AEW Dynamite Hits A Million Viewers For World Title Unification Match

AEW made the announcement a week ago that CM Punk and Jon Moxley would unify the two World Titles at this week's "AEW Dynamite" in advance of All Out on September 4, and the move appears to have paid off. According to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, "Dynamite" had an average viewership of 1,049,000, up 10% from last week and the show's highest number since February 22, 2022. 

"Dynamite" also saw an increase in the key demographic. The 18-49 audience tuned in at 440,000 viewers on average, up 15% for a 0.34 P18-49 rating. That's the highest the demographic has been since the July 6 episode. 

The program came in at #1 in cable originals for the demographic, and for broadcast primetime, it ranked #6. Per usual for Wednesday, "Big Brother" on CBS came in at #1 with a 0.87 P18-49 rating. "Dynamite" had a strong lead in cable originals, as the closest was The Little League World Series on ESPN with a 0.22 P18-49 rating.

Looking back a year, the first "Dynamite" to feature CM Punk had an average viewership of 1,172,000, 10% more than last night. The key demographic is also down as last year's "Dynamite" had a 0.48 P18-49 rating, 29% more than yesterday.

Interestingly, AEW placed CM Punk vs. Moxley right in the middle of the show, around 9:00 PM ET, and Moxley squashed Punk in just under three minutes following a moment that saw Punk appear to re-injure his foot. Punk was carried off by the training staff as Moxley celebrated with the raucous crowd in Cleveland. The show opened with a promoted confrontation between Daniel Garcia and Chris Jericho and closed with a AEW World Trios Tag Title Tournament match featuring Death Triangle against Will Ospreay and Aussie Open.