Who is winning the war between WWE and All Elite Wrestling? Well in the UK, it’s hard to tell.
In May 2019, months after launching, AEW announced a partnership deal with ITV for their weekly programming and Pay-Per-Views to be aired.
After ITV Box Office ceased operations in January 2020, the promotion’s Pay-Per-Views were no longer streamed by the broadcaster.
The Ratings
During this week’s AEW Dynamite, it was announced that the promotion will host its first UK event next year.
The UK is known for its wildly passionate fanbase, as the success of WWE Clash at the Castle can attest.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer explained that AEW is consistently improving in the ratings thanks to a new timeslot.
“Because the ratings have been good, ITV 4 [AEW’s host channel] decided to move it to 9 pm every Friday night. That is a regular time slot. It won’t be revolving around. What happened the first couple of weeks is the new timeslot, the numbers were way down. Not way up, because people didn’t know about the timeslot change. But every week the ratings have gone up and up and up.
“Last week, they set their all-time record rating, not just for that time slot but since Dynamite has been on the air.”
Popularity
Typically, ratings can tell you what is the more popular show, and this metric can often shape future deals for companies.
As Meltzer explained, this isn’t the case with the UK, as WWE remains the more popular show despite what the numbers say.
“Ratings and popularity are not the exact same thing. Because they are on a station that is stronger in England than WWE is, as far as exposure, their ratings dwarf WWE in England.
WWE just ran in Cardiff and did 53,999 paid attendance and an $8 million house, and AEW is not going to do that. AEW’s ratings dwarf WWE but WWE is more popular in England, and by a significant margin.
“In this case, the ratings do not tell you which is the more popular promotion, even though more people by far watch Dynamite than any other show. More people watch Rampage than watch Raw or SmackDown in England.”
It is unclear when exactly in 2023 AEW will make their UK debut, while WWE’s next events in the UK will be in April next year.
