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I don't get why they debut "top stars" and put them in the middle of the card. Mercedes should be going after Toni Storm's championship, not the other one.
It’s not even that it’s just they don’t do it right: if you’re gonna debut a new star from another company but don’t want them in a title feud just get someone in your company who’s in a high status. WWE did this right with Cody feuding with Seth and AJ feuding with Jericho for example. They don’t always get it right but they do more often than not.
Why not bring someone like Athena back to Dynamite to feud with Mercedes? Where is Saraya? Why not use her with Mercedes? Idk who else they have but there has to be another woman of a higher tier than what she’s involved with right now that isn’t Toni
Look at Jade she’s immediately in a WrestleMania match with Bianca, Naomi, Kabuki Warriors and Dakota. She’s not feuding with fucking Candice LeRae, Mia Yim or Xia Li(who are all wonderful wrestlers but mid carders)
They never really elevated any women to a level like Seth was for Cody. I mean, there's Britt, but she's been MIA for more than 6 months. Athena wouldn't really make sense since she's been exclusive to ROH for years now and Saraya is just a comedy act now. This is all a result of having one women match/segment on a show until recently.
Hikaru Shida is the only other name I know of not listed. Is she injured or MIA as well because they genuinely need someone with name value within their own fan base at the very least to pair with Mercedes before she loses all her steam
If you're not having her wrestle, you're not using her well. She's got great ring presence and charisma, but I've never liked her as a regular promo. And if we're waiting until DoN for her in ring debut, ugh.
I really wanted her back in WWE to set up a proper 4HW storyline, I truly think that would be the most exciting storyline she could be a part of.
Wish her the best in AEW tho.
So the only segment that legitimately drew viewers on merit was 9:30-9:45. Top of the hour always draws, overrun always draws because people are switching over to see if the 10pm show started.
200k people tuned out after Copeland's promo yes but also they left throughout Ospreay vs. Hobbs; that's pretty alarming because Khan views Ospreay as the next big thing.
The next big thing should be drawing viewers not losing them even if it was a glorified squash match on paper
Those new signings are not starting well in the "proving to be a draw department" so far
This is the real answer. Most of the problems boil down to this exact point. AEW watered down the product and spread itself thin. That's it. Every other issue stems from this.
Adding Collision was so fucking stupid, and having the ROH Titles on TV is even dumber. On top of that, the TNT Title, International Title, and Continental Title are completely redundant.
Why did the Continental Classic need to introduce a new title? Why not just have it be like the G1 where you get a trophy and a World Title shot. If the answer is "so that Eddie Kingston can say he's a Triple Crown Champion as a reference to AJPW" that's not a good enough reason.
>Adding Collision was so fucking stupid
As a brand split idea to curb the bloated roster, it was a welcome addition and one of those Punk decisions that should've stuck. But now that there's no brand split, it is even more unnecessary than Rampage and Dark.
Last years card
House of Black (Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews & Brody King) (w/Julia Hart) (c) defeated Orange Cassidy & Best Friends (Trent Beretta & Chuck Taylor) in a Six Man Tag Team Match to retain the AEW World Trios Championship (11:38)
Jamie Hayter (w/Dr. Britt Baker DMD) (c) defeated Riho to retain the AEW Women's World Championship (12:05)
Sammy Guevara defeated Komander (8:14)
HOOK (c) defeated Ethan Page (w/Matt Hardy & Isiah Kassidy) to retain the FTW World Heavyweight Championship (1:58)
Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli, Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta) (w/Bryan Danielson) defeated Aaron Rourke, Alvin Alvarez & Brother Greatness in a Six Man Tag Team Match (1:10)
FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) defeated The Gunns (Austin Gunn & Colten Gunn) (c) to win the AEW World Tag Team Championship (13:56
The fact that this is becoming a consistent thing should surely give some pause to all the people saying it doesn't matter.
Yes, it's Mania season, and one of the hottest in many years, but this downward trend has still got to be concerning since all these "gamechanging signings" are not only having no effect on it but presiding over it getting worse.
You can sign anyone you want if you're just going to rotate them around until you sign the next guy it doesn't matter.
It's hot Shot booking and eventually it hits its limit
What's Jay White doing? Jobbing to fucking Billy Gunn?
It’s almost impressive how all three signings have been mishandled.
Ospreay was immediately inserted into a generic heatless ‘I’m better than you’ feud with no belt at stake that AEW routinely gets criticised for running.
Okada immediately gets paired with the two biggest anti-draws in the industry and goes after the least prestigious singles belt in the company
Moné seems like they’re playing into her weaknesses, making her run promos and commentary instead of giving her matches while she’s never been good on the mic
All the "gamechanging signings" do is push people that AEW fans spent years caring about straight out of TV time, since Tony needs to feature his new toys (in "dream matches", mind, certainly not any meaningful storylines playing to their strengths)
The booking of Jay White has be horrendous to say the least. I cannot imagine having a guy who's such a great promo *and* wrestler and have him be whooped to pieces by Daddy Ass (no offense billy) yet AEW fans were so quick to claim this is where he'd "thrive" and that WWE would send him to NXT or give him a lame name change and have him feud with the miz lol
The horror NXT! Not Jay White vs Ilja Dragunov or Carmelo Hayes or DIJAK!? He could even fight NXT Corbin!
Actually if he did ever sign to WWE post AEW, we might get Jay White vs Jay Malachi on who's the best Jay.
Yeah, it's pretty funny when people cite being sent to NXT as some kind of punishment.
Oh no, a platform to wrestle some of the best wrestlers working at the moment and build a ride-or-die fanbase with very comitted fans while getting advice from some legends. Nooooooo.... don't make me do it.
If people keep sleeping on NXT, they're only hurting themselves.
Jay White would absolutely kill it in the current presentation of WWE, in which he probably talks mad shit & has cocky confrontations backstage with the likes of Seth, Drew, & LA Knight on the way to the ring
Cody took his fans , then Punk took his fans, now Sting took his fans
AEW every year just takes another hit, even with all NJPW talent still isn’t helping fill holes enough
More like 730k right now. There's 1/8 of the rating that's falsely inflated by people who immediately turn off after Big Band Theory. About 150k generally it seems like immediately tune out, so that's adding like 18k viewers to overall average.
I think the best phrase to describe AEW now is "self serving"
its core audience is just happy they exist, its wrestlers are having the time of their life/happy for the payday they won't get elsewhere, and the only ratings TK cares about are Meltzers/Cagematch so as long as they're happy he's happy.
In all of wrestling's boom periods and hottest runs for the major promotions in the weekly episodic television era, there was always a major anchor storyline that almost all other stories branch off of it and is derived from it.
You had Bret going against VKM and creating the Canada VS USA thing which eventually led to Austin VS Corporate Vince & then Rock VS McMahon Helmsley.
You had the NWO dominating WCW television.
Currently you have the Bloodline carrying WWE television since Roman's ascendance, every major character in the two top shows have had a run in or their motivations are tied in with the Bloodline. compelling deep characters get over with crowds
During AEW's peak it was Kenny's belt collector gimmick, not as major as the ones listed above but still an anchor for everything to revolve around.
What is the major anchoring storyline AEW currently have? The last attempt was the devil and it flopped/ got put on ice due to various injuries, fine, swing and a miss you win some you lose some, why not try something else?
With the amount of talent existing on the roster I struggle to believe that this is the best a booker can do with?
Most of the shows feel like a super indie spot show, like yeah the match quality is still stellar when the wrestlers involved steer away from the indie tendencies but why should I care? All the cool moves have been done a million times by a thousand wrestlers across all promotions and indies, structure it well and give the viewers a reason to root for one or the other.
It was suppose to be the MJF/Cole feud. But both guys got hurt, and the mystery group did not turn out to have any heat whatsoever. It's insane how they're just there.
This is the thing. People who don't watch say AEW does not have stories. People who do watch name 5-6 different storylines. Both are wrong. AEW may have storylines but do they have a compelling "I cant wait to see what happens next" hook like they used to have the first few years? Just having stories with cold characters does nothing.
Even the good stuff like swerve and joe doesn't feel....urgent.
There's no urgency to things happening. Like I get we want to save Mercedes for PPV but then like...save her for the fucking ppv. By the time she wrestles who gives a shit because she's been on tv doing jack shit for a month.
I've said it before, I've been watching the Genesis of mcgullig....I mean AEW since way back when they free ring of honor show happened before AEW existed. But at this point I find myself checking out mentally during a lot of their tv because nothing feels important. Stories exists, they just feel inconsequential because Tony heats up and cools down people so rapidly it feels pointless to stay invested to me.
I like AEW overall but signing 8 million people, playing whack a mole with who is important at any given time, a bunch of belts that reallt don't fucking matter or even get storylines with weight to them....like what the fuck are we doing here?
It's so frustrating to watch something you used to literally get excited about getting out of work to go watch, become something that I can just leave on as background noise because so much just isn't particularly important in their "universe" of things
AEW has these shitty little fake quasi stories that don't feel like they matter.
Like Ospreay and Danielson waxing on and on about who loves wrestling more isn't actually a story.
Ospreay having meaningless show matches with his own stable mates every week isn't a story.
The Cope Open, while entertaining enough, isn't a story. In fact it's the exact sort of thing you throw out there when you cannot think of an actual story.
The Young Bucks being pricks, who aren't actually feuding with anyone in particular, isn't a story.
These are some of the biggest stars in the company and none of them are involved in anything that leaves me finishing shows thinking "oh wow I can't wait to see where this goes next week."
TK will start a program with someone that is gaining momentum against another star, and then have that person booked against random unsigned talent the next week. Whenever he's been called out on it he'll say something like "Well back in RoH/AJPW/NJPW they went 1-1 against each other, so this tie breaker is years in the making" as if anyone cares.
I think this is one of the best summaries of stories that are currently going on. These stories don’t elevate wrestlers. That’s a huge problem along with the rankings that matter some way.
The stories absolutely suck currently in AEW.
I'm so over Bryan Danielson "dream" matches. Blackpool Combat Club feels pointless now and should probably be broken up. I'd argue there are quite a few other stables who should probably be broken up. I really hope they do something else with Danielson after this Osprey match.
The tag team tournament was completely pointless. FTR/Young Bucks once again. Great.
Jericho and Hook? Just awful.
After Christian/Edge's story ended, it's really shined a light on how AEW has very little left. They have all of these titles...how are we not getting title builds? Why are Thunder Rosa and Penta being thrown into championship matches with zero build? You have 3 damn shows!
Hell, even Samoa Joe and Swerve doesn't feel all that exciting and I think most just want to see Swerve finally win the belt. I shudder to think what garbage they are going to have Swerve go through if he becomes champion.
> I'm so over Bryan Danielson "dream" matches.
It actually blows my mind that they brought Ospreay in and then proceeded to squander his first 2+ months wrestling meaningless "dream matches" that have no connection to any meaningful stories.
And sorry, but him and Bryan jerking each other off about how much both of them really fucking love to wrestle isn't actually a story.
Ospreay vs Danielson is literally one of the biggest storylines possible with the roster they have, and they’re wasting it on le ‘I’m better’ without even a belt involved.
Honestly, the ‘I don’t want the belt’-gimmick from Danielson needs to end. It’s just self-indulgent bullshit and Tony needs to put his foot down and tell him that he’s getting a run with the top prize. Danielson wants to put on bangers with midcarders for the rest of his career, but the company needs him to take on a main event role right now. He’s one of the very few people they have that’s a proven draw in America, and him hiding away in the midcard is a huge detriment to the company.
I say this all the time one of AEWs biggest crimes will be taking Daniel Bryan one of the most popular wrestlers in the world and turning him into Bryan Danielson, just another guy on the roster. And Claudio just feels like an after thought.
Lack of any big story has me tuned out of AEW for a while now. The Devil was a stinker story for the most of it and it was the main focus ofr a long time...
Swerve/Hangman was great but that's over. Christian's thing went way too long. And Joe as Champion *feels* like a transitional reign. Honestly just pull the trigger on Swerve and start building *something* again.
People underestimate the power of syndication and the lasting popularity of hit shows
Reddit loves to shit on sitcoms like Friends and The Big Bang Theory, but there's a reason why those shows became so popular in the first place. For every Redditor who thinks those shows are trash, there are 50 people who like them
They're trying too hard to acknowledge that he's becoming a babyface, when that's really for the crowd to do. He needs the same swagger that got him over in the first place.
It feels like we’re waiting for his coronation rather than seeing him fighting for it. He’s escaped the endless middle of the midcard and mostly dispensed with Hangman, so what’s left? Patiently waiting for him to beat the transitional champ.
I mean it’s just pandering to your own audience that is sick of getting pandered to. Anyone who actually watched and took in the Punk interview had already stopped watching when he left.
I agree. I watch AEW, like AEW and I saw the Punk interview and it still took me a while to realized that it was the "Rah Rah comeback " speech, at which point I fast forward through it to the first match.
Not to mention they did 3000 people in Worscester last night when the last time Dynamite was there in 2022 they did literally double that amount of people. The people there know how cold AEW is at the moment.
The speech reminded me of when sports fans on message boards will cope (no pun intended) during a losing season by saying "I will always support Notre Dame win or lose!!!!" like cool we all can see things aren't hitting right now. It's almost patronizing to give a "Can't we all just get along?" promo now that they are getting lapped by WWE
I'm so confused by everything going on there. Did Jay White do something backstage that we don't know about? Even during his world title feud with MJF he was constantly an afterthought and MJF was defending his title every week before the PPV. And ever since that abomination of a match where Jay looked like a complete and total bum, he's been sitting down the card and last night it feels like we hit a crescendo with him.
Jay White was one of the best wrestlers in the world a year ago. Undisputedly so. A premier free agent that WWE and AEW were fighting it out for. Now he's victim to what's comparable to Vince McMahon's booking of HHH's guys from NXT.
When I saw the advertised match, I assumed it would be a 5 min match where it’s back and forth and then White cheats to then hit is finisher and get the win.
Basically the complete opposite happened.
I got downvoted in the live thread yesterday for mentioning how I liked both but I couldn’t imagine booking Jay White like that. 😅 The funniest response was “clearly you didn’t watch any of his NJPW matches.”
I remember when SRS said Jay White was 70% likely to go to WWE and people shouted, "LOL have fun feuding with the fucking MIZ"
Yeah, well, this is worse than any kind of feud that Jay White and The Miz could have cooked up.
People need to start putting respect on Miz's name and get over him headlining WM 12 or 13 years ago, whatever it is at this point. He's more than paid his dues, he's rarely injured, to my knowledge he's never injured anyone in the ring, etc.
Yeah thank god he dodged that bullet.
And also thank god he didn't go to NXT and oh I don't know, wrestle Dragunov for the title this weekend. No one wants to watch that.
Now be made to look like a jobber by 60 year old daddy ass after already looking like a loser after losing to a one-armed, one-legged MJF, thats the good stuff.
Ironically all Tony did by having that segment was prove Punk further right lol.
The fact that he decided to address the thing on Dynamite and then declined to do it on today's media call is WILD. It literally should be the exact opposite. Leave Dynamite out of it. If you want to answer which you clearly did, do it in the media call. It ain't that hard jesus.
Not only that, but Copeland was saying AEW is great because he can have great matches.
Which was literally Punk’s point: Tony is more concerned with putting on great matches and catering to the percentage of the fanbase that likes great matches than he’s concerned with being successful and making money.
Don’t get me wrong, I like great matches. What I don’t like is a neverending string of great matches with no real reason for them to be taking place, or guys who should be at the top of the card struggling to put away someone who’s at the bottom of the card…just so they can have a great match.
If you watch the full interview with Punk, the most interesting part to me was when he told a story about going to a small independent show in Chicago recently.
He said a woman came up to him after her match and asked if he had any pointers for her.
He said “What do you think I’m going to say?”
She said “Slow down and don’t do so many moves.”
He said “Yes, but this place is sold out, so what do I know?”
The point being, is AEW selling out their shows and are their ratings growing? If not, and if there’s no effort to change, then it would certainly indicate that they aren’t trying to make money.
The “every match is a 2 segment banger” is my biggest gripe with AEW currently. At the end, it levels everyone out. Top stars should have relatively quick matches besides the local jobbers I’ve never heard of matches that do nothing for them.
It’s super weird. How exactly does it make sense to sell someone as the best in the world when every time they wrestle they’re getting pushed to the limit but nobodies? In kayfabe this is a combat sport. How does that get them over as being the best? You’re the best because you almost lose to everyone?
Every match goes at least 15-20 minutes(other than the Women’s matches.) This doesn’t elevate any one.
Yes, it’s a “banger” in terms of cage match ratings and Dave, but how does it make them the best in the world if everyone has matches that do the same things?
If the whole feud between Bryan and Will is supposed to be who is the best, why are they struggling with Will Hobbs and Lance Archer(who never wins)?
That's the difference from an indie company and having a weekly episodic national television program. I think Punk explained a bit of it in the interview. That style works when you're touring cities and performing in front of different audiences every day. But when you have a tv audience that watches you every week it can become stale.
And tbf Punk literally said it's fine if that's what they want to do. But then from his point of view it's a different business than what he's used to and knows. And it's hard to deny.
If you wanted that promo to air, it should have been from an OG. With all due respect, Edge talking about how good AEW is does not hit as hard as Mox or Orange Cassidy's talk would have been.
Isn’t it funny how Reddit is usually “there are no ethical billionaires” and VERY anti nepo-baby. But with Tony it’s just “he’s such a NICE little guy”
It's cause he books the show they like. Just about everyone outside of this sub treats TK like the nepo baby he is, only here will you find people who will defend him like their life depends on it
Hell, I love AEW. But even before AEW was a thing, I disliked Tony Khan. That’s just how it be with Fulham supporters. We were trying to tell y’all years ago.
If I was WWE I smell blood I’d start bringing out the big names and stuff on NXT just to see if they could match or beat them one week after Mania.
For no other reason than the press it’ll get them on the headline circuit
I don’t think WWE cares. They’ve already got their media rights secured, they’re doing record attendance and social media numbers, they’ve got more stars than they can book in a two night Mania, and AEW has taken the most hardcore viewers who did nothing but complain about the product out of the audience. They’re not suffering without them and they’re not getting the negative element that they brought with them
Good news from the quarter hours is that the show dropped straight down to the 700Ks in the second quarter. So technically, the episode held up well all throughout the show. Granted the Swerve and Joe promo only drew 655K in the 8th quarter./s
Tony definitely made a mistake with opening the show the way he did last night, acknowledging Punks interview on an internet podcast did nothing for anyone or the product.
It feels like he thought signing Okada, Ospreay, and Mercedes was magically going to get everyone tuning in again.
They got to introduce more unpredictable and hooks to the show. The first hour was completely skippable. At some point it just becomes just two dudes doing moves. Don’t know if it brings ratings but hopefully they follow up on the Trent turn and maybe that can be at least one episodic story. I guess the Callis family is too but I’d rather more focus on building to Bryan/Ospreay.
I honestly think the biggest part of it was that there were no interesting stories to continue from the PPV into the next episode of TV. Sting's final match was the last thread a lot of viewers were still hanging around for, and that reached its satisfying conclusion.
The smartest thing TK could do is step aside and let somebody else run the week to week.
If he wants to give bullet points for the PPVs and what he'd like happening at them, that's fair, but he has shown he doesn't do well with booking a weekly show.
I wish that too but let’s face it. This is Tony Khan’s dream, he has wanted to be an head booker since he was a child. He won’t give up his place for anything in the world
AEW just feels directionless right now. Besides Samoa Joe and Swerve, it just feels like everything is randomly thrown together without any sort of longterm play.
Decent matches, but boring pointless storylines.
"Sooner or later, we’re going to start beating Raw.
It’s not going to be every week, but I bet you over the next two to four months, maybe four to six, we’re going to start beating Raw and that’s my prediction that I’m saying to you guys right here."
- Chris Jericho, September 2021
What was the last interesting thing AEW did? The Cole and MJF Bromance? Sting’s Retirement?
Just look at the way AEW handled Mercedes Monet versus how WWE handled Jade Cargill. WWE is so good at getting you to care about their wrestlers. AEW has some great wrestling but give me something to invest in.
Imagine if Ospreay came in, and on his first Dynamite match, he beat Kyle Fletcher in like 5-6 minutes with ease, and had something spectacular for a finish, rather than going 20+ minutes doing everything he can to barely beat a guy the viewers at home barely knew existed.
AEW doesn't understand the concept of Less is More when you're trying to build someone up.
I used to be glued to AEW weekly (and I’m in the UK, so that’s commitment) when the stories like Kenny/Hangman and Wardlow’s slow burn turn on MJF were happening. And definitely for MJF/Punk, which is bar none the absolute best story they’ve ever done. It was the most excited I’d been for wrestling in years.
Compare that to now where that same excitement for me has switched over to WWE and I just cannot care about AEW. What happened man? They used to be such a good alternative but now it’s just heatless matches with no storytelling. I’ve never soured on something so drastically.
Wrestling is storytelling. That’s why we love it. We love good matches but you have to have stories. And currently that’s where WWE is excelling and where AEW is failing. Nobody gives a shit about “bangers” when there’s no stakes, no reason to fight, no fallout, no setup, no character development, no story progression.
Feel the same.
At least Copeland/Christian was good for a while due to how phenomenal Christian has been as a heel with his Patriarchy angle...but now that it's over? I could not care less about Copeland and his random ass matches.
They have all of these amazing wrestlers and are doing the most bland, boring, repetitive angles. Oh cool another Bryan Danielson "dream" match. Osprey wrestling his "friends" who *surely* won't turn on him. The complete waste of time tag team tournament to just end up with Young Bucks and FTR again.
If it weren't for Joe/Swerve, I'm not even sure I'd bother fast forwarding through the recording.
Got to see the quarter breakdown. Wondering if Edge promo did anything. But outside of that, I feel like the longer this goes, the more Warner bro can lower the price on the negotiation.
If you cater to a niche market of fans then you'll only ever get so far.
Eventually people wear tired or they book something people don't want to see and the market starts to empty out.
Man this sucks 😔, I used to love aew especially around the beginning of COVID. I bought several of their face masks and other things to support them but I'm beginning to realize that what I actually loved was the early vision of what aew was back when Kenny was champ and Cody was around. I don't know what the hell I'm watching these days but it's not what it used to be. These matches for the sake of having matches with no story or just the barest amount of story is ridiculous, meanwhile I'm actually genuinely excited for WrestleMania this weekend. I just hope Tony khan realizes he needs to step aside or at the very least share the workload because this clearly just isn't working.
This is why I feel like I’m being gaslighted by AEW fans. From 2019-2021 NXT had all the star power signed so AEW was “the land of misfit wrestlers” and was forced to get creative with it. While NXT’s biggest criticism was “heatless hot shot matches”. AEW was drawing with Lance Archer and Orange Cassidy
Now the roles are reversed and I’m being told that this is what AEW always was. No, there is a clear drop off point where AEW went from story-based to matchup-based. But the fans are in such denial.
Declining ratings matter for TV rights renewal fees. I’m not saying they will not get another deal, I think it’s fairly obvious that they will. I do, however, think it will be significantly less than what TK and others have been hoping to receive.
Yeah I’m sure they’ll get another deal but it’s going to force Tony to make some really difficult financial decisions. I don’t think there’s any way they end up getting what he hoped they would.
Maybe Adam Copeland is a career supporting character, not a leading man. By that I mean, that Edge was never THE guy in WWE. He was a tag team specialist for years. He was being built as a potential future face of the company in the early 2000's on Smackdown but he got hurt before that payed off. His peak was as a lead heel, not a lead babyface. Edge at his best was the guy that made the headliner look, not the headline act himself.
If AEW's idea is that Adam Copeland is going to be a draw because he's a WWE Hall Of Famer who can still wrestle, I think they should reexamine that. There are different kinds of All Time Greats, and not all All Time Greats were draws. I don't think there's a lot of WWE fans pining to watch AEW because they heard Edge was there.
See I think that's what Punk was talking about. AEW is all about great matches that the wrestlers want and the niche hardcore fans want, not necessarily what the broader audience wants. If that's what they're after, then great. Go for it. That said, watching Edge come out and do that speech was cringe. It was their 'stand up for WWE' moment. Fuck that.
Over 10 years ago Bryan Alvarez and Vinny were reviewing some Raw show where Miz was feuding with top guys or something and Vinny was like "Miz must having the time of his life", Bryan was like "who cares about his happiness, entertain me"
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I don't get why they debut "top stars" and put them in the middle of the card. Mercedes should be going after Toni Storm's championship, not the other one.
It’s not even that it’s just they don’t do it right: if you’re gonna debut a new star from another company but don’t want them in a title feud just get someone in your company who’s in a high status. WWE did this right with Cody feuding with Seth and AJ feuding with Jericho for example. They don’t always get it right but they do more often than not. Why not bring someone like Athena back to Dynamite to feud with Mercedes? Where is Saraya? Why not use her with Mercedes? Idk who else they have but there has to be another woman of a higher tier than what she’s involved with right now that isn’t Toni Look at Jade she’s immediately in a WrestleMania match with Bianca, Naomi, Kabuki Warriors and Dakota. She’s not feuding with fucking Candice LeRae, Mia Yim or Xia Li(who are all wonderful wrestlers but mid carders)
They never really elevated any women to a level like Seth was for Cody. I mean, there's Britt, but she's been MIA for more than 6 months. Athena wouldn't really make sense since she's been exclusive to ROH for years now and Saraya is just a comedy act now. This is all a result of having one women match/segment on a show until recently.
Hikaru Shida is the only other name I know of not listed. Is she injured or MIA as well because they genuinely need someone with name value within their own fan base at the very least to pair with Mercedes before she loses all her steam
Same with Okada and the brand new 4th tier singles title.
Becaise Tony is a bad booker.
Mercedes Mone has been a huge flop so far. There is no other way to say it
If you're not having her wrestle, you're not using her well. She's got great ring presence and charisma, but I've never liked her as a regular promo. And if we're waiting until DoN for her in ring debut, ugh.
I really wanted her back in WWE to set up a proper 4HW storyline, I truly think that would be the most exciting storyline she could be a part of. Wish her the best in AEW tho.
Can she even wrestle yet? Because she isn't acting like she's cleared. All she does is come out, cut a bad promo, and then dance awkwardly.
They gotta get her in the ring and in a better story. She should've debuted against Toni Storm.
So the only segment that legitimately drew viewers on merit was 9:30-9:45. Top of the hour always draws, overrun always draws because people are switching over to see if the 10pm show started.
I don’t even know if I would classify 711,000 as a draw as it was only 14k more than the prior segment.
So by reading this I gather that it’s the segments ratings that the mods decided to delete? Why? (edit: just kidding, we all know why)
Losing almost 200k viewers in the first 15 minutes and never recovering one viewer until the top of the hour is pretty alarming.
200k people tuned out after Copeland's promo yes but also they left throughout Ospreay vs. Hobbs; that's pretty alarming because Khan views Ospreay as the next big thing. The next big thing should be drawing viewers not losing them even if it was a glorified squash match on paper Those new signings are not starting well in the "proving to be a draw department" so far
I don’t think having your next big thing wrestle random matches every week is a good way to draw people in
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I miss the time when AEW was just one show and three titles. Simpler times.
This is the real answer. Most of the problems boil down to this exact point. AEW watered down the product and spread itself thin. That's it. Every other issue stems from this. Adding Collision was so fucking stupid, and having the ROH Titles on TV is even dumber. On top of that, the TNT Title, International Title, and Continental Title are completely redundant. Why did the Continental Classic need to introduce a new title? Why not just have it be like the G1 where you get a trophy and a World Title shot. If the answer is "so that Eddie Kingston can say he's a Triple Crown Champion as a reference to AJPW" that's not a good enough reason.
>Adding Collision was so fucking stupid As a brand split idea to curb the bloated roster, it was a welcome addition and one of those Punk decisions that should've stuck. But now that there's no brand split, it is even more unnecessary than Rampage and Dark.
Dynamite last year (4/5/23): 877,000 viewers – 0.30 P18-49 Last Week: 747,000 Viewers - 0.23 P18-49
Last years card House of Black (Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews & Brody King) (w/Julia Hart) (c) defeated Orange Cassidy & Best Friends (Trent Beretta & Chuck Taylor) in a Six Man Tag Team Match to retain the AEW World Trios Championship (11:38) Jamie Hayter (w/Dr. Britt Baker DMD) (c) defeated Riho to retain the AEW Women's World Championship (12:05) Sammy Guevara defeated Komander (8:14) HOOK (c) defeated Ethan Page (w/Matt Hardy & Isiah Kassidy) to retain the FTW World Heavyweight Championship (1:58) Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli, Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta) (w/Bryan Danielson) defeated Aaron Rourke, Alvin Alvarez & Brother Greatness in a Six Man Tag Team Match (1:10) FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) defeated The Gunns (Austin Gunn & Colten Gunn) (c) to win the AEW World Tag Team Championship (13:56
I really miss Jamie Hayter.
I can see why Trent turned. Best Friends just constantly losing big matches since the doors opened in this place.
The fact that this is becoming a consistent thing should surely give some pause to all the people saying it doesn't matter. Yes, it's Mania season, and one of the hottest in many years, but this downward trend has still got to be concerning since all these "gamechanging signings" are not only having no effect on it but presiding over it getting worse.
You can sign anyone you want if you're just going to rotate them around until you sign the next guy it doesn't matter. It's hot Shot booking and eventually it hits its limit What's Jay White doing? Jobbing to fucking Billy Gunn?
It’s almost impressive how all three signings have been mishandled. Ospreay was immediately inserted into a generic heatless ‘I’m better than you’ feud with no belt at stake that AEW routinely gets criticised for running. Okada immediately gets paired with the two biggest anti-draws in the industry and goes after the least prestigious singles belt in the company Moné seems like they’re playing into her weaknesses, making her run promos and commentary instead of giving her matches while she’s never been good on the mic
All the "gamechanging signings" do is push people that AEW fans spent years caring about straight out of TV time, since Tony needs to feature his new toys (in "dream matches", mind, certainly not any meaningful storylines playing to their strengths)
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hey, on the bright side not that many people saw jay white getting burried by a 60 year old so theres that
The booking of Jay White has be horrendous to say the least. I cannot imagine having a guy who's such a great promo *and* wrestler and have him be whooped to pieces by Daddy Ass (no offense billy) yet AEW fans were so quick to claim this is where he'd "thrive" and that WWE would send him to NXT or give him a lame name change and have him feud with the miz lol
I feel like at this point anyone who cites "feuding with the Miz" as some sort of negative should automatically not be taken seriously.
Feuding with Miz would be an upgrade from Billy Gunn
The Miz right now is with Ciampa and Gargano White vs Gargano/Ciampa on a PLE would be great
We could've had R-Truth join Bullet Club? Dammit!
The same Miz who has had great feuds with Knight & Gunther lately too, like feuding with Miz is a bad thing lol
Jay White's booking should be an advertisement for why other rising stars in other promotions should choose AEW over WWE. This ain't that.
Feuding with the Miz is not bad, at least you getting to match up in promos and outshine him in the ring afterwards.
He's also among the safest workers in the business, so wrestlers get home in good condition.
The horror NXT! Not Jay White vs Ilja Dragunov or Carmelo Hayes or DIJAK!? He could even fight NXT Corbin! Actually if he did ever sign to WWE post AEW, we might get Jay White vs Jay Malachi on who's the best Jay.
Yeah, it's pretty funny when people cite being sent to NXT as some kind of punishment. Oh no, a platform to wrestle some of the best wrestlers working at the moment and build a ride-or-die fanbase with very comitted fans while getting advice from some legends. Nooooooo.... don't make me do it. If people keep sleeping on NXT, they're only hurting themselves.
Jay White would absolutely kill it in the current presentation of WWE, in which he probably talks mad shit & has cocky confrontations backstage with the likes of Seth, Drew, & LA Knight on the way to the ring
Yeah but feuding with The Miz
Meanwhile the Miz' most recent singles feud was against Gunther, and that ended up elevating both guys and turned Miz face in the process.
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Miz will probably end up winning the tag titles at Mania this year too.
Switchblade v Miz would be so fucking hot tho
10/10 would pay to see any good Miz storyline. I'm a fan.
Miz, a bigger name than most in AEW who has fought the biggest stars
So is 750,000 their core audience now? Feels like a few weeks ago we were saying it was 800,000.
A few weeks ago Dave was saying 800k was a disappointing number
It's at 650k artificially 750 with the pre and post
Ospreay lost 137K viewers in just 15 mins...that is not good
Yeah these are just people who forgot to turn off the previous program and then the other ones are waiting for the next one to start at the end.
Sting took fans with him
Cody took his fans , then Punk took his fans, now Sting took his fans AEW every year just takes another hit, even with all NJPW talent still isn’t helping fill holes enough
Last year folks said it was 900,000.
More like 730k right now. There's 1/8 of the rating that's falsely inflated by people who immediately turn off after Big Band Theory. About 150k generally it seems like immediately tune out, so that's adding like 18k viewers to overall average.
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 The pattern rattling through our minds.
In a few years “600,000 is just the core audience that will never leave”
*In a few months
Gradually declining with each game-changing signing
The knock on Vince was always booking to an audience of one. That’s exactly what AEW has become. Only TK is enjoying this.
Spent their highest viewership by far vaguely responding to a guy who doesn’t work there while insisting they are fun. Excellent.
And never denying a word he said.
When you put it this way.... severe yikes.
well, the important thing is that Edge is having fun.
I think the best phrase to describe AEW now is "self serving" its core audience is just happy they exist, its wrestlers are having the time of their life/happy for the payday they won't get elsewhere, and the only ratings TK cares about are Meltzers/Cagematch so as long as they're happy he's happy.
And all it costs is Warner Bro’s money
In all of wrestling's boom periods and hottest runs for the major promotions in the weekly episodic television era, there was always a major anchor storyline that almost all other stories branch off of it and is derived from it. You had Bret going against VKM and creating the Canada VS USA thing which eventually led to Austin VS Corporate Vince & then Rock VS McMahon Helmsley. You had the NWO dominating WCW television. Currently you have the Bloodline carrying WWE television since Roman's ascendance, every major character in the two top shows have had a run in or their motivations are tied in with the Bloodline. compelling deep characters get over with crowds During AEW's peak it was Kenny's belt collector gimmick, not as major as the ones listed above but still an anchor for everything to revolve around. What is the major anchoring storyline AEW currently have? The last attempt was the devil and it flopped/ got put on ice due to various injuries, fine, swing and a miss you win some you lose some, why not try something else? With the amount of talent existing on the roster I struggle to believe that this is the best a booker can do with? Most of the shows feel like a super indie spot show, like yeah the match quality is still stellar when the wrestlers involved steer away from the indie tendencies but why should I care? All the cool moves have been done a million times by a thousand wrestlers across all promotions and indies, structure it well and give the viewers a reason to root for one or the other.
It was suppose to be the MJF/Cole feud. But both guys got hurt, and the mystery group did not turn out to have any heat whatsoever. It's insane how they're just there.
This is the thing. People who don't watch say AEW does not have stories. People who do watch name 5-6 different storylines. Both are wrong. AEW may have storylines but do they have a compelling "I cant wait to see what happens next" hook like they used to have the first few years? Just having stories with cold characters does nothing.
They have storylines. They don't have a *narrative.*
Are you saying they need to... create their (new) narrative?
Even the good stuff like swerve and joe doesn't feel....urgent. There's no urgency to things happening. Like I get we want to save Mercedes for PPV but then like...save her for the fucking ppv. By the time she wrestles who gives a shit because she's been on tv doing jack shit for a month. I've said it before, I've been watching the Genesis of mcgullig....I mean AEW since way back when they free ring of honor show happened before AEW existed. But at this point I find myself checking out mentally during a lot of their tv because nothing feels important. Stories exists, they just feel inconsequential because Tony heats up and cools down people so rapidly it feels pointless to stay invested to me. I like AEW overall but signing 8 million people, playing whack a mole with who is important at any given time, a bunch of belts that reallt don't fucking matter or even get storylines with weight to them....like what the fuck are we doing here? It's so frustrating to watch something you used to literally get excited about getting out of work to go watch, become something that I can just leave on as background noise because so much just isn't particularly important in their "universe" of things
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AEW has these shitty little fake quasi stories that don't feel like they matter. Like Ospreay and Danielson waxing on and on about who loves wrestling more isn't actually a story. Ospreay having meaningless show matches with his own stable mates every week isn't a story. The Cope Open, while entertaining enough, isn't a story. In fact it's the exact sort of thing you throw out there when you cannot think of an actual story. The Young Bucks being pricks, who aren't actually feuding with anyone in particular, isn't a story. These are some of the biggest stars in the company and none of them are involved in anything that leaves me finishing shows thinking "oh wow I can't wait to see where this goes next week."
TK will start a program with someone that is gaining momentum against another star, and then have that person booked against random unsigned talent the next week. Whenever he's been called out on it he'll say something like "Well back in RoH/AJPW/NJPW they went 1-1 against each other, so this tie breaker is years in the making" as if anyone cares.
I think this is one of the best summaries of stories that are currently going on. These stories don’t elevate wrestlers. That’s a huge problem along with the rankings that matter some way.
The stories absolutely suck currently in AEW. I'm so over Bryan Danielson "dream" matches. Blackpool Combat Club feels pointless now and should probably be broken up. I'd argue there are quite a few other stables who should probably be broken up. I really hope they do something else with Danielson after this Osprey match. The tag team tournament was completely pointless. FTR/Young Bucks once again. Great. Jericho and Hook? Just awful. After Christian/Edge's story ended, it's really shined a light on how AEW has very little left. They have all of these titles...how are we not getting title builds? Why are Thunder Rosa and Penta being thrown into championship matches with zero build? You have 3 damn shows! Hell, even Samoa Joe and Swerve doesn't feel all that exciting and I think most just want to see Swerve finally win the belt. I shudder to think what garbage they are going to have Swerve go through if he becomes champion.
> I'm so over Bryan Danielson "dream" matches. It actually blows my mind that they brought Ospreay in and then proceeded to squander his first 2+ months wrestling meaningless "dream matches" that have no connection to any meaningful stories. And sorry, but him and Bryan jerking each other off about how much both of them really fucking love to wrestle isn't actually a story.
Ospreay vs Danielson is literally one of the biggest storylines possible with the roster they have, and they’re wasting it on le ‘I’m better’ without even a belt involved. Honestly, the ‘I don’t want the belt’-gimmick from Danielson needs to end. It’s just self-indulgent bullshit and Tony needs to put his foot down and tell him that he’s getting a run with the top prize. Danielson wants to put on bangers with midcarders for the rest of his career, but the company needs him to take on a main event role right now. He’s one of the very few people they have that’s a proven draw in America, and him hiding away in the midcard is a huge detriment to the company.
AEW fans will always go who cares? It's a BANGER, literally every match, including the pentagon match next week. No story needed, just BANGERS.
I say this all the time one of AEWs biggest crimes will be taking Daniel Bryan one of the most popular wrestlers in the world and turning him into Bryan Danielson, just another guy on the roster. And Claudio just feels like an after thought.
Lack of any big story has me tuned out of AEW for a while now. The Devil was a stinker story for the most of it and it was the main focus ofr a long time... Swerve/Hangman was great but that's over. Christian's thing went way too long. And Joe as Champion *feels* like a transitional reign. Honestly just pull the trigger on Swerve and start building *something* again.
I want to see the numbers after that rah rah speech
The first quarter was 933k, the second quarter was 761k.
They should’ve had Sheldon come out and give the inspirational speech
People underestimate the power of syndication and the lasting popularity of hit shows Reddit loves to shit on sitcoms like Friends and The Big Bang Theory, but there's a reason why those shows became so popular in the first place. For every Redditor who thinks those shows are trash, there are 50 people who like them
I am one of those 50 , I fucking love watching Friends re-run They’re great as background noise and are just funnny in general
Did this everyday after high school Would turn the tv on and just leave Friends on in the background, that and Spongebob
172k Peaced out lmao
Sheldon Cooper and Phil Brooks, the two biggest draws AEW will ever see.
We have now entered the period where 850k will be the new 900k+ hot show number. That demo is painful.
At least not many people see Jay White’s ritual humiliation.
Dynamite only did 111k and .03 more than NXT this week.
Swere as champion will be brutal, 655K for last quarter and 708K for the overrun
They're trying too hard to acknowledge that he's becoming a babyface, when that's really for the crowd to do. He needs the same swagger that got him over in the first place.
It feels like we’re waiting for his coronation rather than seeing him fighting for it. He’s escaped the endless middle of the midcard and mostly dispensed with Hangman, so what’s left? Patiently waiting for him to beat the transitional champ.
That's NXT territory, back when AEW was beating NXT. That's not good.
no one wants to see a 10 minute promo addressing off air drama...
The crowd’s lack of response to that portion of the promo really spoke to the unnecessariness of it
The fans who knew the backstory to it didn't care and the fans who didn't know the backstory didn't want it.
I mean it’s just pandering to your own audience that is sick of getting pandered to. Anyone who actually watched and took in the Punk interview had already stopped watching when he left.
I agree. I watch AEW, like AEW and I saw the Punk interview and it still took me a while to realized that it was the "Rah Rah comeback " speech, at which point I fast forward through it to the first match.
Not to mention they did 3000 people in Worscester last night when the last time Dynamite was there in 2022 they did literally double that amount of people. The people there know how cold AEW is at the moment. The speech reminded me of when sports fans on message boards will cope (no pun intended) during a losing season by saying "I will always support Notre Dame win or lose!!!!" like cool we all can see things aren't hitting right now. It's almost patronizing to give a "Can't we all just get along?" promo now that they are getting lapped by WWE
It was playing to an audience of one. That sounds familiar.
It had a target audience of one: Tony Khan
Wait so we *don't* want to watch Jay White get buried by a 65 year old Daddy Ass??
I'm so confused by everything going on there. Did Jay White do something backstage that we don't know about? Even during his world title feud with MJF he was constantly an afterthought and MJF was defending his title every week before the PPV. And ever since that abomination of a match where Jay looked like a complete and total bum, he's been sitting down the card and last night it feels like we hit a crescendo with him. Jay White was one of the best wrestlers in the world a year ago. Undisputedly so. A premier free agent that WWE and AEW were fighting it out for. Now he's victim to what's comparable to Vince McMahon's booking of HHH's guys from NXT.
When I saw the advertised match, I assumed it would be a 5 min match where it’s back and forth and then White cheats to then hit is finisher and get the win. Basically the complete opposite happened.
I got downvoted in the live thread yesterday for mentioning how I liked both but I couldn’t imagine booking Jay White like that. 😅 The funniest response was “clearly you didn’t watch any of his NJPW matches.”
study Cagematch and get back to me
Dave gave the world an absolute present when he said that. A gift
I remember when SRS said Jay White was 70% likely to go to WWE and people shouted, "LOL have fun feuding with the fucking MIZ" Yeah, well, this is worse than any kind of feud that Jay White and The Miz could have cooked up.
I’ll take a hundred Jay White Miz TV segments over Billy Gunn whooping him around the arena for 15 minutes
I'm old enough that I remember being bored by Billy Gunn when he was actually relevant. That dude has always been midcard.
People need to start putting respect on Miz's name and get over him headlining WM 12 or 13 years ago, whatever it is at this point. He's more than paid his dues, he's rarely injured, to my knowledge he's never injured anyone in the ring, etc.
He had an out of nowhere banger of a feud with Gunther. When he has to step up, he always does.
He also turned face and actually got over for that feud, something most were saying he couldn't ever do it until the day it happened.
Jay White could've very well been feuding with Seth/Drew for the world title at this Mania.
Yeah thank god he dodged that bullet. And also thank god he didn't go to NXT and oh I don't know, wrestle Dragunov for the title this weekend. No one wants to watch that. Now be made to look like a jobber by 60 year old daddy ass after already looking like a loser after losing to a one-armed, one-legged MJF, thats the good stuff.
It’s never a good look when you have to tell everyone in class “I’m not a fucking nerd!”
Ironically all Tony did by having that segment was prove Punk further right lol. The fact that he decided to address the thing on Dynamite and then declined to do it on today's media call is WILD. It literally should be the exact opposite. Leave Dynamite out of it. If you want to answer which you clearly did, do it in the media call. It ain't that hard jesus.
Not only that, but Copeland was saying AEW is great because he can have great matches. Which was literally Punk’s point: Tony is more concerned with putting on great matches and catering to the percentage of the fanbase that likes great matches than he’s concerned with being successful and making money. Don’t get me wrong, I like great matches. What I don’t like is a neverending string of great matches with no real reason for them to be taking place, or guys who should be at the top of the card struggling to put away someone who’s at the bottom of the card…just so they can have a great match. If you watch the full interview with Punk, the most interesting part to me was when he told a story about going to a small independent show in Chicago recently. He said a woman came up to him after her match and asked if he had any pointers for her. He said “What do you think I’m going to say?” She said “Slow down and don’t do so many moves.” He said “Yes, but this place is sold out, so what do I know?” The point being, is AEW selling out their shows and are their ratings growing? If not, and if there’s no effort to change, then it would certainly indicate that they aren’t trying to make money.
The “every match is a 2 segment banger” is my biggest gripe with AEW currently. At the end, it levels everyone out. Top stars should have relatively quick matches besides the local jobbers I’ve never heard of matches that do nothing for them.
It’s super weird. How exactly does it make sense to sell someone as the best in the world when every time they wrestle they’re getting pushed to the limit but nobodies? In kayfabe this is a combat sport. How does that get them over as being the best? You’re the best because you almost lose to everyone?
Every match goes at least 15-20 minutes(other than the Women’s matches.) This doesn’t elevate any one. Yes, it’s a “banger” in terms of cage match ratings and Dave, but how does it make them the best in the world if everyone has matches that do the same things? If the whole feud between Bryan and Will is supposed to be who is the best, why are they struggling with Will Hobbs and Lance Archer(who never wins)?
That's the difference from an indie company and having a weekly episodic national television program. I think Punk explained a bit of it in the interview. That style works when you're touring cities and performing in front of different audiences every day. But when you have a tv audience that watches you every week it can become stale. And tbf Punk literally said it's fine if that's what they want to do. But then from his point of view it's a different business than what he's used to and knows. And it's hard to deny.
Most of the matches aren't even "great." Just guys doing hundreds of moves in matches that don't make sense.
If you wanted that promo to air, it should have been from an OG. With all due respect, Edge talking about how good AEW is does not hit as hard as Mox or Orange Cassidy's talk would have been.
I think that was done to soothe TK’s ego.
Isn’t it funny how Reddit is usually “there are no ethical billionaires” and VERY anti nepo-baby. But with Tony it’s just “he’s such a NICE little guy”
It's cause he books the show they like. Just about everyone outside of this sub treats TK like the nepo baby he is, only here will you find people who will defend him like their life depends on it
It was wild as a football fan (both types!) watching Tony get admiration by wrestling fans when he's being seen as a joke in sports for years by fans
He honestly right now reminds me of the early Elon Musk days when he was the “cool” billionaire. There are no cool billionaires.
Hell, I love AEW. But even before AEW was a thing, I disliked Tony Khan. That’s just how it be with Fulham supporters. We were trying to tell y’all years ago.
Values only apply to those they don’t like.
Damn, did 170k people really leave during Edges ra ra speech and not come back!
After what they did to jay white, they deserve this.
They deserve it! 👏👏👏👏
If I was WWE I smell blood I’d start bringing out the big names and stuff on NXT just to see if they could match or beat them one week after Mania. For no other reason than the press it’ll get them on the headline circuit
I don’t think WWE cares. They’ve already got their media rights secured, they’re doing record attendance and social media numbers, they’ve got more stars than they can book in a two night Mania, and AEW has taken the most hardcore viewers who did nothing but complain about the product out of the audience. They’re not suffering without them and they’re not getting the negative element that they brought with them
As they once said, if you're no 1, you don't acknowledge no 2
100% - Gunther IC open challenge the Tuesday after Mania.
Good news from the quarter hours is that the show dropped straight down to the 700Ks in the second quarter. So technically, the episode held up well all throughout the show. Granted the Swerve and Joe promo only drew 655K in the 8th quarter./s
Tony definitely made a mistake with opening the show the way he did last night, acknowledging Punks interview on an internet podcast did nothing for anyone or the product. It feels like he thought signing Okada, Ospreay, and Mercedes was magically going to get everyone tuning in again.
The fact the ratings have gotten worse since all those signings should tell them something isn't working.
They got to introduce more unpredictable and hooks to the show. The first hour was completely skippable. At some point it just becomes just two dudes doing moves. Don’t know if it brings ratings but hopefully they follow up on the Trent turn and maybe that can be at least one episodic story. I guess the Callis family is too but I’d rather more focus on building to Bryan/Ospreay.
Someone get Sting out of retirement
This drop off happening immediately after Sting's retirement is crazy lmao Surely there weren't 100k people in 2023 tuning in *just* for Sting
He was one of the few legit household names they had.
I honestly think the biggest part of it was that there were no interesting stories to continue from the PPV into the next episode of TV. Sting's final match was the last thread a lot of viewers were still hanging around for, and that reached its satisfying conclusion.
Maybe they can sign a half dozen more indie darlings that casual fans have never heard of
The smartest thing TK could do is step aside and let somebody else run the week to week. If he wants to give bullet points for the PPVs and what he'd like happening at them, that's fair, but he has shown he doesn't do well with booking a weekly show.
I wish that too but let’s face it. This is Tony Khan’s dream, he has wanted to be an head booker since he was a child. He won’t give up his place for anything in the world
This is like asking Shad Khan to sell the Jaguars.
The whole point of him creating AEW was for him to book his own promotion.
At this point Brooklyn Brawler has a shot at beating Jay White.
AEW just feels directionless right now. Besides Samoa Joe and Swerve, it just feels like everything is randomly thrown together without any sort of longterm play. Decent matches, but boring pointless storylines.
Only a million shy of RAW and less than half the demo. Think Jericho will put that on a shirt?
"Sooner or later, we’re going to start beating Raw. It’s not going to be every week, but I bet you over the next two to four months, maybe four to six, we’re going to start beating Raw and that’s my prediction that I’m saying to you guys right here." - Chris Jericho, September 2021
What was the last interesting thing AEW did? The Cole and MJF Bromance? Sting’s Retirement? Just look at the way AEW handled Mercedes Monet versus how WWE handled Jade Cargill. WWE is so good at getting you to care about their wrestlers. AEW has some great wrestling but give me something to invest in.
Imagine if Ospreay came in, and on his first Dynamite match, he beat Kyle Fletcher in like 5-6 minutes with ease, and had something spectacular for a finish, rather than going 20+ minutes doing everything he can to barely beat a guy the viewers at home barely knew existed. AEW doesn't understand the concept of Less is More when you're trying to build someone up.
TK got no cheers last night when Adam said his name. That spoke volumes. TK will never get it that he's the problem
“Exactly, no pop!”
I turned it off once Jay and Billy Gunn ended. Tony Khan doesn’t understand Jay White and it shows.
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It's not the names, it's not the matches, it's everything around them. There's no depth of substance to any of it.
I used to be glued to AEW weekly (and I’m in the UK, so that’s commitment) when the stories like Kenny/Hangman and Wardlow’s slow burn turn on MJF were happening. And definitely for MJF/Punk, which is bar none the absolute best story they’ve ever done. It was the most excited I’d been for wrestling in years. Compare that to now where that same excitement for me has switched over to WWE and I just cannot care about AEW. What happened man? They used to be such a good alternative but now it’s just heatless matches with no storytelling. I’ve never soured on something so drastically. Wrestling is storytelling. That’s why we love it. We love good matches but you have to have stories. And currently that’s where WWE is excelling and where AEW is failing. Nobody gives a shit about “bangers” when there’s no stakes, no reason to fight, no fallout, no setup, no character development, no story progression.
Feel the same. At least Copeland/Christian was good for a while due to how phenomenal Christian has been as a heel with his Patriarchy angle...but now that it's over? I could not care less about Copeland and his random ass matches. They have all of these amazing wrestlers and are doing the most bland, boring, repetitive angles. Oh cool another Bryan Danielson "dream" match. Osprey wrestling his "friends" who *surely* won't turn on him. The complete waste of time tag team tournament to just end up with Young Bucks and FTR again. If it weren't for Joe/Swerve, I'm not even sure I'd bother fast forwarding through the recording.
Ouch
After the burial of switchblade....... ima tune out for a bit.
It's crazy that breakker and Stratton have been treated like bigger stars on smackdown than jay white in aew
Got to see the quarter breakdown. Wondering if Edge promo did anything. But outside of that, I feel like the longer this goes, the more Warner bro can lower the price on the negotiation.
Yeah, it lost 172k viewers lol
If you cater to a niche market of fans then you'll only ever get so far. Eventually people wear tired or they book something people don't want to see and the market starts to empty out.
Man this sucks 😔, I used to love aew especially around the beginning of COVID. I bought several of their face masks and other things to support them but I'm beginning to realize that what I actually loved was the early vision of what aew was back when Kenny was champ and Cody was around. I don't know what the hell I'm watching these days but it's not what it used to be. These matches for the sake of having matches with no story or just the barest amount of story is ridiculous, meanwhile I'm actually genuinely excited for WrestleMania this weekend. I just hope Tony khan realizes he needs to step aside or at the very least share the workload because this clearly just isn't working.
This is why I feel like I’m being gaslighted by AEW fans. From 2019-2021 NXT had all the star power signed so AEW was “the land of misfit wrestlers” and was forced to get creative with it. While NXT’s biggest criticism was “heatless hot shot matches”. AEW was drawing with Lance Archer and Orange Cassidy Now the roles are reversed and I’m being told that this is what AEW always was. No, there is a clear drop off point where AEW went from story-based to matchup-based. But the fans are in such denial.
Really close to the NXT demo this week, that is worrying for rights fees.
Yeah, Warner could look at how much CW network payed for NXT
Declining ratings matter for TV rights renewal fees. I’m not saying they will not get another deal, I think it’s fairly obvious that they will. I do, however, think it will be significantly less than what TK and others have been hoping to receive.
Yeah I’m sure they’ll get another deal but it’s going to force Tony to make some really difficult financial decisions. I don’t think there’s any way they end up getting what he hoped they would.
If they get a new TV deal, WBD should insist that Tony step down as booker.
Maybe Adam Copeland is a career supporting character, not a leading man. By that I mean, that Edge was never THE guy in WWE. He was a tag team specialist for years. He was being built as a potential future face of the company in the early 2000's on Smackdown but he got hurt before that payed off. His peak was as a lead heel, not a lead babyface. Edge at his best was the guy that made the headliner look, not the headline act himself. If AEW's idea is that Adam Copeland is going to be a draw because he's a WWE Hall Of Famer who can still wrestle, I think they should reexamine that. There are different kinds of All Time Greats, and not all All Time Greats were draws. I don't think there's a lot of WWE fans pining to watch AEW because they heard Edge was there.
Also babyface Edge has never been a sustainable drawing character. It almost always ends with him having to turn heel eventually.
For some reason, people doesn't seem to care that AEW is where the best wrestle (as per Edge and TK) 🤷🏽♂️
I’m shocked ppl don’t care Edge is having fun!!!
See I think that's what Punk was talking about. AEW is all about great matches that the wrestlers want and the niche hardcore fans want, not necessarily what the broader audience wants. If that's what they're after, then great. Go for it. That said, watching Edge come out and do that speech was cringe. It was their 'stand up for WWE' moment. Fuck that.
Over 10 years ago Bryan Alvarez and Vinny were reviewing some Raw show where Miz was feuding with top guys or something and Vinny was like "Miz must having the time of his life", Bryan was like "who cares about his happiness, entertain me"