Shaq appeared on AEW Dynamite this past Wednesday to finally have his first match teaming up with Jade Cargill against Cody Rhodes and Red Velvet, after several promos and hype. The tag team match showed the drawing power of the NBA legend as the match was able to bring in a massive amount of viewers with 1.3 million.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer revealed the numbers saying that the Shaq match rised to a viewership of 1.3 million viewers. He reported, “…the Shaq match peaked at 1.3 million viewers. Highest opposed number since 2019.”
Overall, the show drew in 934,000 viewers and achieved a 0.33 rating in the coveted 18-49 demographic. The number is down from last week, however. The match was hyped by Shaq on NBA before his in-ring debut. Also, the reason why the match took place on Dynamite and not on Revolution is because NBA is holding the All-Star Game on the same night as the PPV and Shaq will be covering the NBA game.
Read more: Shaq Wins AEW Debut Match, Goes Through Table
Shaq’s first appearance on Dynamite was back on the December 9, 2020 episode of Dynamite where he did an interview with Brandi Rhodes. The show did 995,000 viewers, with Shaq’s segment drawing 1.2 million viewers. The quarter featuring Shaq averaged 1,063,000 viewers and 618,000 viewers in 18-49 demographic.
Shaw has said in recent years that he wanted to wrestle Cody and he has achieved that. It is likely like we will see Shaw again to take revenge on Cody for sending him crashing through two tables during the match.
Cody Rhodes for now will be working AEW Revolution this weekend in a ladder match. You can check out the full card of the event below.
AEW Revolution Card
- AEW World Champion Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley in an Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch
- AEW Women’s World Champion Hikaru Shida vs. Ryo Mizunami
- AEW World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks vs. The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho and MJF)
- Team Taz (Brian Cage and Ricky Starks) vs. Darby Allin and Sting in a Street Fight
- Adam Page vs. Matt Hardy in a “Big Money Match”
- Cody Rhodes vs. Scorpio Sky vs. Penta El Zero Miedo vs. Lance Archer vs. Max Caster vs. TBA in a Face of the Revolution Ladder Match for a future AEW TNT Championship match
- Miro and Kip Sabian vs. Best Friends (Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor)
- Bear Country vs. Silver & Reynolds vs. Evil Uno & Stu Grayson vs. Santana & Ortiz vs. The Butcher & The Blade vs. Private Party vs. Top Flight in a Casino Tag Team Royale for a AEW World Tag Team Championship match
- Riho and Thunder Rosa vs. Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. and Rebel on the pre-show
