Bryan Idol Slams AEW Over Ratings Collapse: “$400 Million and No Real Crowd”

AEW’s latest episode of Collision just tied its all-time lowest rating—and NWA’s Bryan Idol is making sure everyone knows it.

After Collision scored a brutal 217,000 viewers and a 0.03 in the 18–49 demo on Saturday, the fallout online came fast. WrestlingInc founder Raj Giri confirmed the drop, noting it was the fifth straight week the show failed to break 300K viewers. AEW also ranked #21 on cable while going head-to-head with Game 7 of the World Series, which pulled nearly 25 million viewers.

“Collision averaged 217K viewers (⬇️5% from the prior week) with a 0.03 P18-49 rating (⬇️25%), per Programming Insider… It was the fifth time in a row in its timeslot that the show had averaged under 300K viewers… Year over year, Collision was down 38% in total viewers, while the P18-49 rating was down 67%.”

That prompted JobberNation to fire off a tweet dragging AEW for keeping the show alive at all:

“Whats even the point of Collision at this point?! Nobody watches it. Nobody cares or even bothers to look at anything that happens on the show… Put a fork in it and put the show out of its misery.”

Then Bryan Idol dropped the hammer with a brutal response of his own. Clearly taking a direct shot at Tony Khan’s spending, Idol tweeted:

“Imagine spending $400 million a year on wrestling and you can’t even get a real crowd or TV audience to watch. It’s so pathetic. It’s disgusting wwe probably dies laughing every night looking at what those costs are.”

Idol, who recently called out AEW for allegedly ripping off NWA’s National Championship and retaliating over a past lawsuit, has become one of the most vocal critics of AEW’s strategy. His latest shot comes at a time when AEW is already dealing with questions about declining ratings, struggling demos, and the impact of Nielsen’s new tracking system.

While Collision was hurt by airing against a massive sports broadcast, that hasn’t stopped the online pile-on—especially from names who feel AEW’s spending doesn’t match its returns.

AEW has yet to respond to the criticism, but between ratings dips and public shots from industry veterans, the pressure is clearly rising.

Do you think Bryan Idol has a point about AEW’s spending vs. results—or is this just more wrestling politics playing out in public? Drop your thoughts in the comments and let us know.