AEW Dynamite ratings up, still shy of 1 million despite 4-time WWE Champion's return and Jon Moxley's title defense

AEW Dynamite's ratings have been released, and the Wednesday night flagship enjoyed a healthy increase in both total viewership and key demo ratings when compared to last week.

The special episode, dubbed 'Fight for the Fallen', featured Jon Moxley defending his Interim AEW title against Rush, Bryan Danielson's return against Daniel Garcia, and HOOK capturing his first title in shocking fashion.

Heading into the night, two titles were on the line: Moxley's interim world championship and Ricky Starks' FTW title. While both succeeded in defending their gold, the latter went for a second helping and made an open challenge. HOOK answered and challenged for the belt created by his father Taz, submitting Starks for his first taste of gold.

According to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, Dynamite recorded 976k in average viewership this past week, marking a 26k increase from last week's 942k. The key demographic rating also improved from 0.32 to 0.33.

Last week also featured Ricky Starks defending his FTW title, standing against former NXT 2.0 talent Cole Karter. Eddie Kingston and Chris Jericho closed out the show with a brutal 'Barbed Wire Everywhere' match.

What did fans make of the AEW Dynamite ratings this week?

The ratings for AEW Dynamite almost always produce a divisive reaction from fans. There are those who show their undying passion for the Jacksonville promotion, those who take a more pragmatic look at things, and of course several detractors of the 'alternative product'.

The Twitter user below, for example, poked fun at the fact that Dynamite once more missed the one million mark:

Another user took the increase in viewership as a positive sign, expressing their enjoyment of the industry on the whole:

The user seen above felt as though the viewership increase was healthy, but declared that the demo rating needs to follow suit.