The 1st of December edition of AEW Dynamite may have come to a fiery conclusion but fans were left cold after the show drew its lowest Wednesday night rating since May.
Dynamite kicked off with number one contender to the AEW World Championship Bryan Danielson continuing to wage his war with The Dark Order. The American Dragon faced off with Alan ‘5’ Angels in Angels’ hometown of Atlanta, GA. Despite a resolute effort, Danielson proved too much for Angels as he submitted him with a kneebar.
Another former WWE Champion was then in action as CM Punk faced Lee Moriarty. Moriarty put up another tough fight for Punk but the Chicago native eked out a win. Following his match, he once again had to deal with the thoughts of MJF. Eventually Punk went after the leader of The Pinnacle only to be stopped in his tracks by Wardlow.
Wardlow was in action himself against AC Adams in a match that was anything but competitive. Mr. Mayhem hit Adams with several powerbombs before pinning him with ease as Shawn Spears watched on.
WWE Hall Of Famer Sting competed in his first bout in Atlanta since he won the TNA Title from Kurt Angle in 2007. Sting teamed with Darby Allin to inflict a first defeat of Colten Gunn’s AEW career as they defeated The Gunn Club.
The final TBS Tournament quarter-final match also took place as Ruby Soho faced Kris Statlander. The Runaway came away with the win and she will now face Nyla Rose in the semi-final of the tournament.
The night was capped off with an Atlanta Street Fight between Cody Rhodes and Andrade El Idolo. Andrade came armed with a dagger but never used it as the two men stuck to the more traditional wrestling weaponry. Rhodes and Andrade ended up teetering ominously above a table on the top rope when Brandi Rhodes made her return to AEW television as she set the table ablaze.
Cody Rhodes then superplexed his opponent through the table, picking up a pinfall win while still alight himself. Rhodes bore the brunt of the fiery fall as shown in photos from after the match.
Despite all this Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics is reporting that Dynamite suffered its lowest rating in its usual timeslot since the 19th of May. 861,000 viewers watched the show while the much talked about 18-49 demo garnered a 0.31 rating that equates to 406,000 viewers.
AEW Dynamite last night on TNT:
861,000 total viewers
P18-49 rating: 0.31 (406,000 viewers)📊 More demos & analysis: https://t.co/TjQ2JxtOOppic.twitter.com/ruHsqhJuvr
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) December 2, 2021
The number of total viewers fell over 35,000 from the previous week’s Dynamite which attracted 898,000 viewers. The 0.31 rating in the 18-49 demo remains the same although the number of viewers that equates to fell from 408,000.
The May 19th, 2021 edition of AEW Dynamite was a taped show that was headlined by The Varsity Blonds unsuccessfully challenging The Young Bucks for the AEW World Tag Team Championship.