News

AEW Dynamite Defeats WWE Raw In Key Ratings Demo For First Time

By TJR Staff • Published 10th September 2021

All Elite Wrestling had a huge week following the successful All Out PPV on Sunday as well as this week’s Dynamite scoring the second-highest rating in the history of the show.

This week’s episode of Dynamite (September 8) averaged 1,319,000 viewers in the US according to Nielsen rating numbers shared by Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics. It’s the second-highest total audience number for Dynamite behind the debut episode of Dynamite on October 2, 2019 with 1,409,000 viewers.

The total viewership number was up 272,000 from last week likely due to the Dynamite debuts of AEW newcomers like Bryan Danielson, Adam Cole and Ruby Soho. Those three wrestlers all debuted at AEW All Out this past Sunday, so there was excitement in the air about what was going to happen next. Let’s not forget that CM Punk’s AEW arrival last month provided a lot of momentum for the company as well.

One of the things that matters a lot to TV rating is how it does in the key demo for viewers aged 18-49. It’s considered by some to be more important than the total audience. AEW Dynamite averaged 681,000 viewers in that category, which was higher than Monday’s WWE Raw with 678,000 viewers. Dynamite also beat Raw in the male 19-49 demo and the 35-49 demo.

In addition to that, Dynamite was once again the #1 show on cable on Wednesday. AEW President/GM Tony Khan celebrated the news with this message on Twitter.

AEW legend Chris Jericho also celebrated the news on Twitter.

The September 8 edition Dynamite was headlined by a dream match of sorts with Jon Moxley beating Minoru Suzuki in a hard-hitting main event. Moxley was as popular as ever in his hometown of Cincinnati while Suzuki suffered a cut around his right eye that led to him getting seven stitches.

The debuting Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson (formerly WWE’s Daniel Bryan) were part of the same segment. It featured The Elite group doing an in-ring promo while welcoming Cole to the company. Cole called himself a “once in a generation wrestler” and that AEW is the best pro wrestling company in the world because they have The Elite.

Danielson appeared when AEW World Champion Kenny Omega was doing a promo saying he was tired of interruptions. When Danielson asked the crowd if they wanted to see him fight Omega, the crowd erupted in familiar “YES” chants for Danielson.

That Omega/Danielson confrontation led to a takedown by Danielson until The Elite broke it up. Danielson was saved by babyface wrestlers Christian Cage, Frankie Kazarian and The Jurassic Express.

Cole will make his AEW in-ring debut against Kazarian next week.

AEW Rampage airs tonight at 10pm ET on TNT in the US and elsewhere.