TNT Touts Ratings For Premiere Of AEW Rampage, Tony Khan Comments

TNT issued a press release this evening to tout the ratings success of Friday's AEW Rampage premiere.

As noted, the one-hour Rampage premiere drew 740,000 viewers with a 0.30 rating in the 18-49 key demographic. You can click here for our full report on the ratings.

TNT touted how the show ranked #3 for the night on the Cable Top 150 in the 18-49 key demographic, behind the two NFL Pre-season games on the NFL Network.

AEW President, CEO, General Manager & Head of Creative Tony Khan commented on the Rampage premiere ratings.

"Our goal was to come out of the gate strong and establish Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on TNT as the place to catch the hottest commodities in professional wrestling," Khan said in the press release. "Coming off our red-hot debut episode of 'AEW: Rampage' last Friday that featured Dr. Britt Baker retaining her AEW Women's World Championship against Red Velvet in the main event match, we're all excited for The First Dance this Friday night at the sold-out United Center in Chicago. It will be a special episode of 'AEW: Rampage' that will be enshrined in wrestling history as a night that fans will remember for a very long time."

Rampage aired at 10pm ET on TNT, live from the Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh, PA. The show featured three matches advertised ahead of time – TNT Champion Miro retaining over Fuego del Sol, AEW World Champion Kenny Omega dropping the Impact Wrestling World Title to Christian Cage in the opener, and hometown star Britt Baker retaining the AEW Women's World Title over Red Velvet in the main event.

Next Friday's Rampage episode from the United Center in Chicago will be the special "The First Dance" episode, rumored to feature the AEW debut of CM Punk.

Stay tuned for more. Below is the full press release sent to us by TNT and AEW:

"AEW: RAMPAGE" Starts Strong for Franchise with Successful Second Series Bow on TNT

AEW premiered its electrifying new wrestling series on TNT, "AEW: Rampage," on Friday, August 13, and ranked as the #3 cable telecast in P18-49, only trailing behind NFL preseason games. The series premiere was filmed in front of a live audience from the Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh. See highlights below:

AEW: Rampage – Week 1 – Fri 10p-11p

396K P18-49 / 153K P18-34 / 740K P2+

+43% vs. 1st hour of Friday AEW: Dynamite premieres in P18-49
+113% in P18-49 and +30% in total viewers vs prior 4 weeks of movies

"Our goal was to come out of the gate strong and establish Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on TNT as the place to catch the hottest commodities in professional wrestling," said Tony Khan, CEO, GM and Head of Creative of AEW. "Coming off our red-hot debut episode of 'AEW: Rampage' last Friday that featured Dr. Britt Baker retaining her AEW Women's World Championship against Red Velvet in the main event match, we're all excited for The First Dance this Friday night at the sold-out United Center in Chicago. It will be a special episode of 'AEW: Rampage' that will be enshrined in wrestling history as a night that fans will remember for a very long time."

The premiere episode of "AEW: Rampage" featured the reigning AEW Women's World Champion, and graduate of the University of Pittsburgh Dental School, Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D., defending her title against Red Velvet. Ahead of their AEW World Championship match at ALL OUT, the Forbidden Door opened once again as Christian Cage challenged Kenny Omega for the IMPACT World Championship. Additionally, Miro defended his TNT Championship against Fuego del Sol.

Founded by CEO, GM and Head of Creative Tony Khan, AEW is a new professional wrestling league headlined by Cody & Brandi Rhodes, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson), Chris Jericho, Sting, Hangman Page, MJF, Miro, Darby Allin, Hikaru Shida, Dr. Britt Baker and Jon Moxley. For the first time in many years, AEW is offering an alternative to mainstream wrestling, with a roster of world-class talent that is injecting new spirit, freshness and energy into the industry.

"AEW: Dynamite" airs every Wednesday from 8-10 p.m. ET on TNT and attracts the youngest wrestling audience on television. The new fight-forward show "AEW: Rampage" airs every Friday from 10-11 p.m. ET. AEW's multi-platform content also includes "AEW Dark" and "AEW Dark: Elevation," two weekly professional wrestling YouTube series, "Being the Elite," a weekly behind-the-scenes YouTube series, and "AEW Unrestricted," a weekly podcast series. For more info, check out Twitter.com/AEW; Instagram.com/AllEliteWrestling; YouTube.com/AEW; Facebook.com/AllEliteWrestling.