Report: WWE Leaking AEW Rampage Fast National Ratings

While usually not made public, AEW Rampage's fast national ratings have been reported on by several news outlets in recent weeks. Fast nationals for Friday night shows typically emerge over the weekend ahead of a final, more accurate rating on Monday and they are typically lower than the final rating. For example, the October 8 episode of AEW Rampage averaged 466,000 viewers according to the fast national rating but the final rating on Monday had AEW's viewership at 502,000.

According to Voices Of Wrestling, AEW Rampage's fast national ratings have been reported on because WWE have been leaking the numbers to news outlets.

"Here's the scoop. WWE is leaking the Rampage fast nationals. This was tipped off to us and then confirmed by at least one of the outlets that has been reporting them. Come up with your own motivations, but that's who is feeding it to the news sites," Voices Of Wrestling tweeted.

"My theory is that their strategy is to present Rampage as AEW being weak. Smackdown airs on the same night, so it's great P.R. to compare the numbers, especially since the general public has no understanding of what a good number is at Friday 10pm (I mean, just look at this app). It's also notable that these leaks weren't happening until Rampage began to level off. Find me a fast nationals headline for the Punk return or Rampage being #1 on cable. WWE can only claim AEW isn't competition for so long. P.R. leaks and 2.5 hour Smackdowns were inevitable," they added.

While WWE's Vince McMahon has publicly claimed AEW are not competition for WWE in the past, the company's actions suggest otherwise. WWE contacted mainstream news outlets about writing an article on the Domino's Pizza/AEW controversy following the Chris Jericho vs. Nick Gage Deathmatch, according to David Bixenspan, and Vince McMahon's company will go head-to-head with AEW Rampage on Friday, October 15 with a supersized episode of SmackDown.