It's about exposure. WWE makes their bread and butter in the older men demographics. The same guys who in their 30s were flipping back and forth during the Monday Night Wars. If they were acclimated to do the same, if AEW ran h2h with Raw, I think you could see their ratings spike in similar fashion to WCW back in the day. Not the same amount of people, obviously, but you'd see them draw away some of Raw's audience. The product is much better, it's just getting it out there for people to see. For some, it would mean shoehorning it into their regular Monday night wrestling viewing.
I tend to think AEW wouldn’t impact Raw at all. At this point the people left watching Raw are diehards that probably aren’t changing channels, even if the alternative is another wrestling promotion.
Aew is a "much better" product for people in their 30s and lapsed fans, but plenty of "purists" out there dismiss it as flippy shit and goofy segments. Aew isn't going to outdraw WWE for kids either. There are plenty of old and young fans who are going to watch wwe regardless. I think aew fans are vastly exaggerating the companies overall draw. It's still a niche product made for a specific demo who are sick of WWE. It's nuts to think they can go from barely beating (and actually losing a few weeks lately) WWE developmental brand to all of a sudden challenging Raw in ratings. Aew is closer ratings wise to peak TNA than they are WCW. That's not knocking them though before people get mad, it's just their target audience limits their potential growth imo. But why do they need to compete with raw? If their target audience enjoys the show and tunes in regularly and the networks are happy with it, shouldn't that be enough?
Yeah at this point AEW’s competing with pro sports more than they are NXT. Meanwhile I would argue NXT is competing more with cable news than they are AEW. Sure, there is a crossover fan they can win, but at this point it’s maybe 100k people?
I challenge the idea that NXT is a developmental brand. I think that's a way to belittle AEW, but in the past few months, NXT has had countless amounts of "main card" people serve cameos, brought Balor back full time, held guys like Gargano/Dream/Ciampa/Undisputed Era on the brand who should've/would've been called up a year ago if the idea was still that it's a developmental brand. I can guarantee you if I sat down 10 purists and had them blind taste test Extreme Rules/Raw from this past week or the last Dynamite and AEW PPV, 9/10 would prefer AEW. Managers, stables, open challenges, long term storytelling, the deepest tag team roster in the past 20 years, unscripted promos, lack of disqualifications, the list goes on as to what AEW does right and why they would appeal to a purist. Extreme Rules had a guy's eye popped out, a monster came out of the swamp while the champion presumably drowned, a ref was stripped of his shirt so the partner could make the 3 count and crown her friend the new champ, 3 different matches had ambiguous endings, Dolph Ziggler was challenging for the world title for some unknown reason after being buried on the other brand, I mean there were so many bad things about that show. Fast forward to the next night and the main event was between two guys who were main eventers 15-20 years ago. Raw is an awful, stale show. Smackdown I somewhat enjoy only because I can watch it with my 4 year old son Friday night/Saturday morning and he's really getting into it. NXT is also stale and throwing shit against the wall to see what sticks. I haven't even watched last week's show yet and it's been a week. But I guarantee you I'll make AEW appointment viewing tonight.
This. NXT is not a developmental brand. It used to be, but ceased to be a long time ago. It is a legit alternative to other shows owned by the same company. AEW hasn't even been a company but for like two years. NXT has been going for 10 years give or take and had the backing and push of the largest wrestling company in the world. The two are not even close to being the same. NXT should be killing AEW in ratings just by default of being in the WWE umbrella.
NXT is clearly a developmental brand, their big draws are not on that show, the guys you named are mostly people that people our age like but arent the biggest draws. Its full of people who haven't proven themselves on main roster yet or whose career was stalled and have been sent down to jump start it again. Roman Reigns, John Cena, Randy Orton, heck even guys like Drew, Seth and Bray are not coming to NXT. It would be like AEW having a show but not having Jericho, Moxley, Bucks, Cody and Omega on it. Yes there is still talent there, but not their biggest names. And no one is arguing WWE has done a bunch of dumb shit lately, I think most people in this thread are sick of the WWE, but again that is the audience AEW already has. The point is that they probably arent expanding their audience much competing head to head with Raw. And let's not act like AEW has not done silly shit too.
I can't believe I am defending WWE right now, but NXT is clearly a third brand for WWE. RAW is flagship show, SD is on Fox. Everyone who gets over on NXT for extended period of time moves to RAW or SD with a few minor exceptions. No one over on the other two shows get sent there for full time. AEW doesn't ever worry about someone getting too over and moving elsewhere. Even if you don't want to call them developmental, they are clearly at best the third brand. I mean just since AEW and NXT have started competing, Bianca Belair, Shayna, and Matt Riddle have moved on from NXT to main roster.
And AEW is not gaining any viewers as it is even with WWE doing awful booking lately, I just don't see the potential for them to all of a sudden get higher raters moving against the bigger WWE show. I mean AEW debuted with 1.4 ratings and first six months were consistently around .9. They have been between .6 and .8 lately. They've lost half their viewers from their opening show. I don't know where you expect all these new people to all of a sudden start watching because they switched nights. But again, WHO CARES? If it's a program you like and it's getting good enough ratings that its in no danger of being cancelled, why does it matter? AEW is not going to beat or get close to WWE ratings on either of their flagship shows, but that doesn't mean they aren't successful.
And Raw and Smackdown are losing a million viewers a week as well, so don't frame it like AEW has lost half of their viewers, everybody has during the empty arena shows.
I am fascinated by what the ratings might look like in two weeks when there is basketball, baseball and hockey all back.
That's my point exactly. People talking about how bad raw ratings have been and think that means AEW could compete head to head with them. AEW ratings have equally fallen. As a whole everyone is suffering, it's not just WWE shit booking that has made ratings fall
Yea, kind of rambled a little. Bottom line my point is I don't think AEW gets anywhere near raw ratings. Even though WWE does shitty booking and ratings have taken a hit, aew ratings have taken an equal hit. But in the end it doesn't matter as long as aew doesn't get too low that it challenges their TV contract, and people can just watch what they want. Kids and old people can enjoy WWE and people sick of WWE can enjoy aew. Just don't think AEW has much room to grow in the market
What percentage of Raw's ratings do you think are people who are programmed to watch wrestling on Monday nights, like they have the past 25 years (like me), vs the amount who are tuning in to see the Big Show vs Randy Orton? My point is if AEW switched to Monday nights, when people are auto pilot watching their wrestling, they could sink a hook in the "Monday night" fan who blank faces watches Raw every Monday night. If AEW could present a new and exciting product to the casual Monday night fan, there's no telling how high their ratings would be.
People programmed to watch wrestling mondays are programmed to watch WWE mondays. They wouldn't know or be used to AEW being on another channel. If they were sick of watching WWE and looking for alternatives, they would find AEW on Monday or Wednesday. And AEW would have to change their programming to cater to a larger audience, which I think would make it less enjoyable for its current fans and could end up hurting their ratings. I get you and a lot of people really enjoy AEW, but its not for everyone. Detoxrox had a good point, I am not sure how much of an overlap this is of people still watching RAW and people who would watch AEW. AEW even cuts promo on their demo, and lets be honest, the number of people who still watch wrestling in that demo is limited. How many of your friends or people on this board watch wrestling? They have a better chance increasing ratings without changing their product by finding a way to get lapsed fans to watch again than they do to steal viewers from people who are still watching WWE
Or, the millions who left wrestling, would tune back in to get their Monday night wrestling fix just like they did when Nitro came around. Which in turn could light a fire under Raw's ass to make it appointment viewing again. Everybody wins. But there's upwards of 10 million lapsed fans who used to watch wrestling but don't now. I think a large percentage of those could be salvaged if AEW competed with Raw.
I mean TNA had 2.2 million viewers the first night they switched to Monday. If nothing else, it peaked people's interest in another Monday night show, but ultimately them being a complete dumpster fire creatively turned off the viewers that switched over to check it out.
Also Blade is lucky he isn't fucked up, no one caught him jumping out of ring and he missed the table. Took him a while to get up
So Sammy was out....three weeks? Quite the punishment, Coach K must have been in charge of the suspension.
He apologized to the wronged party, she forgave him, and he was suspended a month. What the fuck did you want?
Both companies share the same larger issue and it’s none of them have a superstar that’s going to explain the viewing audience and draw new fans in. I made this point on a earlier page and it came off as me singling out AEW but the horse that pulls the wagon is WWE and they haven’t replaced Cena, Rock, Austin. And Roman clearly isn’t it yet...
It's mostly their own doing. They decided to be brand centric rather than Star studded and they have no stars. A lot of time is spent promoting the company and 50-50 booking anyone to not go over besides the token guy to represent the WWE brand. They tried like hell to kill off a real star in Daniel Bryan and stopped giving a shit about Roman the moment he got a genuine pop from the crowd. They fumbled the fuck out of Braun for a long while. It's really impressive how well they're doing even though they're doing everything they can to WCW themselves out of business.
They have them, they're just super young. MJF will be that guy. Omega, Page, Jericho, Mox, and Pentagon are all main eventers who can reach out to different demos/fans and draw new fans in for now until some of the roster grows up. But MJF is that guy, and they realize it.
I have rewatched that Kingston promo several times this morning. As someone who was super into the indies from like 2002 - 2008, I’m just floored that I got to see that version of Eddie Kingston on national TV. If AEW doesn’t sign him, it’ll be a crime. There is no one out there right now like him.
I really need a program between Kingston and Archer. Let those two beat the shit out of one another. Let Jake and Kingston cut promos on one another. It would have everything.
MJF is definitely the guy and they are being really careful not to push him too hard and burn the fans out. Hangman is also going to be a huge star.
I'm a big fan of MJF and Hangman, both can be big stars. But their is a difference between main eventers and generational stars that will bring fans in. Maybe those two guys can, but it's a stretch to me to say guys like Mox, Jericho and Pentagon are on Rock, Cena and Austin levels of draws. Brock is closest thing WWE has to that but he's never on. I think his point is neither company has guys who will make the market blow up and peak ratings like Austin and Rock did. There is a difference between that and really good wrestlers that current fans like. WWE has plenty of those guys too.
I definitely agree. Not saying they are anywhere close to being on Rock and SCSA level, but if I look at wrestling as a whole, those are the two guys that I think have the chance to get to that next level. Age has a lot to do with that as well.
AEW has a nice core roster. I almost personally hope they don't get too obsessed with ratings, because I think they would end up having to change the way they operate to do it and it could alienate their current fans. It would be interesting though if they could grab a bigger star from WWE at some point or a guy with more national appeal to see what that did. If a guy like Punk joined, or like an AJ Styles (who I don't know when his contract expires) swapped programs, that would be huge.
Punk allegedly wants a laughable amount of money and I think Styles is locked in on a pretty new deal. Daniel Bryan would be a huge hit for them and I would love to see him in a promotion that is heavy on wrestling.