Man the bravado has really taken a hit over here on the blog and within the IWC regarding the AEW world domination tour. A couple weeks ago it was the beginning of the end for WWE, Raw was gonna get destroyed in the demos by BD vs Omega and never look back, it's over for WWE. And I am sure you will act like no one said that, AEW lives rent free, blah blah blah. But it was definitely a thing that was happening, the comment section of any review were filled with AEW stans ready to dance on WWE's grave. But now with ratings out its a different tune.
My question is what do you think they could have done differently? Yes I know they are fine and TNT is happy, they are only a 2 year old company. But they had a massive amount of eyes on them the last 6 weeks and right now it doesn't look like they will get much long term growth out if. Rampage is getting worse ratings than NXT. Over 2 million people are watching smackdown at 9:59 pm, why aren't half of them tuning to TNT and watching one more hour of wrestling? And the rating for Dynamite are pretty much what they were once crowds came back so they lost the Punk/Bryan pop. I think they blew it by not really loading up those early cards with great matches/angles and just thinking the new debuts would be enough.
I also think alot of that bravado turned people off. AEW went from being this underdog company to very egotistical quickly, with a rabid fan base that will not except any criticism. They should of just worried about themselves but instead it's the constant shots at WWE. It's always no one in wwe locker room has the heart like AEW does, 90% of wwe roster wants to be in AEW, we don't need a performance center, and my personal favorite from TK this week, you avoid becoming WWE by only signing the best wrestlers. So 44 year old Bobby Fish is one of the best wrestlers out there? And it's a bad thing to have a global stranglehold on the wrestling business were you are getting billion dollar deals left and right?
I think they also just assume casual fans will tune in for great wrestling every week and this is proving they won't. Say what you will about terrible WWE writers but I remember the trainwreck Lana/Bobby wedding more than I have many of the great matches I have seen the last couple years. Even with CM punk it's his pipebomb promo or awesome angle with Cena always mentioned. And Bryan has been the biggest draw when he has been involved in a solid storyline vs just great matches. B+ player, Team Hell No skits, the eco champion, this stuff drew as much or more than any of his matches. I just don't get enough of that with AEW and I think that hurts them. But it's OK because Uncle Dave said it's MLBs fault the ratings were down, even though MNF wasn't a good excuse when WWE loss due to a game they just found out was undercounted by like 1.5 million viewers.
Uh huh.