It seems many viewers were not impressed with Tony Khan’s announcement before the last episode of Collision.
At the time, he announced CM Punk’s firing and that he “feared for his life” during the altercation at All In.
According to WrestleNomics.com, once the announcement was made 89,000 people immediately turned the show off. The show lost 19 per cent of its viewers.
Collision only drew 345,000 viewers this week. Last week, the show generated 552,000. That is is drop of 65 per cent.
The key demos dropped from 0.16 to 0.11.
Those are the lowest ratings in the show’s history.
During his speech Khan said:
Today, I had to make one of the toughest decisions of my professional career. Today, I terminated Phil Brooks, CM Punk, for cause.
This stems from a backstage incident at AEW All In last Sunday. The incident was regrettable and it endangered people backstage. That includes the production staff, the people who help put the show on every week — innocent people who had nothing to do with it.
I’ve been going to wrestling shows for over 30 years. I’ve been producing them on this network for nearly four years. Never in all that time have I ever felt until last Sunday that my security, my safety, my life, was in danger at a wrestling show.
I don’t think anybody should feel that way at work. I don’t think the people I work with should feel that way. And I had to make a very difficult choice today. It came at the recommendation of a discipline committee here in AEW, as well as outside legal counsel who delivered a unanimous recommendation. And I have followed up on that recommendation.
I’m sorry to any fans who are upset by this. I’m sorry to anyone who’s upset by this. Despite that, we’re gonna have a great show tonight on Collision and we’re gonna have a great AEW All Out pay-per-view tomorrow here in Chicago. Last weekend was the greatest weekend in AEW history. This is the greatest week in AEW history. We’re gonna continue the great momentum here tonight on Collision and tomorrow night on the All Out pay-per-view.
Mat Matters: Khan’s to blame for Punk mess, AEW workplace woes