Moxley vs Punk go head-to-head tonight in an AEW World title unification match

[Liz]

It is a massive night for All Elite Wrestling with the company promoting the Jon Moxley vs CM Punk title unification match as the biggest match in Dynamite history.

And with just a week and a half to go for All Out, the expected main event of that pay-per-view will be given away for free on TBS with two world champions walking in and only one champion walking out.

AEW got themselves into this situation when CM Punk got injured in early June just days after winning the AEW World title from Hangman Adam Page at Double or Nothing. The champion had to be sidelined for a few months and offered to surrender the title. But instead, AEW President Tony Khan wanted none of that and convinced Punk to keep it.

While Punk was out, a new interim champion was crowned at the AEWxNJPW: Forbidden Door pay-per-view in late June, with Jon Moxley defeating Tanahashi in the main event of the show, becoming the first two-time AEW World champion.

It was not clear how long Punk was going to be out for although everyone was hoping he would be good to go for All Out in Chicago. Punk returned two weeks ago and AEW hit the afterburner on the match, putting it on tonight's Dynamite rather than on the pay-per-view.

The company is coming off some disappointing ratings on TBS lately and today's show is obviously trying to turn the tide on that, with two of the company's biggest draws headlining the show with no major competition on other channels.

It has been nine weeks since Dynamite hit a million viewers on TBS, with the last one coming on June 29 for the Blood & Guts episode which did 1,023,000 viewers. Prior to that, you have to go back to March 23 when the show did another million viewers. Since the Blood & Guts episode, Dynamite has averaged 950,000 viewers a week and a 0.32 rating in the 18-49 demo.