Becky Lynch & WWE NXT team-up to help give AEW Collision its worst ever numbers

The numbers are in for the Sept. 30 episode of Collision on TNT.

Last Saturday’s show was the final episode of AEW television before their WrestleDream PPV, and it was coming off surprisingly strong numbers the week before. But it was also going head-to-head with NXT’s No Mercy PLE, and dates where Collision’s run into WWE competition have resulted in the lowest rated episodes in its brief history.

It seems that last trend is the one that continued. According to SportsTVRatings, Collision drew a total audience of 328,000 and a .08 rating among 18-49 year olds. Both are the lowest in the show’s history (the rating significantly so, 27% off the previous low, when AEW went up against WWE’s main roster Payback PLE on Sept. 2). To add insult to injury, Collision was also beaten by the previous night’s Rampage. Wrestlenomics had AEW’s pre-taped c-show at 363,000 viewers with a .14 rating on Sept. 29.

College football is also be a factor — Notre Dame’s come from behind win over Duke in primetime on ABC had more than 5 million viewers and a 1.18 in the demo. But Becky Lynch* & company seem the main culprits. Collision’s core audience hasn’t been terribly swayed by “real” sports: see the (relatively) big numbers it posted against Ohio State/Notre Dame the previous Saturday, or the solid ones it did against a huge Texas/Alabama contest earlier in September. But give Colliders a marquee pro wrestling option on any given Saturday, and a bunch of them won’t tune into TNT.

We’ll see if that theory holds up this week, when an appearance by Edge Adam Copeland goes opposite WWE Fastlane.

Let us know what you make of it all in the comments below. On your way down there, take a look at Collision’s viewership and demo rating over the course of its brief history:

• June 17 - 816K / .33
• June 24 - 595K / .21
• July 1 - 452K / .13
• July 8 - 580K / .21
• July 15 - 579K / .20
• July 22 - 618K / .18
• July 29 - 739K / .27
• Aug. 5 - 417K / .13
• Aug. 12 - 476K / .17
• Aug. 19 - 482K / .17
• Aug. 26 - 552K / .16
• Sept. 2 - 345K / .11
• Sept. 9 - 476K / .15
• Sept. 16 - 467K / .15
• Sept. 23 - 562K / .18
• Sept. 30 - 328K / .08

For complete results from the latest Collision, check out our live blog here. To read a recap & review of the show, click here.

* Yes, Lynch’s main event didn’t hit screens until after Collision was off the air, but she was clearly a big part of WWE’s promotion for No Mercy, so she gets shouted out.