https://x.com/wrestlenomics/status/1721916455115956383?s=46&t=JWp1FDcxOniaaPmFyvmyrg
Brutal. AEW is ice cold and they do themselves no favours by the way they promote stuff for Collision. It’s full of ROH crap and squash matches. I wonder how long the show lasts.
It’s a bit disingenuous not to consider the WWE Crown Jewel the same day.
AEW has a big Wed show and usually wed holds up well. Collision lost its identify with Punk leaving and it’s struggling to find it. Tony needs a direction for the show that makes you tune in.
Maybe it’s built around the NA title and tag titles? Maybe around the women’s title?
Maybe it’s less skits and more action and vice versa?
It needs something to make it stand out. Otherwise AEW fans already have Wed
Yup no need to overreact. Collison is slowly finding its legs and identity.
Big three way this week.
Meanwhile Dynamite is very stacked this week with a nice brief.
They are usually hitting about 500K on weekends when there isn’t a WWE PPV (and still against college football). Which I long said was where it would likely settle.
It’s clear there are 150-200K cross over WWE viewers who, in the case for a PPV earlier in the day, just are wrestled out.
What’s the identity? Punk has been gone for two months and the show has dropped in quality a lot. What even are the top programs or stories on Collision?
The tag titles are now undervalued to the lowest they’ve ever been. There are way too many factions doing nothing. Then you get one woman’s match, ROH crap and a few squashes.
No hook at all.
Look at the demo. That is Rampage-like. I don’t think it’s ever been that low. WWE show or not, that is alarming.
I’m not going to argue that Collison had the best line-up last weekend.
However, they are definitely trying to develop and push certain talents on Saturday to get their identity tied to Collison.
Bryan’s injury obviously changed his course. But BCC definitely seems to be part of Collison more often than not.
Obviously there is work to be done - and work to be done all across AEW right now. But I don’t think it’s time to write the show off yet.
Rampage seems to be home for experimenting - and has delivered some great stuff lately. Dynamite will always be the A-show. Collision is finding its identity. But I do believe they’ve definitely continued to try and make a concentrated effort to be different than the other programming.
Collison I feel like will have more Lucha and other type stars on it. Maybe more focus on tags. Would like to see more women.
Give it time guys. They lost Punk and their roster is depleted with injuries.
I think about myself, I don’t watch Collision. I think the only thing that would make me actually watch would be a hard roster split. If they divided the roster in half, I would make a point to watch because I would feel its the only place I could see certain talent.
It’s been two months and the only significant thing that’s happened has been the MJF/Omega match. It’s just not a priority for them, so why should I as a viewer care?
I get my fill from Dynamite. They give me no reason to care about Saturday
Do you also watch WWE?
If so, of course you have to drop something…it’s way too much to watch it all.
I just watch AEW and Collision is good. It’s not always great, I may do something while I’m watching but it’s a good show.
There’s loads going on, maybe it’s not the greatest stories of all time but I’m keen to know where HOB is going, wheat Rush will do, and the ROH stuff doesn’t bother me. I hate the tag titles jumping around but hopefully that will stop now.
As someone else said there’s 200k fans who seem to prioritise WWE and that’s expected. It’s the top dog, AEW has been around a fraction of the time and it’s trying to grow while television audiences are shrinking. I don’t think this is all a major worry
I don’t think they have to “worry” necessarily, however there has definitely been a stop in momentum. From 2019-2021 AEW was growing at a rapid rate, its truly the most impressive rise of a wrestling promotion I have ever seen. However, since All Out 2021 which in hindsight felt like their peak in terms of buzz, the growth has seemed to stop all together.
Now to be fair, some of it is out of their control. When they formed, they tied their identity to being very anti/opposite/an alternative to the Vince McMahon led WWE, and when Vince stepped down from creative I think a lot of those fans who jumped to AEW reverted back to WWE when Hunter took over.
I think Tony needs to re-assess and make some changes and there is no reason why they can’t continue to grow, and I think they will. TV ratings isnt so much what I would be concerned about, its the attendance figures that would concern me.
I don’t think many people watch a Saturday night show religiously live.
It’s a bad night for sure. Sometimes I’m home with the kids. Other times I’m not. I imagine that’s the case for everyone
100%…the time slot sucks. Especially with the main demo that they target.
There are just way more things to do and watch than more wrestling on a Saturday night. Especially when they don’t treat it like a big deal. I haven’t watched Collision for months and have missed nothing
When a promotion gets big enough to have a “b show”… that show will eventually suck. I feel like we have enough historical evidence at this point to say that. Wrestling on TV is meant to be a weekly, if not monthly, endeavor.
But on the flipside, good on any promotion that is large enough to have a “b show”. Somebody is paying you, and you don’t even have to give them your best product. Bravo.
While I don’t think AEW has anything to worry about in terms of being in trouble financially or being dropped. There certainly needs to be an acceptance that things need to improve (or at the very least, hold) on both ratings and ticket sales fronts.
I think I recall this happening with WWE network as well. There’s a ceiling and however hard they try they just can’t keep growing. It’s probably why WWE concentrate on kids as that’s the only way they can grow their audience but sadly history will show most will drop off eventually and just losers like us will be left …. Only messing.
Attendance figures are an issue but again I understand. I’m not sure about All In 2024 as it’ll cost me at least £300-400 when I include travel and accommodation and I’m just not sure I wanna she’ll that again just yet
In fairness, the WWE period you are talking about when it comes to network numbers hitting a bit of a wall came during the Vince creative era where fans were dropping like flys. The fact that they were able to retain anyone was was mainly because of branding and they did have good PLE’s for the most part, but man were those weekly TV shows hard to watch unless you Fast Forwarded through ALOT.
I hear ya with All In. I think an event like that, especially if its overseas will do well because the product is good, and seeing an event that big is a spectacle. But they need to work on the weekly TV attendance numbers. It may not even be an issue with creative, it could easily be an issue with Marketing, with PR, I don’t know. Its not like AEW is WCW and the product is shit, its a good show, but there is something missing that was there a couple years ago. I do think they will rebound, but the brain trust need to put their heads together and figure it out what that spark is.
If you’re asking me what I think it is, I think mainly a combination of four things, and I don’t really think creative for the most part is one of them.
Overexposure, 5 hours is just less “must see” then to 2.
It’s not “new” anymore. You are a perfect example, you made a point to see the first show in the UK, the average fan won’t have the exact same level of motivation to see the 2nd show as they were the first time the product came around (same issue happed with UFC years ago) as the first.
Regardless of who s at fault, sadly the CM Punk bullshit did turn off some fans.
WWE is hot right now, there is only so much wrestling people want to watch and when WWE is hot, it will hurt AEW. When WWE is cold, it will help AEW. Is what it is.
