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

[The Cook]

It's only on Friday's for a few week's due to the NBA I believe. But in August they've got a one-hour second TV show starting on Friday's at 10.

[Team Farrell]

Not anytime soon. Whether true or not, his word is that New Japan was happy with his promo, and there's still a significant amount of AEW fans that defended this promo.

He's not a performer, in the worst possible way. But he's teflon with AEW's hardcore fans, still. Anything he does is good, even if it's objectively not.

On the Tony Khan thing, I suppose it comes back to the thing we've spoken about time and again. A lot of things won't be a problem for them if they just want to keep the crowd they've got, whereas it'd be a problem if they decided they wanted to have a serious play at growing the audience. But with no evidence of that, it probably doesn't matter in the least.

That's just it. If anyone who doesn't already love AEW saw that promo, they'd roll their eyes and ask who the intern is. But nobody who doesn't already love AEW is paying any attention to AEW.

The funniest thing about it, is that I'm a fan of new Japan, and even I rolled my eyes when he mentioned "reuniting Roppongi Vice". As if he's talking about the Road Warriors or Rock & Roll express. My thought was "Nick Khan doesn't know what any of those words he just said mean."

Make no mistake, even if AEW and NJPW's relationship is good, if Nick Khan offered to negotiate a US TV deal on their behalf, or to give them some of that billion dollars from Peacock to buy their major shows for the Network, or even just wanted to open the chequebook, Nick Khan could put an end to that relationship. And all the Roppongi Vice reunions, or Tony being a fan of the product in the world wouldn't stop it.

[Oliver]

I think 'reuniting Roppongi Vice' is akin to WWE 'reuniting the TimeSplitters' in that to the audience watching it probably means something, but if you actually say it kind of means nothing to anybody except a specific group of fans in the middle of one specific Venn diagram.

Let's be honest, the only really notable 'get' AEW has made since it's inception is Moxley. No amount of Christians, Brodie Lees, Miros or Matt Hardys are going to really get noticed outside of a group of people who think they have been mis-/under-used in WWE - and most of those people are already disaffected enough with WWE to be watching AEW anyway. Even someone like Sting isn't going to pull in a whole bunch of extra new fans.

I don't think anybody is expecting them to sign someone like Orton, Cena, Charlotte, Brock or similar - that one person that carries an aura around them where people will go 'holy shit' and feel they HAVE to tune in. But at the same time, AEW isn't showing any signs of wanting to branch out from it's lane and make new fans. I don't know whether that's a conscious decision and they consider this to be a building period where they make their own stars, or whether that's because they think having someone like Eddie Kingston turn up is going to be more important.

Realistically, AEW is a 30 month old promotion that's had a TV deal for 18 months. No matter how much AEW fans (and, seemingly, it's own CEOs/vice-presidents) think it's changed the wrestling world, it's been around as long as spunk in the shower, relatively, and that isn't enough time to do jack shit.

[Prime Time]

But conversely, it's been more than long enough to know what they are trying isn't working.

The exact rating for Dynamite this week has been delayed due to the Memorial Day weekend, but the news out there suggests that the bump to Friday 10pm has hurt them to the tune of around 35% and they'll be coming in around the 510,000 mark. I hear they are in the same slot for most of the month of June?

This came in finally at 526,000. A little better than the early estimates but not enough to write home about and it doesn't bode well for the rest of the month.

[PEN15v2]

It feels like within months of Dynamite's debut, we knew the path AEW was going to take in aiming towards the indy fan market. I can't deny I'm surprised at how well it's done, yet I wonder how much of that success is due to TNT/TBS being a bigger deal than a Canadian would ever understand. The sites I visit still love AEW, though this NJPW promo thing seems to be getting a mostly negative reaction from even the hardest of hardcore AEW fans. Maybe the indy fan market is bigger than I expected? I just find that the style of the show does not lend to long term potential. Everything impressive about Dynamite is a short term gain (spot wrestling, legendary returns that end up not amounting to much...etc.)

I also think the extreme formulaic and averageness of Raw is helping AEW. Last night's NXT had a frenetic pace, almost Crash TV style of segments not being overly planned, and one thing interupting the next, and it just showcased how much of a structure Raw is in. It's been about a year since I caught Dynamite, but I definitely felt they were able to escape that formula (though they had their own which is less played out right now)

[Benjamin Button]

I think it’s odd they went with sports based

cinematic wrestling
Lame backstage segments
promos for the sake of interruptions, not done in anyway like a professional interview.
Comedy gimmicks
Played out sports entertainment angles where wrestlers slip and slide after being bathed in a drink
Falling onto beds from cages
Breaking out in song and dance like a musical
9 yr olds pushing grown men down
wrestlers using dance moves as offense
wrestlers wrestling with hands in pockets
High spots that make no sense
Kidnappings


What a disjointed effect..Sports based. Yeahhh

[Prime Time]

This came in finally at 526,000. A little better than the early estimates but not enough to write home about and it doesn't bode well for the rest of the month.

Another week on a Friday night and AEW were down to a 426,000. I know it's a crap night of the week and an even worse timeslot overall, but for perspective that's probably about as many people as were watching TNA at their peak in the UK.... a country that is, what, one fifth the size, population wise?

[Team Farrell]

Their built in audience is about 800k people. They do a little better than 1m when they hotshot something. What we're seeing is there's about 450-500k people that are their most hardcore of the hardcore fans that'll follow AEW to the ends of the earth no matter what time or day they air.

[PEN15v2]

I don't think these numbers are concerning at all. The only way it's a problem is if they go back to their normal time and don't get back to 800k quickly.

[Prime Time]

No, not concerning. A little embarrassing, and quite revealing (for the reasons coach outlined there), but not concerning. If - as we'd expect - it shoots back up to 800k then we're right back where we were.

To go back to the point a few posts above, I don't think I'm all that surprised at how it's done. I guess the closest I'd say was that I was a bit taken aback by 1.5 million out of the gate, but generally the rest of the time they've been roughly where I thought they'd be. Essentially, my guess was that there will be roughly x number of fans of various indy promotions, and AEW would likely unify some 95% of that audience in an 'anti-WWE coalition' of sorts. I'd say generally speaking, if you add up the theoretical 'on demand' audience on top of the average weekly rating, then it's not a mile away from what I was expecting.

I don't know that I think they've overperformed, then, so much as done about as well as expected (and shown no real interest or intention to go much beyond that).

[Team Farrell]

Yeah, it'll probably sit at 600-700 when they move back to Wednesdays for a week or two, and then people will hopefully find their way back to it.

I hope they don't hotshot anything big that first night, though. Because they should expect it to take a couple weeks to get back to where they are, and I don't think a big hotshot right away will necessarily have the usual effect of bumping them above 1m.

[Prime Time]

I may be wrong, of course, but from a distance it doesn't look like chilling the fuck out for a few weeks to keep their powder dry is really something they'd be great at.

[Prime Time]

Another week on a Friday night and AEW were down to a 426,000. I know it's a crap night of the week and an even worse timeslot overall, but for perspective that's probably about as many people as were watching TNA at their peak in the UK.... a country that is, what, one fifth the size, population wise?

487,000 most recently, which I guess is about half way between the other two Friday ratings.

Smart money is somewhere between 400,000-550,000 tonight?

[Prime Time]

487,000 most recently, which I guess is about half way between the other two Friday ratings.

Smart money is somewhere between 400,000-550,000 tonight?

Nearly right, but not quite - 552,000.

[Prime Time]

649,000 for the most recent, which I believe may have been in a better timeslot?