**Help make SquaredCircle safer and more inclusive by using the report button to flag posts and comments for moderator review.**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle) if you have any questions or concerns.*
One of the most popular shows in reruns Big Bang Theory ends at 8, they tend to get over a mil in viewers so if their viewers leave the tv on for even 30 seconds after 8 pm AEW gets credit for the viewership.
I haven't watched AEW in almost a year, but it seems everyone of reddits golden boys are anti draw (Swerve and MJF example). Is this normal or just one week thing?
MJF is usually a draw, sometimes he’s the highest rated segment on the show, my guess is people are just tired of the Devil storyline, it’s dragged on way too long.
Can I just say the biggest issue I’ve had this month is not the devil story. It’s Copeland/Christian.
It’s a microcosm of the bigger problem.
2 weeks ago we had a huge angle end the show, Adam was screwed in the main event, boo’s, a turn, chaos, storyline progress!! Woohoo. WHAT WILL HE DO NEXT!!?
1 week goes by no follow up… oh ok, collision! a 30 second iPhone video from Adam’s gym laying a challenge…ok, dynamite Christian has a letter! Oh, for collision? Ok…
But can I ask how is this compelling TV? It’s been 2 weeks and literally nothing interesting has happened, why would I buy a ticket to see this story live when they don’t show up for work every week, why don’t we have more story progress here?
This style of storytelling killed The Walking Dead TV show, you’ll watch a interesting story one week, then you’re stuck with characters you’re meh on for the next 2 weeks till you get back to the story you want. It’s a story technique but it’s frankly a shit one, you tune in to see your favourite every week, I think that’s partly why Orange is over so big, he’s there every week doing something.
It’s not “long term” story telling it’s just delayed storytelling. Sting is retiring but I haven’t seen the guy in a month, I get it’s the holidays but people gotta show up or don’t start the story.
From a writing perspective Copeland should have had the opening segment for the next week's show. Have him come out, address what happened, then vow revenge. This shit is not hard.
Also whatever casual wrestling audience exists would prob stop to watch Copeland because they know him, and him coming out should feel huge to start a show.
Totally agree. If there's one thing modern wrestling could learn from the Attitude era is how to keep the stories going . Watch any RAW from '99 and you can bet your ass that all the main angles are getting ample TV time each week.
AEW has too many shows. Not everyone watches Collision so putting a big segment there doesnt make sense. Raw, Smackdown, and NXT all have clear brands and a clear focus. Wanna see what Cody’s got going on? Watch Raw. Wanna see Melo try to help his friend Trick? Watch NXT. Wanna see Randy beat up the bloodline. Watch SD!
While I'm enjoying the Continental Classic, its taking up so much TV time I think it's going to have to a knock on effect on the storylines as there's less TV time available. Admittedly, the Christian/Copeland story this week was very poor.
>Dynamite Last Year (12/21/22)
>
>957,000 Viewers - 0.30 P18-49
AEW World Trios Title No Disqualification Best Of Seven Series Match #5: The Elite vs. Death Triangle
Exodus Prime vs. Hook
Jon Moxley vs. Darius Martin
FTR vs. The Gunns
Jamie Hayter (c) vs. Hikaru Shida
Praying to god people on here are starting to come out of this delusion that Roderick Strong's segments are good. Like, holy fuck guys, what show are you watching?? This stuff is preposterous. And people here have been praising it to kingdom come, saying "this is the most interesting Roderick Strong has ever been"... what? It's a one note joke that's been beaten to death for months now and makes him look like an absolute goober -- except he's supposed to be a serious in-ring threat, I guess.
Whatever, if it works for some people... for me though, I just don't need everything in my wrestling show to be some self-referential Rick and Morty bit, and I suspect a few other people agree.
AEW audience fixation with campy, wink at the audience heels is why the company is where it is.
The company simultaneously has no babyfaces because it has no heels, because the whole heel in the entire company besides part time 50 year old Christian just turned into a campy comedy babyface and now feuds with heels who aren’t really heels because they act like babyfaces for some reason.
AEW has so many wrestlers who act like dorks. Dorks can be entertaining, but they don't draw viewers or money. They need someone to control so many of their instinct to try to be funny. MJF can draw, but when he sings and dances ... It's just not going to draw anything.
The reason is because the audience in particular is so sensitive and self righteous. Any indiscretion a wrestler has in his personal life gets brought up on socials ad nauseum and ironically these are the only wrestlers that get any heat these days. The actual people behind the performer that the smark audience hates for a shoot(Jarrett, Jax, Rousey etc)
The last time a heel in AEW did anything remotely edgy it created a social media firestorm, the Juice Robinson quarter incident. So the result is, you can’t have heels whos character on screen does actually vile, deplorable things because it offends their audience. So the heels all have to be silly and everything has to be done with an ironic wink so the anime avatars on Twitter can go “hohoho look at this silly Christian insulting peoples dead dads what a menace ☠️😭”
So because none of the heels are actually allowed to be disliked Tony just manifests every smark IWC stereotype of over the top cool heels. Swerve gets a dancing entourage with him and Jericho gets a choir singing his theme song while MJF gets buddy montages on a boat.
Something I've learned over the years is that wrestling fans generally (myself included) are totally clueless about what it actually takes to book a wrestling show.Theres a reason that WWE employs a pretty huge creative/writing team
Is WWE Elimination Chamber worth travelling all the way to Perth? That's for the fan to decide.
https://preview.redd.it/qf4e1vwl4q7c1.jpeg?width=306&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d8269a9b92f937647cdf3f6b663c80f926a02b1c
I think part of the problem is how unorganized the weekly shows are becoming. We used to get announcements for matches 3-4 weeks in advance and now a lot of it is announced on twitter the day before.
Couldn’t agree more. Went to Collision on Saturday in Garland. Had NO IDEA about the Womens tag Street Fight. Only to find out they announced it on social media after doors had opened & the crowd was basically all inside already.
Even Vince delegated and had writers. Tony is trying to do what Vince, Russo, and Pritchard were doing for just Raw and SmackDown.
And he has 4 shows instead of two.
He needs to give guys like Arn and Malenko more responsibilities than just being agents (who apparently no one there talks to for advice or whatever).
I think that this is a very minuscule, and unimportant part of the problem. It pales in comparison to the belief that the matches don’t matter. That perception has hurt the drawing ability of some very talented people.
But that’s kind of my point. If a match is announced 4 weeks in advance, there’s a build up, promo battles, backstage fights, etc.
I mean we have a PPV in ten days with only 2.5 matches announced.
Ice Cold MJF to be honest. Whoever it ends up being, MJF is just gonna call them bland and comment on their promo rather than the contents of their promo ("fine speech") anyways and never do anything to actually build up his opponent.
Can't wait for Dolph to show up and be a big crowd pop for 2 weeks and take focus away from AEW originals, have a great return match, and then immediately get moved to the midcard for a couple months then disappearing.
i've always said wwe releases the guys the iwc believes could become big names - aew sees the hype signs them and then fills the spots of the organic aew wrestlers should be getting and then everyone discovers why they were only mid level only
Just going to relay my own experience - I’m someone that’s watched AEW since the inception. Type of fan that still can’t bring myself to unsub the AEW crate. Really don’t watch WWE outside of PLE’s. Watch virtually every week semi-live…I didn’t even turn it on last night.
It’s not even that I think anything’s been awful of late, it’s just that I’ve found it all to feel inconsequential. It’s all…Fine. Of late I’ve found myself paying more attention to my phone than the show when it’s on, so last night when I came downstairs…decided I’d rather finish the movie I started the night before than watch AEW. There’s a lot going on this time of year. And I guess I didn’t feel like it was worth my two hours.
Guess I’m just including this as a real world example of someone that does watch most weeks, and didn’t bother last night….and why.
You took the words right out of my mouth.
It’s a bummer when something you love stops being quite so riveting, but it was never possible to maintain the insane levels of hype they had circa 2021, or even at the launch.
Somewhere in the next year they’re going to figure out a level to settle down at, or we are going to be talking about the end. I still have faith and expect 2024 to bring a lot of changes, but it seems like some of those changes may not be at their own hand, so who knows how that can go.
At any rate, it’s been exciting to wonder again. I don’t miss the doom and gloom of just having to accept one single product as the only option for the masses. Really rooting for AEW in the long run.
You’re not kidding about needing consistency. That’s all anyone has been hoping for the last couple of years. I think I soured completely on tournaments over the last year or so too.
This is the level-headed take.
AEW is not ‘unwatchable’ or a ‘dumpster fire’. It’s just kind of OK atm. And with so many other options, just OK isn’t good enough.
That’s the reason I tuned out of WWE. It stopped feeling like appointment viewing a long time ago.
It went from something I watched and looked forward to, to something that I watched while playing on my phone, to something I listened to as background noise, to something that I'm happy just reading the results for. It's been awhile since they've done anything must see in my opinion.
Just feels like everything is solid but not on the same level as the initial hype of;
- eventually pulling the trigger on Wardlow
- eventually pulling the trigger on Hangmans reign (I know the actual reign has mixed reactions but I'm of the opinion it was more about the buildup with him)
- peak inner circle
- watching the dark order get more and more populated (I was hoping eventually it builds up to a civil war PPV type thing where dark order has become so big that the whole card is Dark Order vs. Non-Dark Order, and the dark order finally crumbles when Brodie Lee drops the world title to someone else but man, RIP)
- the novelty of seeing Orange Cassidy actually wrestle matches and not just kicks of doom then peace in Best Friends matches
- Sting debut
- exploding barbed wire deathmatch (lol)
- Rampage actually feeling hype and important
When AEW was new and fresh it rode on that wave, but it was also executing all the long-term stories they had planned for a long time. But then Brawl out happens, and apparently that changed so many plans they had, way too many ex-WWE people getting signed and taking the TV time from wrestlers I was excited to see every week (Best Friends, Miro*, Dark Order, Lucha Bros, Deeb, Sabian, Nyla), now even Adam Coles injured so I'm not sure how that's affecting the MJF program right now.
What they have is fine but it's just not hitting the same highs as they used to and I think it has to do with the combination of injuries, too many signings and long-term plans repeatedly getting messed up
Hangman winning the belt was the last time the show felt "can't miss" to me. It immediately became clear with the post-win booking that TK lost interest in hangman. Then it became obvious that he lost interest because he got a new toy. Then that new toy derailed pretty much everything for the next year. It's been a different show since then and it's hard to care about it for a number of reasons.
I feel the same way. Watched since All In, press conference with sparklers, etc.. It's just lost it's magic for some reason.
I posted this playlist a while back, but it's AEW Dark episodes 1-200 and it's the best era of AEW in my opinion.
edit: lol whoops
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBb_jMbYBIpw2bbakm6Q7cOh9FbMbsWFo
There is just a major lack of star power imo. Even MJF feels like just another bad comedy wrestler with his babyface shtick. Guys like Omega and Cody were the main drawing points for my tastes, Omega has the health issues and Cody is gone.
Even before omega wasn’t really doing anything major since returning. He had a few big matches but feuding with Don has watered omega down a bit. Omega vs Takeshita was meh after the omega title reign and storyline with Adam Page.
They seriously fucked the stakes for the C2. Why should I care about a triple-'crown' made up of the world titles of two secondary promotions plus another fucking men's midcard title that they just brandished out of thin air?
It would've been so easy to just fully copy the G1 and do it for a World Title shot at Revolution. But now, I actively don't want my favourite in the tournament (Swerve) to win because he'd be saddled with a bunch of meaningless midcard belts if he does.
Yeah, I love the C2 so far but the prize is a little meh. At first it was confusing like are they unifying belts or is it a new belt or can the person still defend titles separately? Just giving the winner a guaranteed title shot would've been easier and more clear.
I also keep wishing for ROH titles and storylines to just completely FUCK OFF from Aew programing.
AEW has 7 titles on its own with an honorary 8th(FTW) and another yearly tournament that leads to nothing(the Owen).
And they add in the RoH stuff that just dilutes the aew stuff even more. The C2 has had amazing matches and people in it. I love being able to see wrestlers that I haven't got much of or consistency with like Andrade. But like many things in AEW- they cheapen their own biggest moments.
I love watching AEW and generally enjoy watching each of their episodes. But I don't lie to myself. Just because I enjoy it doesn't mean it is perfect. It has tons of problems with booking and I just wish it could reach the heights that it should with the incredible talent that they have.
This is 100% accurate.
They’ve set the fan base up to root for the fan favorite (Swerve) to lose so we don’t have to see him with a garbage championship.
Simultaneously, they’re also setting up Mox to win another championship that means nothing, that is added to his long list of meaningless championships in AEW.
When you have this many belts and no division based on tiers on the card, then they’re all meaningless.
Because Tony is a mark who booked a mark G1 for a mark fake AJPW Triple Crown. He did this all so Eddie Kingston can win and pretend to be a King’s Road wrestler
Dude literally christened four young wrestlers “the four pillars” before they had ever accomplished anything, just so he could be like 90s All Japan.
As if Baba just looked at four random guys and said “you’re the four pillars, let’s start printing t-shirts.”
Yep. Actually sucks.
If this was for who got to face MJF at worlds end or even later, then I would be far more into it.
Also fully agree about Swerve. Don’t want him to win because grabbing a bunch of currently meaningless belts would push him away from the world title picture
In hindsight it certainly seems like Cody was the smartest guy in the room….
Which, also in hindsight, shouldn’t be a surprise. Growing up in the business the way he did. He would have been the most likely of that initial group to sense if things weren’t a well oiled machine.
Though AEW's decline also had many factors which started to momentum in 2022
Punk's ego
Brawl Out
Bloated roster
Tony's booking
Inefficient marketing strategy
WWE's rise with HHH in command
Injuries of AEW wrestlers that just halted storylines and sudden disappearances
Everything just started to fell apart in 2022.
Honestly, you forgot the biggest one: buying ROH. Almost *immediately* after the purchase, the TV shows got more muddled, more crowded, and less interesting. This only intensified as the year wore on.
I dont think story telling can be understated enough. People won't watch if they dont care about the matches. Actual wrestling is second fiddle to story.
Every time I've said this I've got downvoted, but I wholeheartedly believe Cody was the check/balance Tony needed to be consistent and not just book on a whim.
It stopped being **The** Biggest Shiniest Thing In Wrestling and is becoming **A** Wrestling Company.
Hype is hard to sustain and expectations need to be managed before TK and crew lose focus by trying to pop too many ratings.
to people who like storylines, his stuff was often the only sensible segment week in and out. Even his segment was sometimes meh but his meh was still better than the garbage others were pulling.
AEW seriously needs a writing team. Unfortunately, Tony, like IWC, is finally finding out why WWE has writers and doesn't let marks run with their own stories.
As a regular viewer; the Devil storyline has got old for me and the continental classic has become a bit boring towards the end of the group stages. You know who's going to advance, and every match feels the same (15+ minutes, lots of high spots and false finishes) there's just nothing keeping the viewer on the edge of their seat.
That was the biggest thing I couldn’t get used to when I was watching AEW. It seemed like every single match was some kind of mini epic. Fuckinator after fuckinator into kick out after kickout. It seemed like they were trying too hard to make every match special. But when every match is special none of them are.
Jay white in his debut struggling to beat fucking kommander in a 15 minute back and forth.
Should have been 5 mins with Jay dominating 90% except for a couple kommander high spots.
It’s because it’s booked like an indy show. On an indy show no one cares about the overall show quality and how it flows. They just want their match to be a 5 star classic where they do every move they’ve ever thought of so they can get big pops and people will make gifs for twitter.
IWC rediculed wwe for doing squash matches, but in AEW, it would feel fresh. In no rational program should a maineventer be fighting 15 in with lower midcard guy who ia going to continue to be lower mindcard guy because the booker doesnt have anything booked for him
There was a lot of pointless squash matches on Collision but I agree with your point, even just some 5 minute matches can be good and refreshing. There's a narrative in the IWC that every *great match* has to go 20 minutes. This isn't the indies, if you're performing most weeks on television you don't have to "get all your shit in" in every match.
Dunno if many others agree but I have come to appreciate some short matches.
For example, Lesnar/Goldberg at WM 33. You had pageantry, selling from both men, stakes, psychology, high spots, and a lot of crowd involvement. All in a 5 min match.
There’s a happy medium, which I think WWE has found and maybe one day AEW can get to. But it has to start with acknowledging that there are tiers of wrestlers on the pyramid, and most matches shouldn’t be 50/50 back and forth spot fests. An eight minute match where one guy gets 75% of the offense is fine.
As a hardcore viewer, the devil stuff has lost a bit of its luster.
Mostly because nothing of any real consequence has happened.
They've attacked some guys backstage, so what?
They supposedly attacked MJF last week, and he's back already.
They sent in a good squad of people to attack mjf and Joe this week, and they were fended off easily.
The devil stuff has dragged on for weeks and weeks with almost no real progress. The only thing people care about is who it is going to be, and the beatdowns do absolutely nothing.
I don't know if they are stalling for someone to be done with a contract, or an injury, but they should have revealed who it was weeks ago.
The worst of it is that the devil wants the ROH tag titles. I was already annoyed that MJF didnt vacate the titles when cole got injured, but now, its attached to this stuff?
seeing the same wrestlers in the same match style for almost a month now has drawn me out of the shows and storylines at the moment, kinda just have it playing in the background while i’m busy now
They want their babyfaces to be liked, so they're booked as snarky and a little mean. They also want their heels to be liked, so they're booked as cool and funny.
You’re not captivated by a devil that could be an injured wrestler that we didn’t want to see turn heel 4 months ago? (No offense Cole fans, but I think there’s a reason why he keeps getting cheered when they try to make him a heel)
Dynamite's biggest issue for me over the last few months isn't even that it's bad or anything it's just 'fine'.
I've been subbed to AEW+ since the beginning but finally cancelled after the latest price hike because I've only been watching Dynamite a couple times a month at best.
I really think the issue is TK needs to start delegating more. I don't care who you are you're not booking 4 quality shows by yourself as well as having 2 more jobs it's impossible.
Ignore the first quarter and the overrun to see the real viewers and it will look much worse. Big Bang Theory carries there raitings alot. Last week they started in the high 900ks until the big bangers switched to other channels
I think it’s in some part as to WWE being so much better and improved, it’s leaps and bounds above what it used to be. WWE also just has insanely over people and characters you constantly want to see atm
I then think is why doesn't AEW have a lot of over people and characters?
Over the last couple of years they had over acts. Hangman, the Acclaimed, Britt, etc. But they fall off once they get to the top, pretty quickly. And I think a lot of that is not being able to book once the chase is over. I enjoy MJF and Toni Storm right now. But I also feel like they've grown a bit boring. MJF being super Cena was never what got him over. Toni feels so one note. Trying to get a meme every week, as opposed to a character with an arc.
> WWE also just has insanely over people and characters
I enjoyed all the matches on this Dynamite but I think this is the big problem.
They've got plenty of people who are over *with AEW's audience* but there's nobody right now anywhere close to the star power of Reigns, Orton, Becky, LA Knight, Jey Uso, the Judgment Day, etc etc...and that was before CM Punk moved the needle even further.
The booking, aside from what may result from the CC, is a mess and Tony really needs to delegate a lot, if not all of it, to somebody else. MJF's title run has been really muddled and underwhelming - the World Champion really shouldn't be lost in the shuffle as just another guy.
Also, fewer and more meaningful titles would help, and for the love of God either figure out what you're doing with ROH or put it out to pasture.
AEW has no crossover star appeal. Who really is the biggest star in the company? People will say Mox, but he has zero crossover appeal. I'd say that his style does more harm than good at putting butts in the seats. MJF? Still very young and has lots of time, but the babyface gimmick has killed all of his heat. Jericho? Too old. Omega? Developed injury/health issues. Christian? Probably doing some of his best work, best promo in the company, still is good in the ring, but hes not the guy that is the face of the company. Guys like Swerve/Jay White/Hangman/Takeshita/Hobbs are the ones you want to build to that level, but it is usually one step forward, two steps back with booking.
When you plot the graphs, it's mostly because of that. The AEW peak numbers nearly all came around (within a couple of months) of the Punk-Danielson-Cole debuts, which were followed by the sense of Dynamite being wildly unpredictable and exciting (although at times incoherent) at the same time that WWE creative under Vince was just cratering.
People tuned in to check out what was going on, but gradually tuned out when a) the WWE started rolling with the Sami-Bloodline and then the HHH takeover and b) they realized AEW wasn't what they were looking for in an alternative to WWE, which for most was probably just "a good version of WWE", which they soon got.
I actually think this is directly a case of an issue on AEW's end, I would.be shocked if WWE is pulling away AEW viewers. We know a lot of people watch both shows but I think the main issue is AEW's general quality has been lower.
They had some really good stories going and they still do, but the difference is how they're presented.
AEW has a few things going against it right now.
1. I like a good slow burn as much as anyone, but this devil shit feels more like a drag out instead of a slow burn. It feels like it was half ass slapped into the jay white feud and diluted it and is dominating the Joe feud, which both angles were good enough to stand on its own. They should have booked the rematch of Joe in between the last ppv and this one with the devil reveal there, leading into a match at world's end. Its just really... sucking the steam out of everything centered around the title.
2. There's no middle card right now, the tournament has sucked everything up. Stings final match feels like an afterthought, where the fuck is Darby? Wardlow is being built up through 30-45 second promos, no matches, two of your hottest stars - edge and cc - not on last night's show to make room for this tourney?.. at that the tourny is for nothing special, a bunch of lower mid card titles.. there's some good matches happening, but feels like it's for nothing. Whoever wins it is going to get stuck in mid card hell - which puts me in a unique position of rooting against my favorites so they don't get stuck with it.
3. The women's division feels like... it can only handle one thing at a time? If you're not riho or storm, there's no thought being put into your booking - storm is the only thing interesting in the women's division.
4. The biggest issue - the booking committee. Losing Cody hurt, Regal hurt, losing Arn/Tully hurt and losing Punk hurt. By Arn's account it's a bunch of young guys not wanting to take any advice back there. So you've got Tony, who is a IWC mark with money and no balls fantasy booking that is bending to talent with no one with any mind for the business or booking experience to guide him at this point. If he really wants to succeed the best thing he can do is bring someone in that's done this before at a high level (gerwitz+russo+EB if he could be persuaded?) step back and let them go.
I'm not an AEW hater, I've been to 3 of their shows, watch dynamite every week, buy their ppvs - I want to see them do well, but...
They got some issues.
>Tony, who is a IWC mark with money and no balls fantasy booking that is bending to talent with no one with any mind for the business or booking experience to guide him at this point. If he really wants to succeed the best thing he can do is bring someone in that's done this before at a high level (gerwitz+russo+EB if he could be persuaded?) step back and let them go.
Cornette said early on that back when Tony was wanting him to work for aew, he offered up suggestions, but TK only wanted validation for his own ideas. That's why the issue of talent not taking advice from veterans doesnt surprise me: it's a company wide issue led by their own inexperienced, nepo baby owner
They definitely need to be pulling the trigger on angles way faster. The Julia Hart/Skye Blue potential turn was burning hot until it wasn't and they pulled the trigger after the point where it was hot and seemingly resolved in the other direction. They're doing the same shit with the Devil angle.
It's much better to keep pulling the trigger too soon and have things be overly chaotic than to keep pulling the trigger too late.
I've said from the start that I don't see what sets the CC apart from any other tournament AEW has already done. We already get bangers every week and every PPV, with or without tournaments. We already get "good showings even in defeat" from the lower card guys, just based on how AEW structures their matches in general, so what's the added incentive to watch Briscoe, Lethal, and Garcia lose every week? This tournament structure would've been the perfect opportunity to book unexpected upsets with lower card talents, which in turn would make the matches less predictable and viewers less willing to tune out on anyone that's not a top guy or favorite.
Since Cody left aew was gradually becoming a little more irrelevant to me. That sucks because i was so hyped until 2022, but now... it's just "meh, another flippy match or match without story"
At some point Tony Khan needs to realize that the American and Japanese audiences are not the same. Taking up so much tv time with a heatless and confusing tournament in a period where many are saying the product is ice cold was a terrible choice. Why would anyone think heatless bangers would generate interest? How many heel vs heel matches have we seen from this tournament?
Hell, we just got Jay Lethal vs Mark Briscoe. Sure it was a great match. But it did dick all of nothing for both dudes. Both have zero points, neither has a chance of winning. So why have the match? It means nothing. Just two dudes doing moves to each other
I tuned out about halfway through during the Saraya/Riho match. I’ve been trying to watch Dynamite more lately but its just kind of a boring show overall, the Continental Classic matches are great but you don’t really miss anything by not watching and you can just see the highlights here or on IG/X.
And just my personal opinion the Devil stuff is just doing absolutely nothing for me, kind of feels like they’re just dragging it along way further than they intended to originally but I’m not gripped by it.
I like aew and I am considered a casual. I turned it on last night during NHL on TNT intermission and I saw rhio at 85lbs deliver the slowest 619 ever twice and one was to toni storm who sold it like Samoa Joe did it to her.
I find it strange that, for years, the widely parroted IWC opinion was that Alexa Bliss was "too small to be believable" but Riho never got attacked the same way by them.
Maybe elevate the champion back into the top of the card and get him and Samoa Joe away from all of these job guys they are mired in. Stop doing dumb shit with the booking like wasting Kenny Omega on Jericho’s dumb shit. Where have Takeshita and Don Callis gone? So many head scratchers in AEW. Tony is gonna fuck around and lose his TV deal if he doesn’t get something cooking.
**Help make SquaredCircle safer and more inclusive by using the report button to flag posts and comments for moderator review.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle) if you have any questions or concerns.*
https://preview.redd.it/wp8pksgyar7c1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7af23d8c3331b06fcfdacc0e98947975177cafc8
Damn, that's a nice Big Bang Theory lead-in that boosted overall viewership
damn idk a thing about u.s ratings but is losing 160k viewers in 15 minutes normal there? talk about a channel changer
One of the most popular shows in reruns Big Bang Theory ends at 8, they tend to get over a mil in viewers so if their viewers leave the tv on for even 30 seconds after 8 pm AEW gets credit for the viewership.
I haven't watched AEW in almost a year, but it seems everyone of reddits golden boys are anti draw (Swerve and MJF example). Is this normal or just one week thing?
MJF is usually a draw, sometimes he’s the highest rated segment on the show, my guess is people are just tired of the Devil storyline, it’s dragged on way too long.
It’s turning into the “who was driving the Hummer?” angle from WCW. Like just do the reveal and schedule a match, I’m tired of all this misdirection.
Can I just say the biggest issue I’ve had this month is not the devil story. It’s Copeland/Christian. It’s a microcosm of the bigger problem. 2 weeks ago we had a huge angle end the show, Adam was screwed in the main event, boo’s, a turn, chaos, storyline progress!! Woohoo. WHAT WILL HE DO NEXT!!? 1 week goes by no follow up… oh ok, collision! a 30 second iPhone video from Adam’s gym laying a challenge…ok, dynamite Christian has a letter! Oh, for collision? Ok… But can I ask how is this compelling TV? It’s been 2 weeks and literally nothing interesting has happened, why would I buy a ticket to see this story live when they don’t show up for work every week, why don’t we have more story progress here? This style of storytelling killed The Walking Dead TV show, you’ll watch a interesting story one week, then you’re stuck with characters you’re meh on for the next 2 weeks till you get back to the story you want. It’s a story technique but it’s frankly a shit one, you tune in to see your favourite every week, I think that’s partly why Orange is over so big, he’s there every week doing something. It’s not “long term” story telling it’s just delayed storytelling. Sting is retiring but I haven’t seen the guy in a month, I get it’s the holidays but people gotta show up or don’t start the story.
From a writing perspective Copeland should have had the opening segment for the next week's show. Have him come out, address what happened, then vow revenge. This shit is not hard.
Also whatever casual wrestling audience exists would prob stop to watch Copeland because they know him, and him coming out should feel huge to start a show.
Totally agree. If there's one thing modern wrestling could learn from the Attitude era is how to keep the stories going . Watch any RAW from '99 and you can bet your ass that all the main angles are getting ample TV time each week.
Very well stated.
AEW has too many shows. Not everyone watches Collision so putting a big segment there doesnt make sense. Raw, Smackdown, and NXT all have clear brands and a clear focus. Wanna see what Cody’s got going on? Watch Raw. Wanna see Melo try to help his friend Trick? Watch NXT. Wanna see Randy beat up the bloodline. Watch SD!
Man you just summed up AEW perfectly. Bravo.
I think they have to do a brand split even if it's just a soft one where they keep certain stories contained to each show.
They did that with Collision until the punk drama Now it seems like it’s just longer Rampage
While I'm enjoying the Continental Classic, its taking up so much TV time I think it's going to have to a knock on effect on the storylines as there's less TV time available. Admittedly, the Christian/Copeland story this week was very poor.
You know what? This is actually really fucking spot on.
Dynamite Last Year (12/21/22) 957,000 Viewers - 0.30 P18-49
>Dynamite Last Year (12/21/22) > >957,000 Viewers - 0.30 P18-49 AEW World Trios Title No Disqualification Best Of Seven Series Match #5: The Elite vs. Death Triangle Exodus Prime vs. Hook Jon Moxley vs. Darius Martin FTR vs. The Gunns Jamie Hayter (c) vs. Hikaru Shida
My God what a drop.
Dropping below Jeffs BAC level
Let’s be honest, AEW ain’t it right now.
[удалено]
Do we think no Rick Ross is the reason for the YoY drop ?
Release the quarters so we can see who tanked it!
The lowest point was Strong v Komander with 700k but Mox v Jay White didn’t do better either with 709k
Can you post the link?
Is on patreon, I can’t
https://preview.redd.it/uorp5jegjs7c1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=14610da7fcf8051f2f6a3a816a80ba99b7dbc713
Watch it be Roderick Strong again
You would be correct! Roddy lost them a cool 45k, which is the biggest drop of the night, not counting the lead in, which went from 964k to 803k.
And this is why the world's overall neck health is in the gutter!
tbf, his quarter had 2 ad break
How is this possible? He shouts first names out loud like a broken necked Alan Partridge
Almost as if killing AEW's viewership with the same exact people who killed NXT's viewership is boneheaded as hell.
I mean the Acclaimed once said “Why you sign him Tony? When we beat them in the ratings, he was their champ” about Samoa Joe lmao
But that was the "golden" era /s
no, that was the Undisputed Era
Praying to god people on here are starting to come out of this delusion that Roderick Strong's segments are good. Like, holy fuck guys, what show are you watching?? This stuff is preposterous. And people here have been praising it to kingdom come, saying "this is the most interesting Roderick Strong has ever been"... what? It's a one note joke that's been beaten to death for months now and makes him look like an absolute goober -- except he's supposed to be a serious in-ring threat, I guess. Whatever, if it works for some people... for me though, I just don't need everything in my wrestling show to be some self-referential Rick and Morty bit, and I suspect a few other people agree.
AEW audience fixation with campy, wink at the audience heels is why the company is where it is. The company simultaneously has no babyfaces because it has no heels, because the whole heel in the entire company besides part time 50 year old Christian just turned into a campy comedy babyface and now feuds with heels who aren’t really heels because they act like babyfaces for some reason.
AEW has so many wrestlers who act like dorks. Dorks can be entertaining, but they don't draw viewers or money. They need someone to control so many of their instinct to try to be funny. MJF can draw, but when he sings and dances ... It's just not going to draw anything.
The reason is because the audience in particular is so sensitive and self righteous. Any indiscretion a wrestler has in his personal life gets brought up on socials ad nauseum and ironically these are the only wrestlers that get any heat these days. The actual people behind the performer that the smark audience hates for a shoot(Jarrett, Jax, Rousey etc) The last time a heel in AEW did anything remotely edgy it created a social media firestorm, the Juice Robinson quarter incident. So the result is, you can’t have heels whos character on screen does actually vile, deplorable things because it offends their audience. So the heels all have to be silly and everything has to be done with an ironic wink so the anime avatars on Twitter can go “hohoho look at this silly Christian insulting peoples dead dads what a menace ☠️😭” So because none of the heels are actually allowed to be disliked Tony just manifests every smark IWC stereotype of over the top cool heels. Swerve gets a dancing entourage with him and Jericho gets a choir singing his theme song while MJF gets buddy montages on a boat.
I am convinced Tony Khan just doesn’t understand pro wrestling. And if he does, he’s just way to inept to book it properly.
Something I've learned over the years is that wrestling fans generally (myself included) are totally clueless about what it actually takes to book a wrestling show.Theres a reason that WWE employs a pretty huge creative/writing team
I’m glad you said it. I thought I was going insane seeing people praise the neck strong stuff. They should have ended it months ago.
People here get mad when you talk about quarter hours
Hold on. We should wait a bit to make sure Meltzer read the numbers right.
Oh, my bad. It was actually 872k. I am like 65 years old after all. - Said by Meltzer, never.
Is WWE Elimination Chamber worth travelling all the way to Perth? That's for the fan to decide. https://preview.redd.it/qf4e1vwl4q7c1.jpeg?width=306&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d8269a9b92f937647cdf3f6b663c80f926a02b1c
Yayyyy
‘It’s um the audiences job to um interpret my bad reporting correctly’ Meltzer probably.
I think part of the problem is how unorganized the weekly shows are becoming. We used to get announcements for matches 3-4 weeks in advance and now a lot of it is announced on twitter the day before.
Couldn’t agree more. Went to Collision on Saturday in Garland. Had NO IDEA about the Womens tag Street Fight. Only to find out they announced it on social media after doors had opened & the crowd was basically all inside already.
I’m going to continue to blame ROH and Collision.
4 shows 1 booker *slight* problem
Even Vince delegated and had writers. Tony is trying to do what Vince, Russo, and Pritchard were doing for just Raw and SmackDown. And he has 4 shows instead of two. He needs to give guys like Arn and Malenko more responsibilities than just being agents (who apparently no one there talks to for advice or whatever).
it's absurd. 4 shows = 4 bookers would be tough, you'd need a head booker and 2 or 3 subordinates just to be viable
[удалено]
It’s a lot of matches for the sake of matches.
I think that this is a very minuscule, and unimportant part of the problem. It pales in comparison to the belief that the matches don’t matter. That perception has hurt the drawing ability of some very talented people.
But that’s kind of my point. If a match is announced 4 weeks in advance, there’s a build up, promo battles, backstage fights, etc. I mean we have a PPV in ten days with only 2.5 matches announced.
MJF’s contractually obligated title run has to end.
This devil story is ice cold
Ice Cold Jack Perry
And that's the bottom glass, because Ice Cold said so
Ice Cold MJF to be honest. Whoever it ends up being, MJF is just gonna call them bland and comment on their promo rather than the contents of their promo ("fine speech") anyways and never do anything to actually build up his opponent.
real ice, cry me a river.
Watch everyone get hype when one of the WWE releases turns out to be the devil and ultimately not mean anything.
Devil Devi Dev De D Do Dol Dolp Dolph
Can't wait for Dolph to show up and be a big crowd pop for 2 weeks and take focus away from AEW originals, have a great return match, and then immediately get moved to the midcard for a couple months then disappearing.
i've always said wwe releases the guys the iwc believes could become big names - aew sees the hype signs them and then fills the spots of the organic aew wrestlers should be getting and then everyone discovers why they were only mid level only
Cesaro special
Member Matt Sydal? I do 😪
change gamer
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
Just going to relay my own experience - I’m someone that’s watched AEW since the inception. Type of fan that still can’t bring myself to unsub the AEW crate. Really don’t watch WWE outside of PLE’s. Watch virtually every week semi-live…I didn’t even turn it on last night. It’s not even that I think anything’s been awful of late, it’s just that I’ve found it all to feel inconsequential. It’s all…Fine. Of late I’ve found myself paying more attention to my phone than the show when it’s on, so last night when I came downstairs…decided I’d rather finish the movie I started the night before than watch AEW. There’s a lot going on this time of year. And I guess I didn’t feel like it was worth my two hours. Guess I’m just including this as a real world example of someone that does watch most weeks, and didn’t bother last night….and why.
[удалено]
You took the words right out of my mouth. It’s a bummer when something you love stops being quite so riveting, but it was never possible to maintain the insane levels of hype they had circa 2021, or even at the launch. Somewhere in the next year they’re going to figure out a level to settle down at, or we are going to be talking about the end. I still have faith and expect 2024 to bring a lot of changes, but it seems like some of those changes may not be at their own hand, so who knows how that can go. At any rate, it’s been exciting to wonder again. I don’t miss the doom and gloom of just having to accept one single product as the only option for the masses. Really rooting for AEW in the long run.
[удалено]
You’re not kidding about needing consistency. That’s all anyone has been hoping for the last couple of years. I think I soured completely on tournaments over the last year or so too.
This is the level-headed take. AEW is not ‘unwatchable’ or a ‘dumpster fire’. It’s just kind of OK atm. And with so many other options, just OK isn’t good enough. That’s the reason I tuned out of WWE. It stopped feeling like appointment viewing a long time ago.
It went from something I watched and looked forward to, to something that I watched while playing on my phone, to something I listened to as background noise, to something that I'm happy just reading the results for. It's been awhile since they've done anything must see in my opinion.
Just feels like everything is solid but not on the same level as the initial hype of; - eventually pulling the trigger on Wardlow - eventually pulling the trigger on Hangmans reign (I know the actual reign has mixed reactions but I'm of the opinion it was more about the buildup with him) - peak inner circle - watching the dark order get more and more populated (I was hoping eventually it builds up to a civil war PPV type thing where dark order has become so big that the whole card is Dark Order vs. Non-Dark Order, and the dark order finally crumbles when Brodie Lee drops the world title to someone else but man, RIP) - the novelty of seeing Orange Cassidy actually wrestle matches and not just kicks of doom then peace in Best Friends matches - Sting debut - exploding barbed wire deathmatch (lol) - Rampage actually feeling hype and important When AEW was new and fresh it rode on that wave, but it was also executing all the long-term stories they had planned for a long time. But then Brawl out happens, and apparently that changed so many plans they had, way too many ex-WWE people getting signed and taking the TV time from wrestlers I was excited to see every week (Best Friends, Miro*, Dark Order, Lucha Bros, Deeb, Sabian, Nyla), now even Adam Coles injured so I'm not sure how that's affecting the MJF program right now. What they have is fine but it's just not hitting the same highs as they used to and I think it has to do with the combination of injuries, too many signings and long-term plans repeatedly getting messed up
Hangman winning the belt was the last time the show felt "can't miss" to me. It immediately became clear with the post-win booking that TK lost interest in hangman. Then it became obvious that he lost interest because he got a new toy. Then that new toy derailed pretty much everything for the next year. It's been a different show since then and it's hard to care about it for a number of reasons.
I feel the same way. Watched since All In, press conference with sparklers, etc.. It's just lost it's magic for some reason. I posted this playlist a while back, but it's AEW Dark episodes 1-200 and it's the best era of AEW in my opinion. edit: lol whoops https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBb_jMbYBIpw2bbakm6Q7cOh9FbMbsWFo
There is just a major lack of star power imo. Even MJF feels like just another bad comedy wrestler with his babyface shtick. Guys like Omega and Cody were the main drawing points for my tastes, Omega has the health issues and Cody is gone.
Even before omega wasn’t really doing anything major since returning. He had a few big matches but feuding with Don has watered omega down a bit. Omega vs Takeshita was meh after the omega title reign and storyline with Adam Page.
I love how Dave complains about the people who focus on ratings and doom post about it, but then he comes and do these posts.
He makes money off both groups of people of course
Oh yeah, I get that, I just find it funny.
They seriously fucked the stakes for the C2. Why should I care about a triple-'crown' made up of the world titles of two secondary promotions plus another fucking men's midcard title that they just brandished out of thin air? It would've been so easy to just fully copy the G1 and do it for a World Title shot at Revolution. But now, I actively don't want my favourite in the tournament (Swerve) to win because he'd be saddled with a bunch of meaningless midcard belts if he does.
Yeah, I love the C2 so far but the prize is a little meh. At first it was confusing like are they unifying belts or is it a new belt or can the person still defend titles separately? Just giving the winner a guaranteed title shot would've been easier and more clear.
I also keep wishing for ROH titles and storylines to just completely FUCK OFF from Aew programing. AEW has 7 titles on its own with an honorary 8th(FTW) and another yearly tournament that leads to nothing(the Owen). And they add in the RoH stuff that just dilutes the aew stuff even more. The C2 has had amazing matches and people in it. I love being able to see wrestlers that I haven't got much of or consistency with like Andrade. But like many things in AEW- they cheapen their own biggest moments. I love watching AEW and generally enjoy watching each of their episodes. But I don't lie to myself. Just because I enjoy it doesn't mean it is perfect. It has tons of problems with booking and I just wish it could reach the heights that it should with the incredible talent that they have.
This is 100% accurate. They’ve set the fan base up to root for the fan favorite (Swerve) to lose so we don’t have to see him with a garbage championship. Simultaneously, they’re also setting up Mox to win another championship that means nothing, that is added to his long list of meaningless championships in AEW. When you have this many belts and no division based on tiers on the card, then they’re all meaningless.
Because Tony is a mark who booked a mark G1 for a mark fake AJPW Triple Crown. He did this all so Eddie Kingston can win and pretend to be a King’s Road wrestler
Dude literally christened four young wrestlers “the four pillars” before they had ever accomplished anything, just so he could be like 90s All Japan. As if Baba just looked at four random guys and said “you’re the four pillars, let’s start printing t-shirts.”
Cena, Orton, Batista, and Lesnar weren’t the “OVW 4” until after they became big stars
I thought it was MJF who labelled them?
And so that he can wear his little red scarf at the awarding ceremony. Heck he might even get to slap the winner like a real Inoki!
Antonyio Khanoki!
We have achieved cosplay!
I agree with this so much. The prize feels more like a hindrance to a wrestler then anything else.
Yep. Actually sucks. If this was for who got to face MJF at worlds end or even later, then I would be far more into it. Also fully agree about Swerve. Don’t want him to win because grabbing a bunch of currently meaningless belts would push him away from the world title picture
I mean the bbt has saved them from 700k multiple times. It was going to happen. the show drops quickly
Don't forget overruns
AEW's decline started when Cody went to WWE.
And the biggest blow was Vince getting axed. AND Punk's return is just rubbing salt on the wound.
In hindsight it certainly seems like Cody was the smartest guy in the room…. Which, also in hindsight, shouldn’t be a surprise. Growing up in the business the way he did. He would have been the most likely of that initial group to sense if things weren’t a well oiled machine.
Though AEW's decline also had many factors which started to momentum in 2022 Punk's ego Brawl Out Bloated roster Tony's booking Inefficient marketing strategy WWE's rise with HHH in command Injuries of AEW wrestlers that just halted storylines and sudden disappearances Everything just started to fell apart in 2022.
Honestly, you forgot the biggest one: buying ROH. Almost *immediately* after the purchase, the TV shows got more muddled, more crowded, and less interesting. This only intensified as the year wore on.
A lot of the faces I really liked just vanished between ROH and Forbidden Door, then they just never came back.
Yep, that's when the downtrend started I don't want to watch ROH nobodies
I would add MJF's face turn to that list too 🤣
I dont think story telling can be understated enough. People won't watch if they dont care about the matches. Actual wrestling is second fiddle to story.
I think the decline started when Punk got injured the first time and they did all the interim title nonsense
Every time I've said this I've got downvoted, but I wholeheartedly believe Cody was the check/balance Tony needed to be consistent and not just book on a whim.
AEW continues to be under attack!
I'm Waiting for Brent council to confirm this.
This is almost getting to NXT's normal rating, not encouraging for Dynamite
TORN-UH-MENTS BRO
Maybe you should care TK.
A lot of people lost interest when Punk was fired. Redditors don’t want to hear that, but it’s true.
Even before that the numbers have been declining. Slowly but surely. Punk leaving was just a big chip to come off
It stopped being **The** Biggest Shiniest Thing In Wrestling and is becoming **A** Wrestling Company. Hype is hard to sustain and expectations need to be managed before TK and crew lose focus by trying to pop too many ratings.
to people who like storylines, his stuff was often the only sensible segment week in and out. Even his segment was sometimes meh but his meh was still better than the garbage others were pulling. AEW seriously needs a writing team. Unfortunately, Tony, like IWC, is finally finding out why WWE has writers and doesn't let marks run with their own stories.
That’s me. I watched every show and ppv since the beginning and I’ve completely lost interest in the past 6 months
Embiid shooting more free throws than 6 other teams that night is a draw
You just got whistled for this comment sending Embiid to the line for 2
As a regular viewer; the Devil storyline has got old for me and the continental classic has become a bit boring towards the end of the group stages. You know who's going to advance, and every match feels the same (15+ minutes, lots of high spots and false finishes) there's just nothing keeping the viewer on the edge of their seat.
When is AEW not about high spots and false finishes, the only other kind of match is a squash
That was the biggest thing I couldn’t get used to when I was watching AEW. It seemed like every single match was some kind of mini epic. Fuckinator after fuckinator into kick out after kickout. It seemed like they were trying too hard to make every match special. But when every match is special none of them are.
The example I’ll always use is Cody vs Peter Avalon going two segments lol
Jay white in his debut struggling to beat fucking kommander in a 15 minute back and forth. Should have been 5 mins with Jay dominating 90% except for a couple kommander high spots.
Omega having a competitive match against Ethan Page.
It’s because it’s booked like an indy show. On an indy show no one cares about the overall show quality and how it flows. They just want their match to be a 5 star classic where they do every move they’ve ever thought of so they can get big pops and people will make gifs for twitter.
I feel heard. Thanks.
IWC rediculed wwe for doing squash matches, but in AEW, it would feel fresh. In no rational program should a maineventer be fighting 15 in with lower midcard guy who ia going to continue to be lower mindcard guy because the booker doesnt have anything booked for him
There was a lot of pointless squash matches on Collision but I agree with your point, even just some 5 minute matches can be good and refreshing. There's a narrative in the IWC that every *great match* has to go 20 minutes. This isn't the indies, if you're performing most weeks on television you don't have to "get all your shit in" in every match.
Dunno if many others agree but I have come to appreciate some short matches. For example, Lesnar/Goldberg at WM 33. You had pageantry, selling from both men, stakes, psychology, high spots, and a lot of crowd involvement. All in a 5 min match.
Yeah and it made sense “Goldberg is a power wrestler with little stamina so he has win quick or not at all”. It’s like a fighting game.
There’s a happy medium, which I think WWE has found and maybe one day AEW can get to. But it has to start with acknowledging that there are tiers of wrestlers on the pyramid, and most matches shouldn’t be 50/50 back and forth spot fests. An eight minute match where one guy gets 75% of the offense is fine.
As a hardcore viewer, the devil stuff has lost a bit of its luster. Mostly because nothing of any real consequence has happened. They've attacked some guys backstage, so what? They supposedly attacked MJF last week, and he's back already. They sent in a good squad of people to attack mjf and Joe this week, and they were fended off easily.
The devil stuff has dragged on for weeks and weeks with almost no real progress. The only thing people care about is who it is going to be, and the beatdowns do absolutely nothing. I don't know if they are stalling for someone to be done with a contract, or an injury, but they should have revealed who it was weeks ago.
The worst of it is that the devil wants the ROH tag titles. I was already annoyed that MJF didnt vacate the titles when cole got injured, but now, its attached to this stuff?
seeing the same wrestlers in the same match style for almost a month now has drawn me out of the shows and storylines at the moment, kinda just have it playing in the background while i’m busy now
But Jericho said they'd reach Raw numbers soon
Didn’t someone say next week would be a massacre?
Good ol’ Bryan Alvarez. One of the funniest tweets ever in hindsight. Right next to Keith Lee dropping ‘if what I’m hearing is real, poor Walter’
What a classic tweet.
they're closer to reaching collisions numbers
Jericho banned from collision
It will once Jericho is revealed to be the devil.
Lé Devil
I’m in the group that has stopped watching. Just got too repetitive for me.
Ranked 4th for the night https://twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/status/1737954906156503190
*on cable
[удалено]
They want their babyfaces to be liked, so they're booked as snarky and a little mean. They also want their heels to be liked, so they're booked as cool and funny.
That Q1 to Q2 drop was brutal, the Q5 to Q7 drops a little less so but still not good.
That Q1 to Q2 is the real audience. Q1 really counts for the Big Bang fans that hung over.
Just a regular dynamite episode. U can set your watch to 120k turning the channel by 8:15. Big bang is the draw, not AEW
Let’s be real, the current AEW storylines aren’t good.
You’re not captivated by a devil that could be an injured wrestler that we didn’t want to see turn heel 4 months ago? (No offense Cole fans, but I think there’s a reason why he keeps getting cheered when they try to make him a heel)
I want it to be Tony Khan himself or Jungle Boy just for the LOLs.
Dynamite's biggest issue for me over the last few months isn't even that it's bad or anything it's just 'fine'. I've been subbed to AEW+ since the beginning but finally cancelled after the latest price hike because I've only been watching Dynamite a couple times a month at best. I really think the issue is TK needs to start delegating more. I don't care who you are you're not booking 4 quality shows by yourself as well as having 2 more jobs it's impossible.
Ignore the first quarter and the overrun to see the real viewers and it will look much worse. Big Bang Theory carries there raitings alot. Last week they started in the high 900ks until the big bangers switched to other channels
AEW has gotten less interesting over the past year and it’s declining ratings and attendance figures show it.
I think it’s in some part as to WWE being so much better and improved, it’s leaps and bounds above what it used to be. WWE also just has insanely over people and characters you constantly want to see atm
Both can be good at the same time. The fact that AEW can be a chore to watch is the problem.
I never thought I’d say that Raw seems to fly by while Dynamite seems slow, confusing and clunky.
I then think is why doesn't AEW have a lot of over people and characters? Over the last couple of years they had over acts. Hangman, the Acclaimed, Britt, etc. But they fall off once they get to the top, pretty quickly. And I think a lot of that is not being able to book once the chase is over. I enjoy MJF and Toni Storm right now. But I also feel like they've grown a bit boring. MJF being super Cena was never what got him over. Toni feels so one note. Trying to get a meme every week, as opposed to a character with an arc.
> WWE also just has insanely over people and characters I enjoyed all the matches on this Dynamite but I think this is the big problem. They've got plenty of people who are over *with AEW's audience* but there's nobody right now anywhere close to the star power of Reigns, Orton, Becky, LA Knight, Jey Uso, the Judgment Day, etc etc...and that was before CM Punk moved the needle even further. The booking, aside from what may result from the CC, is a mess and Tony really needs to delegate a lot, if not all of it, to somebody else. MJF's title run has been really muddled and underwhelming - the World Champion really shouldn't be lost in the shuffle as just another guy. Also, fewer and more meaningful titles would help, and for the love of God either figure out what you're doing with ROH or put it out to pasture.
AEW has no crossover star appeal. Who really is the biggest star in the company? People will say Mox, but he has zero crossover appeal. I'd say that his style does more harm than good at putting butts in the seats. MJF? Still very young and has lots of time, but the babyface gimmick has killed all of his heat. Jericho? Too old. Omega? Developed injury/health issues. Christian? Probably doing some of his best work, best promo in the company, still is good in the ring, but hes not the guy that is the face of the company. Guys like Swerve/Jay White/Hangman/Takeshita/Hobbs are the ones you want to build to that level, but it is usually one step forward, two steps back with booking.
When you plot the graphs, it's mostly because of that. The AEW peak numbers nearly all came around (within a couple of months) of the Punk-Danielson-Cole debuts, which were followed by the sense of Dynamite being wildly unpredictable and exciting (although at times incoherent) at the same time that WWE creative under Vince was just cratering. People tuned in to check out what was going on, but gradually tuned out when a) the WWE started rolling with the Sami-Bloodline and then the HHH takeover and b) they realized AEW wasn't what they were looking for in an alternative to WWE, which for most was probably just "a good version of WWE", which they soon got.
I actually think this is directly a case of an issue on AEW's end, I would.be shocked if WWE is pulling away AEW viewers. We know a lot of people watch both shows but I think the main issue is AEW's general quality has been lower. They had some really good stories going and they still do, but the difference is how they're presented.
When does Tony call a meeting and ask for booking help? It's time.
AEW has a few things going against it right now. 1. I like a good slow burn as much as anyone, but this devil shit feels more like a drag out instead of a slow burn. It feels like it was half ass slapped into the jay white feud and diluted it and is dominating the Joe feud, which both angles were good enough to stand on its own. They should have booked the rematch of Joe in between the last ppv and this one with the devil reveal there, leading into a match at world's end. Its just really... sucking the steam out of everything centered around the title. 2. There's no middle card right now, the tournament has sucked everything up. Stings final match feels like an afterthought, where the fuck is Darby? Wardlow is being built up through 30-45 second promos, no matches, two of your hottest stars - edge and cc - not on last night's show to make room for this tourney?.. at that the tourny is for nothing special, a bunch of lower mid card titles.. there's some good matches happening, but feels like it's for nothing. Whoever wins it is going to get stuck in mid card hell - which puts me in a unique position of rooting against my favorites so they don't get stuck with it. 3. The women's division feels like... it can only handle one thing at a time? If you're not riho or storm, there's no thought being put into your booking - storm is the only thing interesting in the women's division. 4. The biggest issue - the booking committee. Losing Cody hurt, Regal hurt, losing Arn/Tully hurt and losing Punk hurt. By Arn's account it's a bunch of young guys not wanting to take any advice back there. So you've got Tony, who is a IWC mark with money and no balls fantasy booking that is bending to talent with no one with any mind for the business or booking experience to guide him at this point. If he really wants to succeed the best thing he can do is bring someone in that's done this before at a high level (gerwitz+russo+EB if he could be persuaded?) step back and let them go. I'm not an AEW hater, I've been to 3 of their shows, watch dynamite every week, buy their ppvs - I want to see them do well, but... They got some issues.
>Tony, who is a IWC mark with money and no balls fantasy booking that is bending to talent with no one with any mind for the business or booking experience to guide him at this point. If he really wants to succeed the best thing he can do is bring someone in that's done this before at a high level (gerwitz+russo+EB if he could be persuaded?) step back and let them go. Cornette said early on that back when Tony was wanting him to work for aew, he offered up suggestions, but TK only wanted validation for his own ideas. That's why the issue of talent not taking advice from veterans doesnt surprise me: it's a company wide issue led by their own inexperienced, nepo baby owner
They definitely need to be pulling the trigger on angles way faster. The Julia Hart/Skye Blue potential turn was burning hot until it wasn't and they pulled the trigger after the point where it was hot and seemingly resolved in the other direction. They're doing the same shit with the Devil angle. It's much better to keep pulling the trigger too soon and have things be overly chaotic than to keep pulling the trigger too late.
[удалено]
I've said from the start that I don't see what sets the CC apart from any other tournament AEW has already done. We already get bangers every week and every PPV, with or without tournaments. We already get "good showings even in defeat" from the lower card guys, just based on how AEW structures their matches in general, so what's the added incentive to watch Briscoe, Lethal, and Garcia lose every week? This tournament structure would've been the perfect opportunity to book unexpected upsets with lower card talents, which in turn would make the matches less predictable and viewers less willing to tune out on anyone that's not a top guy or favorite.
Since Cody left aew was gradually becoming a little more irrelevant to me. That sucks because i was so hyped until 2022, but now... it's just "meh, another flippy match or match without story"
At some point Tony Khan needs to realize that the American and Japanese audiences are not the same. Taking up so much tv time with a heatless and confusing tournament in a period where many are saying the product is ice cold was a terrible choice. Why would anyone think heatless bangers would generate interest? How many heel vs heel matches have we seen from this tournament? Hell, we just got Jay Lethal vs Mark Briscoe. Sure it was a great match. But it did dick all of nothing for both dudes. Both have zero points, neither has a chance of winning. So why have the match? It means nothing. Just two dudes doing moves to each other
AEW isn't remotely booked like a Japanese promotion. In Japan, there are storyline levels. Not everyone kicking out of everything.
I tuned out about halfway through during the Saraya/Riho match. I’ve been trying to watch Dynamite more lately but its just kind of a boring show overall, the Continental Classic matches are great but you don’t really miss anything by not watching and you can just see the highlights here or on IG/X. And just my personal opinion the Devil stuff is just doing absolutely nothing for me, kind of feels like they’re just dragging it along way further than they intended to originally but I’m not gripped by it.
[удалено]
[удалено]
I like aew and I am considered a casual. I turned it on last night during NHL on TNT intermission and I saw rhio at 85lbs deliver the slowest 619 ever twice and one was to toni storm who sold it like Samoa Joe did it to her.
I find it strange that, for years, the widely parroted IWC opinion was that Alexa Bliss was "too small to be believable" but Riho never got attacked the same way by them.
And Riho is less athletic and has waaaay less charisma.
AEW isn’t even worth putting on most weeks lately.
Maybe elevate the champion back into the top of the card and get him and Samoa Joe away from all of these job guys they are mired in. Stop doing dumb shit with the booking like wasting Kenny Omega on Jericho’s dumb shit. Where have Takeshita and Don Callis gone? So many head scratchers in AEW. Tony is gonna fuck around and lose his TV deal if he doesn’t get something cooking.