TNA, Ring of Honor viewership hit new lows on July 1

Early returns don't look great for Destination America's Wednesday night pro wrestling block, or TNA's decision to forego putting their World Championship match on pay-per-view (PPV) and tape it ahead of time for broadcast after Slammiversary.

Per Showbuzz Daily, Impact Wrestling had it's lowest viewership numbers since the move to Wednesday, dropping to 267,000 for its initial airing at 9PM Eastern on July 1. That's down 28% from the June 24 "live" show that had 369,000 people watching.

It's rating among 18-49 year olds also dropped 25% from the week prior, to .09. That's also the smallest that number has been since the show moved from Friday nights last month.

A midnight replay picked up another 51,000 viewer and .01 rating, but even that was a dip from 82,000 and .03 for the Slammiversary 'go home' show.

Ring of Honor (ROH), which the Discovery-owned network picked up to pair with TNA for an evening long pro wrestling block, didn't fare much better, although their drops weren't as steep. The 8PM Eastern broadcast of ROH TV had 157,000 viewers, down 15% from last week, but holding steady in the key demographic with a .05. It's 11PM replay was nearly cut in half, however, down to 81,000 from 145,000 (.03 rating, down from .04).

Defenders will likely point to a summer holiday week in the United States that contributed to dismal numbers for the biggest name in the game; critics to TNA's decision to pack a taped show or even crown a relative unknown as champ and ROH's bank of older matches instead of rushing out shows that deal with their well-received Best in the World PPV.

Time will tell, but for right now, these numbers don't look great for either promotion, or Destination America.