AEW - Non-Wrestling (Business, Money, Ratings etc.)

[Prime Time]

Sorry for the double post, but for the show on the 27th, we have it!

170,690. Good enough for tenth overall on the channel.

No films on the station were able to outdraw it this week, and it even managed to beat out Scarface and two different episodes of Mr. Bean.

There's no way of knowing whether they are gaining viewers or if it's sort of hovering around that number and it just hasn't been able to get onto the list on the more packed weeks. But we at least have an idea of sort of where they are.

[mizfan]

Still surprised to see it so low. Will definitely be curious to see if it grows in time.

[Prime Time]

Again, me too. It's been promoted well on the main ITV channel and even at the end, WoS got 400,000. And that rating was called 'catastrophic' just last year.

It basically looks like about 3/4 of the UK wrestling audience for TNA at it's peak is watching AEW, but that they haven't really pulled in anyone who could be called a casual.

[mizfan]

I thought TNA viewership was a lot higher than that, possibly due to the channel they were on or something? I remember for years it seemed any wrestling with good distribution in the UK seemed to grab a lot of eyes. Either something's off or WWE's attempt to take over all wrestling in the country was more successful than I thought (though I feel like I've heard number for NXT UK are also very low).

[Powder]

Prime I know you are quoting UK numbers, do you know the US numbers?

[Prime Time]

Powder, you'll have to be more specific about what numbers you mean.

Mizzie, here's the range for a couple of years of TNA on Challenge. As you can see their numbers varied wildly - my percentage above was based on a bit of an estimate of the average.

2011: 134,000 - 297,000
2012: 154,000 - 278,000
2013: 159,000 - 268,000
2014: 127,000 - 284,000


There's some freak results either side but that's broadly the range. Seems the average until May of 2014 was over 200,000.

[Oliver]

Is Shawn Spears stealing LA Park's gimmick?

https://www.prowrestlingtees.com/wrestler-t-shirts/spears/shawn-spears-the-chairman-cometh.html

[Powder]

You know, it just hit me.

AEW is the modern day ECW.

ECW was formed because Heyman and his friends wanted to start a wrestling program that was new and different from the WWE and WCW. And they did. But let's look a little closer.

Which company am I describing here? ECW or AEW?

• Rabid, dedicated fanbase, that chanted the company name for everything.
• Prided themselves on finding new, young talent, existing talent that the big companies wouldn't take a chance on, and disgruntled talent that the big companies wore out or did not utilize to the best of their ability.
• Prided themselves on having true hardcore matches.
• Accepted the lucha libre style of wrestling into their program, and promoted that style.
• Prided themselves on being different than the WWE/WCW.
• Focused on the wrestling, with backstage segments and inring promos used to help plots, not monopolize time with endless 20+ minute promos.
• Tag Team Wrestling is meaningful.
• Allows promos to be unscripted to help with emotion and connection.

I'm sure there are much more similarities, but based on just those 8, you cannot deny that AEW is like a new version of ECW.

[Mr Chop]

I mean, that's also TNA.

[Prime Time]

And several others....

Anyway, you know what time it is - British ratings time! Here's the reminder of last week....

Sorry for the double post, but for the show on the 27th, we have it!

170,690. Good enough for tenth overall on the channel.

No films on the station were able to outdraw it this week, and it even managed to beat out Scarface and two different episodes of Mr. Bean.

There's no way of knowing whether they are gaining viewers or if it's sort of hovering around that number and it just hasn't been able to get onto the list on the more packed weeks. But we at least have an idea of sort of where they are.

But... there's no sign of it for the go-home show. We're back to estimating where it is based on the lowest performer in the list. It must be less than 151,000 viewers for this past episode of Dynamite, because that's what the 15th best show on ITV 4 got. It's too early to draw any real conclusions but perhaps 170,000 was a temporary spike? Anyway, the best case scenario is a drop on the week of more than 10% of the audience.

Films that beat Dynamite this week include The Outlaw Josey Wales and Ransom.

[Cult Icon]

I mean, that's also TNA.

If AEW were like TNA Cody, Kenny and the Bucks all would be undefeated and the next PPV would be a four way for the title between the four of them.

There'd also be a biker stable.

[mizfan]

Yeah, I think those statements are too broad to really create a striking similarity. And Heyman didn't really start ECW, he took an existing group in a new direction over a period of time and didn't really have a specific group of friends that were doing it with him (as far as I know), he just picked up people along the way and figured out how to use them.

[Oliver]

You know, it just hit me.

AEW is the modern day ECW.

ECW was formed because Heyman and his friends wanted to start a wrestling program that was new and different from the WWE and WCW. And they did. But let's look a little closer.

Which company am I describing here? ECW or AEW?

• Rabid, dedicated fanbase, that chanted the company name for everything.
• Prided themselves on finding new, young talent, existing talent that the big companies wouldn't take a chance on, and disgruntled talent that the big companies wore out or did not utilize to the best of their ability.
• Prided themselves on having true hardcore matches.
• Accepted the lucha libre style of wrestling into their program, and promoted that style.
• Prided themselves on being different than the WWE/WCW.
• Focused on the wrestling, with backstage segments and inring promos used to help plots, not monopolize time with endless 20+ minute promos.
• Tag Team Wrestling is meaningful.
• Allows promos to be unscripted to help with emotion and connection.

I'm sure there are much more similarities, but based on just those 8, you cannot deny that AEW is like a new version of ECW.

Is the answer '2014 NXT'?

EDIT: no, hang on, it's Lucha Underground isn't it?

[T.O.]

ECW wasn't bankrolled by a billionaire (the Vince support isn't nearly the same), fuck outta here with that contrarianism.

[Prime Time]

Slight correction to my earlier post - that last rating wasn't for the go-home show which we don't have info for yet. It was for the show first aired on October 30th.

Here's a summary of everything so far. The < sign indicates both that it was less than that number and that Dynamite didn't rank in the top 15 ITV4 shows for the week.

1: <191,100
2: <184,627
3: <168,448
4: 170,689 – ranked 12th (revised down from 10th)
5: <151,005

When I saw that the week four ranking had dropped a couple - presumably as a result of time-shifted viewing - I double-checked each week's rankings to see if there was any sign of it coming in late. But nothing. That shouldn't be a surprise as it seems there's even less reason to believe that they'd make a big difference here than there is in the US, since more than 90% of our TV is still viewed live.

I looked at the show results, and it looks like the one that has done well is the one with the Jericho/Cody brawl and the 'invisible wall' promo. No telling that's what actually got the extra number, or even that it was anything beyond people taking a look one week, but that's the week where viewership did seem to go up - whether by a statistically significant amount or not.