The absurdity of “The Final Deletion” ultimately proved to be a success for TNA Wrestling.

According to ShowBuzzDaily, this week’s edition of Impact did 410,000 viewers on television, up from 322,000 viewers the previous week. It was the highest rated episode of Impact on Pop TV and the highest rated episode since May 2015.

TNA put a lot of effort into promoting the event and generated a significant social media buzz. They sent out screeners of the match and uploaded video of various people from the wrestling and film industries reacting to it.

TNA hopes that the buzz they created with the Final Deletion will lead to sustained ratings succes, and that will be tested with next week’s Destination X edition of Impact featuring Bobby Lashley vs. Eddie Edwards in a title vs. title match. 

Given the success of the Final Deletion, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the organization think outside of the box with similar ideas and use similar promotional tactics in the future.