When AEW first descended upon Australia for “Grand Slam: Australia” last year, it was a tremendous success, drawing one of AEW’s highest Saturday ratings of the year, in large part thanks to a lead-in by NBA All-Star Weekend. Despite that, questions loomed over how “Grand Slam: Australia” would do one year later; while the show was now airing in its normal time, in contrast to its late start in 2025, it not only didn’t have the All-Star Weekend lead-in, but in fact had to go against some of the competitions, as well as the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
And yet, even with the stiff competition, “Grand Slam: Australia” was a ratings success for the second year in a row. Wrestlenomics and Programming Insider report that the show drew 561K total viewers and 0.10 in the coveted 18-49 demographic. Both numbers were well up from the previous week’s “AEW Collision” episode, with total viewers rising 45% from 388K, while 18-49 was up 43% with 0.07. The news was even better against the four week average, with total viewership up 66% from 337K, while the 18-49 demo rose 100% from 0.05.
Compared to the first edition of “Grand Slam: Australia,” the 2026 show matched up better in some categories than others. In total viewership, 2026 proved to be better than 2025, which drew 502K total viewers. However, most of those 2025 viewers were younger, with the 18-49 number of 0.21 comfortably defeating 2026’s 0.10.
“Grand Slam: Australia 2026” was headlined by one of the most talked about AEW World Championship matches in recent memory, as MJF put the belt on the line against rising star Brody King. In the end, despite support from Bandido and the Australian crowd, King was unable to wrest the title away from MJF, who defeated King with a Heatseeker.
