AEW ‘Dynamite’ ratings tank for first Darby Allin world title defense

The first “Dynamite” in the reign of new AEW world champ Darby Allin was a dud in the ratings.

The April 22 show, headlined by an Allin main-event title defense against former TNT champ Tommaso Ciampa, drew an average of 617,000 viewers, according to Nielsen numbers reported by Programming Insider.

That’s down 13.1 percent from last week, and down 19.3 percent from the 2026 ratings high of 765,000, which was recorded for the March 25 episode.

This week’s show had the lowest viewership since way back on Feb. 11, which averaged 604,000 viewers.

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ICYMI: AEW

• AEW puts its world title on Darby Allin, a 170 pounds dripping wet sideshow act
• Darby Allin was named in #SpeakingOut: Whatever happened with his case?

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Those in the smaller audience who stayed around for the Allin-Ciampa match liked it – at least those who stayed around for the match, and logged on to Cagematch to give it a rating did.

The match got an average rating of 9.12, based on 337 votes, per Cagematch data.

Tony Khan might be booking for a smaller audience, but at least he’s pleasing said smaller audience.

Next week, we already know that Allin will be defending against former AEW tag champ Brody King.

Spoiler alert: TK isn’t booking Allin to lose to Brody King.