Copy WCW??
By Scott Keith on 22 August 2024
Almost all WCW shows during the late years show 5K to 10K attendance that is majority freebies. Should AEW be copying that model while the product struggles to sell tickets? I'd argue the TV audience and even wrestlers would benefit by having more people in the building.
It's not usually that simple. Also it sets a bad precedent where you increase visual attendance in the short term, but train the audience that tickets aren't worth buying for the shows and then you end up with even bigger collapsing numbers in the long run. WWF went through the same thing in the 90s and during the later Vince era and it took them a long time to rebuild their numbers in each case. Really what they need is for the product to be hot again so that people will want to pay for it, because that will quickly turn things around for the houses. It's been shown time and time again. The bigger problem remains that their audience is changing to something else because WWE is syphoning off the fans that only left because they were sick of Vince McMahon's booking, and AEW hasn't yet figured out who's left and how to give them something they want.
