Friday night wrestling numbers drop from previous week’s lofty heights

The ratings are in for Sept. 30.

Both Friday night wrestling shows saw their numbers drop, which wasn’t particularly surprising considering the week before saw WWE draw a massive one while AEW did well with a special double-length episode.

Whatever you attributed last week’s best-since-2020 SmackDown performance to, it didn’t carry over to the latest episode. The audience of 2.21 million was 13% less than Sept. 23’s. The .54 rating among 18-49 year olds 14% off the prior Friday’s pace. Still, it was the highest rated show on broadcast television, and above the demo number from two weeks ago. So blame it on the White Rabbit novelty wearing off, or the lack of Roman Reigns... they’re still good numbers.

Rampage was back to an hour, and back down to 472,000 viewers — a 9.5% week-to-week decline. The 18-49 rating of .16 was also down a little less than 6%. Like SmackDown’s, that rating is above the last regular edition of Rampage on Sept. 16. AEW finished ninth among cable originals, where ESPN’s coverage of college football led the way. In fact, the late game between UCLA & Washington drew a .56, making it the highest rated show on all of television on Sept. 30.

Reigns returns along with Logan Paul and a big Intercontinental title match for this week’s season premiere and Extreme Rules go home edition of SmackDown. AEW will be live, and once again have two hours of programming thanks to Battle off the Belts IV. Could be a good night for both.

Let us know what you think, ratings watching Cagesiders.

Numbers via Showbuzz Daily