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Why has AEW succeeded where other wrestling companies failed?
- Thread starter John Doe
- Start date
They haven't done anything that TNA didn't do, TNA just imploded with really poor decision making over a large stretch of time
This plus they had a lot of established star power behind them. The Elite were the biggest stars developed outside of WWE since WCW folded.
It's the owner more than anything - Tony Khan is not Dixie Carter trusting people like Vince Russo, his booking has been pretty good on the whole.
There is of course a talent element to it - a lot of good wrestlers happened to go out of contract at the same time. Jericho being available was probably the most important there, as well as Cody coming off hot from All In and Omega's buzz from New Japan.
Having someone competent at the top calling the shots sure does help.
He has his faults but Tony Khan is obviously making the right moves.
He has his faults but Tony Khan is obviously making the right moves.
Interest in WWE wrestling is at the lowest it's ever been, which is coinciding with the highest interest in *non* WWE wrestling. NJPW is the best they've been, and the indies are going ham across the country. The line graph is converging to the point where enough fans want some else, and AEW arrived at that perfect time.
Possibly the hunger for quality competition grew as well since the days of TNA. I remember trying out TNA for a while and thinking "this is good, but WWE isn't THAT bad".
When AEW came around, it's been a few more years (decade?) of seeing people I really like get the shaft, storylines being focused on top people rather than the whole roster, and Brock Brock Brock. I was pretty ready for a shift and Dynamites been consistently good on most fronts. Hopefully they catch up with the women's division.
When AEW came around, it's been a few more years (decade?) of seeing people I really like get the shaft, storylines being focused on top people rather than the whole roster, and Brock Brock Brock. I was pretty ready for a shift and Dynamites been consistently good on most fronts. Hopefully they catch up with the women's division.
If you put AEW in TNA's position and station at that time they'd be doing better numbers then TNA.
And AEW's numbers have been growing organically without relying on hot shotting or bringing in Hogan, Hardy etc on the same night.
While I wouldn't say they've "succeeded" yet, they have succeeded in terms of the expectations TNT had to them, which is why they got signed to a new deal early this year - TNT thought them valuable and moved to stop someone else picking them up.
They seem to be run by relatively smart people, but you have to factor in that the market for professional wrestling has imploded, so what is a success now versus what was considered a success during TNA's peak had probably changed. Even WWE is struggling to get 2 million viewers.
A big difference now is social media and how Bucks, Cody and Khan could leverage that (with the help of Meltzer) to hype up the scheme. Remember that a lot of this was born out of the 10K seat indie bet (you can debate how indie this was if youd choose) which help further generate massive hype.
Both TNA and ROH had boom periods to their run, but they also didn't have the help of social media and the internet.
Both TNA and ROH had boom periods to their run, but they also didn't have the help of social media and the internet.
TNA was huge at one point, far more than AEW now, they just fucked up with a lot of bad decisions...one might argue that during that period WWE was also at its lowest interest wise with Cena just winning and nothing else going on...
As for AEW it was the perfect storm, the rise of the NJPW and Kenny Omega getting some 6 star matches bringing curiosity to the american audience, Cody acting as a heel on the indies and making a name for himself, Internet fans angry at WWE for the usual reasons, a PPV that got a lot of attention and social media coverage and finally a rich guy that was willing to throw money in it.
Personally speaking I don't like their show but I can see the appeal and respect their fans.
Having said this when Kurt Angle went to TNA I was legit thinking that they would destroy the WWE lol, never had that feeling about the AEW at least for now
As for AEW it was the perfect storm, the rise of the NJPW and Kenny Omega getting some 6 star matches bringing curiosity to the american audience, Cody acting as a heel on the indies and making a name for himself, Internet fans angry at WWE for the usual reasons, a PPV that got a lot of attention and social media coverage and finally a rich guy that was willing to throw money in it.
Personally speaking I don't like their show but I can see the appeal and respect their fans.
Having said this when Kurt Angle went to TNA I was legit thinking that they would destroy the WWE lol, never had that feeling about the AEW at least for now
They're run competently and have done a great job catering to their audience.
They're never going to completely break into the mainstream, but where they are at is probably good enough for them.
They're never going to completely break into the mainstream, but where they are at is probably good enough for them.
AEW has succeeded insofar that it's doing well for the year, but at the same time there seems to be no real gain in overall wrestling viewership across WWE and AEW.
I think wrestling in general will be stuck in the sub 2 million spot for quite some time.
I think wrestling in general will be stuck in the sub 2 million spot for quite some time.
this is where they seem to be to me. I really like their product and they have done a good job of carving themselves out a piece of the pie but I'm not sure they have done much (or if they even could) to grow the audiences.
Oh man, is Robert Stone a spoof on this dude? I just realized, it has to be a joke.
Yeah I'd say it was mostly money and timing
They were lucky they hit a perfect storm of people being available.
They have a lot of goodwill and haven't squandered too much of it.
TNA fell into a lot of the same traps wcw and WWE did, hopefully aew won't make the same mistakes. Creatively speaking of course.
Because WWE failed to capitalize on the biggest boom in wrestling in a long time. There was a huge wave of support for indie and NJPW style wrestling in the US and WWE completely failed to satisfy that audience in any way.
I think of how good that first match Nakamura had with Sami was and then how lackluster everything that came after it has been after WWE got their claws into him. Same with basically anyone from NXT that went to the main roster.
I think of how good that first match Nakamura had with Sami was and then how lackluster everything that came after it has been after WWE got their claws into him. Same with basically anyone from NXT that went to the main roster.
10 years ago. It's a different world now for TV. Especially wrestling which is not very culturally relevant. But you know that Data.
Edit:
Even then it wasn't long lasting AT ALL
Then they dropped to a 0.5 rating in a few months and moved back to Thursdays. Then Spike dropped them. Then Destination America dropped them. Then Pop TV. They've stuck around, longer than even WCW, and that's to their credit. Creatively, AEW are doing better than TNA did in their early years, and are in a much better position right out of the gate than TNA were too. AEW might burn out faster than TNA/Impact, Khan might get bored, WWE might poach all their stars just because they can afford it etc. Right now though, AEW has made a bigger splash than TNA did. I just hope they can actually grow their audience in a way that TNA often seemed to struggle with at times.
AEW doesn't feel much different than WWE to me. They are just as hit and miss, but with worse production values. They have an awesome roster and often have killer matches, but so does WWE (Mostly NXT), NJPW, Impact, MLW etc etc. I'm glad they are around but I wish they would cut the daft stuff (leave that to WWE) and have a serious show that feels like a competition like they initially pitched. I think their ratings have been excellent though, considering the times we are in and the over saturation of content. I personally don't think it can touch NJPW and NXT in terms of pure wrestling though, but thats just my take, there's clearly lots of you out there that love it.
They renew their TV deal for a more lucrative one and all of their PPVs have done over 100k every time. Something TNA never could do.
I very much disagree with that. WWE was already slogging hard when TNA launched. Wrestling was already cratering out. There might be less people watching WWE now than back then, but there's WAY more educated fans who are willing to outside of the WWE now and those Lucha Underground, NJPW on AXS, AAA on Twitch, and so on see all their guys in this new major company.
How many Westerners knew who Hiroshi Tanahashi or Shinsuke Nakamura was when Impact started airing and they were main eventing in NJPW? The wrestling fan of AEW is much more willing to branch out than the wrestling fan of the Impact era where MAYBE they watched ROH. Hell, people didn't even watch PWG back then.
Yep, like I said in another thread a few months back: WWE is boomer wrestling, AEW is Gen X wrestling. They have a younger audience than WWE but not that much younger.
The roach of the industry. And I mean that as a compliment. They won't fucking die no matter how much they get obliterated.
TNA has been putting out a respectable product over the past couple of years and is another home for workers to make money. I hope they continue their ability to survive.
ROH never had the money to compete on a major network against WWE.
TNA's failure primarily had a lot to do I think with them falling into a lot of WCW's failings in the late 90s. They were bringing in a bunch of over-the-hill ex-WWE guys and pushing them more than their lesser known talent. Too much money was thrown at bad contracts with limited returns.
Money-troubles and bad creative then started to compound on the company after that. There might have been something with TNA if they let Billy Corgan take over as he should of, or tried to elevate Matt Hardy's role in creative/administrative duties (assuming he wanted to do that) but those things were never fully taken advantage of and eventually drove away a lot of their hot and fresh talent.
While AEW hasn't been shy about bringing in former WWE guys, there's still plenty of faces that are getting time and benefiting from matches with more established guys (see Jericho vs Cassidy). Plus having well-known indie and former NJPW guys who many fans have heard of but not necessarily seen before helps.
In short, a locked-in creative team, good mix of old and younger wrestlers, and great backing from a major network/checkbook from the Khan family gives them the best shot to compete with WWE week after week. The question now is just how well they'll be able to maintain that momentum in the years to come.
TNA's failure primarily had a lot to do I think with them falling into a lot of WCW's failings in the late 90s. They were bringing in a bunch of over-the-hill ex-WWE guys and pushing them more than their lesser known talent. Too much money was thrown at bad contracts with limited returns.
Money-troubles and bad creative then started to compound on the company after that. There might have been something with TNA if they let Billy Corgan take over as he should of, or tried to elevate Matt Hardy's role in creative/administrative duties (assuming he wanted to do that) but those things were never fully taken advantage of and eventually drove away a lot of their hot and fresh talent.
While AEW hasn't been shy about bringing in former WWE guys, there's still plenty of faces that are getting time and benefiting from matches with more established guys (see Jericho vs Cassidy). Plus having well-known indie and former NJPW guys who many fans have heard of but not necessarily seen before helps.
In short, a locked-in creative team, good mix of old and younger wrestlers, and great backing from a major network/checkbook from the Khan family gives them the best shot to compete with WWE week after week. The question now is just how well they'll be able to maintain that momentum in the years to come.
It was a much smaller wrestling world back then in that sense, absolutely, I agree. Everything you stated is a large part of why AEW is able to exist as it currently does. There's not really a casual audience for wrestling anymore, so them being able to pull from a large base of wresting enthusiast fans is pretty key.
TNT has noticed AEW fans are already pretty loyal and will always watch, thus the quickly extended TV deal.
Hmm, I would agree with most of this, including general diversity, but the mens world title picture including current wrestlers involved and others at that level are all still pretty much white men. When this changes and we get actual diversity with the champions on the mens side, I will agree with that statement.
TNA has Jeff Jarrett as the face of the company. An wrestler that had an negative charisma.
He is by no means a perfect dude, and at the end of the day, he's a businessman with a suit.
But it's pretty easy to root for Tony Khan.
And the majority of that goodwill comes down to his level of transparency (despite the fact that last week might be his biggest fuck up so far in the handling of Matt Hardy's concussion and all that) but he's a fresher, younger person in this level of authority within a wrestling company, and that goes a long way for a lot of people who have followed this carny business for a long time.
It also helps that he's not Vince McMahon. A lot.
But it's pretty easy to root for Tony Khan.
And the majority of that goodwill comes down to his level of transparency (despite the fact that last week might be his biggest fuck up so far in the handling of Matt Hardy's concussion and all that) but he's a fresher, younger person in this level of authority within a wrestling company, and that goes a long way for a lot of people who have followed this carny business for a long time.
It also helps that he's not Vince McMahon. A lot.
Or Dixie Carter.
Or Eric Bischoff
Or Paul Heyman
Or any of those absolute dipshit carnies.
Yet, dude.
We were heading there last week, I'm not making any exceptions in this industry.