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

[PEN15v2]

Soooooooooo, I guess I'm a bot.

[Prime Time]

Hey, me too!

I did enjoy the whole thing, made me laugh.

[Team Farrell]

Tony's a cokehead.

[PEN15v2]

Look, I'm sure WWE would be devious enough to do this, and it might be true. It wouldn't surprise me.

That being said, there's almost no reason for him to put this out there. If it's a strategic move that might put WWE on notice enough to call off anything like this, then it's a smart move.

But that's assuming WWE would call it off. They might continue pushing this bot attack.

Of course, this is all assuming it's true. And if it's not or if Tony can't prove it, it makes him look so fucking stupid. I'm thankful to see many of the AEW faithful calling this move a mistake. AEW fans make being a WWE fan very challenging in the IWC, and my impression is that they are a little blind to the negatives. So I'm enjoying seeing that not all of them are this way and not doubling down the Tony love.

[Benjamin Button]

Did Tony Khan present any evidence? I think that’s my problem with this entire generation. It’s just blurt shit out and not provide evidence.

It also comes at a time WWE is getting decent press. Seems like he may want to believe in a world where WWE are heels and AEW the baby face to the hardcore wrestling fans.

[Prime Time]

I don't know if he provided evidence or not but if he doesn't have any (public or private), dollars to donuts his lawyers will be hearing about it sooner rather than later.

[Prime Time]

So, I gave up tracking the ratings late last year when I kinda took it as proven that they weren't going to change much based on the current product. But I did find a whole list of the 2022 ratings so can put them all in one place.

January 5 Episode: 1.010 million viewers (TBS premiere episode)
January 12 Episode: 969,000
January 19 Episode: 1.032 million
January 26 Episode: 1.100 million (Beach Break episode)
February 2 Episode: 954,000
February 9 Episode: 1.129 million
February 16 Episode: 869,000
February 23 Episode: 1.010 million
March 2 Episode: 966,000
March 9 Episode: 945,000 (Post-Revolution episode)
March 16 Episode: 993,000 (St. Patrick’s Day Slam episode)
March 23 Episode: 1.046 million
March 30 Episode: 979,000
April 6 Episode: 989,000
April 13 Episode: 977,000

That's a range of 869k-1,129,000.

Few other bits from the article. The average for 2021 is 891,810, which even though the show is unopposed by WWE for 8 months is actually lower than the 2019 average of 903,333.

A lot of data that all adds up to no real change, so far as I can see. To give them their due, I guess it's a full quarter nearer the top of their range rather than the dips that we'd see even as recently as Q4 of 2021.

[Benjamin Button]

I suppose CM Punk is the best financial success in AEW history. I just hope Tony Khan is ok.

https://youtu.be/mQjBvGyiko4

[Prime Time]

I found these figures once before, now AEW has been around for a while I thought it'd be worth comparing again.

These come from YouGov, so it's not my own research (but it's doubtless more rigorous and using a larger sample size than anything I could do on my own, so I'm going to piggyback off it).

All Elite Wrestling has been heard of by 51% of respondents, as opposed to 81% for WWE Raw, which has obviously been around a lot longer and will have had a far greater reach at certain points in the past. Raw's popularity ratings are pretty bad, however, with only 26% actually liking the show and 37% actively disliking it, with 19% neutral (the way this works, for some reason they don't include the people who haven't heard of the show as neutral too, or exclude them from the subsequent categories). Almost half of the people who've heard of WWE Raw don't like it.

As for AEW, their positive rating is only 18%, with a negative of 20%. That's significantly better than for RAW, but it still means that they have a net unfavourability rating. It's not like hardly anyone has heard of the show (more than half of respondents have) but that everyone who does, likes it. Well under half of the people who have heard of the show have a positive opinion, with the rest either negative (20%) or neutral (12%). That tracks to plenty of people giving the show a chance but not wanting to stick around.

They break it down a little more by demographics - both shows have the highest level of fame amongst 'Gen X', but the highest level of popularity amongst Millennials. AEW are popular with around half of millennial respondents who have heard of the show, but even so, that only equates to 54% of the age bracket. Both shows are well underwater with the baby boomers, with only 17% having a good opinion of WWE and less than half knowing about AEW in the first place (leaving them with a popularity of around 8%).

Lastly, they break it down by gender, and there's a more pronounced divide in the AEW ratings here. Men and women know about and like WWE Raw far more similarly than AEW, which skews considerably more male both in terms of who knows about it and has a popular opinion.

For the curious, Smackdown compares very closely with RAW - only it's greater popularity with millennials is balanced out by being more unpopular with the two older demographics, leaving it in almost the same place (slightly less unpopular but not enough to brag about). It does have a slightly higher overall fame rating though, at 85%.

[PEN15v2]

Sooooooooo

I doubt it'll take a lot of convincing that COACH and I were among those long ago talking about how the Tony Khan method of running AEW would need to change (I'm sure there were others, but I don't recall who) . Being friends with the talent has pros but it also has a lot of cons.

From what I've read, we're seeing MONSTROUS evidence of this after the Punk post show scrum. "Tony's still learning" and then proceeded to dump on his coworkers and possible bosses. Maybe the details are wobbly, because I didn't watch it and I'm not copying and pasting, but going by memory. But Tony sat there and let Punk belittle the EVPs to the media.

AEW desperately needs someone to tighten everything up. I know the IWC generally craps on Bischoff and Booker podcasts comments, but that are looking more and more correct than ever now.

Vince (and HHH) must be laughing.

Now before anyone comments that it might be a work, no. Just no. I'll keep the door open anytime it seems like AEW is breaking ground creatively. This could be a genius way to break that fourth wall, but there are too many inconsistencies to make this a planned angle. Punk wins the title to hometown crowd as a strong babyface, and then turns heel in a press conference by belittling Tony to the public? His next challenger, who also left after attacking Tony, is MJF. Even if he is turning face to defend AEW from a heel Punk, it doesn't jive because of there was a story here, MJF isn't the person Punk attacked. Page would be that person right now as he got it the worst, but Omega or Bucks can fit that bill. Not Max.

Well, I guess it's possible it's a work. But if it is, they hurt too many people along the way. And Punk wasn't exactly a heel either. His Colt comments went too far, but they seem to give sympathy to how he tried to help him.


Either way, this could be devastating. The supposed team meeting that involved Jericho telling everyone to keep their business private seemed to be on deaf ears. Again, always possible that it's a terrible work, but even if it is, it's got too many brown smelly spots to be successful.


I don't like AEW, or the Elite, or Tony from what I know about them. But I like the wrestling world with them and AEW around. I like knowing with two top companies, the type of wrestling I don't like can be over there, and succeed with the fans who like that. I like the idea of people jumping back and forth and keeping their careers fresh for when they are in promotions I do watch. So I don't want this to go sour and ruin AEW. But they need to change something.

EDIT
More signs or rumors are pointing towards this being a work. If I've been worked, then kudos to them for being innovative in a way that I didn't see it coming.
I still would have to ask how this serves anything. If Jericho is part of it and it's too feet MJF over as a face, then this booking between Punk and Mox was a mess for no reason. Capitalize on the Punk Chicago live gate, and immediately turn him heel, while making the boss and someone irrelevant to any current programming look like dildos?

If this is a shoot that became a work, then I fail to see how this does anyone any favors. Mox is a complete forgotten entity.

The only way this seems to work is if pork be the Elite with MJF as the heroes Vs Punk and Tony the heels? I dunno. Maybe I need to be watching it to really understand the details, and true AEW fans are laughing at my ignorance. I'm ok with that. But even if this is some Golden plan, it's really fucking stupid. It makes the promotion look incredibly incompetent. I'm guessing the ratings on Wednesday will still be strong though, so if that's the goal, job well done.

Can anyone make sense of it?

[Benjamin Button]

The worst thing about this is either they’re all being shitty people or even worse, they’re all being booked to look like it. Either way, it is madness .

Overall, I hope it’s a work for the sake of humanity. While what Hang Man did was pretty shitty, nobody really cares about him except CM Punk just can’t let it go to the point he may have serious issues. And Tony Khan is fostering the drama, sitting there watching it, and saying it makes good TV. God, I think it’s a work and hope it is. But still it’s not a good work, either.

[Oliver]

You're telling me CM Punk, Kenny Omega, and the Young Bucks might all be shitty people? I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you.

[PEN15v2]

I wouldn't say they are shitty people. I get the feeling Omega/Bucks are in over their heads and inexperienced for this kind of role. I'll Tony and Hangman into that mix. Incompetent, maybe. I don't know.

It feels like if this was a work, it's built on some real stuff, but exaggerated. Honestly, as log as everyone can get along, there's nothing wrong with that. Edge vs Matt Hardy is a great example of how it can work.

The problem I'm seeing is that these pieces don't seem to add up to anything, unless Tony and Ace Steel suddenly become regular onscreen characters, and no one comes out looking sympathetic at all.

[Team Farrell]

It all makes no sense. Maybe it's a long game work, but why?

The only way I see this being a work is if they decide to turn a shoot into a work like they sort of managed to do with MJF.

But look at some of the evidence:

• CM Punk is from a completely different world than the EVP's. He's from the indy wrestling that hated (and still does) what the EVP's love. But he wanted to come back to wrestling and saw potential in AEW, knew people like Ace Steel there, and was likely given a level of creative control whether in writing or verbally. The EVP's like what they like in wrestling, and if you don't you're not in their clique. It is telling that pretty quickly Cody was on Cody island and absolutely not involved with the other EVP's in any way.
• Those same EVP's who Punk probably wasn't fond of going in are the guys who seem like they've been going out of their way to shit on his friends FTR. If it was just all high school drama bullshit, you shake your head and move on. But now they're costing Punk's boys money by them not being in the video game, and themselves pivoting very suddenly (with an impossible follow-up to the initial angle) to a babyface turn and trios run instead of Bucks vs FTR III.
• Punk has been dogged since he walked in to the company by rumours of friction with Colt Cabana fed to dirt sheets by someone. Then those rumours fed by someone appear to have resulted with Hangman Page buying in and coming to the aid of Cabana while disrespecting Punk on live TV.
• Punk is known to be outspoken. Now he's frustrated. He's willing to be on Punk island like Cody was and avoid the EVP's as much as he can...but someone keeps talking to the Meltzers of the world. So he gets frustrated and pops off at the mouth. He shouldn't have, it was wrong and unprofessional. But the guys' immediately asked questions about his personal -- apparently by a friend of the person invloved -- life while full of adrenaline, still short of breath and covered in blood and sweat. So you should give him a pass and let Tony discipline him afterwards. But apparently the EVP's opted to try to flex their muscle on a guy who's not like the indy kids they play with, he'll throw hands.

I have no idea what happens next. But if any of this is approaching true, there's no way Ace Steel makes it out with a job.

EDIT: I will add this:

If this all turns out to be some sort of a big, pointless work -- even if it becomes the biggest thing in the entire pro wrestling industry -- that means that this media conference was orchestrated as some kind of angle. If I were media, wrestling or mainstream, I'd never attend another scrum again.

You can get away with running an angle at a legitimate press conference. The UFC does it. But you probably can't get away with going that big.

[Oliver]

Perhaps rather than shitty, the point is they're egotistical. And yeah, damn right I think they are all in business for themselves at some point in time. Punk didn't need to carry the chip on his shoulder over Hangman's promo for two months so that it was the first thing he spat out on TV when he got back in the ring, he could have easily talked to him about it either right after or during that spell on the sidelines with an aside. Maybe he did, but nothing's been talked about in that regard. Omega comes across as someone who has an ego the size of an arena, and the Bucks aren't far behind him, and I wouldn't be surprised if they believe - rightly or wrongly - that they're carrying AEW on their backs which doesn't help.

Honestly, I think Punk is rightly frustrated about someone leaking shit about not just him but anything that happens backstage in AEW. It's pretty clear that it's coming from a certain level within the company, not, like, a Max Caster or something. I think he's entirely unprofessional and wrong to go and do it in the way he did, so publicly, which is probably what the EVPs have taken an issue with. I don't think either party is necessarily in the wrong for how they feel about things, but I think they're right to feel wrong for how those things have been acted on.