AEW Collision and Battle of the Belts VIII aired on Saturday night with the three-hour block opposing the MLB playoffs and college football.
The October 21 edition of Collision averaged 518,000 viewers and 185,000 (0.16) in the 18-49 demographic followed by Battle of the Belts doing 397,000 viewers and 170,000 (0.13) in the demo, per Wrestlenomics and Sports TV Ratings.
For Collision, the viewers were up slightly by 3% from the previous week while the demo jumped by 14%, representing the show’s highest figures since September 23.
Collision had a 22% increase among women in the 18-49 demo as it grew from 116,000 to 141,000.
The show also experienced a gain among adults 18-34 growing from 64,000 to 86,000, largely due to the spike among women in the category and leading to AEW’s largest number in this demo since July 29.
Adults 35-49 saw a minor increase of 3% with men up from 70,000 to 87,000 while women dropped from the previous week.
The show was promoted around a “dream match” between Bryan Danielson and Andrade El Idolo and a tag title defense by Ricky Starks & Big Bill against Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta.
The third hour of programming on TNT included the eighth installment of the Battle of the Belts series. The show dropped 24% in viewers and 13% in the demo from the last special that aired on July 15 and attracted 524,000 viewers and 196,000 (0.15) in the same Saturday night time slot after Collision.
Compared with the July special, adults 18-34 grew from 38,000 to 70,000 with men growing from 25,000 to 44,000 and females doubling from 13,000 to 26,000 this time.
The series fell among adults 35-49 by 37% including males decreasing from 124,000 to 72,000.
Saturday’s special was headlined by The Acclaimed & Daddy Ass defending the Trios titles against Daniel Garcia, Matt Menard & Angelo Parker among the four title matches. The July special featured Luchasaurus vs. Shawn Spears for the TNT title in the main event.
There was significant sports competition on Saturday led by Game 5 of the Philadelphia Phillies vs. Arizona Diamondbacks series (4,616,000 viewers and 1.11 in the demo on Fox) and several college football games including Duke vs. Florida State (4,082,000 and 0.99).
