The final numbers will not be out until Monday but there is preliminary viewership data available for Friday and based on those numbers, it looks like CM Punk’s return to pro wrestling on AEW Rampage was a massive success.
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that in the Chicago market, the show did a 1.6 rating in the key 18-49 demo during the first half hour of the show.
In the top 10 markets, Rampage was up 57 percent in homes from the first week and 50 percent in the key 18-49 demo. If that number correlates nationally, then it means that the show would have drawn somewhere around 1.16 million viewers/0.46 in the 18-49 demo. That would be considered to be a massive success, especially in the 10 pm Friday night timeslot. The Chicago number would skew the average a little higher so the overall number could end up slightly lower than 1.16 million. For reference, the debut episode of Rampage drew 740,000 average total viewers with a .30 rating in the core 18-49 demographic.
We’ll know the final average from all markets by Monday but it certainly looks like AEW and TNT have reasons to celebrate. What is most impressive is that they drew so much interest based solely on rumors and by not outright promoting that Punk would be there.
Punk’s AEW debut also did big numbers on social media. As of this writing, a clip of his entrance on the @AEWonTNT Twitter account has more than 5.7 million views. Punk’s entrance on AEW’s YouTube channel has more than 4.3 million views and his speech posted on AEW’s YouTube channel has more than 2.4 million views. Their numbers on Facebook are through the roof as well.
In theory, the rating for Dynamite should be up by a lot on Wednesday.
