AEW Collision Ratings Slump To Near-Record Low

AEW Collision's numbers slumped amidst head-to-head competition from WWE Royal Rumble.

AEW Collision Cash Wheeler House of Black
AEW

It was always going to be tough for AEW Collision this past weekend - the episode going head-to-head with WWE Royal Rumble - and the ratings show that this most recent edition of AEW's Saturday night offering drew the second-lowest viewership number in Collision history.

Per Wrestlenomics, this latest AEW Collision had 300,000 viewers. This marks a drop of 141,000 viewers from the prior week - that being 441,000 viewers - and represents the lowest ever Collision rating for a show that wasn't preempted. By that, the only Collision viewed by fewer people was the episode which aired on Friday 17 November and drew 270,000 viewers when up against WWE SmackDown.

Where the key 18-49 demographic is concerned, last weekend's Collision scored a 0.06, which is the outright lowest figure in the show's history. The previous week had seen a 0.12 number in that demo.

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To date, the most-viewed Collision was obviously the premiere episode, which had 816,000 viewership and 0.33 in the key demo. Since the turn of the year, Collision has floated around the 400,000 mark, with the highest viewership of the year being that 441,000 figure from the 20 January episode.

Of course, as mentioned, the huge caveat here for last weekend's Collision was going head-to-head with the Royal Rumble. Not just is the Rumble always a major event on the pro wrestling calendar, but, as per post-PLE comments from Paul Levesque, this year's Royal Rumble was the most-watched non-WrestleMania event in company history.

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As for this particular episode of Collision, it was a fairly solid one, with particular highlights being an excellent, aggressive contest between Bryan Danielson and Yuji Nagata, and a chaotic, carnage-laden six-man elimination steel cage match pitting FTR and Daniel Garcia against Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews, and Brody King.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.