Tony Khan addresses the downward trend in ratings for AEW Rampage.
AEW Rampage has existed for one year now and despite its strong start, including the debut of CM Punk on the very second episode, the show has become a solid B-show for AEW, behind the flagship program of AEW Wednesday night Dynamite. Speaking specifically about the downward trend of Rampage ratings during the media call ahead of AEW All Out 2022, Tony blamed the ratings slump on a lot of top stars being out due to injury
"In anticipation of a lot of the top stars returning, this is the effect of a lot of the top stars out. We kept the company really strong through the summer because the flagship show of AEW Dynamite has continued to have strong ratings," said Tony.
Dynamite ratings have consistently hovered around 1 million viewers while the Rampage viewership is consistently half of that or less.
"It has been, honestly, now I can admit it, due to all the people coming back and it’s just not going to be the case this Friday and going forward because the stars are back. A lot of the biggest stars in AEW have been out and the stars that I do have, I’ve had to put them on Dynamite every single week," Tony said.
"I’m really excited. I wanted to reset and I’m very cognizant for some of the fans that, with some of what I did with Rampage during the summer is trying to make the best of a situation where I wanted to load the show up with stars as we did in the beginning," Tony said, referring to matches like Christian Cage vs. Kenny Omega for the IMPACT World Title and CM Punk vs. Powerhouse Hobbs at Rampage: Grand Slam.
"We have not been able to offer those kinds of matches because when those guys have been healthy, I’ve had to put that kind of stuff on Dynamite," he continued. "Now, we’re at a point where, the whole roster is back by this week. This Friday, on the live Rampage, hopefully, it’ll be a preview of what’s in store after All Out. After All Out, I think the roster is going to be in as strong of a place as it’s been in a long time, probably the strongest it’s ever been."
Despite the influx of talent at the end of 2021 with names like Adam Cole, Bryan Danielson, Ruby Soho, and CM Punk all being available to the company, health issues for the likes of Chris Jericho, Kenny Omega, and Jon Moxley meant that the roster was only at peak strength for a short length of time.
Tony added, "It’s coming back together and the roster, I really feel, will be helped and Rampage, now that the roster is back, I can put my full attention into this.
Tony Khan further stated that he was liking what was happening at the beginning of the year but then another influx of injuries, including names like Samoa Joe and Adam Cole getting sidelined, stalled things for the Friday night show.
"The star power coming back this week and in the coming weeks, you’ll see a lot of stars returning to Rampage, the kind of big matches we did at the very beginning when we had a fully healthy roster to support the three hours of TV, honestly, you saw at Grand Slam, we could easily support four hours of TV with that roster and not miss a beat. We lost so many guys, I could do three hours of TV, but not three hours of star, star, star, star, star," said Tony.
Tony also said the renewed focus on AEW Rampage will be in on Friday, September 2 with the live card from Chicago, promising more live AEW Rampage events this year.
"We have more live Rampages through the rest of the year than we’ve had all year combined," he concluded.
AEW has already announced another live episode of Rampage that will take place in October from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida. Learn more here.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source as well as Fightful by linking back to this transcription.
