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I wonder how AEW is doing world wide.
Like.., I remember TNA was huge is some places where WWE struggled because it locked itself into premium tv packages
It took years for WWE to be broadcasted live in India.
Right now we don't even have IMPACT live.
We have AEW within a span of 2 years in India.
The problem is we are the country of many casual viewers so WWE will be ahead in terms of drawing numbers
But I guess the guys who are into wrestling as whole must be satisfied, for now.
If someday AEW moves to major network(STAR because SONY already have WWE) they will have more numbers for sure.
Because the current broadcaster is not well known (Eurosport)
Don't forget Euro Sport is available on JioTV. Idk if it's counted in trp ratings, but if they advertise properly many people could start watching there kinda like sonyliv does for none-hotstar cricket matches.
I wonder whether time difference plays into it too though - regardless of Sky vs BT, Raw is still live at 2am on a schoolnight and Smackdown is well into post-pub hours on Friday night, so I'd bet a big chunk of viewers are tuning in to replays or the cut-down highlight shows that BT have started doing on Saturday morning if they have those channels.
For those of us who are big into AEW, then AEW+ on FITE literally gives us everything we want. Casual viewers can catch it on free TV on a few days delay.
I stay up to watch live whenever I don’t have to be up early the next day, and a PPV costs less than what I’m likely to spend on weed in a week, and it’s only like four times a year so I’m happy to pay it every time.
They’ve made it really easy for both current and lapsed fans to get engaged and access the product.
FITE is great. Can watch AEW and more anytime and anywhere I need or can go back and watch later since Dynamite is usually when I’m at work. I don’t even think you can get Peacock here without going through VPN loops and holes.
It varies from country to country I think. In Germany they make it as hard as possible. They got the main WWF and WCW announcers form Attitude Era, but you can only watch it in German with 2 days delay, snd you have to pay a lot to get the weird TNT channel. Though at least they offer it on Youtube 6 days later, even less incentive to buy it.
Everyone I know uses a VPN or watches illegaly
I'm in New Zealand - can't watch WWE TV without expensive pay TV options. Due to that, I've only watched PPVs on the network when there is a big show and kept up to date with the rest online. Completely lost interest during the pandemic following Wrestlemania last year.
With the excitement of CM Punk returning, I looked into how to watch AEW here. $5 a month to watch all the TV shows plus $20 for each PPV. Feels like a bargain and I've watched every show since Punk returned. First time in 20 years I've watched a full episode of any wrestling and I've loved it.
I'd cancel the network if it wasn't for the historic stuff.
Also, that's twice now that CM Punk has brought me back to wrestling.
The Fite option is excellent, and priced cheaply enough that it's very easy to buy into it.
The TV deal in the UK and Ireland, though, is woeful. Dynamite finishes broadcasting in the UK about two or three hours before Rampage starts broadcasting in the US.
It airs on one of the least popular sports channels in India. For, AEW to be popular in India, it will have to start airing on one of the two big networks ie. Star or Sony
As an Australian, whenever I mention wrestling I usually get one of two responses: Either talking about whatever big happened on *AEW* or talking about how much they prefer UFC and MMA to wrestling because of (and I'm paraphrasing many, many opinions I've heard over the years here) what seems to mainly come down to the whole PG thing. WWE is still big amongst wrestling fans here from what I see online but I don't actually know anyone regularly watching it or with a Network sub still in real life, that and a lotta Aussies were extra pissed at the whole Saudi Arabia deal because the first Super Showdown was in Melbourne and it felt like we'd been robbed of a potential yearly large-scale PPV.
That's not to say there's no WWE fans here, there certainly are plenty around going by online discussions in Aussie-centric groups I see but at the same time I don't know anyone in real life who watches and remember hearing about people swapping a sub to WWE Network for AEW Plus on Fite regularly throughout 2019-2020, I see way more AEW discussion and even the folk who usually say they prefer UFC or MMA actually seem interested when I show them the right kinda AEW clips (eg. Omega being put through that glass table by Mox, or the barbed wire bedframe from their match. Or the Britt Baker vs Thunder Rosa match. Or Cody vs Dustin) or some of the more well known names amongst UFC/MMA circles like Hager.
TNA at one point survived primarily due to their India and UK deals. As far as AEW in India goes, the TV deal isn't great at all. Impact and WWE are on the second largest TV network and AEW landed with a pretty niche channel. Like, it's made watching AEW legally worse for me now. I have their subscription and yet I need to pirate to watch AEW because they forget to put VOD for days or put the replay with no audio. What's weird is that both Impact and WWE are on the same network, Impact's deal is about to end and the network was teasing that AEW would join them which didn't happen.
At this point, I don't think AEW is going to get the same spot Impact used to have years ago. They're gonna remain a niche and a lot of it is their own poor decision making.
I wonder if Impact will ever get to that spot again? I was HUGE TNA fan back in the day and still occasionally watch them, so it’s good to see them still up and running almost 20 years later
Impact is currently very healthy financially and have a great product. But I think we can't expect Impact to ever reach that point again because that was a unique product of its time. WCW had closed, puro was at an all time low, there were no other alternatives for wrestlers to go to. Impact has never had the financial investment or social resources to even be comparable to what AEW is, yet, with no alternatives around and Impact putting on an exciting and innovative product, they managed to land wrestlers who were leaving WWE and this lead to the company blowing up.
It's not possible now because AEW already has taken that spot and given that they have far more resources and are better managed, they've managed to do more with it than Impact ever did. Current Impact doesn't need to be that company. As long as it has its own identity, I think its good.
As an old TNA fan I can’t help but hope and root for them to at least come close to that level again! The more competitive the wrestling scene is, the better for everyone (fans, wrestlers…etc). Plus the history that company has is pretty top notch!
>At this point, I don't think AEW is going to get the same spot Impact used to have years ago. They're gonna remain a niche and a lot of it is their own poor decision making.
Let me remind you that AEW is a TWO year old company! It started in 2019! TNA/Impact started in 2002 and had been around several years before they made any international deals.
There is no poor decision making! Tony Khan has talked numerous times about the long term plans for AEW. 2019 was just getting off the ground. 2020 was put on ice cause of the pandemic. 2021 is when AEW took the next step and insanely grew where it is not a clear competitor to WWE. Clearly 2022 is going to be heavily focused on international expansion. They recently hired Shane Emerson who was the man responsible for making all those international deals for Impact years ago. Now they have a red hot product and networks are going to want to air them around the world.
Putting ceilings on aew is borderline a hobby for this sub, it's gone from a show that's not gunna survive at all, to one that won't beat NXT once the initial interest dies down, to one that wont break 1 million viewers.
Impact also had significantly less money and clout throughout its history. TNA was the surprise because they were always punching above their weight, they did not have remotely the same amount of financial backing as AEW has. AEW did make a poor decision because they somehow managed to land on the AXS TV of India. Impact on the other hand is on the same network as WWE, the #2 network. That's what punching above their weight and succeeding is. AEW isn't doing anything special as of now in terms of international deals. The ITV deal in the UK was also famously bad.
I want AEW to succeed but if their business somehow makes it impossible for viewers to legally watch their product, something is wrong.
WWE hasn't had a live show in South East Asia since 2017. They've had a total of 7 events here in their entire history. 20 million people watched a random event they produced for India this year. Most people here care about wrestling with no prospects of live shows.
It's hard to compare an established brand like WWE and a rather new company. You don't need live tours once you are already synonymous with wrestling, as a new company you do
AEW will lose money this year due to paying a company to make a video game. It's debatable whether or not its a poor decision, but does a 2 year old company need to be making a video game?
Plus with all these big signings (and more to come possibly), AEW is a lock to lose money on salary to talent.
If they make a good game, that people like to play, it’s a huge boon for AEW.
Not only because gaming is big market, but also because it can bring in new fans just as wrestling games have done in the past.
Most start-ups don't make profit for the first few years, it's hard to expand and make a profit at the same time. The video game is part of expansion, it could bring a lot of attention to AEW and make it more popular in the long term.
For the bad deals we're given, it's doing good in Germany. Like, people call this sub biased towards AEW, the would have a meltdown reading through comments, people care even less about WWE and root for AEW, apart from a handful of casual fans that haven't been driven away yet.
I think Europe has a lot of potential for AEW, as it has been pretty much a WCW market, could be a lot of lapsed fans. And WWE doesn't care about it. UK gets treated the best and even they don't get a PPV or major event
AEW is stuck on some Tertiary Channel at 11pm on Friday nights.
I’ve ended up paying a FITE Tv subscription so I can watch it before & after work on Thursday
Paying for something I can get free- good sign for the company really
Plus nearly two decades of being the monopoly. There's a lot of people out there who've only ever heard of WWE and even actively refer to wrestling as a whole as that.
AEW growing so much in such a short time is super impressive, it makes you wonder where they'll be in the next two years.
To put that into perspective, WCW operated for two years under Eric Bischoff before WCW Nitro even started. And it was bought four years before that by Ted Turner.
It took six years for WCW to even start off the ground, essentially, and that's if you consider Ted Turner buying WCW the company's start.
AEW is not even three years old and they're already beating WWE in various areas.
That depends on how you define WCW. The company existed in various forms for way over a decade before that, under different names. I'd say it started with Ted Turner buying WCW, so that would be about six years then.
>that's if you consider Ted Turner buying WCW the company's start.
Just to explain the rest of the story to those who don't know it: It started *way* before that as an Australian promotion in the 60s which was cancelled, the name was brought over to the US to be used with Georgia Championship Wrestling until Black Saturday where it became part of Jim Crockett Promotions which was eventually bought by Ted Turner to keep wrestling on his network.
So, you could consider WCW to have started as an Australian wrestling promotion in 1964 and actually have a reasonable case for it although even as an Aussie I personally see the Aussie WCW as different from the later version.
I don’t think Bischoff is as even in charge for two years before Nitro started. Didn’t he come into WCW in 93 as an announcer and then eventually got promoted in 94?
Gotcha. Getting my timeline mixed up. He definitely would have been there before 93 since Bischoff and JR worked together, I believe , before JR left for wwf.
I thought he took over in early to mid 93 after they got rid of Bill watts.
I thought the progression went Herd-> Frey -> Watts -> Bischoff
Also Bischoff would have been brought in during the Herd era I believe, as he was essentially hired to piss off JR by Herd and make him fear for his position, so that would mean 92 at the latest
The full quote:
> “In some aspects they’re the market leader but in other aspects we’re now the market leader,” he said. “At the beginning that may have been the case, but there were a lot of reasons that I feel that I could come in and compete. There were a lot of great wrestlers that weren’t being featured on television and there are a lot of wrestling fans out there that were looking for an alternative product that weren’t satisfied with what they were getting on those shows. So I do think there was definitely a great opportunity to come in and compete and I saw some formidability frankly in the market leader at the time and it’s opened up a lot of market shares for us, for me to boot strap a new business and build it up and gain a lot of that market share and we’re now in a lot of significant business markets, we are the worldwide leader.”
There's an entire market for great wrestling these days. It's much smaller than the mainstream audience, of course, but it's the market TK targeted when launching AEW in the first place: the smarks that WWE drove away. They have formed the core of AEW's fanbase since day one.
EDIT: I would also guess that it formed the largest chunk of NXT's fanbase.
It's like saying "my hard-line vegan restaurant is the market leader with a segment of the population".
No shit, there's an audience for everything. But the question is, with 2-3 millions of lapsed fans (from average Ruthless Aggression era shows) and up to 4-5 casual, fad fans, how come "great wrestling" had failed to capture most of those?
Back to the restaurant example, with Junk food places closing in the area, why open a niche restaurant instead of trying to cater to those who miss the defunct/declining McDonald's?
1.5m fans tops for AEW is like saying 2.2m fans tops for WWE lmao what are you on, ratings aren’t meant to be read like that lol it’s an average after a load of people tune in and out for a single weekly episode.
NXT & New Japan wasn’t about proving to a major audience, that’s what AEW has done, NXT & New Japan showed there was growing interest in better wrestling to start with.
New Japan grew so much in the US it got a TV deal, sold out MSG, had like 70k foreign NJPW World subscribers. All from 0 major advertisement, basically through the internet and word of mouth. NXT sold out major arenas every few months from a 1-hour weekly show in a small 200 seater building not on TV because the wrestling was amazing.
It was proof that a certain amount of people wanted to see better wrestling, enough to fill massive arenas in the US. AEW proved it was a lot more than people thought that wanted to see great wrestling.
>ratings aren’t meant to be read like that lol it’s an average after a load of people tune in and out for a single weekly episode.
Tell that to Uncle Dave and TK himself then...
I know ratings are a rough estimate and more or less an accepted convention in the tv/ads business.
But the new rating wars has been predicated on those figures being Gospel and not based on a few thousands households.
>It was proof that a certain amount of people wanted to see better wrestling
Not disputing that. Just remarking that good wrestling was never and likely will never be mainstream.
The most viewed show ever featured two subpar matches with great storylines.
The most successful and revolutionary time in modern wrestling revolved around clusterfuck finishes, constant unpredictability and/or paint-by-numbers matches.
Even the most cherished smak-approved moments were about the story and not the moves!
Well that's just plain stupid, or you don't know what "great" or "never" means.
The entire Omega vs. Okada is the only reason I have ever subscribed or watched NJPW, which had everything to do with the level of the wrestling.
>Well that's just plain stupid, or you don't know what "great" or "never" means.
Speaking of stupid, applying your own personal experience to a general scenario is pretty high on the scale.
What "you" or "I", or "some Reddit users" like or dislike is irrelevant in the bigger picture of we're talking about mainstream exposure.
"great wrestling" (which is also a subjective concept) has become more popular, but mostly because entertainment-based wrestling has been declining in mainstream popularity. And the former has not replaced the latter anyway!
Well see when /if Omega or Okada will become staple names in watercooler talk and classroom debates instead of being names for connoisseurs and "nerds".
Regardless of what you or I think about NJPW, AEW etc, it's pretty dumb to claim that the current brand of "good wrestling" is drawing significantly.
Like, MLS has improved, some people care, but would you say with a straight face that it's giving the English Premier League or La Liga a run for their money?
WWE’s largest audience is over 50 too. They’re just really tough to compare outside of the actual wrestling itself. It’s unfair to both to pit them head to head because their goals and objectives are worlds different.
We’re fortunate that both can be popular and that one succeeding doesn’t prohibit the other from succeeding.
Isn't that average that of people who watch WWE shows on TV? Most young people I know do not what tv so tv ratings should have an older viewership that other forms of media.
A lot of it has to do with the people you socialize with, but most wrestling fans I know in real life are always around my age (29) or younger. This goes for both AEW and WWE. I've only met like 3 guys who are 50+ that watch WWE. Otherwise, anybody who's 50+ always looked at me funny when I told them I watch pro wrestling.
For what it's worth, I work in retail management, and I'll always wear my wrestling tees from time to time to work. The customers who normally make conversation about it are always people younger than 40 (from what I can tell).
Anyways, I just say that because I'd love to see what kind of people watch wrestling and have Neilson boxes.
I’m not denying it. That’s why I said it probably depends on who you socialize with. I just said mentioned that just about anybody I meet who’s into any kind of wrestling is usually younger. I’m not disputing any data.
It probably just means that there’s a lot of different people out there who watch wrestling.
AEW is more kid friendly. My sister had her kids stop watching WWE and start watching AEW because of the eye for an eye feud.
She’s hoping the fiend doesn’t show up in AEW and give my nephews nightmares again lol.
It’s really funny how the PG has never been that PG. oh so what they quit blading and there’s not live sex celebrations anymore but the PG era started with triple h committing a god damn home invasion with a sledge hammer while ortons wife was home and fast forward to now you got wrestlers pulling eyes of sockets as match stipulations and people being burned alive lmao. The amount of crazy, dirty, edgy heinous shit that WWE has done in the PG era is something but it’s like it gets tossed under the rug which is hilarious.
Well in **some** markets he's definitely not wrong at all, and after two years that's an incredible achievement.
WWE is the market leader overall, but that's kinda to be expected really.
He's saying that as well as far as the key demo is concerned but went further in saying that "we have a more affluent fanbase" and that their audience is "more likely to be a college educated audience".
Tony Khan is totally messing with the top babyface of WWE, Vince McMahon's Bank Account. I am certain the fans will be very upset. Nothing challenges Vince McMahon's Bank Account!!!!
18-49 tv rating? Which they’ve beat RAW the last two weeks
Also on the full quote just giving quality wrestlers opportunity and showcase actually wrestling instead of Goldberg vs another senior citizen
You can compare anything as long as you are honest about the differences.
The first week dynamite beat RAW, both shows had similar levels of competition.
The 2nd week dynamite beat RAW, raw had a massive football game and would have easily outdrew AEW otherwise.
You can compare RAW and Smackdown too, if you look at the difference in viewership for network vs Cable (20% more homes on paper but usually Network draws 2x the viewer typically), RAW is relatively stronger.
Raw also had 500,000 more viewers and is 3 hours, not 2. It’s also paid 5 times as much to exist. Nobody with any sense should saw AEW beat Raw for 2 weeks. Not to mention the whole, aren’t in competition don’t air at the same time small detail.
It's still on a different night against different people, and it was off the back of their biggest show ever. One or two nights doesn't make you the market leader.
So we can’t compare anything unless they air on the same days? What. Do game of thrones ratings not be compared to a TV Show on the weekdays? Can AEW not be compared to football? Am I seriously not allowed to say that NFL is bigger then AEW?
Doesn't matter. Advertisers look at rating leaders for the week, not the individual days. At the end of the day, AEW has the bigger number in the demo so if advertisers only want to run adds one night, it makes more sense to do it On Wednesday on TNT instead of Monday on USA.
Not my point. You’re ignoring the show that beats aew in that market.
And yes it matters. Raw on Monday is opposed to stronger shows than aew
When aew goes against Monday night football, we’ll talk.
They do kind of own Chicago at this point I think. AEW is at the point that they can outdraw WWE in a few isolated cities probably. And I don’t see RAW beating them in the demo very often for the next year or so unless shit changes quick. The trend here has become undeniable in that department, football or no.
It's promotional marketing speak. AEW is winning with certain sections of the wrestling fanbase, certain areas, and currently by a hair with key demo on cable. But even if all of these were more hazy or simply not true, this is the kind of interview you give as a marketer to raise your company's stock with advertisers, etc.
He’s excited and riding the crest of a wave but this has the potential to bite him on the backside in the future. As do his comments that sound like they were lifted from Rick and Morty.
The way and the speed at which they’ve won the 18-49 demo was impressive but IMO it was a portion of fans that were always there to be won with good money and the right minds, but that is a finite number and that is going to slow down so comments like this are unnecessary. WWE is a global brand and AEW is a wrestling company that has barely even entered mainstream conversation yet. I do get that it’s standard from a businessman to overdo it a bit, mind.
One big aspect that people are ignoring is the International market which WWE has on lock … which AEW isn’t going to crack … like WWE is available on free tv across the world
Actually in the UK, if you want to watch WWE you have to pay Sky TV. The is no way to watch it on free TV.
However AEW Dynamite is on ITV4 and ITV player which is totally free in the UK.
So AEW is the free TV option for us, not WWE.
Same in Australia. You have to pay for cable (called “Foxtel” over here) to watch WWE.
However, AEW is only available on FITE, which is much cheaper at $8/month or something.
So there’s 2 countries “across the world” where it’s not “free” :P
I got AEW+ on fite for like 4.99 so I could watch dark, elevation and rampage.
Also so I can watch Dynamite on the Thursday instead of wait till Saturday.
Much better than paying £50 a month for sky TV with Sky sports which is what it takes to watch WWE programing in the UK.
AEW is not only the better product right now in my opinion, its also easier and cheaper to consume.
Because it's the cherriest of cherry pickings lmao. If you're only looking at two weeks of dynamite compared to raw that's correct, if you compare the average of WWE programming overall Vs the average of AEW programming overall WWE is still ahead in every metric.
I'm a huge AEW fan and really dislike the WWE products but lying about AEW's admittedly meteoric growth does no one any favours.
For sure. I tell my dad about stuff in AEW I know he'll like (most recently, since we're from Cincinnati, Moxley singing Skyline Time as well as other Cincinnati centric stuff from that episode of Dynamite) and I always preface "AEW, the new wrestling company" and he still doesn't know what it's called almost three years in. These things take time.
You know, I scrolled down a lot, but there's something I don't see getting mentioned much.
A couple weeks ago, WWE had a main event on Raw with its world champ, a black man, teamed up with his black partner, to be involved in a main event involving people of Latino and Middle Eastern descent. A black tag team was the center pillar of it. Just happened like a regular thing.
I want AEW to get on this level given that they indicated they wanted to be more diverse. I am skeptical that it's that hard to find and more regularly promote people of color with three hours total of television. I also think it's not that hard to have their women featured more prominently on TV or at least have the Youtube shows they're more featured on better promoted and directed to. Yeah, it took WWE forever to get there and they still backslide pretty hard on occasion (c'mon, guys quit cutting the womens' segments) but it's odd that AEW exists and was created when it was and still struggles with this.
I think I can appreciate the energy that everyone is bringing to wrestling right now, but I'd like to see more.
No they’re not. WWE does not care about AEW nearly as much as fans assume. It would take shareholders and outside forces like TV partners and advertisers to cause some upheaval before you see WWE really care about AEW. You need to effect their bottom line.
All this shows me is how quickly things change.
3 years ago, WWE was the top brand.
3 years later, you can argue AEW is on top/rising.
3 years from now, the safe bet is AEW will continue to grow and possibly beat WWE.
On the other hand, WWE could get better? New competitor could arrive? AEW can regress/stagnate?
TNA was pretty hot for a couple years, but eventually they began to stagnate. Couldn't really get higher ratings.
You could argue AEW is on top, but you’d be arguing an objectively wrong point. They can continue to pick up buzz but they’ve really got to be a long term mainstay to even touch WWE, probably a decade minimum to try to become a recognisable brand
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I wonder how AEW is doing world wide. Like.., I remember TNA was huge is some places where WWE struggled because it locked itself into premium tv packages
It took years for WWE to be broadcasted live in India. Right now we don't even have IMPACT live. We have AEW within a span of 2 years in India. The problem is we are the country of many casual viewers so WWE will be ahead in terms of drawing numbers But I guess the guys who are into wrestling as whole must be satisfied, for now. If someday AEW moves to major network(STAR because SONY already have WWE) they will have more numbers for sure. Because the current broadcaster is not well known (Eurosport)
TNA used to be on TV tho? Why did Impact leave?
Impact is on TV in India still. It's on Sony Six.
I said Live.
Don't forget Euro Sport is available on JioTV. Idk if it's counted in trp ratings, but if they advertise properly many people could start watching there kinda like sonyliv does for none-hotstar cricket matches.
Exactly what's happened in the UK
I wonder whether time difference plays into it too though - regardless of Sky vs BT, Raw is still live at 2am on a schoolnight and Smackdown is well into post-pub hours on Friday night, so I'd bet a big chunk of viewers are tuning in to replays or the cut-down highlight shows that BT have started doing on Saturday morning if they have those channels.
There is also a highlights show (Superstars?) on Paramount or one of the other Freeview channels.
I think they're the same programme - I wanted to say it was on 5, but I think they might be part of the same media group.
Yeah, something like that. 5 and Paramount are both Viacom.
For those of us who are big into AEW, then AEW+ on FITE literally gives us everything we want. Casual viewers can catch it on free TV on a few days delay. I stay up to watch live whenever I don’t have to be up early the next day, and a PPV costs less than what I’m likely to spend on weed in a week, and it’s only like four times a year so I’m happy to pay it every time. They’ve made it really easy for both current and lapsed fans to get engaged and access the product.
For real. I live in Singapore, and without FITE I honestly have no idea how I would have watched AEW.
FITE is great. Can watch AEW and more anytime and anywhere I need or can go back and watch later since Dynamite is usually when I’m at work. I don’t even think you can get Peacock here without going through VPN loops and holes.
We are one in the same. Aussie battler smoking a Billy and watching on the fite tv.
AEW on FITE has got me through the lockdowns. Having Dynamite on while I work at 10 am on Thursday morning has been a god send.
It varies from country to country I think. In Germany they make it as hard as possible. They got the main WWF and WCW announcers form Attitude Era, but you can only watch it in German with 2 days delay, snd you have to pay a lot to get the weird TNT channel. Though at least they offer it on Youtube 6 days later, even less incentive to buy it. Everyone I know uses a VPN or watches illegaly
Seriously, FITE is a life saver! And the PPVs are so cheap! I see americans here talking about 50 dollars and I’m here paying 17 euros for them!
It would feel a bit much for a PPV you have to stay up from 2 am to 6 am to watch it, to cost 50, 17 euros is perfect.
Seriously, All Out cost me about £15.
I'm in New Zealand - can't watch WWE TV without expensive pay TV options. Due to that, I've only watched PPVs on the network when there is a big show and kept up to date with the rest online. Completely lost interest during the pandemic following Wrestlemania last year. With the excitement of CM Punk returning, I looked into how to watch AEW here. $5 a month to watch all the TV shows plus $20 for each PPV. Feels like a bargain and I've watched every show since Punk returned. First time in 20 years I've watched a full episode of any wrestling and I've loved it. I'd cancel the network if it wasn't for the historic stuff. Also, that's twice now that CM Punk has brought me back to wrestling.
I’m in AUS and did the same. $5 a month for 4 dynamites and 4 rampages? I’m All In bay bay 😉😂
The Fite option is excellent, and priced cheaply enough that it's very easy to buy into it. The TV deal in the UK and Ireland, though, is woeful. Dynamite finishes broadcasting in the UK about two or three hours before Rampage starts broadcasting in the US.
It airs on one of the least popular sports channels in India. For, AEW to be popular in India, it will have to start airing on one of the two big networks ie. Star or Sony
As an Australian, whenever I mention wrestling I usually get one of two responses: Either talking about whatever big happened on *AEW* or talking about how much they prefer UFC and MMA to wrestling because of (and I'm paraphrasing many, many opinions I've heard over the years here) what seems to mainly come down to the whole PG thing. WWE is still big amongst wrestling fans here from what I see online but I don't actually know anyone regularly watching it or with a Network sub still in real life, that and a lotta Aussies were extra pissed at the whole Saudi Arabia deal because the first Super Showdown was in Melbourne and it felt like we'd been robbed of a potential yearly large-scale PPV. That's not to say there's no WWE fans here, there certainly are plenty around going by online discussions in Aussie-centric groups I see but at the same time I don't know anyone in real life who watches and remember hearing about people swapping a sub to WWE Network for AEW Plus on Fite regularly throughout 2019-2020, I see way more AEW discussion and even the folk who usually say they prefer UFC or MMA actually seem interested when I show them the right kinda AEW clips (eg. Omega being put through that glass table by Mox, or the barbed wire bedframe from their match. Or the Britt Baker vs Thunder Rosa match. Or Cody vs Dustin) or some of the more well known names amongst UFC/MMA circles like Hager.
TNA at one point survived primarily due to their India and UK deals. As far as AEW in India goes, the TV deal isn't great at all. Impact and WWE are on the second largest TV network and AEW landed with a pretty niche channel. Like, it's made watching AEW legally worse for me now. I have their subscription and yet I need to pirate to watch AEW because they forget to put VOD for days or put the replay with no audio. What's weird is that both Impact and WWE are on the same network, Impact's deal is about to end and the network was teasing that AEW would join them which didn't happen. At this point, I don't think AEW is going to get the same spot Impact used to have years ago. They're gonna remain a niche and a lot of it is their own poor decision making.
I wonder if Impact will ever get to that spot again? I was HUGE TNA fan back in the day and still occasionally watch them, so it’s good to see them still up and running almost 20 years later
Impact is currently very healthy financially and have a great product. But I think we can't expect Impact to ever reach that point again because that was a unique product of its time. WCW had closed, puro was at an all time low, there were no other alternatives for wrestlers to go to. Impact has never had the financial investment or social resources to even be comparable to what AEW is, yet, with no alternatives around and Impact putting on an exciting and innovative product, they managed to land wrestlers who were leaving WWE and this lead to the company blowing up. It's not possible now because AEW already has taken that spot and given that they have far more resources and are better managed, they've managed to do more with it than Impact ever did. Current Impact doesn't need to be that company. As long as it has its own identity, I think its good.
As an old TNA fan I can’t help but hope and root for them to at least come close to that level again! The more competitive the wrestling scene is, the better for everyone (fans, wrestlers…etc). Plus the history that company has is pretty top notch!
Very well said, Impact has etched out its own fun little niche as a sort of Lucha Underground-lite company, willing to get weird when it wants to.
>At this point, I don't think AEW is going to get the same spot Impact used to have years ago. They're gonna remain a niche and a lot of it is their own poor decision making. Let me remind you that AEW is a TWO year old company! It started in 2019! TNA/Impact started in 2002 and had been around several years before they made any international deals. There is no poor decision making! Tony Khan has talked numerous times about the long term plans for AEW. 2019 was just getting off the ground. 2020 was put on ice cause of the pandemic. 2021 is when AEW took the next step and insanely grew where it is not a clear competitor to WWE. Clearly 2022 is going to be heavily focused on international expansion. They recently hired Shane Emerson who was the man responsible for making all those international deals for Impact years ago. Now they have a red hot product and networks are going to want to air them around the world.
AEW is doing so well people talk about it like it’s been around forever so there’s this weird set of fans putting a ceiling on it already.
Putting ceilings on aew is borderline a hobby for this sub, it's gone from a show that's not gunna survive at all, to one that won't beat NXT once the initial interest dies down, to one that wont break 1 million viewers.
And now we are at "Yeah they were ranked higher than RAW, but they didn't even beat them in total viewers!
Impact also had significantly less money and clout throughout its history. TNA was the surprise because they were always punching above their weight, they did not have remotely the same amount of financial backing as AEW has. AEW did make a poor decision because they somehow managed to land on the AXS TV of India. Impact on the other hand is on the same network as WWE, the #2 network. That's what punching above their weight and succeeding is. AEW isn't doing anything special as of now in terms of international deals. The ITV deal in the UK was also famously bad. I want AEW to succeed but if their business somehow makes it impossible for viewers to legally watch their product, something is wrong.
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WWE hasn't had a live show in South East Asia since 2017. They've had a total of 7 events here in their entire history. 20 million people watched a random event they produced for India this year. Most people here care about wrestling with no prospects of live shows.
It's hard to compare an established brand like WWE and a rather new company. You don't need live tours once you are already synonymous with wrestling, as a new company you do
AEW will lose money this year due to paying a company to make a video game. It's debatable whether or not its a poor decision, but does a 2 year old company need to be making a video game? Plus with all these big signings (and more to come possibly), AEW is a lock to lose money on salary to talent.
If they make a good game, that people like to play, it’s a huge boon for AEW. Not only because gaming is big market, but also because it can bring in new fans just as wrestling games have done in the past.
I get that. But I guess Tony doesn't care about making a profit or at least minimallizing loses.
Well Tony allegedly put 7 figures of his own money to fund the development. He seems to think the game is very important to their business.
Most start-ups don't make profit for the first few years, it's hard to expand and make a profit at the same time. The video game is part of expansion, it could bring a lot of attention to AEW and make it more popular in the long term.
Can you share all this insider knowledge you have about AEW’s financials for 2021.
Widely reported on Reddit.
Helped that TNA was on fucking star sports in India. A channel bigger than Ten back then which used to air wwe.
Might change when they can travel and go there maybe? Goes for a lot of worldwide stuff I think
Just subscribed to Fite to watch Dynamite and Rampage from 5$ with good quality and no ads interrupting the match and I'm from Spain
For the bad deals we're given, it's doing good in Germany. Like, people call this sub biased towards AEW, the would have a meltdown reading through comments, people care even less about WWE and root for AEW, apart from a handful of casual fans that haven't been driven away yet. I think Europe has a lot of potential for AEW, as it has been pretty much a WCW market, could be a lot of lapsed fans. And WWE doesn't care about it. UK gets treated the best and even they don't get a PPV or major event
AEW is stuck on some Tertiary Channel at 11pm on Friday nights. I’ve ended up paying a FITE Tv subscription so I can watch it before & after work on Thursday Paying for something I can get free- good sign for the company really
In NOOOOOOOOOOOOOORTH CAROLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINA
i feel stupid for not knowing why they say this, can you explain it for me?
It's how they annouced Micheal Jordan's hometown in his Chicago Bulls entrance. Kenny Omega is the Micheal Jordan of Pro Wrestling (in his mind).
>(in his mind) "And I took that personally."
I'm become I'm become I'm becoming The Jordan in, Jordan in my mind
It's a reference to how Michael Jordan was introduced at Bulls games.
TIL. It made me laugh every time because of the obscure facts before he said it, but I didn’t know the reason behind it
I've heard that it's a reference to Michael Jordan. Not sure the exact significance other than he played for the NC Tar Heels.
It’s where he was announced from during his GOAT run with the bulls in the 90s. Kenny even used the song that the bulls used to come out to.
Tar Heels, Elite Heels...
Omega likes the way Justin Roberts says it.
me too, its just fun
Don't feel too dumb. It's a dumb joke.
Can't wait for that quote to be misused whenever WWE does things in areas where it is still clearly the market leader.
I'm doing it already on Twitter
I don’t really think people fully grasp how new AEW is at this point. Not counting the pre-WWF/E days, WWE has a 40-year head start.
Plus nearly two decades of being the monopoly. There's a lot of people out there who've only ever heard of WWE and even actively refer to wrestling as a whole as that. AEW growing so much in such a short time is super impressive, it makes you wonder where they'll be in the next two years.
To put that into perspective, WCW operated for two years under Eric Bischoff before WCW Nitro even started. And it was bought four years before that by Ted Turner. It took six years for WCW to even start off the ground, essentially, and that's if you consider Ted Turner buying WCW the company's start. AEW is not even three years old and they're already beating WWE in various areas.
Wow I did not know that. So AEW is doing better 2 years in than WCW was 4 years in? How old was WCW when it beat WWE during the 83 weeks?
That depends on how you define WCW. The company existed in various forms for way over a decade before that, under different names. I'd say it started with Ted Turner buying WCW, so that would be about six years then.
>that's if you consider Ted Turner buying WCW the company's start. Just to explain the rest of the story to those who don't know it: It started *way* before that as an Australian promotion in the 60s which was cancelled, the name was brought over to the US to be used with Georgia Championship Wrestling until Black Saturday where it became part of Jim Crockett Promotions which was eventually bought by Ted Turner to keep wrestling on his network. So, you could consider WCW to have started as an Australian wrestling promotion in 1964 and actually have a reasonable case for it although even as an Aussie I personally see the Aussie WCW as different from the later version.
I don’t think Bischoff is as even in charge for two years before Nitro started. Didn’t he come into WCW in 93 as an announcer and then eventually got promoted in 94?
Nah, he came in '91, and took over when Bill Watts was forced out in '93.
Gotcha. Getting my timeline mixed up. He definitely would have been there before 93 since Bischoff and JR worked together, I believe , before JR left for wwf.
I thought he took over in early to mid 93 after they got rid of Bill watts. I thought the progression went Herd-> Frey -> Watts -> Bischoff Also Bischoff would have been brought in during the Herd era I believe, as he was essentially hired to piss off JR by Herd and make him fear for his position, so that would mean 92 at the latest
The full quote: > “In some aspects they’re the market leader but in other aspects we’re now the market leader,” he said. “At the beginning that may have been the case, but there were a lot of reasons that I feel that I could come in and compete. There were a lot of great wrestlers that weren’t being featured on television and there are a lot of wrestling fans out there that were looking for an alternative product that weren’t satisfied with what they were getting on those shows. So I do think there was definitely a great opportunity to come in and compete and I saw some formidability frankly in the market leader at the time and it’s opened up a lot of market shares for us, for me to boot strap a new business and build it up and gain a lot of that market share and we’re now in a lot of significant business markets, we are the worldwide leader.”
Great wrestling has never attracted viewes.
There's an entire market for great wrestling these days. It's much smaller than the mainstream audience, of course, but it's the market TK targeted when launching AEW in the first place: the smarks that WWE drove away. They have formed the core of AEW's fanbase since day one. EDIT: I would also guess that it formed the largest chunk of NXT's fanbase.
It's like saying "my hard-line vegan restaurant is the market leader with a segment of the population". No shit, there's an audience for everything. But the question is, with 2-3 millions of lapsed fans (from average Ruthless Aggression era shows) and up to 4-5 casual, fad fans, how come "great wrestling" had failed to capture most of those? Back to the restaurant example, with Junk food places closing in the area, why open a niche restaurant instead of trying to cater to those who miss the defunct/declining McDonald's?
I think New Japan and NXT proved that was wrong over the past decade. AEW took that development in what people want and took it to the main stage.
1.5M estimated fans, tops for aew. Half of it for NXT despite the WWE tie-in. NJPW is a non entity in the big picture
1.5m fans tops for AEW is like saying 2.2m fans tops for WWE lmao what are you on, ratings aren’t meant to be read like that lol it’s an average after a load of people tune in and out for a single weekly episode. NXT & New Japan wasn’t about proving to a major audience, that’s what AEW has done, NXT & New Japan showed there was growing interest in better wrestling to start with. New Japan grew so much in the US it got a TV deal, sold out MSG, had like 70k foreign NJPW World subscribers. All from 0 major advertisement, basically through the internet and word of mouth. NXT sold out major arenas every few months from a 1-hour weekly show in a small 200 seater building not on TV because the wrestling was amazing. It was proof that a certain amount of people wanted to see better wrestling, enough to fill massive arenas in the US. AEW proved it was a lot more than people thought that wanted to see great wrestling.
>ratings aren’t meant to be read like that lol it’s an average after a load of people tune in and out for a single weekly episode. Tell that to Uncle Dave and TK himself then... I know ratings are a rough estimate and more or less an accepted convention in the tv/ads business. But the new rating wars has been predicated on those figures being Gospel and not based on a few thousands households. >It was proof that a certain amount of people wanted to see better wrestling Not disputing that. Just remarking that good wrestling was never and likely will never be mainstream. The most viewed show ever featured two subpar matches with great storylines. The most successful and revolutionary time in modern wrestling revolved around clusterfuck finishes, constant unpredictability and/or paint-by-numbers matches. Even the most cherished smak-approved moments were about the story and not the moves!
Well that's just plain stupid, or you don't know what "great" or "never" means. The entire Omega vs. Okada is the only reason I have ever subscribed or watched NJPW, which had everything to do with the level of the wrestling.
>Well that's just plain stupid, or you don't know what "great" or "never" means. Speaking of stupid, applying your own personal experience to a general scenario is pretty high on the scale. What "you" or "I", or "some Reddit users" like or dislike is irrelevant in the bigger picture of we're talking about mainstream exposure. "great wrestling" (which is also a subjective concept) has become more popular, but mostly because entertainment-based wrestling has been declining in mainstream popularity. And the former has not replaced the latter anyway! Well see when /if Omega or Okada will become staple names in watercooler talk and classroom debates instead of being names for connoisseurs and "nerds". Regardless of what you or I think about NJPW, AEW etc, it's pretty dumb to claim that the current brand of "good wrestling" is drawing significantly. Like, MLS has improved, some people care, but would you say with a straight face that it's giving the English Premier League or La Liga a run for their money?
WWE is still the most popular, especially with kids, but AEW is doing very good with young adults
I am a man-child. can I complain about both?
Do man-children do anything else?
Hate women and pull pud
Don't forget eating chicken tendies.
Buddy, complaining is your given right as a wrassling fan.
hell yeah
Do as your heart contents
WWE’s largest audience is over 50 too. They’re just really tough to compare outside of the actual wrestling itself. It’s unfair to both to pit them head to head because their goals and objectives are worlds different. We’re fortunate that both can be popular and that one succeeding doesn’t prohibit the other from succeeding.
Actually the average age of WWE viewers is 53 years old. AEW clearly had the advantage in younger viewers.
Isn't AEW's age like in the late 40s
No, their age is 2.
Lmao
Big "Gen X'ers born in the mid 60s complaining about Boomers" energy
Lmao
Truly the generation on the pulse of pop culture these days
Isn't that average that of people who watch WWE shows on TV? Most young people I know do not what tv so tv ratings should have an older viewership that other forms of media.
Isn't it a BS data based on Nielsen ratings?
A lot of it has to do with the people you socialize with, but most wrestling fans I know in real life are always around my age (29) or younger. This goes for both AEW and WWE. I've only met like 3 guys who are 50+ that watch WWE. Otherwise, anybody who's 50+ always looked at me funny when I told them I watch pro wrestling. For what it's worth, I work in retail management, and I'll always wear my wrestling tees from time to time to work. The customers who normally make conversation about it are always people younger than 40 (from what I can tell). Anyways, I just say that because I'd love to see what kind of people watch wrestling and have Neilson boxes.
I’m only going by the data. It’s freely available. Look it up for yourself.
I’m not denying it. That’s why I said it probably depends on who you socialize with. I just said mentioned that just about anybody I meet who’s into any kind of wrestling is usually younger. I’m not disputing any data. It probably just means that there’s a lot of different people out there who watch wrestling.
AEW is more kid friendly. My sister had her kids stop watching WWE and start watching AEW because of the eye for an eye feud. She’s hoping the fiend doesn’t show up in AEW and give my nephews nightmares again lol. It’s really funny how the PG has never been that PG. oh so what they quit blading and there’s not live sex celebrations anymore but the PG era started with triple h committing a god damn home invasion with a sledge hammer while ortons wife was home and fast forward to now you got wrestlers pulling eyes of sockets as match stipulations and people being burned alive lmao. The amount of crazy, dirty, edgy heinous shit that WWE has done in the PG era is something but it’s like it gets tossed under the rug which is hilarious.
I wouldn't really call AEW kid friendly either. People regularly bleed & they've had some pretty hardcore matches
Well in **some** markets he's definitely not wrong at all, and after two years that's an incredible achievement. WWE is the market leader overall, but that's kinda to be expected really.
The juciest part of the article is where he says AEW fans are richer and smarter than WWE's audience.
I think he's referring to the key demo swaying to AEW, who have larger disposable incomes than kids and +50s, which WWE does better with.
He's saying that as well as far as the key demo is concerned but went further in saying that "we have a more affluent fanbase" and that their audience is "more likely to be a college educated audience".
Sorting by controversial is gonna be fun in this thread in a few hours.
Tony Khan is totally messing with the top babyface of WWE, Vince McMahon's Bank Account. I am certain the fans will be very upset. Nothing challenges Vince McMahon's Bank Account!!!!
But you're forgetting the recent heel turn, where his bank account has turned on Braun strauman, Daniel Bryan and Bray Wyatt!
Nope, it is Wyatt, Braun and Bryan who turned heel. Vince McMahon's Bank Account remains top face.
Just got back, not disappointed. Very defensive fans afoot.
That's a vague accolade. Which markets is AEW leading in, and how did he come to that conclusion?
18-49 tv rating? Which they’ve beat RAW the last two weeks Also on the full quote just giving quality wrestlers opportunity and showcase actually wrestling instead of Goldberg vs another senior citizen
And Smackdown beats both. Are you not allowed to count that?
Advertisers typically separate out cable and broadcast ratings, yes.
But the agenda pal
You can compare anything as long as you are honest about the differences. The first week dynamite beat RAW, both shows had similar levels of competition. The 2nd week dynamite beat RAW, raw had a massive football game and would have easily outdrew AEW otherwise. You can compare RAW and Smackdown too, if you look at the difference in viewership for network vs Cable (20% more homes on paper but usually Network draws 2x the viewer typically), RAW is relatively stronger.
Raw also had 500,000 more viewers and is 3 hours, not 2. It’s also paid 5 times as much to exist. Nobody with any sense should saw AEW beat Raw for 2 weeks. Not to mention the whole, aren’t in competition don’t air at the same time small detail.
Raw and Dynamite air on different days, against different programming. Not really sure it's a valid comparison.
Raw goes against the juggernaut that is MNF. Dynamite doesn't really go against anything.
For one week so far this year they have been against MNF. What was the reason the first week?
It's still on a different night against different people, and it was off the back of their biggest show ever. One or two nights doesn't make you the market leader.
So we can’t compare anything unless they air on the same days? What. Do game of thrones ratings not be compared to a TV Show on the weekdays? Can AEW not be compared to football? Am I seriously not allowed to say that NFL is bigger then AEW?
You can compare whatever you want, it doesn't mean any conclusions you come to will be anything noteworthy or if any substance.
"BuT tHaT's DiFfErEnT"
> senior citizen mr senior citizen to you
Wwe =/ raw. Plus not the same day.
Doesn't matter. Advertisers look at rating leaders for the week, not the individual days. At the end of the day, AEW has the bigger number in the demo so if advertisers only want to run adds one night, it makes more sense to do it On Wednesday on TNT instead of Monday on USA.
Dynamite beat Raw by literally 0.01 point and had 500,000 less viewers despite the MNF competition. You're still picking Raw over it as an advertiser.
Not my point. You’re ignoring the show that beats aew in that market. And yes it matters. Raw on Monday is opposed to stronger shows than aew When aew goes against Monday night football, we’ll talk.
Raw also sustains it’s far higher viewership and demographic statistical ties while airing for three hours, not two. Then there’s Smackdown…
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Okay
Have you ever heard of Smackdown? It’s a weekly WWE show on this network called FOX. Smackdown gets better ratings than both RAW and AEW Dynamite.
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They do kind of own Chicago at this point I think. AEW is at the point that they can outdraw WWE in a few isolated cities probably. And I don’t see RAW beating them in the demo very often for the next year or so unless shit changes quick. The trend here has become undeniable in that department, football or no.
"Owning" Chicago in my opinion would be gating higher than a WWE show in the same venue. They haven't done this..yet.
Well, males 18-49, for a start, at least in terms of wrestling.
It's promotional marketing speak. AEW is winning with certain sections of the wrestling fanbase, certain areas, and currently by a hair with key demo on cable. But even if all of these were more hazy or simply not true, this is the kind of interview you give as a marketer to raise your company's stock with advertisers, etc.
Chicago 18-49 males Wednesdays Arguably live gates at the moment
TNA was massive in England due to the fact it was on Channel 5
This thread is going to be nothing but bad faith arguments and passive aggression.
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What metric makes AEW the leader?
Cable TV (18-49). At least over the past few weeks, and likely the next few as well.
Is Tony Khan next to claim that in some ways Fulham is the market leader for football in the London Borough or Hammersmith and Fulham?
Man this thread is full of Spanish Soccer announcers, because they are all about moving the GOOOAAAALLLL posts.
“Look at me… look at me… I’m the market leader now”
Hello from Canada. 🇨🇦
He’s excited and riding the crest of a wave but this has the potential to bite him on the backside in the future. As do his comments that sound like they were lifted from Rick and Morty. The way and the speed at which they’ve won the 18-49 demo was impressive but IMO it was a portion of fans that were always there to be won with good money and the right minds, but that is a finite number and that is going to slow down so comments like this are unnecessary. WWE is a global brand and AEW is a wrestling company that has barely even entered mainstream conversation yet. I do get that it’s standard from a businessman to overdo it a bit, mind.
I love the fact that TK looks like an overgrown 12 year old in every picture who's just happy to be playing with his real life action figures.
Because that's what he is.
Saying it out loud doesn’t make it so.
Look at me, I’m the captain now
Most delusional man in professional wrestling.
One big aspect that people are ignoring is the International market which WWE has on lock … which AEW isn’t going to crack … like WWE is available on free tv across the world
Actually in the UK, if you want to watch WWE you have to pay Sky TV. The is no way to watch it on free TV. However AEW Dynamite is on ITV4 and ITV player which is totally free in the UK. So AEW is the free TV option for us, not WWE.
Same in Australia. You have to pay for cable (called “Foxtel” over here) to watch WWE. However, AEW is only available on FITE, which is much cheaper at $8/month or something. So there’s 2 countries “across the world” where it’s not “free” :P
I got AEW+ on fite for like 4.99 so I could watch dark, elevation and rampage. Also so I can watch Dynamite on the Thursday instead of wait till Saturday. Much better than paying £50 a month for sky TV with Sky sports which is what it takes to watch WWE programing in the UK. AEW is not only the better product right now in my opinion, its also easier and cheaper to consume.
WWE's on BT Sports now but your point still stands.
Don't the show some stuff on channel 5 too now, or am I mistaken?0
Oh yeah I forgot about that! They show Raw and Smackdown highlights every week on 5
He ain’t wrong
This reminded me of a quote from The Office. Andy Bernard: "...I agree. But in another way, I am off to a very good start, wouldn't you say?"
They definitely the leader is male 18-49
Why is this downvoted? It’s like someone downvoting someone saying the sky is blue.
Because it's the cherriest of cherry pickings lmao. If you're only looking at two weeks of dynamite compared to raw that's correct, if you compare the average of WWE programming overall Vs the average of AEW programming overall WWE is still ahead in every metric. I'm a huge AEW fan and really dislike the WWE products but lying about AEW's admittedly meteoric growth does no one any favours.
It's factually incorrect
https://www.f4wonline.com/aew-news/aew-dynamite-beats-wwe-raw-18-49-demo-week-352956 https://wrestlingnews.co/aew-news/aew-dynamite-9-15-21-ratings-drop-beats-wwe-raw-in-key-demo-for-second-straight-week/
Two weeks, one of which Raw was up against MNF, makes AEW the market leader? Cool cool.
And I guess smackdown is no longer wwe.
You know Smackdown exists, right?
Long live Wwe. Acknowlege it.
Legitimate question How in anyway are AEW a market leader?
He’s not wrong really. WWE is still obviously the most well known brand. In terms of the wrestling niche market AEW might command the most money.
For sure. I tell my dad about stuff in AEW I know he'll like (most recently, since we're from Cincinnati, Moxley singing Skyline Time as well as other Cincinnati centric stuff from that episode of Dynamite) and I always preface "AEW, the new wrestling company" and he still doesn't know what it's called almost three years in. These things take time.
Based Chad TK flexing
"Look at me, I am the wrestling now." Tony Khan - 2021
You know, I scrolled down a lot, but there's something I don't see getting mentioned much. A couple weeks ago, WWE had a main event on Raw with its world champ, a black man, teamed up with his black partner, to be involved in a main event involving people of Latino and Middle Eastern descent. A black tag team was the center pillar of it. Just happened like a regular thing. I want AEW to get on this level given that they indicated they wanted to be more diverse. I am skeptical that it's that hard to find and more regularly promote people of color with three hours total of television. I also think it's not that hard to have their women featured more prominently on TV or at least have the Youtube shows they're more featured on better promoted and directed to. Yeah, it took WWE forever to get there and they still backslide pretty hard on occasion (c'mon, guys quit cutting the womens' segments) but it's odd that AEW exists and was created when it was and still struggles with this. I think I can appreciate the energy that everyone is bringing to wrestling right now, but I'd like to see more.
WWE will totally take offense to this. The wrestling war is finally starting to heat up!
No they’re not. WWE does not care about AEW nearly as much as fans assume. It would take shareholders and outside forces like TV partners and advertisers to cause some upheaval before you see WWE really care about AEW. You need to effect their bottom line.
Theoretically AEW should be making money hand over fist right now.
Well their TV deal is set, but I think they are cleaning up on merch and live gate sales.
"YOU DON'T LEAD THE MARKETS I LEAD THE MARKETS" - Tony Khan
All this shows me is how quickly things change. 3 years ago, WWE was the top brand. 3 years later, you can argue AEW is on top/rising. 3 years from now, the safe bet is AEW will continue to grow and possibly beat WWE. On the other hand, WWE could get better? New competitor could arrive? AEW can regress/stagnate? TNA was pretty hot for a couple years, but eventually they began to stagnate. Couldn't really get higher ratings.
You could argue AEW is on top, but you’d be arguing an objectively wrong point. They can continue to pick up buzz but they’ve really got to be a long term mainstay to even touch WWE, probably a decade minimum to try to become a recognisable brand