Rampage’s ratings come crashing back down from a galaxy far, far away

The ratings are in for Aug. 19.

Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer attributed Rampage’s ratings spike last Friday to its lead-in, The Last Jedi (aka, the movie that catapulted Star Wars to the top of the toxic fandom power rankings). Much to the chagrin of AEW diehards and Dave detractors everywhere, it seems he was probably on to something.

AEW’s Friday night numbers fell sharply this time around. Viewership was 461,000, a 13% week-to-week drop. The ratings decline was steeper; the .12 among 18-49 year olds a 29% plunge from Aug. 12’s number. Rampage finished 14th among cable originals, and did face live sports competition, with two NFL pre-season games and four Little League World Series ones finishing in front of it on the chart.

Meanwhile, a week after its numbers were likely hurt by pre-season football, it was back to business as usual for SmackDown. The show was once again pre-empted by games in some big markets, but those only made up about 5% of the country this week (it was more like 12% on Aug. 12).

The audience figure climbed back up above two million... to 2.08 million, to be exact. That was a nearly 8% increase over the Friday before. 18-49 ratings rose to .47, a slightly less than 8% week-to-week improvement. The most important thing is WWE’s blue brand once again gave FOX the highest rated show on television in the demo for the night.

Thoughts, ratings watching Cagesiders?

Numbers via Showbuzz Daily