Jim Ross Questions Why AEW Dynamite Grand Slam Did Not Draw More Viewers

AEW hosted their second annual "Dynamite: Grand Slam" event at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York this past Wednesday, with the show being headlined by the crowning of the three-time AEW World Champion Jon Moxley. The show was AEW's best effort to put on a pay-per-view-worthy show on free TV, putting five championship matches on the Wednesday show setting themselves up to receive an incredible number in the ratings. Unfortunately, AEW failed to meet those high expectations, drawing fewer viewers than the week prior even though they spent weeks of build toward the show and highly touted main event.

In typical Tony Khan fashion, the AEW Owner took to Twitter to take a positive spin on the situation, highlighting how AEW has now gone five straight weeks with over a million viewers. Someone who didn't take a positive spin on the situation was Jim Ross on the latest episode of the "Grilling JR" podcast, as the AEW commentator questioned why AEW wasn't able to pop a bigger number with the show.

"It was an interesting thing, how do you explain the fact that AEW does around a million viewers on a big-time hyped show that is loaded with five title matches, how do you justify or explain that? I don't know the answer to that conundrum, I really don't," Ross said. "You'd think we were providing the audience with what they wanted to see; all of our top programs, all the titles that were significant are getting some exposure. When you don't have those massive numbers that you were hoping for, it's hard to explain why that happened." The drop in viewership for such a big event truly is a bit perplexing, although far from unheard of, as ratings for both WWE and AEW TV shows sometimes yo-yo up and down from week to week for no readily apparent reason.