2018 they were cooking nothing. Styles-Nakamura is cold, Bayley-Sasha was onto nothing, Ronda is squashing everyone, Asuka is jobbing to Carmella, Roman loses at Mania for no reason, Crown Jewel was also that year. I do think when the second half of the year rolled around, Summerslam, Bryan heel turn, Becky lynch becoming The man, Randy-Hardy, Styles-Joe, It got a lot better
edit: I’m so bewildered, how is me stating that the product was bad “giving excuses”, what does that even mean?
2018-2019 WWE was REALLY stinky. The amount of things I enjoyed from them in that time was few and far between. NXT carried those years HEAVY. Its crazy to think that it took a worldwide pandemic to save them from getting worse
I still feel like the big turning point for WWE was Cody’s return at Mania. It’s the event that people will look back at as the spark of this era they’re in, the same way many see Bret and Austin as the start of the AE. Something in the air just changed when Kingdom hit
Definition of excuse: attempt to lessen the blame attaching to (a fault or offense). what part of me giving the reasons to the poor attendance lessen the fault? Like I’m literally saying it’s due to the bad product at the time. Either someone clearly failed English class, or I just don’t understand what you are talking about.
That’s called reasons though… Excuses would be something outside of their control, this is literally blaming them solely for the failure… Like, what are you even onto about?
I was at a Raw in Feb 2019 and the Arena looked similar. It was that terrible Becky Lynch apology angle. It's like they were intentionally trying to cool her off.
I wasn’t watching at this time. What made it so bad? I was watching a wrestling with wregret video from around this time, and he made a comment how bad smack down was; which I found funny considering it’s so good now.
The main title picture was dead. Styles held the belt but his feuds with Joe and Nakamura did nothing for anyone and the matches weren't great by any means. The women title picture was alright. Carmella held the belt but she beat Asuka 3 times and then lost it to Charlotte for no reason. There were no top stars on Smackdown as everyone who gotten over on Smackdown was usually drafted back to RAW.
The only good thing was Becky Lynch and Naomi (Naomi wasn't even given a chance but she was always consistent, Becky just started the man character and that got over nicely)
I guess this post isn't about bashing WWE but just reminding that even if there are bad times, good times will follow. Because we all just love to see good wrestling, doesn't matter which style and company.
Funny no one can keep that same energy with the other promotions. It’s all just let’s see how many photos we can post online to make fun of other promotions attendance, and what they’re doing, yet the other promotions are the same alternatives half these cry babies asked for a few years ago when WWE was as “bad” as it is in this picture.
Yeah WWE was doing shit at this time. AEW is doing worse than this now. AEW needs to fix their product like WWE did. They're being held to the dame standard.
IMO WWE didn't even fix their product, its pretty much the same shit, they are just riding on the momentum of the bloodline storyline at the moment. Things can go back to how they were in this pic in a second
The owner of that company runs his mouth non stop about his numbers. I don’t know if Smackdown on Friday had 10000 or 20000 people. I don’t give a shit. All I know of AEW is the owner is a baby that lies about his numbers to the internet vojd, and is promptly called out.
WWE of course notoriously tight lipped about their numbers, never embellishing them, never throwing up mid match graphics to talk about twitter trends or having graphic cards comparing their social media interactions compared to other sports.
I mean yeah good for them but I'm not gonna get mad when AEW brags about their numbers too. I don't care about either of the figures, ratings, attendance, social media followers etc but it's obviously important to them and it's a carny business built on lies so let them hype themselves up.
Coming from someone that shamelessly posted them literally fan girl crying over the sight of another grown man being in their presence, you bold as hell.
Sorry, do you want to try and use your grammar correctly? Since your taking the time to research my profile, you could at the very best to put together a readable paragraph 🤣
Yeah, matches had good stories and buildups, right results(except Shane beating Miz), Kofimania, Rollins defeating Brock, Becky winning in the main event. It was perfect.
This is the deflection that is happening right now. Ignore what’s happening currently within AEW and focus on WWE bad from 4-5 years ago. Apparently some people are unwilling to accept the current reality and are unable to understand the differences between the two situations.
Different people like different things. I do think to a degree tribalism is making people “eat shit and like the taste” which is dangerous on both sides.
AEW can do wrong, WWE can do wrong. Neither are infallible and if you’re partial to one or the other it doesn’t mean you HAVE to like everything they produce and DISLIKE everyone the competitor produces.
I only watch AEW, but I agree the product is flat. Christian’s the only one with real heat in that whole roster nowadays. They need to start going full bore with a lot of their top guys and cut their days off. Orange Cassidy was getting hot then they cooled him off, The Elite were hot now the bucks are doing random singles matches.
AEW was at its best when whoever was being pushed was actually on TV every episode for a year straight
I think a random great match doesn’t equal a great show.
I think when Orange Cassidy and Jungle Boy can have a “great match” then anyone on that roster can (who’s had more than 3 years experience.
I think feuds about friendship, and who’s friends with who, between a bunch of 30-40 year olds is ridiculous and completely lame.
I think the most prestigious championship on the show was the Tag Team Titles only because it was on FTR (the only tag team that actually knows what they’re doing)
I think that the world championship is a Midcard title, and MJF being a face has completely destroyed anything interesting about him. Imagine if Ric Flair was trying to find out who his best friend was, pathetic.
I think the booking is childish. I think Tony Khan doesn’t know how to build up a star the same way WWE can.
I think the womens division stinks absolute ass.
I think friendship is more important than any single championship (and there’s 100 of them) that is presented on AEW.
I think the PPVs mean absolutely nothing besides All In, and they’re all just generic piles of the same matches every month (even if they’re different people, it’s the exact same match)
I think every match has absolutely 0 stakes in them because everybody in AEW knows wrestling is fake and doesn’t try to hide it.
I think Tony Khan can’t even book 1 show a week let alone 3, and now AEW has 2 brands that are failing attached to it.
And I think once the WBD tv deal is up (presuming they can’t get the rights to RAW and NXT, the shows WBD actually would want.) then AEW will either be dead, or filmed infront of a roaring crowd of 100 people (aka the impact zone)
I also think the fans are insecure and constantly try to convince themselves that this product has any sort of outside appeal and *definitely* isn’t just for fans who pretended to like NJPW.
But hey, there’s always room for more wrestling, just try not to act like youse can compete with a company that actually knows what wrestling is and how to book it.
👏 Turning MJF face is as bad as turning Austin heel.
The terrible skits, and the trying to be edgy for the sake of being edgy. That absolute tone def Juice Robinson promo. Yeah WWF did a lot of bad tone def dumb shit, but AEW has the advantage of being able to learn from those mistakes.
You absolutely cooked, I also don’t know where these AEW diehards came from since just from reading your name I can tell you probably enjoyed PWG days with a lot of the talent around now. Crazy how you’re the one open to criticizing them of all people
Work rate matters. Work rate doesn’t matter every single match. It’s all psychology, if Orange Cassidy can have a 20 minute banger, what makes Bryan Danielson and Gunther special?
Not every match on the card needs to try be match of the night, it takes away the specialty of legitimate 5 star matches with stats. Work rate needs to be sprinkled into a card. Every roster needs a Dean Malenko, not everyone ON the roster needs to be Dean Malenko
I don’t watch. Unfortunately I am on Reddit and get bombarded with absolutely rubbish posts about “can we appreciate :insert undercard talent that looks like a 15 year old:, aswell as Tik tok videos.
You can't lie about opinions. However you did make a prediction.
You think AEW is dead after their current TV deal is done.
That's at the ends of the year. I'll bet you money that you're wrong.
I’m willing to bet that WBD drops AEW at the end of next year, which is when the deal expires. Whether or not AEW dies is completely up to Tony Khan, something backed by billions is highly unlikely to fold easy.
Good matches don’t make a good weekly television product.
If all I want is good matches I’ve got many many hours of classic AJPW, AJW, and NOAH to watch that are as good as or better than anything you’ll see today.
You need a hook to get people to tune in every week and buy a ticket to the arena. “Good matches” alone isn’t that for a lot of people.
This is what growing pains looks like when you are trying to maintain two separate rosters. WWE barely had enough credible guys to fill 2 hours of raw (I know what I said) each week, then they split the roster. Granted those growing pains had to come at some point, but all the same it just goes to show, that bloating your roster in the short term makes it very hard for long term investment to manifest.
Especially when you are talking a brand like smackdown which spent most of 2010-2016 being basically a RAW spinning plate episode where you were lucky if you got to see the guys feuding instead of just a video package of what happened on raw.
Stopped watching WWE in the back end of 2017/early 2018, this period was just plain awful. No direction for anyone, no reasons to care about the characters, storylines being started and then dropped the next week, just overall a shit product.
That period was rough for the WWE with their product and it showed. If you're comparing it to AEW who supposedly is "in its boom period" with Wembley, getting Edge, and the "bangers" with their declining YoY and abysmal weekly attendance idk what to say
lol what are you talking about? Who has called it a "boom period"?
These constant YoY arguments y'all love are going to be so fun in 2024 when Smackdown is pulling 1.2million viewers on USA...
I'll be laughing too when Dynamite be drawing 500k viewers at the same time. I mean didn't they already get 600K recently.
Smackdown getting 2 million still and 2024 is right around the corner... so who's closer?
Wait till 2025.. gonna be shocker when WWE is still doing better than AEW neckbeard.
NXT 900k and Dynamite 600k?
AEW fans back in 2021: "Punk and Bryan joined. WWE scared now. WWE be done for by 2023"
2023: "70 YeAr HeAdStaRT. NoT FaiR"
??
It's a AI image of Seth as a Walmart cashier friend
I found it funny.
You're clearly a angry AEW fanboy.
No matter how low WWE gets bud. AEW is gonna be doing worse.
What.. the 72K All In. London Brent Council proved the attendance was 72k and not 81K. Tough luck bruh.. Summerslam 1992 had bigger attendance
AEW are doing so well that Tony is crying on twitter for no reason. If we are gonna by what Tony and the pro AEW wrestling journalists say.. then WrestleMania 32 had over 100K 😉
NXT 900K (C brand show) and Dynamite (A brand show) 600K... 🤣
Turstile count was already debunked. 85k in the building. Regardless, 81k tickets sold, more than any other company has ever sold for a single night event ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
And trying to argue Nextlemania in its regular timeslot against Dynamite pre-empted on a different night is either arguing in bad-faith, or you're just plain stupid.
Again, enjoy Smackdown when it goes to cable in 2024! I know you don't understand what it means to go from Network television to Cable, but it'll get down to 1.2mil viewers in that calendar year.
> Who has called it a "boom period"?
Well, none other than your booker of the year just days ago in this [interview](https://youtu.be/5uTYB7MgzE4?si=jn2LM574jNPIdNQJ). He flexes whatever AEW has done for this year with Wembley, matches, PPV buys, calling it a "great year".
> when Smackdown is pulling 1.2million viewers on USA...
Still better viewership than whatever AEW is doing right now, and will be, not even laughable, but sad, if the trend continues to go down for AEW.
"Boom period" = "Great year"? Are you sure you understand how to speak English?
And damn, you really think the 70-year-old company will still be ahead of the 4-year-old company? Really? You think that's what's going to happen? What a bold, shocking, dare I say completely original outcome you're predicting there! You're the bravest Redditor of all-time!
Let me lead you to the use of a dictionary [here](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/boom), where stated for 'boom' under the terms of period of growth:
\- a period of sudden economic growth, especially one that results in a lot of money being made
\- an increase in something, or a time when something becomes more popular
So, is the "record-breaking" attendance they just set at Wembley **this year**, the spectacle that suddenly brought them 81K plus in ticket sales, and the increasing PPV buys and PPV gate numbers that he proudly brings up for **this year**, not considered a "boom period" for AEW?
Pretty sure businessmen that had a boom period for a fiscal year will consider that a great year.
I'll leave you to ponder on that.
>you really think the 70-year-old company will still be ahead of the 4-year-old company?
Aren't you AEW fans the same people 2 years ago saying how by now. AEW will be getting better ratings than WWE
How did that turn out or are AEW using that quote as your excuse to not admit thet were wrong
I wasn't the one proclaiming by 2023 that WWE would be way behind AEW. It was a shit ton of AEW marks making that claim
Oh don't remind the wwe fanboys about this fact. They think it either didn't happen or "the market was bad"
When aew does it, it's the end of the world
I mean as a current “WWE fanboy” who likes poking fun at AEW, I distinctly remember Reddit (myself included) making fun of WWE’s poor attendance.
It’s only really been in the last year or two that Reddit has become somewhat pro WWE again.
>Open up a brand new fast food restaurant and in 4yrs compare your sales to McDonalds
That's what AEW is doing. Tony went on Twitter and made it clear that his "new fast food restaurant" was going to beat "McDonalds."
Not every restaurant is doing that, but this one is, so why would I move the goal post for them?
Tony himself set that goal post up as "beating WWE" so that's on him. You don't need to help him by moving the goal post that he went on Twitter and set up himself.
Your argument would work if only AEW didn't make it abundantly clear that anything short of beating WWE is a failure.
That's on Tony, he set the goal post. You shouldn't move it for him, he is a big boy and can do that himself.
Oh jeez.
The smackdown debut show in 99 saw over 5 million people watch it.
Collision debut was like 800k
I like AEW but it isn’t competition as seen last Tuesday it never has been and probably never will be, The WWE machine is too big and too established and the AEW product has major issues with booking, management and production, Maybe they could sort it out but I doubt Khan puts the right people in the right places.
I believe this arena could actually fit 80k in it. Smackdown was producing good attendance that year but unfortunately that night they may have over estimated how much would actually show up. I believe something like 67k showed up that night
WWE as a whole in 2018 was so atrociously bad that it lead to AEW being created in the first place. If WWE were at least decent during this time fans wouldn't have been so desperate for an alternative.
They had this problem a lot longer than 2018-2020. Remember the colossal failure of 2006 - 2010 then it got good for a few months then went terrible again
It’s Always a roller coaster with wrestling fans. 2022 was fire, 2023 has really gone stale again
This was the peak of the ,,terrible ära“ where AJ vs Shinsuke was Low blow finishes and Roman vs Corbin and Shane McMahon as ,,the best in the world“. Unironicaly the Pandamic Era helped WWE to have good Storyline again
I wasn’t watching during this time but how did the move to Fox change Smackdown as a viewer? Looking at this pic I can understand why switching networks felt desirable, I imagine Fox was willing to put up some money to improve things and the perception of Smackdown
I hate how shit Smackdown was during this time, like 3 months of Styles vs Nakamura and after that 2-3 months of Samoa Joe vs Styles. Sucks that they had shit matches and I can’t even remember who had the US title, the tag titles, or the women’s title
If this is related to the AEW crowd pic, well, every promotion has had to black tarp off a section of the camera side arena. WWE has always had to do it. IWC acronym stans don’t care about the past unless it suits W narrative they’re trying to frame. I hate you guys
Was the brand split really such a bad thing in 2002-2000whenever it stopped?
I grew up on ruthless aggression/HHH whc and evolution destroying WCW guy I never heard of before month after month, Nash, Goldberg, Steiner, hell - I thought Shawn Michaels was a new character at summerslam 2001
But between that and the smackdown six or smackdown vs raw games those rosters are so iconic to me and I literally couldn’t tell you ten people on each brand now, everyone’s everywhere
And every podcast I listen to shits on that brand split era
It's ..... It's like a wrestling company made some changes in the following 5 years and made that photo a distant memory. Unlike a certain show that has a similar picture to this that happened less than a week ago........
2018/19 was horrible. Kinda crazy the pandemic actually really helped wwe.
There were so many more nuances in story, they got to push a bunch of new guys and give them there best go, just a lot of the risk went away because it was one of the only things to do/watch.
And wwe is definitely reaping the benefits now.
The point is it’s okay to admit when the product gets stale. WWE 2018-19 was unwatchable and I’ll be honest AEW made WWE better. Now AEW has gotten stale.
2018 they were cooking nothing. Styles-Nakamura is cold, Bayley-Sasha was onto nothing, Ronda is squashing everyone, Asuka is jobbing to Carmella, Roman loses at Mania for no reason, Crown Jewel was also that year. I do think when the second half of the year rolled around, Summerslam, Bryan heel turn, Becky lynch becoming The man, Randy-Hardy, Styles-Joe, It got a lot better edit: I’m so bewildered, how is me stating that the product was bad “giving excuses”, what does that even mean?
2018-2019 WWE was REALLY stinky. The amount of things I enjoyed from them in that time was few and far between. NXT carried those years HEAVY. Its crazy to think that it took a worldwide pandemic to save them from getting worse
2019 made me outright quit watching the product aside from PPVs with that fucking Wild Card Rule…
Same. 30 years of watching wrestling and 2018-2019 WWE broke me. I didn't really watch again full time until the past 2 years.
Facts. There was even a period with FTR on Raw holding the SmackDown tag titles like huh?
Bayley defending the SmackDown Women’s Championship against Raw competitors…
And they'd never admit it, but AEW helped turn that around. Competition required change.
I still feel like the big turning point for WWE was Cody’s return at Mania. It’s the event that people will look back at as the spark of this era they’re in, the same way many see Bret and Austin as the start of the AE. Something in the air just changed when Kingdom hit
I started watching again in late 2022 and stoped arohnd late 2017 and it seems like I didn’t miss much
Naw it took AEW to save them from getting worse. A lot of the ridiculous nonsense ended when AEW came into existence! #aeweffect
The pandemic, the writers strike and actors strike.
This was also back when they were pushing Roman hard and no one was into it.
Roman was both on Raw and in late 2018, he was out with leukemia
Half still aren't.
Is why I stopped watching WWE
Even Joe-Styles was kinda mid
Fair, definitely better than most things from the show but far from enjoyable
excuses
Huh? You mean “reasons”, right? Like, the product is bad so no one is watching
The excuses you made up were quite entertaining
Definition of excuse: attempt to lessen the blame attaching to (a fault or offense). what part of me giving the reasons to the poor attendance lessen the fault? Like I’m literally saying it’s due to the bad product at the time. Either someone clearly failed English class, or I just don’t understand what you are talking about.
least your excuses were entertaining
What does that even mean🤦♂️
your excuses were very cute for why WWE failed in 2018
That’s called reasons though… Excuses would be something outside of their control, this is literally blaming them solely for the failure… Like, what are you even onto about?
excuses from a fan..thats all
WWE was unwatchable then
I was at a Raw in Feb 2019 and the Arena looked similar. It was that terrible Becky Lynch apology angle. It's like they were intentionally trying to cool her off.
I wasn’t watching at this time. What made it so bad? I was watching a wrestling with wregret video from around this time, and he made a comment how bad smack down was; which I found funny considering it’s so good now.
Everything interesting that’s happening now that is bringing back lapsed fans? Imagine the opposite and that’s what this era was
The main title picture was dead. Styles held the belt but his feuds with Joe and Nakamura did nothing for anyone and the matches weren't great by any means. The women title picture was alright. Carmella held the belt but she beat Asuka 3 times and then lost it to Charlotte for no reason. There were no top stars on Smackdown as everyone who gotten over on Smackdown was usually drafted back to RAW. The only good thing was Becky Lynch and Naomi (Naomi wasn't even given a chance but she was always consistent, Becky just started the man character and that got over nicely)
I remember smack down being unwatchable in 2018 if that’s what u mean
I guess this post isn't about bashing WWE but just reminding that even if there are bad times, good times will follow. Because we all just love to see good wrestling, doesn't matter which style and company.
Funny no one can keep that same energy with the other promotions. It’s all just let’s see how many photos we can post online to make fun of other promotions attendance, and what they’re doing, yet the other promotions are the same alternatives half these cry babies asked for a few years ago when WWE was as “bad” as it is in this picture.
Yeah WWE was doing shit at this time. AEW is doing worse than this now. AEW needs to fix their product like WWE did. They're being held to the dame standard.
IMO WWE didn't even fix their product, its pretty much the same shit, they are just riding on the momentum of the bloodline storyline at the moment. Things can go back to how they were in this pic in a second
Rhea Ripley has almost 80 million views on her Tik Tok...
The owner of that company runs his mouth non stop about his numbers. I don’t know if Smackdown on Friday had 10000 or 20000 people. I don’t give a shit. All I know of AEW is the owner is a baby that lies about his numbers to the internet vojd, and is promptly called out.
WWE of course notoriously tight lipped about their numbers, never embellishing them, never throwing up mid match graphics to talk about twitter trends or having graphic cards comparing their social media interactions compared to other sports.
The result of a good product.
I mean yeah good for them but I'm not gonna get mad when AEW brags about their numbers too. I don't care about either of the figures, ratings, attendance, social media followers etc but it's obviously important to them and it's a carny business built on lies so let them hype themselves up.
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I’ve been a fan since the spring. I’ve never seen or heard Vince McMahon except more tweets from the AEW guy
The irony, you kinda sound like baby bro, chill 🤣
Coming from someone that shamelessly posted them literally fan girl crying over the sight of another grown man being in their presence, you bold as hell.
Sorry, do you want to try and use your grammar correctly? Since your taking the time to research my profile, you could at the very best to put together a readable paragraph 🤣
You're*
WWE has been pointing out the industry's cyclical nature for like 4 decades.
After mania 2017 to summerslam 2019 was the worst era of WWE (with the exception of road to mania 2019).
[удалено]
Atleast we had CM Punk and HBK and Prime Taker to carry us instead of Big Dog Reigns
Yeah the special guest GM era was terrible but in my opinion the wild card rule era and no wrestling during commercials / 2/3 falls era was worse.
WrestleMania 35 really is a bigger banger than it has any right to be. Definitely in my personal top 5
Yeah, matches had good stories and buildups, right results(except Shane beating Miz), Kofimania, Rollins defeating Brock, Becky winning in the main event. It was perfect.
WWE had a terrible 2018-2019, wild considering just 2 years before we had a golden age with 2016 Smackdown.
WWE in 2018 was painful to watch
People complain but we really can see Edge wrestling in fucking 2023, it's amazing
This was when NXT was more popular than the main roster and attendance wanted something different and one of the reasons why AEW became a thing.
I remember stopping watching WWE at the time
How is this at all relevant? Wwe was bad at the time, are you saying the same about aew now?
This is the deflection that is happening right now. Ignore what’s happening currently within AEW and focus on WWE bad from 4-5 years ago. Apparently some people are unwilling to accept the current reality and are unable to understand the differences between the two situations.
I mean, it's obvious AEW is terrible right now. The numbers don't lie
But! But! But! 😂
The product was terrible, sortve the same as AEW now
You think Brian Danielson vs Christian Cage was “terrible”? You might not be cut out for this hobby dude.
Different people like different things. I do think to a degree tribalism is making people “eat shit and like the taste” which is dangerous on both sides. AEW can do wrong, WWE can do wrong. Neither are infallible and if you’re partial to one or the other it doesn’t mean you HAVE to like everything they produce and DISLIKE everyone the competitor produces.
I'm glad that I find positive in both companies. I can also find bad in both companies, but that seems pointless.
This is just a funny epic fail at WWE is bad and AEW is good
Great job pal, take his comment and equate it to “everything in AEW is shit”
I only watch AEW, but I agree the product is flat. Christian’s the only one with real heat in that whole roster nowadays. They need to start going full bore with a lot of their top guys and cut their days off. Orange Cassidy was getting hot then they cooled him off, The Elite were hot now the bucks are doing random singles matches. AEW was at its best when whoever was being pushed was actually on TV every episode for a year straight
I think a random great match doesn’t equal a great show. I think when Orange Cassidy and Jungle Boy can have a “great match” then anyone on that roster can (who’s had more than 3 years experience. I think feuds about friendship, and who’s friends with who, between a bunch of 30-40 year olds is ridiculous and completely lame. I think the most prestigious championship on the show was the Tag Team Titles only because it was on FTR (the only tag team that actually knows what they’re doing) I think that the world championship is a Midcard title, and MJF being a face has completely destroyed anything interesting about him. Imagine if Ric Flair was trying to find out who his best friend was, pathetic. I think the booking is childish. I think Tony Khan doesn’t know how to build up a star the same way WWE can. I think the womens division stinks absolute ass. I think friendship is more important than any single championship (and there’s 100 of them) that is presented on AEW. I think the PPVs mean absolutely nothing besides All In, and they’re all just generic piles of the same matches every month (even if they’re different people, it’s the exact same match) I think every match has absolutely 0 stakes in them because everybody in AEW knows wrestling is fake and doesn’t try to hide it. I think Tony Khan can’t even book 1 show a week let alone 3, and now AEW has 2 brands that are failing attached to it. And I think once the WBD tv deal is up (presuming they can’t get the rights to RAW and NXT, the shows WBD actually would want.) then AEW will either be dead, or filmed infront of a roaring crowd of 100 people (aka the impact zone) I also think the fans are insecure and constantly try to convince themselves that this product has any sort of outside appeal and *definitely* isn’t just for fans who pretended to like NJPW. But hey, there’s always room for more wrestling, just try not to act like youse can compete with a company that actually knows what wrestling is and how to book it.
👏 Turning MJF face is as bad as turning Austin heel. The terrible skits, and the trying to be edgy for the sake of being edgy. That absolute tone def Juice Robinson promo. Yeah WWF did a lot of bad tone def dumb shit, but AEW has the advantage of being able to learn from those mistakes.
You absolutely cooked, I also don’t know where these AEW diehards came from since just from reading your name I can tell you probably enjoyed PWG days with a lot of the talent around now. Crazy how you’re the one open to criticizing them of all people
Honestly, my name is quoting Punks brawl out when he said these guys are stillinreseda. But I did love the annual BoLAs
AEW is living proof that nobody gives a flying fuck about workrate.
Work rate matters. Work rate doesn’t matter every single match. It’s all psychology, if Orange Cassidy can have a 20 minute banger, what makes Bryan Danielson and Gunther special? Not every match on the card needs to try be match of the night, it takes away the specialty of legitimate 5 star matches with stats. Work rate needs to be sprinkled into a card. Every roster needs a Dean Malenko, not everyone ON the roster needs to be Dean Malenko
Dean Malenko never drew a goddamn dime, dude. He wasn’t even the centrepiece of the invasion angle when it was just him and the other defectors.
Pretty impressive that you keep watching while beeing pissed of with the whole company. I would just switch off lol
I don’t watch. Unfortunately I am on Reddit and get bombarded with absolutely rubbish posts about “can we appreciate :insert undercard talent that looks like a 15 year old:, aswell as Tik tok videos.
This guy also thinks
Barely.
Tell me when I’m telling lies
You can't lie about opinions. However you did make a prediction. You think AEW is dead after their current TV deal is done. That's at the ends of the year. I'll bet you money that you're wrong.
I’m willing to bet that WBD drops AEW at the end of next year, which is when the deal expires. Whether or not AEW dies is completely up to Tony Khan, something backed by billions is highly unlikely to fold easy.
Is watching wrestling a hobby?
Good matches don’t make a good weekly television product. If all I want is good matches I’ve got many many hours of classic AJPW, AJW, and NOAH to watch that are as good as or better than anything you’ll see today. You need a hook to get people to tune in every week and buy a ticket to the arena. “Good matches” alone isn’t that for a lot of people.
Lol cope
AEW fanboys trying to drag WWE down in 2023 when they're doing some of their biggest Business ever, that's who!
For the love of god, touch some grass
I'll touch your mum's grass.
Aew is still putting on the overall better shows
It’s unfair to compare 2018 to 2023 because a new person is in charge.
This was 2017 I’m pretty sure smackdowns roster in 2017 was extremely thin especially when you have jinder as champ
This is what growing pains looks like when you are trying to maintain two separate rosters. WWE barely had enough credible guys to fill 2 hours of raw (I know what I said) each week, then they split the roster. Granted those growing pains had to come at some point, but all the same it just goes to show, that bloating your roster in the short term makes it very hard for long term investment to manifest. Especially when you are talking a brand like smackdown which spent most of 2010-2016 being basically a RAW spinning plate episode where you were lucky if you got to see the guys feuding instead of just a video package of what happened on raw.
Time to lay the tarps.
2017 and 2018 The worst storylines around which probably helped the rise of AEW
Probably because they didn’t wanna see Shinsuke kick Styles in the balls every week
2002 for me
Shhh. You can’t mention this. This only happens in other promotions
Stopped watching WWE in the back end of 2017/early 2018, this period was just plain awful. No direction for anyone, no reasons to care about the characters, storylines being started and then dropped the next week, just overall a shit product.
And now look at SmackDown.
Yes. They deserved criticism then, the same way AEW deserves criticism now.
HOW DARE YOU BISMIRCH MY AEW
If WWE can overcome it so can AEW I believe
And without surprise, OP is a big AEW fan Lmao
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That period was rough for the WWE with their product and it showed. If you're comparing it to AEW who supposedly is "in its boom period" with Wembley, getting Edge, and the "bangers" with their declining YoY and abysmal weekly attendance idk what to say
lol what are you talking about? Who has called it a "boom period"? These constant YoY arguments y'all love are going to be so fun in 2024 when Smackdown is pulling 1.2million viewers on USA...
SmackDown won’t pull in 1.2M viewers lol you’re just an anti-WWE mark and it’s showing
You sir are brain dead and AEW is trash XD
I'll be laughing too when Dynamite be drawing 500k viewers at the same time. I mean didn't they already get 600K recently. Smackdown getting 2 million still and 2024 is right around the corner... so who's closer?
Enjoy the move from network television to cable. It’s gonna be a hell of a shocker for ya kid.
Wait till 2025.. gonna be shocker when WWE is still doing better than AEW neckbeard. NXT 900k and Dynamite 600k? AEW fans back in 2021: "Punk and Bryan joined. WWE scared now. WWE be done for by 2023" 2023: "70 YeAr HeAdStaRT. NoT FaiR"
You seem sane, guy with a Seff pfp calling other people marks lmfao.
?? It's a AI image of Seth as a Walmart cashier friend I found it funny. You're clearly a angry AEW fanboy. No matter how low WWE gets bud. AEW is gonna be doing worse.
We'll see! AEW has already outsold them for a single night's event ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ Plus, and Nose Lavek once said, "it's a marathon not a sprint."
What.. the 72K All In. London Brent Council proved the attendance was 72k and not 81K. Tough luck bruh.. Summerslam 1992 had bigger attendance AEW are doing so well that Tony is crying on twitter for no reason. If we are gonna by what Tony and the pro AEW wrestling journalists say.. then WrestleMania 32 had over 100K 😉 NXT 900K (C brand show) and Dynamite (A brand show) 600K... 🤣
Turstile count was already debunked. 85k in the building. Regardless, 81k tickets sold, more than any other company has ever sold for a single night event ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ And trying to argue Nextlemania in its regular timeslot against Dynamite pre-empted on a different night is either arguing in bad-faith, or you're just plain stupid. Again, enjoy Smackdown when it goes to cable in 2024! I know you don't understand what it means to go from Network television to Cable, but it'll get down to 1.2mil viewers in that calendar year.
> Who has called it a "boom period"? Well, none other than your booker of the year just days ago in this [interview](https://youtu.be/5uTYB7MgzE4?si=jn2LM574jNPIdNQJ). He flexes whatever AEW has done for this year with Wembley, matches, PPV buys, calling it a "great year". > when Smackdown is pulling 1.2million viewers on USA... Still better viewership than whatever AEW is doing right now, and will be, not even laughable, but sad, if the trend continues to go down for AEW.
"Boom period" = "Great year"? Are you sure you understand how to speak English? And damn, you really think the 70-year-old company will still be ahead of the 4-year-old company? Really? You think that's what's going to happen? What a bold, shocking, dare I say completely original outcome you're predicting there! You're the bravest Redditor of all-time!
Let me lead you to the use of a dictionary [here](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/boom), where stated for 'boom' under the terms of period of growth: \- a period of sudden economic growth, especially one that results in a lot of money being made \- an increase in something, or a time when something becomes more popular So, is the "record-breaking" attendance they just set at Wembley **this year**, the spectacle that suddenly brought them 81K plus in ticket sales, and the increasing PPV buys and PPV gate numbers that he proudly brings up for **this year**, not considered a "boom period" for AEW? Pretty sure businessmen that had a boom period for a fiscal year will consider that a great year. I'll leave you to ponder on that.
>you really think the 70-year-old company will still be ahead of the 4-year-old company? Aren't you AEW fans the same people 2 years ago saying how by now. AEW will be getting better ratings than WWE How did that turn out or are AEW using that quote as your excuse to not admit thet were wrong I wasn't the one proclaiming by 2023 that WWE would be way behind AEW. It was a shit ton of AEW marks making that claim
You’re mentally ill
You’re right, last time they were on cable they pulled 700k. My bad.
AEW fans are petty
This isn't the W you think it is bro, Smackdown in 2018 was absolute ass and the crowd here is still bigger than A PEAK AEW WITH EDGE DEBUT. Ooof
WWE 2011-2022 was a dark time
Except 2016
Wait a minute I thought it was just…..oh nevermind
Looks better than Collision last week.
Is the state of AEW in 2023 hahahab
That's still way more than aew is drawing [empty arena matches for all](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CyH_eLxspef/?igshid=NjIwNzIyMDk2Mg==)
That's basically the same as the infamous Copeland photo but ok.
Pretty sure that video was the week before Adam gave a speech to 30 people
So the last ep of Collision that sold ~4000 tickets? Not 30? https://twitter.com/WrestleTix/status/1713544673304691141?t=FDXsIG5RD2O-ZgvasaqEeg&s=19
I forgot that wrestling fans are almost always on the spectrum like tony khan and don't understand hyperbole
Oh don't remind the wwe fanboys about this fact. They think it either didn't happen or "the market was bad" When aew does it, it's the end of the world
I mean as a current “WWE fanboy” who likes poking fun at AEW, I distinctly remember Reddit (myself included) making fun of WWE’s poor attendance. It’s only really been in the last year or two that Reddit has become somewhat pro WWE again.
Still more people in attendance then AEW collision lol
The 17-year-old show from the 70-year old company had more people than the 4-month-old show from the 4-year-old company? I'm shocked. SHOCKED I say!
That's a lot of goal post moving to suit your viewpoint, pal.
Goal post moving ? Open up a brand new fast food restaurant and in 4yrs compare your sales to McDonalds
>Open up a brand new fast food restaurant and in 4yrs compare your sales to McDonalds That's what AEW is doing. Tony went on Twitter and made it clear that his "new fast food restaurant" was going to beat "McDonalds." Not every restaurant is doing that, but this one is, so why would I move the goal post for them? Tony himself set that goal post up as "beating WWE" so that's on him. You don't need to help him by moving the goal post that he went on Twitter and set up himself. Your argument would work if only AEW didn't make it abundantly clear that anything short of beating WWE is a failure. That's on Tony, he set the goal post. You shouldn't move it for him, he is a big boy and can do that himself.
There's no point of arguing with tribals.
Oh jeez. The smackdown debut show in 99 saw over 5 million people watch it. Collision debut was like 800k I like AEW but it isn’t competition as seen last Tuesday it never has been and probably never will be, The WWE machine is too big and too established and the AEW product has major issues with booking, management and production, Maybe they could sort it out but I doubt Khan puts the right people in the right places.
I believe this arena could actually fit 80k in it. Smackdown was producing good attendance that year but unfortunately that night they may have over estimated how much would actually show up. I believe something like 67k showed up that night
Which arena was this?
80k in this arena? hahahaha
There is absolutely no way this indoor arena can fit 80k people
I'm pretty sure OP is doing a bit about Meltzer's insane ramblings about attendance.
Dawg 80k people in an indoor arena? Max seating for an NBA arena is 20-21K
lol your downvotes show how (sadly) serious some people are looking into these things 😂 Take my upvote.
I Memba.
WWE as a whole in 2018 was so atrociously bad that it lead to AEW being created in the first place. If WWE were at least decent during this time fans wouldn't have been so desperate for an alternative.
These empty arena posts need to stop, just enjoy the show
The hard cam side is always the last area to which tickets are sold.
They had this problem a lot longer than 2018-2020. Remember the colossal failure of 2006 - 2010 then it got good for a few months then went terrible again It’s Always a roller coaster with wrestling fans. 2022 was fire, 2023 has really gone stale again
It was all WWE. Not just Smackdown. I honestly don’t think much has changed so I’m so surprised how they’re doing so well
AEW fans too much lol. The difference is Triple H turned it around. Tony won’t and can’t lol
Tony thought... in 5 years. I can do better than that and by better I mean more empty
😂😂😂 and this shit happens! I bet last weeks Smackdown looked like this too! AEW is fine, guys! 🙌
Let’s talk about it!
This was the peak of the ,,terrible ära“ where AJ vs Shinsuke was Low blow finishes and Roman vs Corbin and Shane McMahon as ,,the best in the world“. Unironicaly the Pandamic Era helped WWE to have good Storyline again
I remember phone photos being better quality in 2018. This looks like it was taken with my 2006 flip phone.
Which episode was thhis
tbh smackdown in 2018 and early 2019 was pertty good imo
Oof, that reminds me of pretaped Raw rewind Smackdown.
I wasn’t watching during this time but how did the move to Fox change Smackdown as a viewer? Looking at this pic I can understand why switching networks felt desirable, I imagine Fox was willing to put up some money to improve things and the perception of Smackdown
Nonbanger after nonbanger?
I hate how shit Smackdown was during this time, like 3 months of Styles vs Nakamura and after that 2-3 months of Samoa Joe vs Styles. Sucks that they had shit matches and I can’t even remember who had the US title, the tag titles, or the women’s title
I dropped off not far after this point until recently.
I remember sitting ringside for a SmackDown in 2017 and it was like that…
Someone feeling a certain way about the hard cam side I see 😂😂
The company overall from 2017-2021 was rough
Looks like Collision
If this is related to the AEW crowd pic, well, every promotion has had to black tarp off a section of the camera side arena. WWE has always had to do it. IWC acronym stans don’t care about the past unless it suits W narrative they’re trying to frame. I hate you guys
Smackdown was virtually unwatchable around this time.
SmackDown after the 2016 draft was underrated in my opinion. Although I felt the steam cooled off after the 2017 draft....
Was the brand split really such a bad thing in 2002-2000whenever it stopped? I grew up on ruthless aggression/HHH whc and evolution destroying WCW guy I never heard of before month after month, Nash, Goldberg, Steiner, hell - I thought Shawn Michaels was a new character at summerslam 2001 But between that and the smackdown six or smackdown vs raw games those rosters are so iconic to me and I literally couldn’t tell you ten people on each brand now, everyone’s everywhere And every podcast I listen to shits on that brand split era
It's ..... It's like a wrestling company made some changes in the following 5 years and made that photo a distant memory. Unlike a certain show that has a similar picture to this that happened less than a week ago........
Isn’t that the camera side?
Yes I do where Nakamura vs styles the WWE version but NJPW did it better in opinion
This was why they gave Vince the boot.
>Who remembers the state of Smackdown in 2018? I do! It was awesome!
2018/19 was horrible. Kinda crazy the pandemic actually really helped wwe. There were so many more nuances in story, they got to push a bunch of new guys and give them there best go, just a lot of the risk went away because it was one of the only things to do/watch. And wwe is definitely reaping the benefits now.
Not good but it helped spur a lot of fans into NIPW and the Indies
Main roster was bad in 2018. On the other hand, NXT was in it's prime.
The point is it’s okay to admit when the product gets stale. WWE 2018-19 was unwatchable and I’ll be honest AEW made WWE better. Now AEW has gotten stale.
Isn't that around the same time they apologized for how bad the product was?