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

[Benjamin Button]

I’d fuck AEW bc they never run out of moves. Don’t have to worry bout fake orgasms bc there’s no selling.

id marry tna because even when you don’t give it any attention, it never goes away.

id kill the dying days of WCW. Put a once great thing out of its misery

[Prime Time]

Just had a look back over some of the earlier pages of this thread, and boy, is it crazy to think about some of the things that people were saying in the light of what this turned out to be.

[Benjamin Button]

Lot of good will burnt up. Looking back, I think it’s the amateur booking and talent. Cody, to me, has proven to be a better talent when someone else is doing his creative. The EVPs and Tony Khan didn’t/still don’t have a clue.

You’d think the Elite would move the needle in the ratings, at least with the loyal audience, but doesn’t seem like that’s happening either.

[BK-097]

You’d think the Elite would move the needle in the ratings, at least with the loyal audience, but doesn’t seem like that’s happening either.

There is a lot of truth in this. I think fans were curious at first and now everyone knows what they're going to get from the Elite and there are ~800,000 fans that want and are willing to tune in to what the Elite is putting out in the world and that is now their ceiling. They have been losing viewers for their segments pretty regularly, so their core audience sticks around, but the "pop in" AEW fans who are coming to check out the product are not. It could be a combination of things, some fans probably were curious and tuned in early and decided the Elite were not for them, some fans have given up on the AEW product as a whole and are not likely to come back to it, and there are likely fans that may be willing to watch the Elite brand of wrestling style, but frankly don't particularly care for the Elite as an entity in the business and don't watch because of that, or maybe that all night 24 hours gas station opened up and that is drawing people's attention away. No matter the case, the company's ratings have pretty consistently gone down with exceptions of shows designed to pop a number, but even the shows that are built to pop a number aren't always drawing viewers at this point. The Elite heavy segments are not generating new viewers and are actually seeing viewership go down.

Perhaps if there were an authority figure booking the show that wasn't seemingly swayed by every piece of talent that steps through their door and has an opinion about their character direction...TK is being fed bad information and direction from his people He needs actual bookers that don't have a stake in their own creative and direction. I'm not going to get into the list of seemingly bad influences that Tony listens to, because short of optics and some anecdotal information I've read from interviews, I have no proof who is in his ear, but I have no doubt that my assumptions are right. I want to make an emperor's new clothes joke here in the worst way...

[Prime Time]

Just a recap of how ratings have gone over the past few months.

24 August - 1,049,000 (CM Punk vs Moxley in the main event)
31st - 1,020,000
7th September - 1,035,000 (First show after All Out 2022)
14th - 1,175,000
21st - 1,039,000
28th - 990,000
5th October - 1,038,000
12th - 983,000
18th - 752,000 (up against NLCS game 1 and NXT on Tuesday Night)
26th - 997,000 (first show after Punk/buyout rumours break)
2nd November - 911,000
9th - 930,000 (Bucks/Omega return teased)
16th - 818,000 (go home for Full Gear)
23rd - 880,000 - (Bucks/Kenny return to Dynamite)
30th - 870,000
7th December - 840,000

Not sure I have to add much to that. Tells it's own story.

[Team Farrell]

This is pretty rough. I'm not going to start shouting that they're going to be out of business in 2023, but man something needs to happen. Their most ardent fans won't agree, obviously, but AEW is such a cold brand right now.

Is there a star on the roster other than MJF that you feel is "must see"? Punk's gone, it's clear that not many people outside of the 750k devotees that give a shit about the Elite vs Death Triangle best of seven, Mox has cooled, Bryan is cooler than he was a year ago, Jericho's segments appear to be driving viewers away, and the overall booking hasn't been strong, and even the extenuating circumstances that have hampered Tony's booking are kind of completely Tony's fault.

It's all bad. But look at last year. They weren't exactly lighting the world on fire in terms of numbers through most of 2021, then Punk and/or Bryan gave them a bigshot in the arm. Now, it feels like Punk's viewers tuned out when he left, a lot of The Elite's did as well, and the latter haven't necessarily all come back now that they are. It's a lot harder to get people to tune back in, than to get them to tune in to begin with.

But ultimately, they don't put on a show that's conducive to making new fans.

They're trying. They're elevating MJF and Ricky Starks, letting The Acclaimed do their thing, etc. Hopefully that helps.

[Powder]

My opinion is that it is the same match over and over and over again, regardless of who is in the match. Spotfests, with practically no DQs and blood.

They have talent on the roster, but AEW is a glorified indy show.

[Team Farrell]

I mean, outside of the silly six man division best of seven gimmick, I don't think a lot of AEW's matches are spot fests. They're modern and athletic, but the majority aren't that "Elite style".

But your last statement is both the biggest boost and the anchor around the company. Their biggest fans love that the company is basically an indy with national TV and the budget to hire all of their favourite wrestlers. But the indys are the indys, not mainstream, for a reason so it drives off the average person.

[Prime Time]

Don't know how many people are still here to see this, but might as well update it.

14 Dec: 950,000
21 Dec: 957,000
28 Dec: 876,000
4 Jan: 864,000
11 Jan: 967,000
18 Jan: 969,000
25 Jan: 1,003,000 (Mark Briscoe vs Jay Lethal Main event)
01 Feb: 901,000
08 Feb: 899,000
15 Feb: 824,000

So looks the slide stalled a bit, and there was maybe a bit of a resurgence, but that 824,000 last week sticks out like a sore thumb. As does the fact that it took the Briscoe tribute to get back above a million in this post-Punk landscape.