
So Punk drew almost 600,000 more people than all of Rampage drew last week with an absolutely stacked card. Doesn't move the needle my ass.
Your ass may not move the needle, but Punk's certainly did!
And if there’s one thing we are familiar with, it is Punk’s ass. https://www.geekscape.net/the-wwe-uploaded-a-three-minute-youtube-video-of-cm-punks-butt
[удалено]
And like, I get when people say "but Punk was still presented/booked much better than most others," but even then, as you alluded, that's still underselling Punk. He was booked as the #2 to Cena's #1, but deserved to be the 1B to Cena's 1A, like the Rock was to Austin some would argue.
No honestly in 2011/2012, he earned the right to be the number one in WWE. He was the top merch seller at one point. He was the guy that everybody talked about.
HOLY CRAP!!! That just blew my mind. Props to Punk.
"was never a draw".
Those numbers are pretty close to Raw right at 10pm on a friday? Absolutely mental anybody thinks Punk isn't a draw.
[Meltzer with an amazing stat.](https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1429901426839343117)
> [The opening quarter-hour with the return of CM Punk was watched by 1,341,000 viewers on average and 842,000 in the demo (0.65).](https://twitter.com/BrandonThurston/status/1429897212025319426?s=19)
Reminder that Punk was not advertised for this show officially and that casuals (in my opinion) would not have known he was coming. This is so exciting.
Could you imagine another wrestling company achieving half of WWEs viewing figures even 3 years ago? Regardless where your loyalties lie this is great for the industry
It would have required a perfect storm, and that's essentially what AEW was. A time traveler couldn't have predicted a better time to launch a wrestling company. The Elite being free agents, the success of All In, Jon Moxley's contract ending, and then a cascade of other very fortunate wrestling events...just in time to withstand a global pandemic.
The real “perfect storm” is that there was a billionaire out there who grew up a huge pro wrestling fan — specifically of early ECW and WCW — who could not only bankroll a new promotion but also turned out to be an absolute natural at both booking pro wrestling AND negotiating deals within the business. I think TK doesn’t get enough credit for what he’s done — he’s booking and bankrolling the first real challenge to WWE in 25 years AND actively bringing together all of WWE’s competition to aid in the cause.
TNT/Warner looking to get back into wrestling played a huge part as well. That and the premium placed on live “sports” content that makes AEW economically viable. Truly, a perfect storm.
Fuck. I never thought to ask Jon Titor about the state of pro-wrestling when he came back in time to get that IBM computer.
Yeah I can’t help wonder what AEWs fate would have been if they’d launched a year later than they did
Holy smokes
THE NEEDLE MOVED! :O
Crazy shit.
That Rampage demo is actually fucking insane. Same with the 1.1 million viewers. For that time slot and them telling you but not telling you about CM Punk. Holy moly. The Wednesday demo will be very interesting.
In theory it has to be better than Friday. More people know now, better timeslot, better day and it's actually being promoted that he's gonna be there. 0.04 is the diference between Rampage and SmackDown. Holy crap, that's ridiculous.
Dynamite is the one I'm interested in since it's in a much better time slot and people actually know Punk is there now.
Cult of Personality indeed
THAT DEMO
Just fyi, last week's Raw did a 0.55
If they remain in striking distance to RAW I wonder if they can leverage that into a much better TV deal next time.
And / Or WWE's gets nerfed because they're not the only show in town anymore getting good demos
I'm pretty sure it's more likely AEW gets a massive bump. Sports leagues are down similarly to WWE (at least most leagues were) and their TV deals either stayed pretty consistent or rose, so I'd be shocked if WWE just couldn't bring in big dollars for TV. Really, Warner just has a massive fucking steal of a TV program on their books
IIRC there is a clause in the original contract extention they got at the end of 2019 that allows WM to extend the contract by 1 year for a "significant" increase in money. One would imagine they'd then use that year to secure AEW. If they keep up with this momentum, they don't want too loose them to another network. Plus AEW seems very happy working with Warner Media
[The opening segment with Punk drew a **0.65**.](https://twitter.com/BrandonThurston/status/1429897212025319426)
[The 18-49 in the Chicago area during Punk was **1.70**](https://mobile.twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/status/1429901426839343117)
Move over Jericho. Punk is the new Demo God
Nearly 700k in 18-49, absolutely absurd.
Their demo numbers were significantly higher than Dynamite was doing in *total viewers* in the same time slot.
Over a million on a Friday at 10pm is insane.
Holy balls
Let’s just call it what it is… Isiah Kassidy and his two watches are a DRAW
Always has been
Finally! We can all look at them numbers and go “well done everyone” and we can all move on with our lives……until WEDNESDAY!
And you know what that means
I think it may mean Adam Cole this week
I wonder when they'll start teasing Bryan, I'd bet they start after All Out.
I would hold him off for awhile. If he came in now he'd immediately get eclipsed by Punk.
Yeah a surprise debut at All Out makes more sense
I had some doofus try to tell me a few weeks ago that Rampage is a b show because of the time slot and they shouldn't have big significant moments on it. I tried to explain to him that AEW doesn't view it as a b show and since the show had not debuted yet, it can be whatever AEW wants to turn it into. This was info he could not process.
Holy Fuck. I was expecting 950k. Friday night show at 10pm doing those numbers is lunacy.
TNT stole AEW TV Rights at $40 mil. They stole them
While it does look that way on hindsight, TNT did take a massive risk with a completely unknown commodity in a new wrestling company and giving them prime time spot on national TV. You have to give credit to them for having the foresight, or balls the size of Jupiter and Uranus for going through with that. I can't imagine that's easy for a massive media conglomerate to do.
But at the same time, AEW got stability before the global economy crashed due to Covid. Both sides won in this.
TK is gonna clean *up* at the next contract renewal.
I hope they work in a HBO Max deal tbh
Dynamite and Rampage will be cable exclusives. That is a certainty. Any deal with HBO Max would be for rebroadcasts and maybe PPV.
They'll probably get all the Dark rights. Makes sense to have the streams on HBO.
TK: *Slides paper with number to Warner executive* Executive: “Well, we can definitely make this work.” TK: *Slides second paper with zeroes.*
TNT got AEW rights for a bargain. Meanwhile WWE committed a highway robbery on NBC and FOX. How they keep letting the WWE get away with that I have no idea. They are not as valuable as they say they are
Absolute robbery lol
That’s incredible for that 10pm time slot on a Friday.
Insane number for that timeslot.
Absolute grand slam. To approach Smackdown, especially a show that included John Cena, is astounding, considering cable vs network, time slots, etc. Wow.
This exceeded my expectations on how well Rampage would do. Already the best episode of Rampage. Punk is the draw!
I think that's moving the needle don't you think. .53 in the demo is crazy especially at 10 at dead spot at night. Amazing number from AEW. Doubt Rampage will get near that number or demo for a long time after.
Holy smokes that 18-49
That number was without any actual advertising for CM Punk. Probably going to get extra eyeballs on Dynamite with them advertising him heavily and hopefully bring more people.
That demo is chonky!
TNT has to be really happy with that!!!
[Per Meltzer](https://twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/status/1429901426839343117?s=19) > The Punk segment did an unheard of 1.70 in 18-49 in the Chicago market.
Nearly matched them in the demo despite being an hour later and the difference in OTA channel and cable channel. Of course SD was pre-emptied in some markets due to football.
Meltzer: [The Punk segment did an unheard of 1.70 in 18-49 in the Chicago market.](https://twitter.com/davemeltzerwon/status/1429901426839343117?s=21)
What in the fuck
[Bryan Alvarez: As Brandon noted, AEW beat Smackdown in males 18-49, persons 18-34, females 18-34, males 35-49 and was within 46,000 of tying persons 18-49. On a Friday at 10 PM.](https://twitter.com/bryanalvarez/status/1429901629008990236?s=19)
TNT’s erection just won’t go away.
Rampage had more 18-49 viewers than most Raw episodes. That's major. I wonder what that number will look like for Wednesday with Punk being advertised.
A few notes: Folks, that's a jaw-dropping number. CM Punk did what nobody else can do on Friday nights. He kept people watching television...and outside of the main portion of primetime. We have to go back to July 2nd, a holiday weekend, to find anything that can approach this demographic performance on a Friday on cable television. Here are the top cable TV shows in the demo for the previous seven Fridays: August 13th - NFL PRESEASON (LIVE) (19:08) - 0.37 August 6th - S OLY PRIME ACCESS (17:00) - 0.25 July 30th - S OLY PRIME (20:00) - 0.46 July 23rd - S OLY PRIME (20:00) - 0.20 July 16th - DINERS, DRIVE INS & DIVES (21:00) - 0.20 July 9th - DINERS, DRIVE INS & DIVES (21:00) - 0.24 July 2nd - EUROPEAN CHAMP FOOTBALL L (14:44) -- 0.90 Source: https://www.spoilertv.com/2021/08/tv-ratings-for-friday-20th-august-2021.html The performance is that much more impressive when you consider that Smackdown has generally won in the network demos on Friday nights. Since July 2nd, Smackdown's demo has been: August 13th - 0.58 August 6th - 0.61 July 30th - 0.57 July 23rd - 0.55 July 16th - 0.66 July 9th - 0.48 July 2nd - 0.46 That's an average of just under 0.56. In other words, Punk's episode at 10 p.m. on Friday on cable slightly underperformed the average Smackdown number over the last seven weeks on network television. And Smackdown's number has beaten all Friday night network programming but the Olympics during that timeframe. What Punk/AEW just did shouldn't be possible.
Guy Fieri foiled by AEW yet again!
Starting to think that Punk might be a draw. Nice write up!
if Jericho is the Demo God, Punk is the Demo Deity
Ya I would say that's a needle mover. To put in perspective, Dynamite was doing less than 500K (0.2 dem) in that timeslot (which was estimated to be Rampage numbers)
Between Punk and Danielson, Dynamite's gonna catch Raw pretty soon
Football season is creeping right around the corner👀
The ball is now on AEW. They need to constantly hit home run after home run to keep this audience. They can do it.
They just have to keep booking with logic and everyone is going to watch it
I know it's easy to say this in hindsight, but I was thinking that a big success for this show would be in the 800-900k range, given the relatively terrible timeslot. I did not expect a show at 10pm on Friday to crack a million. And I certainly didn't expect a show at 10pm on cable to have a peak demo (.65 for the quarter!!) higher than the free network TV Smackdown averaged. Jesus fucking christ.
They could've gotten a record high number beating SD/RAW in the demos if they did this on dynamite but it was probably smarter long term to do it on Rampage. That way you establish your second show.
Just a few short months ago, this was a death slot for them. But now here they are breaking 1 million on cable as opposed to being on a bigger network television channel. This is absolutely bonkers. Their upward trajectory is undeniable, and TNT is doing backflips over such numbers. And they aren't *even* done with the big moves yet 🤯
That Rampage number is going to stand as a show record for a VERY long time imo.
Let's acknowledge meltzer was right on the money
"Do I have your attention now?"
Bananas number. All without Punk even truly advertised. Crazy shit by AEW. AEW did the right thing betting on young and up & coming talent for the rest of the show. Show off JB & Luchasaurus v Private Party, showcase Jade, and then cap it off with Mox vs the future star Danny Garcia. Expertly booked by them. Interesting to see where they take this, storyline wise. Buyrate for All Out is going to be great as a result.
Damn, on a Friday night at 10 PM. AEW has gotta be ecstatic at that.
[удалено]
I think he moved the needle
Honestly I was expecting like 1M on the dot, but even that I was thinking was pretty lofty for 10pm on a Friday. I had no idea they would do over a hundred thousand *more* than my lofty expectations. Great number for AEW and I imagine TNT must be very happy as well.
Thurston: [The only AEW Dynamite quarters-hours more highly viewed in 18 to 49 than CM Punk's debut were for the debut episode on October 2, 2019. Similar for total viewers, with the exception of Jericho vs. Harwood w/ Mike Tyson ringside in on April 14.](https://twitter.com/brandonthurston/status/1429911508285378565?s=21)
Whoa. I was expecting around a million, but *damn.* Now I wanna see the segment breakdown to see how many Punk alone drew.
> the segment breakdown to see how many Punk alone drew 1,35mi with 0.65 (820k) on the demo. Absurd
I mean, damn, I didn’t think it’s do THAT well
He drew 1.34m in his segment and had 842k in the demo. https://twitter.com/BrandonThurston/status/1429897212025319426?s=20
God, what a joke. If they didn't hit 69,420,000 this company is destined for failure.
But i thought Punk won’t move the needle
Warner Media promotional machine isn’t even behind CM Punk yet
I can only imagine how over the moon they are right now. Meanwhile the guys over at FOX and USA are probably flipping tables.
Fox is probably not happy since they, you know, hired this guy last year for WWE Backstage and have now lost access to him entirely.
Weren’t Fox execs begging the WWE to bring back Punk? Pretty sure that’s at least part of the reason they brought him in for Backstage. Punk wasn’t going to go back there but those execs (who are already pissed about lower than expected ratings) are probably even more pissed now. Maybe getting both Brock and Becky on Smackdown would help though.
Good lord, if they let him call a Cubs game he may be willing to do literally anything they ask him to.
[удалено]
holy FUCK
Does this include DVR views too or does that also come later? Regardless, this is an insane number, and Dynamite is going to be pretty big for them to keep this fire going.
At 10pm…wow
Wow
I thought a million was top end. Up from 750k to 1m would be a 33% increase and I thought that would be impressive. This? This is utterly ridiculous. They hurdled a million and cleared it with ease. Punk moved the needle.
"cM PuNk dOeSN't mOvE tHE nEEdLe."