Bully Ray Question The Validity Of These AEW Performance Numbers

One of the more interesting questions surrounding wrestling these days is the viewership numbers for "AEW Dynamite" and "AEW Collision" on HBO Max. The shows began streaming on Max earlier this year as part of a simulcast between the streaming service, TNT, and TBS, and unlike Netflix and WWE, no official streaming numbers have been made available. The closest anyone has come to any sort of numbers regarding AEW on HBO Max was a March report, which cited sources saying AEW was averaging around 500K on the streaming service. While not fully confirming it, AEW owner Tony Khan later stated the report was consistent with what he'd heard regarding AEW's streaming viewership.

Those are numbers that Bully Ray is just not buying. On last Friday's "Busted Open Radio," Bully and co-host Dave LaGreca got into a rather heated discussion regarding AEW's HBO Max viewership, with LaGreca, while not arguing the 500K number was entirely accurate, stating he believed AEW was doing well on the service. Bully disagreed, citing what he felt was Max's lower number of subscribers compared to other services as the reason for his skepticism.

"I believe, based on what I have read, that Max numbers are grossly exaggerated," Bully said. "That's my stance...How many people could possibly be watching on a channel that's not even listed in the Top 10? I mean, it's a very small streaming service. How many people can be watching? Let's be logical and realistic here. That's what you're just throwing out the door."

As the tension finally started to die down, LaGreca asked Bully to give an educated guess on how many viewers he thought AEW was getting on HBO Max. After some thought, Bully came out on the low end of six figures.

"100K," Bully said.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription