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

[Benjamin Button]

One thing I have to say about Kayfabe is maybe it protected the business in more ways than one. We all know the emperor wears no clothes , but there’s the art of what they did that had protection too. They policed themselves. That’s been replaced, to me, by either over producing wrestling or to have something that looks tacky.

[Prime Time]

Oh, undoubtedly. A huge number of the things that they are doing, that are turning off people who wanted to give them a chance, are things that they would have had their legs broken for in the 1970s, so....

[Team Farrell]

I don’t know...The wrestlers look really skinny from what I remember. They aren’t as animated when they talk, either. What are they feeding them? They do a lot of dives, though. And then the guy that has to catch them shows a lot of patience, too. I guess it’s a real mix bag. I just hope they’re eating enough.

Even if they’re not bringing as much to the gates nor are they as charismatic as generations prior, they deserve to have food on the table.

That is legitimately a part of it. Hardcore fans think that size doesn't matter, and all you need is good workrate. Hardcore fans are wrong.

Not everyone needs to be Lex Luger in '88. Some smaller, faster guys are always necessary. But the majority of your roster should at least look like they could beat up the majority of the people sitting in the audience or those people sitting in the audience are going to dwindle.

The NBA wouldn't draw viewers if the majority of people thought that they could beat the NBA teams at basketball.

But I also miss babyfaces and heels, traditional wrestling psychology, and matches that look like fights.

[Powder]

But I also miss babyfaces and heels, traditional wrestling psychology, and matches that look like fights.

I know this is the AEW thread, but go watch the McIntyre/Sheamus matches. It was a clear face/heel dynamic, and they literally beat the shit out of each other in wrestling matches. Even their No Holds Barred match was a brawl without contrived, choreographed spots.

[Benjamin Button]

I think the point about the heel/ face dynamic can’t be overstated. Anyone who points to Austin as an example of “shades of gray” is barking up the wrong tree. Though he was an antihero, he was clearly the one to root for and Vince against. Wide appeal comes from engaging protagonists, antagonists, story lines, and matches. I can’t imagine a wide audience falling for inside talk and Twitter arguments, and meta behavior that laughs at itself.

Cody, to me, has had the potential to be the most engaging character on the show. But he’s constantly hampered by incongruity. Also, when QT started talking about “taking bumps” for Cody. What does that mean in the context of story?

I think it’s good for a company to know “what they are” . AEW went with “sports based” I think if they worked towards that effect, they could possibly have something a big audience could understand. But I definitely don’t see them working to that effect.

For everything bad you can say about the attitude era, what worked was it was clear everything was working to a certain effect. Same thing with “where the big boys play.”

but AEW going with sports based and being everything but that, I think it’s a turn off for a bigger audience.

Im not a WWE fan, and I really tried with AEW. But it’s not doing it for me. I felt really embarrassed the first time I watched it in front of Jim Ross announcing and in front of my extended family who are casual fans.

[Prime Time]

Embarrassing is definitely the word. I've seen a bunch of things where people have tried to popularise it, to get more people watching. And my only thought has been how embarrassing so much of it is. I am - like I'm sure a lot of people here - basically synonymous with wrestling to a lot of people I know in the really real world. And all I can think when I see some of this stuff is 'I hope some of this people who I haven't seen in years, if they see this, don't think it's the sort of thing I'd like'. Wrestling was always, always something that people tried to make you feel embarrassed about, but no one managed it really until the last few years. That's not just an AEW thing but they are definitely major offenders.

Anyway, 120,000 for Dynamite here in the UK on the last week of March, wrapping the first half of year 2. The relatively big rating from a few weeks ago seems to pushing the average up for the month even though the end of the month looks like a notable decline on most of the previous six weeks. All in all, a decent improvement on what was a fairly poor showing across Christmas and January.

Year 1 - first 6 months https://www.lopforums.com/forum/pro-...ge22#post51825
Year 1 - second 6 months https://www.lopforums.com/forum/pro-...ge26#post70138

Dynamite Year 2

October
1: 149,000
2: 143,000
3. 118,000
4. 155,000
5. 123,000
Avg: 137,600

November

6. 99,000
7. 143,000
8. 164,000
9. 135,000
Avg: 135,250

December

10. 138,000
11. 150,000
12: 98,000
13: <100,000
Est. Avg: 121,250

January

14: <105,000
15: 115,000
16: <103,000
17: 114,000
18: 91,000
Est. Avg: 105,200


February

19: 144,000
20: 124,000
21: 145,000
22. 141,000
Avg: 138,500


March

23: 143,000
24: 189,000
25: 136,000
26: 120,000
Avg: 147,000

[Powder]

Well let's see the numbers for tonight. We have NXT Stand and Deliver Night 1 vs AEW and apparently they are bringing back Mike Tyson tonight to try to counter. I think this is a really, really, dumb move. You have your direct competition's literal Wrestlemania show where you just might have to take the 'ratings loss' for a week, and just put out a good show. But AEW, IMO is wasting bringing back Tyson tonight as most eyes will be on NXT.

But let's see what the numbers say tomorrow.

[PEN15v2]

Powder, you need to keep in mind that next week's Dynamite is taped (tomorrow I believe). So I'm betting the Tyson thing will be for both days, and Dynamite tonight will set up the bigger event next week.

[Powder]

If that's the case, then ok, but still. Why wouldn't you announce Tyson for next week and the following and go live Next week and tape for the following?

Apparently TNT was pissed at AEW for keeping Sting a secret and they want all future 'big announcements' promoted to draw viewers (Hence Christian's promoted, and Paul Wight announced prior). Also with Tyson.

But I think that trying to counter the biggest show of the year with a Tyson appearance, is a waste of Tyson.

I would hold him off for the following 2 weeks, when NXT moves to Tuesdays, and you run unopposed, and can draw in even bigger numbers by promoting Tyson.

[PEN15v2]

I'm never surprised when AEW does something weird like this. They are still figuring out how to present themselves, mixing their big budget indy show for a wider audience.

[CoLD]

Khan said that yesterday was the only day Tyson had open for a while so he invited him down and he decided to come. I don't think the point was to counter NXT but to get Tyson back on the show before people forgot he was there to begin with.

[Prime Time]

This week:

AEW 700k
NXT 654k

Combined 1,354,000

Unimpressive however you slice it.

Aew: 688,000
NXT : 768,000

Combined: 1,456,000

Very close to the proverbial million and a half....

[PEN15v2]

What's interesting with that stat is that Takeover was also on the Network/Peacock live.

[Team Farrell]

I wonder what those numbers would look like. I'm sure we'll never know.

Where do people think AEW will be a month from now, unopposed?

I'm predicting ~900k. They'll get their normal 750, plus the 150 that usually float between AEW and NXT. I don't see many of the 600k NXT diehards starting to tune in to AEW.

I do, however, question how much of the normal AEW audience will tune in to NXT. The AEW diehards tend to be the most hardcore wrestling fans who I think will embrace there being an NXT show on Tuesday nights, but the NXT diehards tend to be pretty anti AEW.

[Prime Time]

I'm thinking fairly similarly. 850-950k on a typical week, tip-toeing over the million if they promote the hell out of something. When they were unopposed last they did 1,016,000. The way I see it, the theoretical maximum is probably not much more than that based on where they are at right now: sort of around 1.25 million.

Of the 1.5 million watching on a Wednesday, though, there's good reason for believing 500k of them are first and foremost WWE fans, who will watch whatever WWE puts on and will simply switch their viewing from Wednesday to Tuesday (or whatever night NXT is going to be on now).


An interesting last point there. It would be very revealing if NXT ended up getting the bigger bump out of this than AEW.