AEW Dynamite Sees Slight Ratings Drop In The Wake Of 200th Anniversary Episode

The hangover from AEW's celebration of the 200th episode of "Dynamite" was palpable in Wednesday's ratings.

According to Wrestlenomics, "AEW Dynamite" took a 5% dip in total viewership, with 846,000 total viewers and 378,000 in the 18-49 demographic, a 7% drop from last week's episode. "Dynamite" was still ranked first among cable televised originals. Last week's 200th episode managed to keep the audience from the week prior, but unfortunately, it didn't carry over to this week. The news comes hot on the heels of "WWE NXT" scoring its highest viewership in over two years as the show continues its current hot streak — "Dynamite" and "NXT" were separated by just 70,000 average viewers this week.

Wrestlenomics also released quarter-hour breakdowns on Patreon. Total viewership peaked in the opening segment, which involved the apparent break-up of the Jericho Appreciation Society. Viewers also stuck around for the heavily-hyped AEW debut of former ECW Champion Rob Van Dam, who challenged Jack Perry for the FTW Championship; Perry successfully defended the title in controversial fashion. In the key P18-49 demographic, the in-ring promo segment featuring AEW World Champion MJF and Adam Cole pulled in the biggest audience. Viewers tuned out, however, for the main event, which saw AEW Women's World Champion Hikaru Shida defending her title against Anna Jay. The episode's final segment saw its biggest losses in the key demo, where the numbers fell by a full 10% from the previous quarter-hour.

Also of note for those who follow wrestling ratings is the fact that AEW's most-viewed quarter-hour (the Jericho Appreciation Society segment) only drew about 20,000 more viewers than "NXT's" most-viewed quarter-hour, which was the overrun featuring Dominik Mysterio successfully defending the "NXT" North American Championship against Dragon Lee, who was cornered by Dirty Dom's father, Rey Mysterio.