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WWE and AEW weekly ratings discussion

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plagiarize

plagiarize

Eating crackers
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
27,511
Cape Cod, MA
Forbidden Door build is definitely part of the issue here, yes. Suddenly an influx of people viewers don't know and all the storylines they were following went to the way side, even if some of this has been unavoidable. Punk injury. Jeff legal issues. Etc.
 
Anth0ny

Anth0ny

Member
Oct 25, 2017
46,829
No Punk, Omega, Bryan, MJF + building up a ppv with many relative unknowns + strong sports competition

Seems pretty straightforward to me why viewership slipped last week

I don't think things magically get better once we go beyond the forbidden door. Punk being out is massive.

I hope they don't give up on the forbidden door concept. Like any other attempt to get a new character over, you kinda gotta eat shit for the first few weeks as you introduce these characters to the audience, in the hope that it pays off in the future. By this time next year, ideally Jay White, Tanahashi and ZSJ would be well known names for the aew audience.
 
plagiarize

plagiarize

Eating crackers
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
27,511
Cape Cod, MA
Anth0ny said:
No Punk, Omega, Bryan, MJF + building up a ppv with many relative unknowns + strong sports competition

Seems pretty straightforward to me why viewership slipped last week

I don't think things magically get better once we go beyond the forbidden door. Punk being out is massive.

I hope they don't give up on the forbidden door concept. Like any other attempt to get a new character over, you kinda gotta eat shit for the first few weeks as you introduce these characters to the audience, in the hope that it pays off in the future. By this time next year, ideally Jay White, Tanahashi and ZSJ would be well known names for the aew audience.
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They need to better incorporate it into the storylines. Which would have been easier without the title change, and then Punk getting hurt. This really felt like it was rushed. Stories were heading in clear directions, then it all got put on pause for Forbidden Door. The ROH stuff for example totally vanished.
 
Bigkrev

Bigkrev

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,307
There is no positive way to spin that Rampage number. If anything, it's proof that the WWE Audience and the AEW Rampage Audience have almost no overlap, and they probably should move Rampage to 8 or 9 PM instead of 10- you can't have that many people watching the end of Smackdown, and then have Jon Moxley open Rampage a minute later to a number that bad unless they are 2 completely different viewer bases
 
Carnby

Carnby

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,237
Knight613 said:
Feel like in order for Forbidden Door to have done well, they really needed to feature the NJPW people for like...at least 3 months before the show. They should've shown video packages for each of the main guys.
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This is exactly what I was thinking. It could have been so simple. Show packages to introduce wrestlers, with highlights from some of their best matches. Heck, even air NJPW wrestlers cutting promos on AEW wrestlers.
 
Knight613

Knight613

Member
Oct 25, 2017
20,677
San Francisco
Carnby said:
This is exactly what I was thinking. It could have been so simple. Show packages to introduce wrestlers, with highlights from some of their best matches. Heck, even air NJPW wrestlers cutting promos on AEW wrestlers.
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I get that Tony Khan doesn't want to make his audience feel like they're stupid in not knowing things like WWE does, but there is very clearly a somewhat casual AEW audience that has no clue who the New Japan guys are or why they should care about them. And Excalibur speedily going through their resume on commentary really doesn't help that much.
 
chuckddd

chuckddd

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,080
I don't think those wwe numbers are in spite of Vince being a gigantic pos, but because of it. For most, like me, it's a reminder of why I stopped watching pro wrestling 15 years ago or whatever. For the remaining wwe audience, it's a reminder of why they love the guy and his shows.
 
darkside

darkside

Member
Oct 26, 2017
11,265
I mean if that was the case wouldn't there be a spike for the time Vince shows up? Theres been no effect there.

I don't wanna say it but maybe folks are so disinterested with the current AEW stuff they switched back, shrug.
 
Anth0ny

Anth0ny

Member
Oct 25, 2017
46,829
darkside said:
I mean if that was the case wouldn't there be a spike for the time Vince shows up? Theres been no effect there.

I don't wanna say it but maybe folks are so disinterested with the current AEW stuff they switched back, shrug.
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"This delicious meal has become slightly less delicious than what I'm used to, I think I'll eat a nice plate of dog shit instead"
 
s_mirage

s_mirage

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,770
Birmingham, UK
Knight613 said:
I get that Tony Khan doesn't want to make his audience feel like they're stupid in not knowing things like WWE does, but there is very clearly a somewhat casual AEW audience that has no clue who the New Japan guys are or why they should care about them. And Excalibur speedily going through their resume on commentary really doesn't help that much.
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This is something that AEW has really sucked at from day one IMO. Remember when Excalibur introduced Butcher and Blade as if everyone should just instantly know them, and most of the audience were like "who"?

They always seem to assume that their viewers are also familiar with not only WWE and Impact, but New Japan, the indies, etc. Realistically, only a small subset of viewers are going to have that level of familiarity with wrestling outside of the mainstream US product, and that subset has probably shrunk relatively as AEW's audience has grown.

I don't follow NJPW, and I think AEW have done a pretty piss poor job at getting me to care about FD. I agree with the posts suggesting that there needed to have been way more build and a concerted effort to get AEW fans interested rather than assuming that they already were.
 
giancarlo123x

giancarlo123x

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
25,361
I watch rampage like 70% of the time but it is a pretty missable show most of the time and boring imo. Last must watch match for me was the Yuta/Mox classic.
 
Serpens007

Serpens007

Well, Tosca isn't for everyone
Moderator
Oct 31, 2017
8,127
Chile
Dropping the MJF storyline, or putting it on hold, while it's so hot, because of Forbidden Door, is as stupid as having HHH beat Punk and then bring Kevin Nash into the plot in 2011.
 
stumblebee

stumblebee

The Fallen
Jan 22, 2018
2,503
Eh, a big complaint that everyone had during the Punk storyline in 2011 was that he was just back the next week like he didn't just torch the company.

I think AEW could have done a better job of 'selling' what MJF did, but I'm looking forward to his return. He absolutely needs to come back soon after Forbidden Door, though. His presence is sorely missed.
 
Carnby

Carnby

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,237
Also my friends, family and I have all agreed we won't be buying FD due to not being interested in the even. Nor do we think its worth paying for or staying up late for.
 
Dirtyshubb

Dirtyshubb

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,555
UK
If NXT manages to get a higher rating than dynamite soon I think I might never visit anything wrestling related on Twitter again.
 
Violence Jack

Violence Jack

Drive-in Mutant
Member
Oct 25, 2017
41,685
No more sports to contend with. Now watch the ratings go back to normal so that people can stop acting like the Forbidden Door build had somewhere around 150k people suddenly tuning out on it.
 
Neonzel

Neonzel

Hero of Bowerstone
Member
Apr 30, 2018
1,877
Philadelphia
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Violence Jack

Violence Jack

Drive-in Mutant
Member
Oct 25, 2017
41,685
I guess everyone wants to see a rapist, racist, roid-riddled Trumper go around with a big smile on his face acting like he's on top of the world once it's been leaked that he passes around a female employee like they were a toy.
 
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