AEW Collision faced its stiffest competition to date as Saturday’s show aired head-to-head with WWE SummerSlam.
SummerSlam proved to be a major obstacle for Collision’s viewership, which dropped by 44% this week to 417,000 viewers and experienced a 54% decline in its 18-49 audience with 164,000 viewers (0.13). (Data: Brandon Thurston at Wrestlenomics)
It was Collision’s lowest 18-49 audience among its eight episodes and was the second-lowest overall audience behind the July 1 taped episode from Hamilton.
In the 18-49 demographic, male viewership declined by 52% falling 56% from last week’s numbers.
Adults 18-34 revealed an interesting result as the demo dropped by 58% and led by males down by an astounding rate of 72% from last week. However, women in the demo saw a small 4% increase from 24,000 last week to 25,000 and it was the only category that didn’t drop.
Adults 35-49 fell by 52% to 111,000 viewers with males down 38% and women dropping by 77% from last week’s episode.
Collision also aired against the UFC Fight Night card from Nashville, which averaged 1,035,000 viewers and 0.38 in the demo on ESPN with Cory Sandhagen vs. Rob Font in the main event.
SummerSlam was the third most-watched WWE event in Peacock history with the streaming service expanding this past quarter to 24 million subscribers.
Collision was headlined by CM Punk defeating Ricky Starks with Ricky Steamboat serving as the outside official. The card included three title matches with House of Black retaining the Trios Championships against Darius Martin, Action Andretti & Lee Johnson, and FTR beating Big Bill & Brian Cage to keep the AEW tag titles.
Due to Money in the Bank airing in the afternoon on July 1, this was the first time that Collision aired head-to-head with a WWE premium live event. The next WWE show falls on September 2 with Payback and airs on the night before AEW’s All Out pay-per-view.
