Will Ospreay: Record low AEW Dynamite rating motivated me to come back swinging

Will Ospreay took notice of AEW Dynamite’s record low rating from last week and is using it as motivation.

On June 19, Dynamite averaged just 502,000 viewers — its lowest-ever number for a Wednesday airing of the show. Dynamite also drew a record low 0.16 rating in the 18-49 demo. Those numbers rebounded back closer to normal this Wednesday, averaging 680,000 viewers and drawing a 0.22 in the demo.

Ospreay told CBS Sports that he thought the June 19 Dynamite was a home-run episode despite the low numbers that it drew. But he doesn’t shy away from criticism and is using the poor rating as motivation to come back swinging.

“It sucks that it was such a low rating, but it’s just motivating me and I’m sure it’s going to motivate others to try and think out of the box and try and come back swinging,” Ospreay said. “I’m not someone that ignores that type of sh*t. I see it and I take note of it. And I put it in the checkbook and I make sure that whatever we do next week, we come back swinging. We shouldn’t ignore criticism, we shouldn’t shy away from it. We’re still a five-year company, we’re still hitting the ropes with these type of things. For me personally, AEW’s still got a lot of growing pains to go through. And even myself, I wasn’t someone from WWE. I wasn’t someone — the only thing that I had going for me is that I was a New Japan wrestler. I never worked TV before in my entire life. This is all new for me.”

The record low rating was, in part, because the movie Black Panther aired before Dynamite instead of its usual Big Bang Theory lead-in. Big Bang Theory was back as Dynamite’s lead-in this Wednesday.

Ospreay and AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland had a face-to-face confrontation on the June 19 Dynamite episode. This week, they teamed together in the main event to defeat Gates of Agony (Bishop Kaun & Toa Liona).

Strickland is defending his World title against Ospreay at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door this Sunday.