AEW Rampage Sees Lowest Friday Ratings Ever, As WWE SmackDown Gets Pre-WrestleMania Boost

Tony Khan may have accidentally gutted the ratings for the March 31 episode of "AEW Rampage."

Wrestlenomics is reporting that last Friday's episode of "Rampage" saw the lowest-ever viewership in its normal Friday timeslot, averaging a mere 340,000 viewers overall on Friday night, a nine-percent drop from last week's show. 130,000 were in the P18-49 demographic. Not only was "Rampage" up against the WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony but it also ran against Tony Khan's own pay-per-view, Ring of Honor's Supercard of Honor, which saw its main event match run at the same time as AEW's Friday night offering. The show was headlined by Bullet Club's Juice Robinson defeating Action Andretti.

Meanwhile, the final "WWE SmackDown" before WrestleMania 39 saw the highest viewership for the blue brand since January 27, with an average of 2,484,000 viewers overall tuning in to watch the special "WrestleMania SmackDown" edition of the show – a 12 percent rise from last week. The show featured Bobby Lashley winning the Andre The Giant Battle Royal. The show also featured the revival of the former WCW faction the Latino World Order, as WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio presented Legado Del Fantasma with new shirts to welcome them into the fold. SmackDown was viewed by 900,000 people in the P18-49 demographic.

"SmackDown" ranked third in the broadcast ratings for Friday, beaten only by the NCAA Women's Basketball Final Four broadcasts on ESPN, which saw the LSU Tigers and Caitlin Clark's Iowa Hawkeyes advance to Sunday's championship game, eventually won by LSU and game MVP Angela Reese. Rampage ranked 43rd overall.