(Sourcing link is from Cultaholic cause fuck the Observers paywall and I’m tired lol)
The expectation is All Elite Wrestling will be holding more Thursday night tapings of AEW Collision moving forward, according to Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Meltzer noted the “main talent” are fans of taping on Thursday nights as it means they don’t have to stay on the road for an extra couple of days or go home and then travel again a couple of days later.
Taping Collision on a Thursday does harm the show’s ratings but Meltzer claimed the damage wasn’t enough where it was worth AEW sacrificing the goodwill they have with talent.
Collision has often aired live on a Saturday night since the series premiered in June 2023, but more episodes have been taped on Thursday in recent months.
Collision will remain on Warner Bros. Discovery networks in the new year when AEW’s new TV deal with WBD takes effect. Collision is planned to remain on the air throughout the deal which will run through December 2027.
I guess this makes sense. Doesn’t bother me if the show is live or not as long as it’s good and if it keeps the wrestlers happy all the better. Means AEW getting all their live/taping for the week done over a 24-28h period…I mean TNA has done that before doing like a months worth of show tapings over 2-3 days so its not impossible by any means.
How low we talking here? Because from what I heard, AEW is averaging about a .6 on the neilson these days, with no indication of growth. In fact, they USED TO be at 1.2. They’ve been losing viewers year over year. And with the future Max streaming, I imagine that will completey change how AEW is viewed conceptually by viewers. We may see an overnight drop to .2, which I assume is where TNA is at now.
TNA’s more like a 0.02 rating. The AI Chatbots say average of 82k, but I found some ratings from last year:
https://ustvdb.com/networks/axs/shows/impact-wrestling/
EDIT: Here’s some updated ratings: https://ustvdb.com/networks/axs/shows/tna-impact/
Ok…I don’t know if AEW is going to sink THAT low. Even WITH streaming. That is genuinely shocking that you can fit all of TNAs average audience inside Cowboys stadium, and still have like 1/5th of the stadium empty.
It’s certainly a shocking number when you consider this used to be the number 2 company in America regularly pulling in over a million viewers.