All Elite Wrestling's residency at the Aragon Ballroom concluded on July 31 with a special Thursday night edition of "AEW Collision," and it's safe to say the company left Chicago on a high. The Forbidden Door card started to take shape as Swerve Strickland and Athena challenged both Kazuchika Okada and Toni Storm, FTR and Brodido picked up big wins in the AEW Tag Team Championship Eliminator tournament, and after a wild Chicago Street Fight, Kyle Fletcher defeated Dustin Rhodes to become the new AEW TNT Champion.
Airing on a Thursday night in order to avoid clashing with night one of the WWE SummerSlam Premium Live Event, the pre-emption proved to be a risk worth taking according to The Programming Insider and Wrestlenomics as the July 31 episode of "Collision" averaged a total of 409,000 viewers, a 25% increase on the 327,000 viewers the July 26 episode that aired live in its normal timeslot earned. This rise also put "Collision" back in line with its trailing four week average of 326,000 viewers, and is 26% higher than the July 10 episode, the last show which aired on a Thursday, with all of these figures, as per usual, not including those who streamed the show live on HBO MAX.
There was also a big rise in the 18-49 demographic as the July 31 episode posted a 0.10 number, a 25% increase on both the July 26 episode, and the trailing four week average, which both sat at 0.08. This would lead to "Collision"ranking seventh overall in the prime time cable rankings, being beaten by all three hours of FOX News, "Impractical Jokers," a repeat episode of "Family Guy," and "Jersey Shore: Family Vacation" which aired on MTV. However, for the shows that began airing at 8PM ET, "Collision" placed third in its timeslot behind FOX News and "Jersey Shore."
