AEW Rampage Did 1.1 Million Viewers, 0.52 Rating For CM Punk Debut

CM Punk’s highly anticipated return to pro wrestling helped AEW draw massive viewership for Friday’s AEW Rampage: The First Dance special.

AEW Rampage: The First Dance averaged 1,129,000 viewers and drew a 0.52 rating in the A18-49 demographic. The data comes courtesy of Brandon Thurston Wrestlenomics.

Some additional key metrics:

Viewership for The First Dance was up 53% from the previous week’s premiere. The demo rating was up a staggering 75%.

The 0.52 demo rating is the most-watched AEW broadcast in history aside from the AEW Dynamite premiere in October 2019.

The opening quarter hour of Rampage featuring CM Punk’s debut was watched by 1,341,000 viewers and did a 0.65 rating (A18-49).

As Brandon noted, AEW beat Smackdown in males 18-49, persons 18-34, females 18-34, males 35-49 and was within 46,000 of tying persons 18-49. On a Friday at 10 PM.
— Bryan Alvarez (@bryanalvarez) August 23, 2021

The Punk segment did an unheard of 1.70 in 18-49 in the Chicago market.
— Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) August 23, 2021

CM Punk makes his first AEW Dynamite appearance this Wednesday night on TNT.

AEW Rampage on TNT Friday was watched by 1,129,000 viewers total.
P18-49: 692,000 (0.53), higher than all but the debut episode of Dynamite in 2019.

WWE Smackdown on Fox Friday was watched by 2,102,000 viewers total.
P18-49: 738,000 (0.57)

?Read more: https://t.co/Z0rG5QbZu4 pic.twitter.com/aCztYnSJvm
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) August 23, 2021