AEW needs to pull a big ratings number with ‘Dynamite’ this week

The good news for AEW was the announcement in October that the company had re-upped with Warner Brothers Discovery for upwards of $170 million per year, more than doubling the take from the five-year TV deal signed in 2019.

I’d love to know the performance metrics that were included in the legalese.

AEW’s flagship show, “Dynamite,” continued its recent slide with last week’s “Full Gear” fallout show, averaging 536,000 viewers, bottoming out for the main event, the 9:45-10 p.m. ET quarter-hour featuring Darby Allin, who is on the verge of getting a top-of-the-card push, and Brody King.

The Allin-King match averaged 461,000 viewers, according to numbers from Wrestlenomics.

“Dynamite” is averaging 618,000 viewers in the fourth quarter of 2024, down 25 percent from the fourth quarter of 2023 (828,000.

The TV viewer numbers for both “Dynamite” and “Collision” have been down steadily since the controversial move to air security-cam footage of the backstage attack at the 2023 “All In” pay-per-view event in London involving CM Punk and Jack Perry.

It has to be a little disconcerting for Tony Khan, the company’s founder and president, that even a well-received “Full Gear” pay-per-view couldn’t move the needle.

Looking ahead to Wednesday’s “Dynamite,” the following matches are on the schedule:

• Swerve Strickland vs. Max Caster
• PAC vs. Jay White
• Continental Classic, Blue League: Shelton Benjamin vs. Kyle Fletcher
• Continental Classic, Gold League: Brody King vs. Claudio Castagnoli
• The Dynamite Dozen Battle Royal