During the latest edition of “The Dan LeBatard Show”, AEW President Tony Khan commented on AEW Rampage defeating WWE SmackDown in the key demo ratings during their head-to-head battle that took place back on October 15, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On AEW Rampage surpassing WWE SmackDown in their head-to-head quarter hour ratings: “CM Punk won his segment decisively, and then the second segment, which was Ruby Soho vs. The Bunny, two female wrestlers who fans had been just really mean to and said, ‘Your segments not going to do well.’ Ruby Soho is a big star who had been fired from WWE just months earlier. And they went up against a contract signing of Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns. If you look at it, they tied it, but in their 15 minute quarter, that’s where I pushed all six minutes of the commercials, so actually, without the commercials, they would have beaten that segment. And then the previous 15-minute quarter was CM Punk and Matt Sydal head to head with Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks, and that is a big match. And our match was a big match too, and it decisively beat their match.”
On the Wednesday Night Wars: “I would have been very surprised, especially by how the whole thing happened because it was a small bite of what a lot of fans actually kind of wanted. For one night, fans were very interested in the head to head because typically, we haven’t gone head to head in a while. There was head to head competition on Wednesday for a while. They had brought their show, NXT, to cable and gone head to head when Dynamite first debuted, and that went pretty well for us. I think it was 76 Wednesdays they were on head to head, and in the demo, I think we won 75 to one. And in the overall viewers, I think we won 66 to 10.”
On the Rampage half-hour win over SmackDown and being happy for CM Punk: “We won the half hour 0.25 to 0.22, I believe, and it was a decisive victory. And I was really happy, in particular, for CM Punk, who is a great person, and I’ve gotten to know a lot better in the past couple of years. And he had been out of professional wrestling for a really long time, and he had been served a lawsuit by WWE on his wedding day. I think it’s been a long time coming for him to come back because he loves pro wrestling, and the pro wrestling fans really love him. And it’s been such a blessing for our business, and I thought it was a really cool moment for him to go head to head. And he was wrestling Matt Sydal; It wasn’t the biggest box office opponent I could have put against him necessarily, but the match drew really well because it’s a great wrestling match. Matt Sydal’s a great technical wrestler. He’s a great high flyer, and people were excited to watch the skill of the wrestling match and see the art of it, and see CM Punk in his element. It wasn’t necessarily about him wrestling the biggest name.”
