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WWE and AEW weekly ratings discussion
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LOL
That MitB/live audience bump didn't last for long. It would've probably been even lower if not for Cena.
That MitB/live audience bump didn't last for long. It would've probably been even lower if not for Cena.
Olympics apparently did like 10 million on the same night. Definitely would've had an effect, but yeah.
Back down below 2 million next week. I would never have thought they would be this close to 2 million after the start of smack down on fox a few years ago.
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With these Smackdown numbers not getting back up any higher than 2 million, there's a possibility Dynamite beats, or matches, both RAW and Smackdown with a big blowout Dymaite special (after CM Punk and Bryan debut).
How is this even a remote possibility? I've never seen a promotion fumble this badly as the clear leader since WCW.
Time to put the Rock on every week.
How is this even a remote possibility? I've never seen a promotion fumble this badly as the clear leader since WCW.
Time to put the Rock on every week.
Can he even contractually do an actual match or is he just going to do another lame "rock concert" and mug for the camera before launching into his catchphrases?
Word is they are apparently planning some sort of tag match with Rock and an Uso Vs Roman and an Uso, but of course that could be changed a dozen times by the time it's scheduled.
Preaching to the choir. Sounds garbage.
He'll still draw decent ratings for them. How much is the question. And it's going to just drop back down the instant he's gone.
Punk and Bryan going to AEW and finding success will open the floodgates.
Until now, AEW has been successful taking no-name WWE talent and turning them into stars. They've taken mid card/underutilized talent and made them feel like stars. The only thing they've really been missing is some legit, Wrestlemania main-event tier talent.
Once Bryan and Punk feel hotter than they've felt for most of their WWE runs, talent won't have any excuse to stick around that urine soaked hell hole anymore. Obviously Bryan and Punk are being paid big money or else they wouldn't even consider another promotion, so pay shouldn't be a concern. Easier schedule and ability to travel to other promotions/countries? A boss that isn't an insane, incompetent piece of shit?
How about job security? WWE has been considered the "safe choice" since AEW got started. Now, AEW just did it's third biggest viewership number over a year into its existence. This thing isn't some beginner's luck fluke, the longevity has been proven and it's already coming up on Raw and Smackdown's 18-49 number. They need talent to fill that new Friday night show, and haven't done any mass releases since their debut. The momentum is insane right now. Also, I'm sure talent is thrilled with Nick Khan just letting guys like Braun Stroman go for no good reason, despite the company having its most profitable year ever. If Stroman isn't safe, how could a Ricochet or Adam Cole possibly feel secure on that roster?
WWE can keep building its roster around old timers, un-coordinated giants and supermodels, while the AJ Styles, Johnny Garganos and Asukas of the world can head over to AEW.
Until now, AEW has been successful taking no-name WWE talent and turning them into stars. They've taken mid card/underutilized talent and made them feel like stars. The only thing they've really been missing is some legit, Wrestlemania main-event tier talent.
Once Bryan and Punk feel hotter than they've felt for most of their WWE runs, talent won't have any excuse to stick around that urine soaked hell hole anymore. Obviously Bryan and Punk are being paid big money or else they wouldn't even consider another promotion, so pay shouldn't be a concern. Easier schedule and ability to travel to other promotions/countries? A boss that isn't an insane, incompetent piece of shit?
How about job security? WWE has been considered the "safe choice" since AEW got started. Now, AEW just did it's third biggest viewership number over a year into its existence. This thing isn't some beginner's luck fluke, the longevity has been proven and it's already coming up on Raw and Smackdown's 18-49 number. They need talent to fill that new Friday night show, and haven't done any mass releases since their debut. The momentum is insane right now. Also, I'm sure talent is thrilled with Nick Khan just letting guys like Braun Stroman go for no good reason, despite the company having its most profitable year ever. If Stroman isn't safe, how could a Ricochet or Adam Cole possibly feel secure on that roster?
WWE can keep building its roster around old timers, un-coordinated giants and supermodels, while the AJ Styles, Johnny Garganos and Asukas of the world can head over to AEW.
I figured the WWE Superstars would've realized they weren't safe when The Good Brothers re-signed with WWE in 2019 only to get fired a few months later. Just to keep them away from AEW.
Anth0ny confirming Asuka to AEW in 2022. Bold of you. Even after all WWE has done for her? They deserve her loyalty! I'm so disappointed in Asuka!
In addition to that WWE released people during a pandemic when there were few options to work elesewhere. Those that remained but didn't earn as much even had WWE try to take a cut from their side income.
Aew honoured contracts, carried on hiring people and even bought in indy guys for the odd match. That's going to inspire a certain level or trust and loyalty in the company.
The sea change that we are about to witness in pro wrestling is only paralleled by the Monday night wars. It's pretty incredible.
My only concern is how AEW's business will be affected when they switch channels to TBS in January. There's just a really nice synergy between them and TNT.
My only concern is how AEW's business will be affected when they switch channels to TBS in January. There's just a really nice synergy between them and TNT.
I would agree, but I would rather Dynamite and Rampage not get moved around for whatever sports game is on that day.
Yeah I think moving days causes much more confusion and drops in fans than changing to another channel that I think is available in more homes than TNT (just barely).
People will get used to a different channel but days and timeslots are a bigger issue.
you can't single out AEW since literally every major promotion except WWE honored contracts and didn't fire people during the pandemic
And now Joe is back on NXT when it's gonna be a lot harder to hide if he's lost step or makes like Nakamura and stops caring.
I'm guessing he's also one of these guys that got brought back on a worse deal than before too, proper fucked if AEW didn't actually make a play for him, it would be a worse WWE deal, back to Impact or hoping for big pay days on the indies.
Is there anything that will increase Impact viewership over the long term?
Cool about the 18-49 increase, but that viewership history line at the very bottom is pretty damning. I know they're making more on PPV than they've done in a while lately, though.
Cool about the 18-49 increase, but that viewership history line at the very bottom is pretty damning. I know they're making more on PPV than they've done in a while lately, though.
No. The market is too bloated and wrestling is not popular enough to support that much wrestling on TV. Impact will always be a small time show. AEW's existence ensures that.
Probably not. It streams on twitch without ads and is avaible for free on Impact+ like an hour after it airs. Even if I had cable, AXS is the least convenient method to watch the show.
I guess they've got their hardcores, PPV buys, merch, and other streams of revenue to lean on to keep them afloat. I'm glad they give wrestlers another place to work. It's just incredible how far they've fallen from their heyday, and even from their Aces and Eights days.
I remember the 2006-2010 when there was so much positivity about TNA Impact, how much better was than #CenaWinsLOL's WWE and here we are. I hope AEW has a much longer consistent run and doesn't become another Impact after years.
AEW has already been more profitable and successful than Impact has been in its entire lifetime. They are also doing infinitely bigger and more consistent live events. AEW is a larger company that TNA ever was. TNA had the advantage of wrestling viewership being significantly higher during their most successful period. Even with names like Hogan they couldn't get close to actually matching Raw ratings. TNA 2006 though, match quality wise, was absolutely fucking incredible.
Currently AEW is already sniffing at the heels of Raw and they are still in a building phase. Of course the viewership numbers we're talking about now are a lot lower than it was back then. But that's the TV landscape in general. Networks pay a premium for live viewership/programming, a lot more than they were paying when wrestling was at its peak and drawing like triple/quadruple the viewers.
So here's a thing that struck me last week:
After the Jericho/Spears match and MJF introduces NICK FUCKING GAGE I called my brother while he was working to tell him to put the show on. When was the last time you called a friend/family member to tell them to put on a live TV anything? Sport game? For me it was when my brother called me when CM Punk put out the pipe bomb.
I can't be the only one who did that. Imagine that x1000 for Danielson/Punk
After the Jericho/Spears match and MJF introduces NICK FUCKING GAGE I called my brother while he was working to tell him to put the show on. When was the last time you called a friend/family member to tell them to put on a live TV anything? Sport game? For me it was when my brother called me when CM Punk put out the pipe bomb.
I can't be the only one who did that. Imagine that x1000 for Danielson/Punk
When Gage showed up I texted friends in ALL CAPS with multiple spelling mistakes to make sure they were watching. First time it's ever felt urgent enough to hit send instead of fix typos.
I did it for Cena lol
It was a really fun period of time, fantastic matches. TNA ended up falling due to terrible managment decisions.
And yeah, the huge drops of Raw are something to consider. It's good to finally see some good competition in any case, and I hope it continues for a long time.
One of the coolest things about the recent ramp up with AEW is that I am watching live or night-of every single week. I've always been a massive fan since debut but during quarantine I found myself falling off of watching on Weds. and got in the habit of just catching up whenever a few days or even week later.
The past month or two though? Every Wednesday I am watching and I'm messaging with friends during the show like "holy shit, you need to watch tonight". It's been really fun.
Same for me (except watching live as I'm in the UK).
There was a couple month period where I would skip through shows to just see the promos and results of matches and watch the occasional one that I really wanted to see but over the last month I have been making an effort to try and watch it all.
Feels like a very exciting time at the moment and things are heating up again.
Every time I watched TNA it was LOLTNA with the same exact issues. Every time people told me it was good now and I checked it out, it was trash. They had fantastic wrestlers on the roster, but the overall product itself was terrible with garbage booking and whiplash tonal shifts and notice me WWE desperation etc etc. Anytime someone I liked signed there I sighed because until they went somewhere else they may as well have not been wrestling to me. I gave it plenty of chances, multiple times.
My point is, I think most of the positivity around TNA was wishful thinking. People wanted an alternative to WWE so badly (understandably!) that they talked themselves into thinking TNA was it... but I don't think it was ever a *competitive* overall product let alone a better product.
AEW has a better product than WWE, they just don't have the audience yet, but it's getting there. If AEW continues delivering the quality they have been, they absolutely aren't going to follow TNA's viewership curve.
They've been averaging 1.1 million viewers a week. I think at this point you can say AEW has achieved viewership goals and then some already. It's just the fact that the gap between some Raw ratings (1.6 million range) and Dynamite is really not that wide, suddenly things get extremely interesting when you are about to introduce names as big as CM Punk and Bryan. Most here, including me, reasonably did not expect for AEW to get anywhere close to WWE's main roster shows until around the 5 year mark, if things went smoothly. The rate that things are accelerating for AEW is absolutely insane and has not been seen since the Monday Night Wars. This is one of the hottest products in the history of pro wrestling. Wild times.
TNA was pretty close to RAW at some points, but it wasn't competitive enough and ended up losing the ratings. It was there though.
Unpopular honest opinion: while I believe AEW is good and enjoy most of their weeks, I think that many people hold it in a better place because of how terrible the competition is. I don't think it's weekly must-see TV (neither is WWE, by a long shot) as many claim, but in comparison it shines.
I was only really speaking to the comparison with WWE (and TNA) and their relative viewing figures. As much as we can qualitatively say one show is 'better' than another, I think we can say Dynamite > RAW. Personal preferences are always going to vary, of course.
Dynamite is must see TV for me (at least when its live at 8pm on Wednesdays), but then I'm the type to try and get front row tickets so I know I'm not the average viewer by any means.
AEW has absolutely had it's low points. Shows that I've skipped or wouldn't recommend to other people. Growing pains and lessons that need to be unlearned after years of WWE conditioning the industry to do things a certain way. But ever since coming back to live crowds, to me at least, it's been must see TV type viewing.
We're not gonna disagree on Dynamite vs Raw. It's not even a B show at this point.
I feel that these weeks of live attendances have improved both brands. Smackdown for example doesn't have the same highs as Dynamite, but it's farily consistent as an enjoyable show. It lacks something fresh-er though, which is what Dynamite has going for them. I still tend to tune out of Dynamite more often than Smackdown, but when AEW hits a high it does HIGH. I really like having both alternatives, specially now with the live crowds.
Maybe Bryan and CM Punk is what will kick it into must watch for me. I like the stars they have been building, but so far most of the people with legendary status don't do much for me (Like Jericho or Sting). Bryan on the other hand, yeah I'd tune in every week to watch him.
My conservative estimate is that they'll end up giving AEW a long-term boost of anywhere between 150k to 300k viewers. There are people out there who say the Punk debut will push Dynamite to "over 2 million, easy," and to me that's highly wishful and unreasonable thinking, even for one episode. An 800k boost because of one or even two guys just isn't happening IMO and is laughable to entertain.
Given that Punk didn't even push WWE's ratings that much when he was hot there, I don't think he'd help bump Dynamite over 2 million. But I think the idea of Punk and Bryan in a different, seemingly better booked, promotion would help ratings in general.
The possibility of getting Arthur Ashe Stadium to capacity I think is what has them wanting to debut Bryan there. But yeah it might make sense to put some space between them.
Do we know when it moves? Imo they should stack the card for that move so as many fans as possible migrate
No one really makes a difference in the ratings for WWE because no one is presented like a true star. The shitty brand comes first. People like Punk got mega over despite it.
AEW has someone as fresh and new as Darby Allin already noticeably moving the ratings when they are in the main event. Now imagine that same focus and execution on someone like a CM Punk.
I think his impact on viewership (relative to audience size) will be considerably larger than what he did in WWE. AEW allows people to be larger than the brand.
January. New year, fresh start, etc. I think if the product continues being as hot as it is, migrating over won't be an issue for most fans.
Things feel mega hot right now because of the back-to-back-to-back special themed shows and how stacked the cards are. Even with the Olympics, I would be surprised if AEW did anything below 1.15 million this Wednesday. The show is probably the hottest thing they've ever done on TV with the five-on-five match between the Elite and Hangman/Dark Order. Hope they cross 1.2 million, which also seems feasible given how much buzz there is around the company right now due to the quality of their shows plus the Punk and Bryan speculation.
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I wouldn't get your hopes up too high for anything crazy for this show viewership wise. 1.2 million is easily possible though with the excitement going on.
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