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I keep hearing that AEW is doing stuff like working with Mike Tyson, Sting, and now Shaq to get their product to the "next level" of viewership, break a million viewers regularly. I think that's kind of missing the point. TIME TO RAMBLE ON https://TWITTER.COM /1
A big celeb or name from the past is only going to bump up your ratings long term if fans like the rest of your product. People might tune in a couple times for Shaq or Sting, they're not watching two hours a week forever for them.
The two most successful/famous celeb stunts in modern wrestling are Mr.T in the 80s and Tyson in the 90s. Both times, the promotion they were appearing for was in the midst of a radical reinvention and had a new ascending star,
In each case, the celeb was the last push to an already rising product. It got lapsed/new fans to tune in, and when they did, they got hooked on the fresh new product and big new star and stayed long after the celeb they tuned in for left.
I like AEW's product a fair bit. Not love, but like. But it's dirty little secret is that it's not very different the last 25 years of major US wrestling. It's a pretty darn good version of it, but it's a version of it.
AEW's look, production, format are all slight variations on the same late 90s wrestling look and model we've had forever. Again, it's all done pretty well, but it's all variations on late 90s WCW/WWE, just like modern WWE is, like Impact is, etc.
AEW has refined their TV in the last year, but its format is largely unchanged. Everything they're doing with these big guest stars suggests they think they've got the right product, people just don't know it exists/haven't tried it.
The problem is we have proof that ain't the case. Week one of AEW, they drew 1.4 million viewers. By week four they had lost about a third of that audience. In over a year they've never come close to getting back there.
Their ratings are still very good by 2020 cable standards, but if we're talking about growth, 1.4 million people were willing to try a brand new 2 hour wrestling show and within a month a third of them bounced off of it.
AEW has been around for over a year, they've had plenty of talk and advertising. I have a hard time believing that the reason that they're not breaking a million is people don't know what it is.
If anything ratings have shown us that AEW's biggest weakness is with older fans, the people that would come back for Sting or Tyson or whoever. They either already still like WWE or had their fill of wrestling in the late 90s. A better version of it isn't enticing them.
All I know is the last two major growth periods for wrestling were sparked by dramatic reinventions of an entire product. Not by a good version of what's been around for decades.
Ironically, I think a weakness of AEW is their management has too MUCH respect for wrestling. Vince in the 80s, Bischoff in the 90s, they had this arrogant assholish disregard for what had come before, which made it easy for them to abandon large parts of it and try new things.
Vince McMahon was ashamed of wrestling and their image, Bischoff was embarrassed by WCW's existing fanbase. Tony Khan is a well-schooled wrestling nerd who clearly has a lot of passion and respect for its history. Maybe too much!
80s WWF and 90s WCW screamed "I fucking hate what's been going on and I'm going to remake it in my image". AEW feels like people who loved 1997 remaking that the best they can.
So if AEW just wants Shaq or Sting or whoever to pop a PPV buyrate and sell some t-shirts, great. If they honestly think that any new viewers that tune in for them will become lifers in great numbers, I think they're in for disappointment.
Also, just to be clear, this same spiel also applies to WWE/Impact/ROH as much as AEW. They're all running slight variations of the same theme and have been for years and years.
