“Beat UFC”: Tony Khan Defends AEW’s Rating Slump Allegations With Bold Statement

For a long time, wrestling fans have constantly called out Tony Khan for his inability to handle AEW well. Several instances have come to light where his company failed to extract the viewership, audience attendance, and viewer ratings that everyone had expected it to. But now, things seem to be turning around for the wrestling promotion.

Recent cable updates suggest that AEW’s stats are improving. The hard work must be paying off, as Tony Khan recently claimed that his company did better than the last UFC Fight Night.

Did Tony Khan beat UFC?

Fans of the sport already know Endeavor’s UFC hosts Fight Night on ESPN. The leading MMA promotion does well in terms of viewership, audience, and ratings. However, the Fight Night that took place on the 15th of June last week did not draw enough of the discussed stats.

The main event Perez vs Taira failed to draw the audience’s attention and combat fans seemed to have switched their channels to TNT. Before the AEW Collision episode on 22nd June, Tony Khan invited fans on X to join them for their 1st anniversary episode. An online wrestling fan called out the businessman for having low AEW ratings.

After the show, Tony Khan replied back to him by saying, “Yes Derek, speaking of 1 year and shocking, I was also thrilled when the 1 year anniversary Saturday Night #AEWCollision beat UFC head-to-head, 7 days ago.”

This time around, the 41-year-old ended up having the last laugh over the fan on ‘X’. He ended the tweet by saying that this was a good way to celebrate Collision’s 1st anniversary. Fans can also check the cable stats as Fight Night secured 0.387 million viewers, while AEW had 0.431 million.

Reports have also outlined how Tony Khan is doing better than last year.

Check out Khan’s improvement over last year

As talked about earlier, there have been moments when fans call out Tony Khan online. There was a discussion on X that Dave Meltzer had joined. He defended the businessman with some facts that he had discovered. He cited a media call that took place sometime before his tweet. Meltzer reported a significant increase in the PPV revenue of Tony Khan’s company.

While he also stated the reasons behind the same, the role of every person involved in the company cannot be overlooked and must be appreciated. Now, the same team has secured more stats than UFC Fight Night. While there must be different factors influencing both of these instances, it is a moment that Tony Khan and the rest of his employees will cherish and celebrate.

What are your thoughts on the stats? How do you think AEW suddenly did so well?