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WWE SmackDown vs. AEW Rampage, Who Actually Won The Friday Night War?

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WWE SmackDown vs. AEW Rampage, Who Actually Won The Friday Night War?
Photo Credit: WWE/AEW

AEW Rampage October 15th, 2021 episode ran head-to-head with WWE SmackDown for the first 30 minutes of the show.

According to Nielsen via Wrestlenomics, WWE SmackDown drew 878,000 viewers on FS1 and drew a 0.32 which means 285,000 rating in the 18-49 demographic. AEW Rampage drew 602,000 viewers on TNT and drew a 0.54 which means 328,000 rating in the 18-49 demographic.

During 10:00 pm to 10:15 pm SmackDown had 882,000 viewers while AEW Rampage had 663,000 viewers. 

During 10:15 pm to 10:30 pm SmackDown had 874,000 viewers while AEW Rampage had 541,000 viewers. 

In the 18-49 demographic at 10:00 pm to 10:15 pm SmackDown had 277,000 viewers while AEW Rampage had 363,000 viewers. In the 18-49 demo at 10:15 pm to 10:30 pm SmackDown had 293,000 viewers while AEW Rampage also had 293,000 viewers.

Here’s the final result of Friday Night War.

WWE SmackDown defeated AEW Rampage in total viewers. AEW Rampage defeated WWE SmackDown in 18-49 key demographic.

SmackDown ranked #3 among the top 150 shows on cable while Rampage was #4.

Here is the full demographic breakdown.

  • Viewers 18-49 – Rampage: 0.24 / SmackDown: 0.24
  • Female viewers 18-49 – Rampage: 0.14 / SmackDown: 0.16
  • Male viewers 18-49 – Rampage: 0.34 / SmackDown: 0.32
  • Viewers 18-34 – Rampage: 0.17 / SmackDown: 0.15
  • Female viewers 12-34 – Rampage: 0.10 / SmackDown: 0.10
  • Male viewers 12-34 – Rampage: 0.16 / SmackDown: 0.20
  • Viewers 25-54 – Rampage: 0.28 / SmackDown: 0.28
  • Viewers 50+ – Rampage: 0.21 / SmackDown: 0.43

As usual, Tony Khan tweeted out his reaction for this week’s Rampage ratings. Khan tweeted,

Let’s go @AEW fans! I’m excited to see head-to-head half hour numbers from last Friday, soon we’ll know. Most of all, I’m looking forward to another great weekend of wrestling this weekend! See you for #AEWRampage Friday + #AEWDynamite one more Saturday before back to Wednesdays!

WrestleVotes reported that, the numbers from Friday night are hot topic backstage at Monday Night RAW.

WWE hasn’t lost to another wrestling company since WCW in 1998 so this is a huge deal.

However, during 83 weeks show Eric Bischoff give his take on Tony Khan’s recent
remarks about AEW competing with WWE.

If Tony were to call me and ask for any advice, here’s what it would be — shut up

and wrestle dude. Just put out the best product you can and you’ve proven you

can, focus on that. This is weird coming from me right? The guy that challenged

Vince McMahon, the guy that gave away all of the finishes…but here’s the

difference, I was actually competing with them. I was going head-to-head, real

head-to-head, my show started the same time his show started every week.