Tony Khan Addresses AEW Rampage's Declining Ratings

AEW President Tony Khan defended the ratings for his Friday night "AEW Rampage" telecasts and promised to reverse the decline in viewership by beefing up the star power in upcoming programs.

During a Thursday media call, a reporter noted that "Rampage," which averaged a 0.24 rating in January, was down to a 0.14 average for August. Khan responded by pointing to data that placed "Rampage" as one of the top two cable television shows for the past 13 consecutive weeks, adding that the program was top rated for either nine or 10 of those weeks.

Khan also acknowledged that "AEW Dynamite" was AEW's "flagship show" thanks to its "really strong ratings," and he admitted that "Dynamite's" strength recently came at the expense of "Rampage."

"A lot of the biggest stars in AEW have been out," Khan said, noting that Kenny Omega, Adam Cole, CM Punk and Bryan Danielson had been out with injuries. "These are all people that have had some of the highest rated and most important matches in the history of Rampage."

Khan added that, left with only a few remaining top stars, "I really had to put them on Dynamite every single week. And almost every week — week in, week out — you could count on seeing Moxley and Jericho and the people who were in AEW on a weekly basis."

With Omega, Punk, and Danielson having now returned, Khan pledged that AEW was now at a point that the reinvigorated roster can help "Rampage" revive its ratings mojo.

"I think this Friday on the live Rampage, hopefully it will be a preview of what's in store," he said. "We'll have the roster the way I always wanted it to be."