How Tony Khan Felt About AEW Grand Slam Viewership Numbers

There was good news for AEW’s Tony Khan regarding the viewership numbers for the Grand Slam Australia TV special.

The first-ever AEW show from Australia was considered a big success. While it is known that they had to back out of running a stadium and use an arena, it was still touted by AEW’s Owner Tony Khan to be one of the best international events the company has ever run in its six-year history.

Grand Slam Australia started at 10:50 p.m. ET on TNT on Saturday, February 15th because it followed the NBA All-Star Saturday night show featuring the Slam Dunk Contest, Three Point Competition, and other events. That meant Collision started nearly three hours after its usual Saturday night start time.

Thanks to the NBA lead-in, AEW Collision averaged 502,000 viewers on TNT, up 29.7% from the previous week, according to the Wrestling Observer. That was the best audience for Collision since December 21 last year when it followed a college football playoff game.

There was also good news in the coveted 18-49 demo where they drew a 0.21 rating, which is up 110% from last week. It is the third-highest demo rating number in Collision’s history.

Collision also aired on the MAX streaming service, but those viewership numbers are not available.

Tony Khan Is Very Happy About AEW Grand Slam’s Television Audience

It has been reported by Fightful Select that Tony Khan and others in the company are very happy about the audience for Grand Slam Australia and the positive buzz surrounding the show. Khan is known for talking about AEW with a positive attitude and has made a point to say he thinks that AEW is one of the best runs of Dynamite and Collision shows in company history.

The opening match at Grand Slam Australia saw Kenny Omega & Will Ospreay team up to beat Kyle Fletcher & Konosuke Takeshita in a match that went over 20 minutes. The match kicked off the show with over 1 million viewers thanks in part to the NBA lead in.

Fightful added that people at Warner Brothers Discovery, which is the company that owns TNT and TBS where AEW programming airs, said that there will likely be more situations in the future where AEW programming can follow live sports such as the NBA All-Star Saturday and College Football Playoff games because it gives AEW a stronger lead-in for their shows. It is believed that Tony Khan was a big proponent of the NBA All-Star weekend lead-in for Grand Slam.

While Grand Slam Australia went for AEW, there was some criticism for them as well since they didn’t bring enough merchandise to the show, which left some fans disappointed.