WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event viewership numbers fell because an AEW event was also taking place simultaneously.
Last weekend, the 40th edition of WWE SNME took place at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. The event saw Goldberg’s retirement match, where he lost to Gunther in a bout for the World Heavyweight Championship. Solo Sikoa also defended his United States Title against Jimmy Uso, and a singles match between LA Knight and Seth Rollins, and then the opener, Randy Orton vs. Drew McIntyre. However, this was just one of the few wrestling events that took place on July 12.
Earlier that day, AEW All In from Arlington, Texas, also aired along with NXT’s The Great American Bash, which started at 3 p.m. EST. Interestingly, the Stamford-based promotion’s NBC television special from the State Farm Arena didn’t have the best viewership numbers.
Programming Insider recently reported that WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event on NBC led the adults 18-49 primetime telecasts, with 1.425 million viewers and a 0.33 demographic rating. While these numbers may appear to be decent, it was a significant drop from the May 24 installment, which had 1.969 million viewers and a 0.54 demographic rating.
WWE And AEW Will Go Head-To-Head Again Soon
Aside from The Great American Bash and Saturday Night’s Main Event, WWE and AEW went head-to-head earlier this year with NXT Battleground and AEW Double or Nothing on May 25. Now, both wrestling companies are going to hold a show on the same day again.
On August 24, All Elite Wrestling will be having its annual Forbidden Door PPV at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada. Meanwhile, WWE will also air NXT Heatwave on the same day at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, Massachusetts.