SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Last night’s barely hyped hour-long AEW Road to Dynamite special on TNT at 8 ET drew 631,00 viewers and a 0.48 cable rating. That is roughly 60 percent of the viewership of the heavily-hyped (by WWE on Raw and Smackdown) second week of NXT live on USA Network. Whether that is indicative of AEW Dynamite tonight drawing a similar number or if that means AEW will likely triple the number with their actual debut live show that was advertised during NFL games and all across Warner Media for weeks is up for debate. That viewership does seem to reasonably be a “floor” for the viewership, and it’s hard to imagine the actual live show not doing considerably better. Does “better” mean total viewership of 800,000 or 1,8 million or 2.2 million? That remains to be seen when ratings come out tomorrow afternoon.
Last week’s TNT movie in that time slot on Tuesday night drew 647,000 viewers.
AEW President Tony Khan said on yesterday’s “Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast” (in a two-and-a-half hour interview available HERE) that they intentionally didn’t hype the TNT special as not to confuse viewers about the actual premiere the next night on TNT of their live Dynamite show.
When the obituary is written for the New York Office (and make no mistake it will happen, because until it is “it will never be over”) this will be remembered as the week it all began. We have been waiting for this week since 2001. Here we go!
It was cool to be able to watch tonight and you are right looking back this very well could be the week that was the first crack in the evil empire. The NXT product that was aired on USA tonight totally stunk in comparison. 🙂 Vince is probably crying somewhere right now thinking why can’t I get those cheers like Cody?