Cody Rhodes defended his title against Sonny Kiss (Twitter)
Cody Rhodes returned to WWE after six years at WrestleMania 38. This was after his tenure with AEW had ended earlier this year.
The American Nightmare’s last match in AEW was on the January 26 AEW Beach Break edition of Dynamite where he unsuccessfully defended his TNT Championship against Sammy Guevara in a highly acclaimed ladder match.
Out of the 15 episodes of AEW Dynamite that have taken place since Cody’s last match in AEW, only 3 have managed to touch the 1 million viewers mark. The average key demographic in the 18-49 range is at 0.37 for these 15 matches.
In the four episodes of AEW Dynamite that took place this year when Cody was a part of the company, three had crossed the mark of 1 million viewers. The average key demographic in the 18-49 range was also a high 0.42.
Rhodes was certainly one of the biggest stars that AEW had. He was with the company since its inception and also served as an executive vice president.
The 36-year-old was the inaugural AEW TNT Champion and he went on to win the title a couple of more times. He also won the AEW Dynamite Award for Best Moment on the Mic in 2021 for accepting a dog collar match against the late great Brodie Lee.
AEW Rampage takes place every Friday at 10 p.m. Eastern (ET) on TNT.
As far as AEW Rampage is concerned, in the 15 episodes that have taken place since Rhodes’ last match, the number of viewers has exceeded the 500,000 mark on 7 occasions. The first three episodes of 2022, when Rhodes was in the company, saw the 500,000 viewers’ mark being crossed every time.
The average key demographic in the 18-49 range was 0.23 in the first 3 episodes while it dropped to 0.19 for the next 15. In fact, last week’s episode of AEW Rampage drew all-time low ratings in the early timeslot.
Tony Khan’s company has not been bogged down though as they have many other high-profile superstars on the roster. The MJF-Wardlow feud has drawn a lot of attention. Jeff Hardy’s return has also grabbed a lot of eyeballs. The team of Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley managed by William Regal has been delivering epic matches every week and since Wheeler Yuta was added, the quality of the matches has been praiseworthy.
AEW is gearing up to host its latest pay-per-view Double or Nothing on May 29. Many great matches have been lined up for the show.
CM Punk will face Adam Page for the latter’s AEW World Championship. The finals of the men’s and women’s Owen Hart Foundation Tournament will also be held at the event. Thunder Rosa will also defend her AEW Women’s World Championship against Serena Deeb.
Wardlow will finally have the chance to get his hands on MJF at the event. If Mr. Mayhem can beat MJF, he will be released from his contract with the heel. However, if Wardlow loses, he will never be able to sign an AEW contract.
Wardlow will have to go through a few obstacles though to get MJF at Double or Nothing. First, he has to endure ten belt lashings on the back from MJF. If Wardlow survives this, then he will face Shawn Spears in a Steel Cage Match, which is a match that the former has never survived. To ensure that Spears comes out victorious, MJF will serve as the special guest referee in the match.
HookHausen (Hook and Danhausen) will go head to head with Tony Nese and ‘Smart’ Mark Sterling on the buy-in pre-show.
The card looks quite promising and fans will be eagerly waiting to see their favorite superstars collide at the event that is scheduled to be held at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.
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