AEW Rampage Viewership Plummets After CM Punk Debut Last Week

When there’s a rise, a fall is inevitable. And this is exactly what happened with AEW. The ratings have fallen, and there’s not much the company can do about it now.

Following CM Punk’s AEW debut, the ratings for the company have fallen for AEW Rampage. According to sources, the show raked in a viewership of 722,000. This is much lower than the 1.129 million that Rampage had when Punk debuted.

Nobody can guarantee that the only reason Rampage had over a million viewers was because of Punk, but there’s no denying it either. Knowing that CM Punk won’t be working a match on Rampage, it’s possible most viewers did not tune in to see the show.

On the other hand, everyone knows Punk will be at AEW All Out on September 5th, 2021, to battle Darby Allin. Hence, the ratings and viewership for that show could be much higher than 722,000.

Now, AEW needs to work its way around the dip in viewership and come up with a strategy to stay ahead. This is imperative since WWE SmackDown and Rampage happen on the same night, one after the other. More often than not, after watching SmackDown for an hour or more, the audience tunes off from pro-wrestling. Therefore, AEW Rampage has to come up with interesting match cards and not rely solely upon a debut to boost their ratings.

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AEW can pull up ratings with Daniel Bryan debuting

Considering how the wrestling fans react to former WWE superstars becoming a part of the AEW roster, the company should capitalize on that buzz and ensure Bryan’s debut is almost as big as CM Punk’s.

It may not bring in as huge ratings as Punk’s debut, but considering both CM Punk and Daniel Bryan will be there at the event, it could bring in more viewers than what they anticipated. Given the recent episode of Rampage that featured an electric tag team battle between the Lucha Bros and Jurassic Express, AEW has a clear idea now of what draws eyes to the product.

Keeping that aside, if CM Punk works regular dates, it’s possible the ratings will rise for a couple of weeks, but a fall is inevitable. AEW might have to rely on him to work a regular schedule, i.e., matches on Dynamite and Rampage on a weekly basis. Hopefully, the company will be able to cook up something interesting which will help in raising the ratings.

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