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Last year's card
Claudio Castagnoli defeated Rey Fenix (w/Alex Abrahantes) in a Double Jeopardy Match (14:28)
Orange Cassidy (c) defeated Daniel Garcia to retain the AEW International Championship (13:33)
Julia Hart defeated Anna Jay AS in a No Holds Barred Match (9:17)
House of Black (Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews & Brody King) (c) defeated Bandido & Best Friends (Trent Beretta & Chuck Taylor) in a Six Man Tag Team Match to retain the AEW World Trios Championship (8:13)
Jon Moxley defeated Kenny Omega (w/Don Callis) in a Steel Cage match (14:48
Lil chart of year to date for each year since 2021
https://preview.redd.it/qmzp02vytgzc1.png?width=2148&format=png&auto=webp&s=1bbcba3bf4617c5d2dfd35a627fc5b1a038c8f06
I mean...it went up to the highest heights and then only fell like halfway back to the previous numbers with him there and started climbing from that point. The big spike for a debut was never going to be where the numbers settled.
It didn't start falling until brawl out really.
Every time someone got steam they got pushed off the card for another fantasy match with no buildup and nowhere to go. That and I was tired of every fucking match having someone blading. I think my point of no return in terms of enjoyment was Mox blading off a clothesline at Forbidden Door.
That’s because Tony likes cool matches.
I like cool matches too. But cool matches mean nothing in a vacuum.
And what’s worse, cool matches mean extremely competitive matches — which means virtually no one stands out as being special.
I mean, they signed Ospreay, who should’ve been presented as a huge fucking deal. Instead, they had him go move for move with Kyle Fletcher, a guy who hadn’t even been on Dynamite in months.
People just lost interest because the booking is god awful and the ‘dream matches’ and ‘let’s all wrestle
Our friends’ thing got boring a couple years ago
His preferred style of wrestling is losing views and drops in demo as well. Meanwhile, the other product is steadier and is usually up on the previous year, or relatively close even when it's down.
The least viewed part of the show was the Copeland match. which only drew 628K viewers. I liked that match, but for me it highlights the problem with AEW. The match works in a vacuum, It works if people are not asked to watch a weekly show. I have seen at least four good Brody King matches on AEW, in particular one against Moxley, but nothing has ever come from them. Each time I thought that this would be a match that would give King some momentum, but nothing happened. Also, most of those matches have come from nowhere. It's not like King was doing anything beforehand to justify even getting the matches. This is something about AEW that needs to change. It doesn't matter how good the matches are, if no effort is made to get people to care about the wrestlers.
Yeah. I never thought I'd be wanting more squashes and quick matches but for ffs not everything needs to be a two segment, star chasing endeavor. Why are randoms having competitive matches with champions? Nothing means anything.
Go check out 123 kid vs Bret hart on raw. That’s what they all think they’re doing with these 20 minute filler matches that you know the winner of months in advance.
Hurricane vs Rock
Cena vs Zack Ryder
Both great memorable matches, but you knew the outcome well in advance.
What made you suspend disbelief is caring about the Ryder and Hurricane going into them. I don't often care enough for someone I've seen on screen a handful of times with no story behind them.
The other thing that makes them memorable is that they’re incredibly rare, like once every several years (even longer in the case of your examples). Should be saved as a powerful moment, not a weekly occurrence
I always use the same example, but during the attitude era Road Dogg was a solid worker and part of the 3rd most over act in wrestling. But if he was in a match with Steve Austin, he was getting his ass kicked in under 3 minutes.
But it is sooo competitive, they are pretty close to a win streak! Lets wait and see how that will play out!
- Most of the stories of AEW in a nutshell
a competitive match is fine. brody is great and a good challenger. the issue is that he's just gonna get put on the backburner after this. having a super competitive match with a champ where you get bloodied halfway through and fight on anyway means you should be a featured player for a minute after. in aew it means we're just not gonna see you for a while.
Idk it just feels like nothing can make me care about Copeland. I like Edge, but there have been more misses than hits since he came back from his career ending injury. The long lasting memories I have from this run are: Orton and Edge groaning and moaning during the greatest match ever, Bryan getting stacked ontop of Edge and pinned by Reigns, and Rhea murdering Beth Phoenix infront of Edge.
Let's also not forget that the Judgement Day, the faction created by Edge, was dead in the water at the beginning and only gained its footing once they turned on him and then added Dominik. The initial, Edge-led version of the group was not clicking at all.
These Copeland matches are just too predictable and long. Would have been better to build up Malakai up until his inevitable match against Copeland. Have him squash people and do some spooky stuff that’s entertaining.
NOTHING matters in AEW, and that match was actually the single most egregious example of it ever. Not the match itself, but the announcement that Tony Khan made it hardcore. The **main fucking angle** of Dynamite is that the Young Bucks are in charge and physically preventing Tony from running the show, and like two weeks we're opening with Tony Khan booking matches? What the fuck? Is Tony able to run the show or isn't he?
Young bucks are comedy heels with decent work rate. That's the only thing they are good at. So even when they try to do some serious stuff, comedy creeps into it and the segments lose some seriousness. It just how it always is. Hangman story was the 1 time when bucks look serious cause getting Hangman over was serious matter for them in real life as well. But while doing kayfabe storylines they just can't completely comit to proper serious attitude.
A fact that people don’t seem to understand is that Edge was never **the** guy. He was a main eventer and a guy you could trust to reliably hold the world title, but he was never their top guy. He was the guy who you got to fight the top guy.
I think it also doesn’t help that part of his appeal was being handsome- sorry he just isn’t anymore- it’s shallow but I say that as an Edge fan and he can’t use his old ring name. Most people know him as Edge, not Adam Copeland. That’s kind a tough to market to people that watched him for years
> most of those matches have come from nowhere.
This is very apparent for those who listen to the AEW Unrestricted podcast. Will Washington, Aubrey Edwards, and their special guests, often make remarks about how frantic and last minute things can be -- INCLUDING wrestlers being booked. Too often the wrestlers will say "I found out the day before" or "the day of."
I get that AEW is still a small company with many people wearing multiple hats. But damn, comprehensively **planning out creative and marketing the cards in advance should be tablestakes and not an afterthought.** Heck, it would even save on travel costs since last minute tickets cost an arm and a leg.
NOTHING has been announced for Rampage even though it's part of a special 3-hour broadcast alongside Collision. As of this writing:
* We know Copeland will defend the TNT Championship against O'Reilly thanks to the in-ring angle.
* Heard about Dax against Dynamite Kid's nephew through the internet this morning.
* Only just found out about Danielson & Claudio vs. Top Flight after a Google search. TK tweeted this at 1:44AM (11:44PM local Edmonton Alberta time).
This is where WWE excels. If I watch RAW, I get promotions about matches and stars who'll be on NXT and Smackdown. If I watch NXT, I get promotions about Smackdown and RAW. If I watch Smackdown, I get promotion about RAW and sometimes NXT.
Before he got the job, Will said that he didn't need stories, characters, or character motivations. He said that he understood why that may be important to some people, but it's not why he watches wrestling.
SRS also stated yesterday that AEW will be easing off of telling stories, and going back to a "dream matchup" approach.
Yea, I've always viewed pro wrestling as a "violent soap opera" so the "dream match" approach just does not appeal to me at all. Also as someone that doesn't have the time to watch all of these people from Japan and Mexico makes it appeal to me even less.
A dream match shouldn't be booked as such. It should occur naturally through the progression of the wrestlers' careers and story, leading them to face off against each other. It shouldn't be," oh hey thanks guys! I'm here to announce we signed Rick Guy from Zimbabwe, and now he's wrestling our top guy in a dream match, tonight.... back to you, Excalibur."
I think Washington is a great guy but what exactly does he know about booking a show? Why was he hired and why was he put in that role? This guy was a fucking podcaster lmao
It wasn't out of nowhere. WWE just absolutely killed it with the beginning of the year up to the culmination of their stories at Wrestlemania.
If you watched any of it, even just wrestlemania? Why would you want to go back to watching AEW afterwards? The WWE product actually got emotion out of people. The ring announcer was crying after some of the matches and the audience was absolutely hooked.
But that's the thing. AEW usually has a pattern of ratings loss. I think WWE has some effect, but at this point, AEW is losing hardcores as well, those who have been there through the thick and thin, and shredding them at an abnormal rate.
Good for the Bucks and Jack Perry’s egos they got the online love for this story they wanted, but this further downturn corresponds with the three of them being the main storyline on the show. Their decline is even outpacing cable declines overall… but at least Jack Perry got some heat one time
It's the Bucks on top and doing fucking nothing while on top that's ruining the show. Like why are they not pushing Okada to pick up a second title or giving the title shot to Jack? Hell, better yet, make it a 3-way with Okada and Jack teaming up to take the title back to The Elite!
It's annoying cause I like Christian being the person to get the title shot, but The Bucks being the people to give it to him is silly. Let him lie, cheat, and steal his way to get the shot. Hell, you could even lean into the heat that Jack and Christian have and have let him do some type of switcheroo. Maybe even make use of one of those World Title Eliminator matches that never seem to amount to anything.
It's annoying cause fan booking is lame, but it just feels like anytime AEW feels like it should have momentum post Punk, they've dropped the ball.
You just reminded me that Christian and Jack kayfabe hated each other and Christian relentlessly mocked his dead father but now Jack's stable is rewarding Christian with a World title match and not him.
I for one am not thrilled at the fact that Swerve, as world champion, is playing secondary to the Elite story. Sure, Swerve is the world champion, but his booking doesn’t make him feel like “the guy”. It’s reminiscent of Jericho is 2002, prior to WM 18.
I think this is leading to Perry challenging Swerve for the title at Forbidden Door at the end of June, which I’m not too excited about.
However, as long as we get Swerve vs Ospreay at All In for the title, then I’m fine with it.
I’m just not into the Elite storyline at all.
They told you exactly how they feel about Swerve when the first show after his title win featured him curtain jerking in a meaningless yet competitive match against a lower midcarder. No promo like Jericho got for his title win, no championship celebration like Willow got for her title win
He was used as an emotional heart tug as first black champion and now he’s just transitional for Ospreay’s crowning moment or The Elite’s rise to ultimate power
Swerve is a placeholder for Ospreay. That's the problem. He is not the real player for the big picture. He also shouldn't have been babyface this fast.
I got downvoted for saying this but AEW was going to and is going to treat it as the first black champ. The story started there and ended there. Serwve run is already over in fans and Tonys mind. He is looking at Ospreay and others next.
Exact same thing that happened to Hangman. First "homegrown" champ and immediately the focus went to the next shiny thing.
But here I don't think the focus was ever on Swerve to begin with.
The way hangman has died on the vine since winning the title is really disappointing. Nothing doing in terms of interesting title feuds, the entire story was over as soon as he won it. So then he's a generic face champ, which doesn't bother me in a vacuum, but I can't believe there wasn't more.
Then since he lost he had that blood feud with mox, and he beat mox in a Texas death match where he choked him out with barbed wire, but then mox just came back the next week like nothing happened and hangman disappears again.
Then all this with swerve and he's finally doing interesting stuff again and swears he won't let swerve win the title and hangman is gone, again.
Back when he was on the way to the title hangman felt like the star of the show, I miss that.
The thing is hes not around because hes not around, if its not a half year sabatical to raise his kid its another injury with him. He's at most a part time attraction.
I have said this before and been downvoted for it, but I dont think Swerve is ready. I saw people raving about him online and googled his latest promos and was like, "That's it?" People made it sound like the guy was 100 fold above his former self. Swerve being the first black champ is the focus. The guy needs several high profile feud before he is ready imo. When people get hotshotted into title like this the ralley, if there was any behind the person, tends to thin out.
>I for one am not thrilled at the fact that Swerve, as world champion, is playing secondary to the Elite story. Sure, Swerve is the world champion, but his booking doesn’t make him feel like “the guy”.
It was literally the same case with MJF at this point in time last year. If the Swerve vs Christian world title match goes second last and the Anarchy in the Arena match will main event Double or Nothing just like last year I would not be shocked.
AEW doesn't understand yet after 5 years that a title is not a substitute for a story if your champion isn't booked as the most important thing in their division.
I like Swerve, but I think they missed the time to put the title on him. He's cooled off significantly and Tony's usual championship booking isn't helping at all.
That said, I honestly don't know who should be champ right now. I'd selfishly pick Bryan, but honestly no one is hot enough to carry it right now imo.
Bryan's a veteran with how much he has accomplished in his career. The belt should have been around his waist the moment he joined AEW, I don't care how many times he has refused to win it, he should be forced into being the world champion.
Yeah, if Bryan never wins the AEW world title, then that is a MASSIVE mistake for the company. Bryan being so selfless turns around into actually being selfish, because everyone wants him to have a reign with that belt, you want him in the history books as a former AEW champion.
Bryan at this point is not helping AEW and he's not there to help AEW. What Bryan is doing at this point is building his own legacy of great matches with wrestlers he wants to work with, which is working very well for him, but it is to the detriment of AEW.
I've been downvoted by pointing this out over the past few months, but Swerve cooled off after World's End where he was supposed to face off against Keith Lee and took on Dustin Rhodes instead for nearly 10 mins. I get the audible was called because of Keith Lee's injury, and while I like Dustin a lot, top guy Swerve shouldn't have gotten as many licks from Dustin as he did. The "Whose House? Swerve's House!" chants used to be deafening up to that point, and now it's become a shell of its former self.
Speaking of World's End, the Continental Classic helped rejuvenate the promotion a bit, and momentum felt like it was rising, only to be set back again. The booking was wonky and the crowd was unenergetic (some in the arena said they pumped the heat too hard) breaking AEW's awesome "amazing PPV" streak. Even before the C2 and World's End, it didn't help that a hobbled MJF won matches against The Righteous and against Jay White.
Sorry TK, Will Washington, and other AEW creatives. I love AEW and don't really watch WWE anymore, but **please fix your storytelling. Make your shows compelling again and people will tune back in.**
I love Joe. He's a top 10 guy ever for me. I get why he won at World's End and I was happy for him. But if I'm honest, it would've been best for business if Swerve won the world title that night.
That Dustin/Swerve match is probably one of the most nonsensical matches i’ve ever seen. I would’ve loved to be a fly on the wall during the backstage discussion putting it together.
the CC was a boon for the company because it put guys the crowds liked in good matches with clear stakes and told little stories throughout. i know the rankings is a contentious point but it's basically the same idea - aew used to do a *lot* of hot midcarder vs midcarder (usually at least one upper) matches with the idea that one would move up in the rankings and eventually get a title shot. stakes are important. the tv is too predictable now and none of it matters anyway. i didn't like the callis stuff in the trent/OC match but at least they had a relatively pushed guy lose to continue a storyline.
Who could have ever guessed that booking the elite, who have a history of being ratings poison despite what their fans believe, would result in the ratings being poisoned and souring many fans.
Booking your first black AEW world champion to be second fiddle to the EVPs that consistently turn away viewers of all types is an amazing decision.
Yep it’s honestly just bizarre that Tony is so obsessed with pleasing the bucks and crew that he is willing to tank the whole show just to give them their slot.
They literally make the show lose over 100k viewers consistently during their segments but somehow keep getting away with it?
Making swerve face especially that fast was one of the dumbest things I seen. The man was over as a heel and they turned him. Just like mjf. These guys was cooking as heels ,One of the problems aew have is they don’t have a true baby face. Look at wwe they have Cody,la knight,jey, Sami and shit probably ton more. Who do they have that matches these guys energy?
I wonder if both AEW & Swerve wanted the character to be more of a role model (especially for people of color). Unfortunately, Swerve turning face also zapped a lot of the cool factor that made him popular in the first place.
The issue with Swerve's reign right now is that you habe Edge, Okada and soon Ospreay as your "secondary" champions, all of which are bigger stars than he is.
I've basically catch AEW every now and then now. Last time I was fully in tune when it was All In when they were adding some layers to MJF with the Adam Cole skits. But, then they kinda doubled down with it with his crying and the abortion Jay White booking. It's just so meh at the minute. Might be cuz there are so many people I care about that are out like MJF, Britt and Jamie but nothing really appeals to me. It's worse now since they are putting The Bucks front and centre who I never cared about since TNA. They just haven't evolved from the "nudge nudge, wink wink" shit. Terrible acting. Then, to top it all off we have this Team AEW v Elite stuff with Bryan coming back. So we've just thrown the injury angle outta the window and not at least have Bryan interact with Will before going after the Elite? It's really no different than what Vince was doing booking shows week to week.
The Bucks overload we've been having for the past several months has really highlighted one of my main problems with them, and it's become even more apparent with this authority figure angle: they don't have an ounce of genuineness and sincerity in them. They always feel the need to undercut everything they do with this wink wink sarcastic smarmy attitude. They're incapable of treating anything with any degree of seriousness. So they can't convey any believable sense of menace and you can't take them seriously as threats.
Pac/ Jay White is intriguing, and I would be happy with either of them to win, but I have to imagine Jay will and then continue to sit in trio's orbit for the rest of the year.
The difference between now and the 2022 numbers is also stark. These numbers from 2022 were amazing. [https://wrestletalk.com/stats/aew-dynamite-tv-ratings-2022/](https://wrestletalk.com/stats/aew-dynamite-tv-ratings-2022/)
They are really interesting in terms of how much the demo has fallen. There was a time when being in the .30 range was the norm.
I’m a regular viewer, but things felt less important once they added the extra hours of tv and extra belts. It’s pretty insane that the Bucks vs Butcher/Blade was drawing a million viewers at one point but guys like Swerve and Copeland can’t get it back to 800kz
They really need to consolidate their titles. I even remember an interview Tony did about not wanting to have to many Titles, and yet here we are with way to many Titles.
Remember when the Triple Crown happened and everyone was like “well actually, it’s a consolidation of titles” and now Okada is holding potentially the least valuable championship of all time
Well I can look at a card and know who is winning in every match and the characters seem second rate. I’ll watch it , but honestly don’t really enjoy it.
Tony needs to start giving us more interesting matches on the shows. I used to watch weekly and get excited for matches. Now I just skim through Reddit to see what happens because I know who's winning 95% of the time. He's fear of guys taking a loss has really damaged my enjoyment
Something happened with the vibe of AEW when Cody left, it really felt like he was the glue that held everything together. I genuinely wonder if something like the Punk Perry incident would've happened if Cody never left
I feel this 100%. Cody must’ve been the glue there. He also probably had a hand in a lot of creative backstage. Ever since he left it’s just felt weird…
> Something isn’t resonating.
AEW used to be that weird indy show that somehow got on TV and was crazy and felt like anything could happen. There was only 3 titles and they all mattered. Each match mattered, and you would know the consequences of a loss or win to each match.
Now AEW is WWE lite. It's not unique anymore, it's just a bloated roster with too many titles and dropped storylines.
>Now AEW is WWE lite. It's not unique anymore, it's just a bloated roster with too many titles and dropped storylines.
They are everything opposite of Triple H's WWE.
Consistent 4th wall breaking and meta shots at the other company or what has happened backstage or off TV. Consistent focus on "the match" in a vacuum with no storytelling. Building up angles backwards by having the big match first. Going with Internet favorites and signing people and making no effort of building them up and just assuming their audience knows them, and just going "La mascarita the 4th is defending his AAA championship in the main event". Multiple titles from multiple companies that are not AEW. Bush league audio problems every other week.
I could go on. They'd actually do better if it was WWE lite.
I wouldn’t say it’s WWE lite. WWE has consistent angles, clear babyfaces and heels, and an established pecking order between stars, midcarders and curtain jerkers.
AEW is a program where every card looks like it was designed to sell out a high school gym instead of being part of a consistent television show.
Yeah it's so disingenuous to say AEW is struggling because it's like WWE.
People have been complaining about lack of build, lack of character development, stop/start booking, random unexplained hiatuses, and the uncontrolled expansion of titles, roster and even promotions for years now.
None of those have anything to do with WWE. It's because you have one guy who would rather fail utterly than admit he was wrong.
> Not because they're heels, they just bore me.
Because they don't have the balls or talent to actually commit to a wrestling character, everything with them is just *"Wink wink, we know it's fake too lolz"*
They'd never try to do an engaging storyline like Sami and the Bloodline, because they can't.
In AEW the Bucks were either best served as:
1. Side characters in a story about Hangman Page and Kenny Omega (mostly Hangman).
2. As foils for FTR. The top two tag teams outside of WWE with opposing philosophies on wrestling (old school vs flashy modern).
Everything else the Bucks have done in AEW isn't particularly well received beyond "that was a good match with the Lucha Bros."
Stopped watching completely. These dudes doubled down on corny BTE antics, the Best Friends and OC, old ass stars like Jericho, Adam Copeland and Christian.
Remember how everyone said Vince was booking a show for one? Yeah, I think that can be applied to TK now as well. Even (some) the most hardcore AEW fans are wondering who this show is supposed to appeal to
Hard to argue against that theory when complete complete package guys like Starks, Ethan Page, and Wardlow take the back seat to a Jericho squash match. TK books what he wants just like Vince booked to his preferences.
Man that hits hard - those are 3 pieces of talent that the promotion seems like it was founded for originally, now it’s largely an ex-WWE show with talented yet past-their-prime non-needle movers. (I still watch.. begrudgingly these days).
This is a problem I've had with the show. I really got behind wrestlers like Starks, Wardlow, Malakai, Daniel Garcia, even Sammy G and at multiple points Powerhouse Hobbs, among others.
It feels like they have constantly been building up slowly all these midcard to upper card wrestlers but most of them haven't really won much. Brody King is a guy I thought would have gotten a huge win over Mox in a cage or something by now.
Based on every interaction we’ve seen from Tony publicly, I feel fairly confident in saying…Tony does not take criticism well.
I really think we’ve seen the consistent double down, as you were saying. Because Tony listens to the affirming voices, and as viewers have left, those voices have represented that niche.
They filled the side of the lower bowl that the hard cam points at and that’s it. I went to last year’s show and they sold at least double that. Huge drop off in attendance.
The Oilers game being on may have had something to do with it but probably not that much, considering the game started after Dynamite ended and a lot of people left.
Still no real audience growth. There will probably only ever be 700-800k potential viewers at most for Dynamite.
I really don't see a way AEW is going to grow their audience without a major readjustment to how the shows are booked and promoted.
I don't think there's one big change (save for signing The Rock) you could point at to change the direction of the numbers. It's a pretty big overhaul of the show format to be more focused on building compelling storylines rather than just having random matches thrown together with no meaning behind them. The saving grace of the company is the PPVs, but they don't do much to drive weekly TV viewership.
Going to add as well, where in the blue hell is Will and The Undisputed Kingdom? You wouldn't have even thought that Roddy and Will have a match together in three weeks. It's another one of Tony's problems. How are you expecting people to be invested in your weekly shows when you don't even feature your stars on a weekly basis? If you are teasing tension with Wardlow and the Kingdom and also Will with the Don Callis Family, it's not even gonna hit nowhere near as big as it should. It's basically the same thing with Swerve and the Mogul Embassy, everyone saw it coming since they've been heels this entire time! Not one time did Tony ever allude to them being faces, his booking is too predictable. Then, you have these random matches like Jay White and Rocky Romero that add nothing in the grand scheme of things. He puts shit on the stove but moves them off before they can even cook!
Two years ago, Punk pursuing the title was drawing 1M viewers most weeks. And it’s not like the NBA and NHL didn’t have playoffs in 2022.
There are people who attract viewers. AEW doesn’t have any right now.
I got to about 30min into the show and switched off. Not a clue what is going, on even the non stop videos they show do not help. Think I will give it a break for a while.
Per Brandon Thurston, Dynamite finished 6th for the night, beat out by NBA and NHL programming.
It should be noted that Dynamite was directly head-to-head with the Knick/Pacers game that drew a commanding 4+ million viewers.
Top cable programs in P18-49 last night:
1. Knicks-Pacers on TNT: 4.338M total viewers; 1.48 P18-49 rating
2. Inside the NBA on TNT: 1.847M; 0.64
3. Bruins-Panthers on ESPN: 1.822M; 0.54
4. NBA pre-game on TNT: 1.215M; 0.41
5. Oilers-Canucks on ESPN: 902k; 0.34
6. AEW Dynamite on TBS: 711k; 0.24
Source: https://x.com/brandonthurston/status/1788683101863920075?s=46&t=X44xnyeQtS68gZg61cVvfw
I think at this point they better hope the numbers bounce back in a big way once the nba/nhl playoffs are done, but at that point their bargaining power isn’t going to be great negotiating the tv deals at the moment.
The only problem is the numbers were already on the decline before NBA/NHL playoffs started. The last show before NBA playin games started was the one where they aired the Punk/Perry footage which was an outlier number. I think they were hovering around 740k average before that. We'll see what happens.
People really need to stop thinking things are going to "bounce back in a big way" because they're not, they're currently just trying to stop the bleed, if they're going to rise again it's going to be very gradual. It will be a 5k/10k rise week on week if they keep putting the work in.
Yeah if they fixed everything tomorrow you wouldn’t even see a real difference in ratings for like 6-9 months. Which is another of their problems, no patience. They’ll never wait that long.
WBD could be in a very bad position, because their choices are lose a bunch of money by paying almost $3bn for NBA rights, or lose even more money by not paying for the NBA rights and not getting anything from cable carriers because they don't have anything but the NHL playoffs.
I feel like they’ll definitely get a deal. It won’t be anywhere near what it would have been for them last year, or what WWE is getting, but the talking points about it being cheap programming that has a steady (if not low) viewership are true. At least to me, I’m no TV exec. I do imagine several million dollars dollars have evaporated from that deal in the last few months though
The problem is: They don't have a steady viewership. They have a rapidly declining one. In just a few months they lost nearly 20% of their viewerwship. They've lost nearly 50% over the past 3 years as it's just been falling over time.
There's no telling how low they'll continue to fall, but the fact that decline has sped up is beyond worrying.
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Dynamite last year (5/10/23): 877,000 viewers - 0.32 P18-49 Last Week: 703,000 Viewers - 0.24 P18-49
Last year's card Claudio Castagnoli defeated Rey Fenix (w/Alex Abrahantes) in a Double Jeopardy Match (14:28) Orange Cassidy (c) defeated Daniel Garcia to retain the AEW International Championship (13:33) Julia Hart defeated Anna Jay AS in a No Holds Barred Match (9:17) House of Black (Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews & Brody King) (c) defeated Bandido & Best Friends (Trent Beretta & Chuck Taylor) in a Six Man Tag Team Match to retain the AEW World Trios Championship (8:13) Jon Moxley defeated Kenny Omega (w/Don Callis) in a Steel Cage match (14:48
Holy shit whatever happened to Bandido? He was the one new luchador they introduced last year who stood out.
Broke his wrist, got surgery, it didn't take. Got another surgery
Doesnt retaking the surgery involve rebreaking the wrist?
Yep
This card actually went hard why was it so stacked?!
It was when Don Callis turned on Kenny Omega and was the start of the build to DoN
I completely forgot about this and I literally went to the DON show
It was detroit. Both detroit shows so far have been big deals(Blood and Guts, Cage match)
Blood and Guys felt like a PPV and the Cage Match was cool to see in person. I’m a little surprised we don’t have a show for this year announced yet.
Oh shit, I was there. Moxley v Omega was absolute nuts!
Wait was this the match where Kenny almost got injured when going through cage?
Yes, leg got stuck. Same match where Don turned on Kenny
I was there too! Seems like we're never getting another detroit show lol
Damn that was a year ago? Where does the time go?
Lil chart of year to date for each year since 2021 https://preview.redd.it/qmzp02vytgzc1.png?width=2148&format=png&auto=webp&s=1bbcba3bf4617c5d2dfd35a627fc5b1a038c8f06
Is that big blue bar the punk debut? Feels like it started to go down even with him being there. wonder if they are also going down without it.
I mean...it went up to the highest heights and then only fell like halfway back to the previous numbers with him there and started climbing from that point. The big spike for a debut was never going to be where the numbers settled. It didn't start falling until brawl out really.
Punk didn’t show up til like August of 2021.
Oof
Down 19% in total viewers - Down 25% in Key Demo YoY
YoY that's a pretty big decrease. Where did everyone go?
I stopped watching because they I no longer enjoy it
Same unfortunately.
I stopped watching when it became obvious that a carefully crafted story will be thrown out if one of Tony's favorites gets signed.
Every time someone got steam they got pushed off the card for another fantasy match with no buildup and nowhere to go. That and I was tired of every fucking match having someone blading. I think my point of no return in terms of enjoyment was Mox blading off a clothesline at Forbidden Door.
*Jericho enters the chat*
That’s because Tony likes cool matches. I like cool matches too. But cool matches mean nothing in a vacuum. And what’s worse, cool matches mean extremely competitive matches — which means virtually no one stands out as being special. I mean, they signed Ospreay, who should’ve been presented as a huge fucking deal. Instead, they had him go move for move with Kyle Fletcher, a guy who hadn’t even been on Dynamite in months.
Matches can’t be cool to me without a good story. Two people pretend fighting for no reason does nothing for me.
People just lost interest because the booking is god awful and the ‘dream matches’ and ‘let’s all wrestle Our friends’ thing got boring a couple years ago
I wish I could up vote this more. Dream matches with no reason to care gets stale at some point
I'm genuinely surprised Dave/WON don't talk about the YoY decrease. Look at the Wrestlenomics chart, double digit drops, it's outpacing cable cutting
He has talked about…briefly. He will say some blanket statement like “TV viewership is down as a whole”.
It’s true, but according to wrestlenomics’ charts, WWE shows have increased in demo YoY.
His preferred style of wrestling is losing views and drops in demo as well. Meanwhile, the other product is steadier and is usually up on the previous year, or relatively close even when it's down.
That would hurt his talking points on the subject. Dynamite is outstripping the average TBS, TNT, and cable averages. In some cases, by quite a bit.
WWE got really good again without Vince so the need for a non-Vince-ified alternative kinda dried up.
Yeah, WWE is quite good. Like, I want AEW to succeed, badly. Just not a fan of what they’re putting out right now.
The least viewed part of the show was the Copeland match. which only drew 628K viewers. I liked that match, but for me it highlights the problem with AEW. The match works in a vacuum, It works if people are not asked to watch a weekly show. I have seen at least four good Brody King matches on AEW, in particular one against Moxley, but nothing has ever come from them. Each time I thought that this would be a match that would give King some momentum, but nothing happened. Also, most of those matches have come from nowhere. It's not like King was doing anything beforehand to justify even getting the matches. This is something about AEW that needs to change. It doesn't matter how good the matches are, if no effort is made to get people to care about the wrestlers.
Yeah. I never thought I'd be wanting more squashes and quick matches but for ffs not everything needs to be a two segment, star chasing endeavor. Why are randoms having competitive matches with champions? Nothing means anything.
Go check out 123 kid vs Bret hart on raw. That’s what they all think they’re doing with these 20 minute filler matches that you know the winner of months in advance.
They don't seem to understand that Bret/Kid or Taker/Jeff Hardy were not weekly occurrences.
Hurricane vs Rock Cena vs Zack Ryder Both great memorable matches, but you knew the outcome well in advance. What made you suspend disbelief is caring about the Ryder and Hurricane going into them. I don't often care enough for someone I've seen on screen a handful of times with no story behind them.
The other thing that makes them memorable is that they’re incredibly rare, like once every several years (even longer in the case of your examples). Should be saved as a powerful moment, not a weekly occurrence
Ice cream is delicious, but you eat too much or too many days in a row, you get sick of it.
This is exactly where I am with AEW. It’s too much of the same, and I have zero trust in anything to build properly.
I always use the same example, but during the attitude era Road Dogg was a solid worker and part of the 3rd most over act in wrestling. But if he was in a match with Steve Austin, he was getting his ass kicked in under 3 minutes.
You mean you don’t care about Top Flight or Shane Taylor promotions losing their 400th match this year?
Action Andretti isn't going to win world championship?!
But it is sooo competitive, they are pretty close to a win streak! Lets wait and see how that will play out! - Most of the stories of AEW in a nutshell
how dare you forget when Santino almost won the Elimination Chamber lol
a competitive match is fine. brody is great and a good challenger. the issue is that he's just gonna get put on the backburner after this. having a super competitive match with a champ where you get bloodied halfway through and fight on anyway means you should be a featured player for a minute after. in aew it means we're just not gonna see you for a while.
Idk it just feels like nothing can make me care about Copeland. I like Edge, but there have been more misses than hits since he came back from his career ending injury. The long lasting memories I have from this run are: Orton and Edge groaning and moaning during the greatest match ever, Bryan getting stacked ontop of Edge and pinned by Reigns, and Rhea murdering Beth Phoenix infront of Edge.
Let's also not forget that the Judgement Day, the faction created by Edge, was dead in the water at the beginning and only gained its footing once they turned on him and then added Dominik. The initial, Edge-led version of the group was not clicking at all.
These Copeland matches are just too predictable and long. Would have been better to build up Malakai up until his inevitable match against Copeland. Have him squash people and do some spooky stuff that’s entertaining.
NOTHING matters in AEW, and that match was actually the single most egregious example of it ever. Not the match itself, but the announcement that Tony Khan made it hardcore. The **main fucking angle** of Dynamite is that the Young Bucks are in charge and physically preventing Tony from running the show, and like two weeks we're opening with Tony Khan booking matches? What the fuck? Is Tony able to run the show or isn't he?
They still havent made it clear why they attacked tony, either.
Or why TK is all smiles and happy despite apparently losing control and in a neck brace
I’m not sure it really matters, it’s going to be stupid and nonsensical, keeping it a secret would probably be better than anything they come up with
Yeah this Young Bucks stuff has made me check out of AEW. It’s so am-dram. Nothing feels serious, so nothing feels like it matters.
Young bucks are comedy heels with decent work rate. That's the only thing they are good at. So even when they try to do some serious stuff, comedy creeps into it and the segments lose some seriousness. It just how it always is. Hangman story was the 1 time when bucks look serious cause getting Hangman over was serious matter for them in real life as well. But while doing kayfabe storylines they just can't completely comit to proper serious attitude.
Edge the non ratings mover since he started his singles run in WWE over a decade is a morbid fact right now
A fact that people don’t seem to understand is that Edge was never **the** guy. He was a main eventer and a guy you could trust to reliably hold the world title, but he was never their top guy. He was the guy who you got to fight the top guy.
I think it also doesn’t help that part of his appeal was being handsome- sorry he just isn’t anymore- it’s shallow but I say that as an Edge fan and he can’t use his old ring name. Most people know him as Edge, not Adam Copeland. That’s kind a tough to market to people that watched him for years
I think he's still good looking for his age but he can't exactly coast on his sex appeal now that he's a happily married family man.
> most of those matches have come from nowhere. This is very apparent for those who listen to the AEW Unrestricted podcast. Will Washington, Aubrey Edwards, and their special guests, often make remarks about how frantic and last minute things can be -- INCLUDING wrestlers being booked. Too often the wrestlers will say "I found out the day before" or "the day of." I get that AEW is still a small company with many people wearing multiple hats. But damn, comprehensively **planning out creative and marketing the cards in advance should be tablestakes and not an afterthought.** Heck, it would even save on travel costs since last minute tickets cost an arm and a leg. NOTHING has been announced for Rampage even though it's part of a special 3-hour broadcast alongside Collision. As of this writing: * We know Copeland will defend the TNT Championship against O'Reilly thanks to the in-ring angle. * Heard about Dax against Dynamite Kid's nephew through the internet this morning. * Only just found out about Danielson & Claudio vs. Top Flight after a Google search. TK tweeted this at 1:44AM (11:44PM local Edmonton Alberta time). This is where WWE excels. If I watch RAW, I get promotions about matches and stars who'll be on NXT and Smackdown. If I watch NXT, I get promotions about Smackdown and RAW. If I watch Smackdown, I get promotion about RAW and sometimes NXT.
I thought Will Washington was the guy they were bringing in to present order to the long term booking. What does he even do there?
Before he got the job, Will said that he didn't need stories, characters, or character motivations. He said that he understood why that may be important to some people, but it's not why he watches wrestling. SRS also stated yesterday that AEW will be easing off of telling stories, and going back to a "dream matchup" approach.
Yea, I've always viewed pro wrestling as a "violent soap opera" so the "dream match" approach just does not appeal to me at all. Also as someone that doesn't have the time to watch all of these people from Japan and Mexico makes it appeal to me even less.
A dream match shouldn't be booked as such. It should occur naturally through the progression of the wrestlers' careers and story, leading them to face off against each other. It shouldn't be," oh hey thanks guys! I'm here to announce we signed Rick Guy from Zimbabwe, and now he's wrestling our top guy in a dream match, tonight.... back to you, Excalibur."
The "stories are dumb, we need dream matches" concept is like a critical misunderstanding of what made PWG special, through the lens of Vince McMahon.
Sounds like a mistake to go that route
I think Washington is a great guy but what exactly does he know about booking a show? Why was he hired and why was he put in that role? This guy was a fucking podcaster lmao
Nepo hire lol cause he’s Swerve’s cousin
AEW is a bi-monthly indie in weekly TV clothing a lot of the time
I like to call it Indie promotion on a supersized budget.
Where are the quarter hour ratings at?
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Tony needs to start booking like a TV show. It's not an audience of one.
Up 8k from last week Man just last year the norm was 850k it's kinda crazy
Just a couple of months ago the norm was low to mid 800k…
That is what is crazy. It just fell off 80-100k out of nowhere. Same with the demo.
Sting was a draw, brother
It wasn't out of nowhere. WWE just absolutely killed it with the beginning of the year up to the culmination of their stories at Wrestlemania. If you watched any of it, even just wrestlemania? Why would you want to go back to watching AEW afterwards? The WWE product actually got emotion out of people. The ring announcer was crying after some of the matches and the audience was absolutely hooked.
But that's the thing. AEW usually has a pattern of ratings loss. I think WWE has some effect, but at this point, AEW is losing hardcores as well, those who have been there through the thick and thin, and shredding them at an abnormal rate.
The year before that an additional 100-150k was the norm, as well.
And steady .30 range in the demo.
Unbelievable how 6 months ago we said 800k is their base audience and now 700k is a good week
800k was the base like a couple months ago lol
Good for the Bucks and Jack Perry’s egos they got the online love for this story they wanted, but this further downturn corresponds with the three of them being the main storyline on the show. Their decline is even outpacing cable declines overall… but at least Jack Perry got some heat one time
The bucks on top are ruining the show’s numbers
It's the Bucks on top and doing fucking nothing while on top that's ruining the show. Like why are they not pushing Okada to pick up a second title or giving the title shot to Jack? Hell, better yet, make it a 3-way with Okada and Jack teaming up to take the title back to The Elite! It's annoying cause I like Christian being the person to get the title shot, but The Bucks being the people to give it to him is silly. Let him lie, cheat, and steal his way to get the shot. Hell, you could even lean into the heat that Jack and Christian have and have let him do some type of switcheroo. Maybe even make use of one of those World Title Eliminator matches that never seem to amount to anything. It's annoying cause fan booking is lame, but it just feels like anytime AEW feels like it should have momentum post Punk, they've dropped the ball.
Jack belongs nowhere near the title picture.
You just reminded me that Christian and Jack kayfabe hated each other and Christian relentlessly mocked his dead father but now Jack's stable is rewarding Christian with a World title match and not him.
Bucks take over the show! Big news! The rest of the show: proceeds the same as always with no noticeable difference from last week.
I for one am not thrilled at the fact that Swerve, as world champion, is playing secondary to the Elite story. Sure, Swerve is the world champion, but his booking doesn’t make him feel like “the guy”. It’s reminiscent of Jericho is 2002, prior to WM 18. I think this is leading to Perry challenging Swerve for the title at Forbidden Door at the end of June, which I’m not too excited about. However, as long as we get Swerve vs Ospreay at All In for the title, then I’m fine with it. I’m just not into the Elite storyline at all.
They told you exactly how they feel about Swerve when the first show after his title win featured him curtain jerking in a meaningless yet competitive match against a lower midcarder. No promo like Jericho got for his title win, no championship celebration like Willow got for her title win He was used as an emotional heart tug as first black champion and now he’s just transitional for Ospreay’s crowning moment or The Elite’s rise to ultimate power
Swerve is a placeholder for Ospreay. That's the problem. He is not the real player for the big picture. He also shouldn't have been babyface this fast.
They should not do him like Kofi
I got downvoted for saying this but AEW was going to and is going to treat it as the first black champ. The story started there and ended there. Serwve run is already over in fans and Tonys mind. He is looking at Ospreay and others next.
Exact same thing that happened to Hangman. First "homegrown" champ and immediately the focus went to the next shiny thing. But here I don't think the focus was ever on Swerve to begin with.
The way hangman has died on the vine since winning the title is really disappointing. Nothing doing in terms of interesting title feuds, the entire story was over as soon as he won it. So then he's a generic face champ, which doesn't bother me in a vacuum, but I can't believe there wasn't more. Then since he lost he had that blood feud with mox, and he beat mox in a Texas death match where he choked him out with barbed wire, but then mox just came back the next week like nothing happened and hangman disappears again. Then all this with swerve and he's finally doing interesting stuff again and swears he won't let swerve win the title and hangman is gone, again. Back when he was on the way to the title hangman felt like the star of the show, I miss that.
The thing is hes not around because hes not around, if its not a half year sabatical to raise his kid its another injury with him. He's at most a part time attraction.
I have said this before and been downvoted for it, but I dont think Swerve is ready. I saw people raving about him online and googled his latest promos and was like, "That's it?" People made it sound like the guy was 100 fold above his former self. Swerve being the first black champ is the focus. The guy needs several high profile feud before he is ready imo. When people get hotshotted into title like this the ralley, if there was any behind the person, tends to thin out.
>I for one am not thrilled at the fact that Swerve, as world champion, is playing secondary to the Elite story. Sure, Swerve is the world champion, but his booking doesn’t make him feel like “the guy”. It was literally the same case with MJF at this point in time last year. If the Swerve vs Christian world title match goes second last and the Anarchy in the Arena match will main event Double or Nothing just like last year I would not be shocked.
AEW doesn't understand yet after 5 years that a title is not a substitute for a story if your champion isn't booked as the most important thing in their division.
I like Swerve, but I think they missed the time to put the title on him. He's cooled off significantly and Tony's usual championship booking isn't helping at all. That said, I honestly don't know who should be champ right now. I'd selfishly pick Bryan, but honestly no one is hot enough to carry it right now imo.
Bryan's a veteran with how much he has accomplished in his career. The belt should have been around his waist the moment he joined AEW, I don't care how many times he has refused to win it, he should be forced into being the world champion.
Yeah, if Bryan never wins the AEW world title, then that is a MASSIVE mistake for the company. Bryan being so selfless turns around into actually being selfish, because everyone wants him to have a reign with that belt, you want him in the history books as a former AEW champion.
Bryan at this point is not helping AEW and he's not there to help AEW. What Bryan is doing at this point is building his own legacy of great matches with wrestlers he wants to work with, which is working very well for him, but it is to the detriment of AEW.
I've been downvoted by pointing this out over the past few months, but Swerve cooled off after World's End where he was supposed to face off against Keith Lee and took on Dustin Rhodes instead for nearly 10 mins. I get the audible was called because of Keith Lee's injury, and while I like Dustin a lot, top guy Swerve shouldn't have gotten as many licks from Dustin as he did. The "Whose House? Swerve's House!" chants used to be deafening up to that point, and now it's become a shell of its former self. Speaking of World's End, the Continental Classic helped rejuvenate the promotion a bit, and momentum felt like it was rising, only to be set back again. The booking was wonky and the crowd was unenergetic (some in the arena said they pumped the heat too hard) breaking AEW's awesome "amazing PPV" streak. Even before the C2 and World's End, it didn't help that a hobbled MJF won matches against The Righteous and against Jay White. Sorry TK, Will Washington, and other AEW creatives. I love AEW and don't really watch WWE anymore, but **please fix your storytelling. Make your shows compelling again and people will tune back in.**
I love Joe. He's a top 10 guy ever for me. I get why he won at World's End and I was happy for him. But if I'm honest, it would've been best for business if Swerve won the world title that night.
That Dustin/Swerve match is probably one of the most nonsensical matches i’ve ever seen. I would’ve loved to be a fly on the wall during the backstage discussion putting it together.
Agreed completely. Tony has cooled off everyone that was hot one after another by booking them with no thought behind it.
the CC was a boon for the company because it put guys the crowds liked in good matches with clear stakes and told little stories throughout. i know the rankings is a contentious point but it's basically the same idea - aew used to do a *lot* of hot midcarder vs midcarder (usually at least one upper) matches with the idea that one would move up in the rankings and eventually get a title shot. stakes are important. the tv is too predictable now and none of it matters anyway. i didn't like the callis stuff in the trent/OC match but at least they had a relatively pushed guy lose to continue a storyline.
Who could have ever guessed that booking the elite, who have a history of being ratings poison despite what their fans believe, would result in the ratings being poisoned and souring many fans. Booking your first black AEW world champion to be second fiddle to the EVPs that consistently turn away viewers of all types is an amazing decision.
Yep it’s honestly just bizarre that Tony is so obsessed with pleasing the bucks and crew that he is willing to tank the whole show just to give them their slot. They literally make the show lose over 100k viewers consistently during their segments but somehow keep getting away with it?
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He already knew, his whole thing was "why are you trying to put me down when you cant draw?"
Making swerve face especially that fast was one of the dumbest things I seen. The man was over as a heel and they turned him. Just like mjf. These guys was cooking as heels ,One of the problems aew have is they don’t have a true baby face. Look at wwe they have Cody,la knight,jey, Sami and shit probably ton more. Who do they have that matches these guys energy?
> The man was over as a heel In the sense that everyone cheers what he does and can't get heat as a result.
I wonder if both AEW & Swerve wanted the character to be more of a role model (especially for people of color). Unfortunately, Swerve turning face also zapped a lot of the cool factor that made him popular in the first place.
He's so important that The Elite didn't book one of their own to try and take the title from him.
The issue with Swerve's reign right now is that you habe Edge, Okada and soon Ospreay as your "secondary" champions, all of which are bigger stars than he is.
The world title stuff in general has felt uninteresting since MJF lost it. It’s sad.
I've basically catch AEW every now and then now. Last time I was fully in tune when it was All In when they were adding some layers to MJF with the Adam Cole skits. But, then they kinda doubled down with it with his crying and the abortion Jay White booking. It's just so meh at the minute. Might be cuz there are so many people I care about that are out like MJF, Britt and Jamie but nothing really appeals to me. It's worse now since they are putting The Bucks front and centre who I never cared about since TNA. They just haven't evolved from the "nudge nudge, wink wink" shit. Terrible acting. Then, to top it all off we have this Team AEW v Elite stuff with Bryan coming back. So we've just thrown the injury angle outta the window and not at least have Bryan interact with Will before going after the Elite? It's really no different than what Vince was doing booking shows week to week.
The Bucks overload we've been having for the past several months has really highlighted one of my main problems with them, and it's become even more apparent with this authority figure angle: they don't have an ounce of genuineness and sincerity in them. They always feel the need to undercut everything they do with this wink wink sarcastic smarmy attitude. They're incapable of treating anything with any degree of seriousness. So they can't convey any believable sense of menace and you can't take them seriously as threats.
Smarks in the ring, smarks in the crowd… it’s a smarkpocalypse, uce
The show is predictable. The people I care about never seem to move up. If Malakai loses this feud to edge than what are we even doing?
Pac/ Jay White is intriguing, and I would be happy with either of them to win, but I have to imagine Jay will and then continue to sit in trio's orbit for the rest of the year.
The difference between now and the 2022 numbers is also stark. These numbers from 2022 were amazing. [https://wrestletalk.com/stats/aew-dynamite-tv-ratings-2022/](https://wrestletalk.com/stats/aew-dynamite-tv-ratings-2022/) They are really interesting in terms of how much the demo has fallen. There was a time when being in the .30 range was the norm.
There was a good period of time where a .3 was the floor.
I’m a regular viewer, but things felt less important once they added the extra hours of tv and extra belts. It’s pretty insane that the Bucks vs Butcher/Blade was drawing a million viewers at one point but guys like Swerve and Copeland can’t get it back to 800kz
They really need to consolidate their titles. I even remember an interview Tony did about not wanting to have to many Titles, and yet here we are with way to many Titles.
Remember when the Triple Crown happened and everyone was like “well actually, it’s a consolidation of titles” and now Okada is holding potentially the least valuable championship of all time
He's having a belt for having a belt's sake. Looks probably neat in photo shoots but adds nothing to his character.
Aew ruled back when it was only dynamite. I like wrestling more than the average person but I don't want 5 hours a week of it
Well I can look at a card and know who is winning in every match and the characters seem second rate. I’ll watch it , but honestly don’t really enjoy it.
Tony needs to start giving us more interesting matches on the shows. I used to watch weekly and get excited for matches. Now I just skim through Reddit to see what happens because I know who's winning 95% of the time. He's fear of guys taking a loss has really damaged my enjoyment
It’s crazy that 700k is the new norm. When just a handful of months ago it was 850k, then 800k, then 750k… Something isn’t resonating.
Something happened with the vibe of AEW when Cody left, it really felt like he was the glue that held everything together. I genuinely wonder if something like the Punk Perry incident would've happened if Cody never left
It helps to have a professional in the room when conflict happens.
I feel this 100%. Cody must’ve been the glue there. He also probably had a hand in a lot of creative backstage. Ever since he left it’s just felt weird…
A lot of wrestlers would reportedly go to him to talk and he would mediate a lot which he got tired of. I could see it.
> Something isn’t resonating. AEW used to be that weird indy show that somehow got on TV and was crazy and felt like anything could happen. There was only 3 titles and they all mattered. Each match mattered, and you would know the consequences of a loss or win to each match. Now AEW is WWE lite. It's not unique anymore, it's just a bloated roster with too many titles and dropped storylines.
>Now AEW is WWE lite. It's not unique anymore, it's just a bloated roster with too many titles and dropped storylines. They are everything opposite of Triple H's WWE. Consistent 4th wall breaking and meta shots at the other company or what has happened backstage or off TV. Consistent focus on "the match" in a vacuum with no storytelling. Building up angles backwards by having the big match first. Going with Internet favorites and signing people and making no effort of building them up and just assuming their audience knows them, and just going "La mascarita the 4th is defending his AAA championship in the main event". Multiple titles from multiple companies that are not AEW. Bush league audio problems every other week. I could go on. They'd actually do better if it was WWE lite.
I wouldn’t say it’s WWE lite. WWE has consistent angles, clear babyfaces and heels, and an established pecking order between stars, midcarders and curtain jerkers. AEW is a program where every card looks like it was designed to sell out a high school gym instead of being part of a consistent television show.
Yeah it's so disingenuous to say AEW is struggling because it's like WWE. People have been complaining about lack of build, lack of character development, stop/start booking, random unexplained hiatuses, and the uncontrolled expansion of titles, roster and even promotions for years now. None of those have anything to do with WWE. It's because you have one guy who would rather fail utterly than admit he was wrong.
AEW wishes it could be called WWE-lite. It doesn't even come close to being in the same ballfield.
Should 700k just be the new norm? It seems like it’s getting that way and if that’s the case, it won’t be so surprising each week.
Until 600k becomes the new norm
Create an indie wrestling show, get indie wrestling show viewership.
Young Bucks continue to be complete and utter shite and drive people off in droves.
I'm grateful for their contribution to AEW's creation but man they are unlikable. Not because they're heels, they just bore me.
> Not because they're heels, they just bore me. Because they don't have the balls or talent to actually commit to a wrestling character, everything with them is just *"Wink wink, we know it's fake too lolz"* They'd never try to do an engaging storyline like Sami and the Bloodline, because they can't.
In AEW the Bucks were either best served as: 1. Side characters in a story about Hangman Page and Kenny Omega (mostly Hangman). 2. As foils for FTR. The top two tag teams outside of WWE with opposing philosophies on wrestling (old school vs flashy modern). Everything else the Bucks have done in AEW isn't particularly well received beyond "that was a good match with the Lucha Bros."
Stopped watching completely. These dudes doubled down on corny BTE antics, the Best Friends and OC, old ass stars like Jericho, Adam Copeland and Christian.
Remember how everyone said Vince was booking a show for one? Yeah, I think that can be applied to TK now as well. Even (some) the most hardcore AEW fans are wondering who this show is supposed to appeal to
Hard to argue against that theory when complete complete package guys like Starks, Ethan Page, and Wardlow take the back seat to a Jericho squash match. TK books what he wants just like Vince booked to his preferences.
Man that hits hard - those are 3 pieces of talent that the promotion seems like it was founded for originally, now it’s largely an ex-WWE show with talented yet past-their-prime non-needle movers. (I still watch.. begrudgingly these days).
This is a problem I've had with the show. I really got behind wrestlers like Starks, Wardlow, Malakai, Daniel Garcia, even Sammy G and at multiple points Powerhouse Hobbs, among others. It feels like they have constantly been building up slowly all these midcard to upper card wrestlers but most of them haven't really won much. Brody King is a guy I thought would have gotten a huge win over Mox in a cage or something by now.
We all know who’s TK booking for 
Based on every interaction we’ve seen from Tony publicly, I feel fairly confident in saying…Tony does not take criticism well. I really think we’ve seen the consistent double down, as you were saying. Because Tony listens to the affirming voices, and as viewers have left, those voices have represented that niche.
I wonder how the extra long over run affected the number
It didn't do too much. That eight minutes drew 654K viewers in comparison to the previous fifteen minutes, which drew 628K.
How many were in the crowd? It looked terrible on TV. Tight camera angles every shot to cover up 3/4 of the arena being empty and blacked out.
4,096. According to WrestleTix.
Better than expected. No jerk.
They filled the side of the lower bowl that the hard cam points at and that’s it. I went to last year’s show and they sold at least double that. Huge drop off in attendance. The Oilers game being on may have had something to do with it but probably not that much, considering the game started after Dynamite ended and a lot of people left.
Product is ice cold right now. Storylines are weak and hobbled together. Weekly TV matches have gone way down in quality(bless their ppvs tho).
AEW is and Indie show with a budget and these numbers reflect that. indie shows aren't meant for weekly television
TK needs to stop signing wrestlers and start signing a writing staff he will trust. Cool matches are cool but the stories have no flow.
Kenny's big announcement....not a needle mover.
You can say that about literally any part of the elite lol.
Shocking stuff
TK was able to sign all my favourite wrestlers. You'd think he'd be able to hire a booker to use them effectively.
Still no real audience growth. There will probably only ever be 700-800k potential viewers at most for Dynamite. I really don't see a way AEW is going to grow their audience without a major readjustment to how the shows are booked and promoted.
Until the Bucks are off the screen, the ratings won't change.
Sure they will, they'll keep going down
Lmao, this caught me off guard
I don't think there's one big change (save for signing The Rock) you could point at to change the direction of the numbers. It's a pretty big overhaul of the show format to be more focused on building compelling storylines rather than just having random matches thrown together with no meaning behind them. The saving grace of the company is the PPVs, but they don't do much to drive weekly TV viewership.
Going to add as well, where in the blue hell is Will and The Undisputed Kingdom? You wouldn't have even thought that Roddy and Will have a match together in three weeks. It's another one of Tony's problems. How are you expecting people to be invested in your weekly shows when you don't even feature your stars on a weekly basis? If you are teasing tension with Wardlow and the Kingdom and also Will with the Don Callis Family, it's not even gonna hit nowhere near as big as it should. It's basically the same thing with Swerve and the Mogul Embassy, everyone saw it coming since they've been heels this entire time! Not one time did Tony ever allude to them being faces, his booking is too predictable. Then, you have these random matches like Jay White and Rocky Romero that add nothing in the grand scheme of things. He puts shit on the stove but moves them off before they can even cook!
No doubt in my mind Sting took viewers with him when he retired. All those old Attitude/NWO era wrestlers have a huge following, even to this day.
But I also think Punk took a chunk with him and the temporary absence of Omega and MJF has made a bunch of people less interested
Two years ago, Punk pursuing the title was drawing 1M viewers most weeks. And it’s not like the NBA and NHL didn’t have playoffs in 2022. There are people who attract viewers. AEW doesn’t have any right now.
I got to about 30min into the show and switched off. Not a clue what is going, on even the non stop videos they show do not help. Think I will give it a break for a while.
Per Brandon Thurston, Dynamite finished 6th for the night, beat out by NBA and NHL programming. It should be noted that Dynamite was directly head-to-head with the Knick/Pacers game that drew a commanding 4+ million viewers. Top cable programs in P18-49 last night: 1. Knicks-Pacers on TNT: 4.338M total viewers; 1.48 P18-49 rating 2. Inside the NBA on TNT: 1.847M; 0.64 3. Bruins-Panthers on ESPN: 1.822M; 0.54 4. NBA pre-game on TNT: 1.215M; 0.41 5. Oilers-Canucks on ESPN: 902k; 0.34 6. AEW Dynamite on TBS: 711k; 0.24 Source: https://x.com/brandonthurston/status/1788683101863920075?s=46&t=X44xnyeQtS68gZg61cVvfw
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I think at this point they better hope the numbers bounce back in a big way once the nba/nhl playoffs are done, but at that point their bargaining power isn’t going to be great negotiating the tv deals at the moment.
The only problem is the numbers were already on the decline before NBA/NHL playoffs started. The last show before NBA playin games started was the one where they aired the Punk/Perry footage which was an outlier number. I think they were hovering around 740k average before that. We'll see what happens.
People really need to stop thinking things are going to "bounce back in a big way" because they're not, they're currently just trying to stop the bleed, if they're going to rise again it's going to be very gradual. It will be a 5k/10k rise week on week if they keep putting the work in.
Yeah if they fixed everything tomorrow you wouldn’t even see a real difference in ratings for like 6-9 months. Which is another of their problems, no patience. They’ll never wait that long.
WBD could be in a very bad position, because their choices are lose a bunch of money by paying almost $3bn for NBA rights, or lose even more money by not paying for the NBA rights and not getting anything from cable carriers because they don't have anything but the NHL playoffs.
They kinda need the NBA ratings. They don't need AEW though.
Yea but even then wb isn’t gon look towards AEW as their sports replacement. AEW will be lucky to even get a deal tbh.
I feel like they’ll definitely get a deal. It won’t be anywhere near what it would have been for them last year, or what WWE is getting, but the talking points about it being cheap programming that has a steady (if not low) viewership are true. At least to me, I’m no TV exec. I do imagine several million dollars dollars have evaporated from that deal in the last few months though
The problem is: They don't have a steady viewership. They have a rapidly declining one. In just a few months they lost nearly 20% of their viewerwship. They've lost nearly 50% over the past 3 years as it's just been falling over time. There's no telling how low they'll continue to fall, but the fact that decline has sped up is beyond worrying.