I think a surprise showing up unannounced would always have been better no matter who it was. With a lead in hyping it up unless you are signing a huge A list name that would totally shock people it is better to leave it as a total surprise. It is the same problem WWE runs into with “mystery” tag partners your hoping for like the Rock to show up but instead it is Breezango. Like if the tease for Revolution ended up being say John Cena people would have lost their minds because no one would ever believe it could happen, Cristian just isn’t on that level. He might have been a bit more of a shock as well if he hadn’t just been on the rumble and this was his return after he was supposedly never working again. Still probably not a big enough name but at least it might shock people.
It’s the equivalent of having a quarterback who literally cannot throw. Think ppl will make a big deal of it
Yeah I mean they did Mox unannounced and Sting and that was huge.
Even Christian said on the podcast that he thought it would be unannounced. He knew quickly that this would be a disappointment at the level they hyped it.
I will give them the benefit of the doubt. Tony was an idiot at the press conference. Clearly they overhyped and didn’t deliver this time. Once or twice a year is fine it happens. If this becomes a pattern they will turn off fans and they only have 740k to start not 5 million like WWE had. So the leash is short. I think they will reign it in
The strange thing for me is I’m not sure hyping it for PPV helps in anyway. Is there anyone who is paying $60 for the PPV because of a tease of someone showing up? Whereas if surprises happen I think people are more likely to buy future shows because they want to be live to see what will happen.
If they did An announcement for his arrival on dynamite maybe people would tune in for free to see who it was. They would still have been disappointed in this case but at least I see a reason.
Had Paul Wight or Christian shown up unannounced, people would have reacted in more positively to both additions.
The tweet announcement for Wight was odd… But I guess it was to try let people know he was first and foremost coming in as a commentator?
But the Christian hype, as I’m sure they’re realizing now, was a bad way to go.
Had he just shown up on Dynamite this week and did the exact same segment with Kenny, without the entire previous seven days of discussion around him - it would have felt like a major event.
Yeah man, someone on this very forum.
Yeah and also one of Christians strengths (especially as a 47yr old who hasn’t wrestled in years) is his mic skills.
If he interrupts Kenny and grabs the mic and drops a bomb promo the place and internet would have been very positive on the whole thing. Imagine him saying he’s going to win this title and the who knows - Kenny seems to be all about unfying titles so maybe he will do the same as he knows a guy who will be champions very soon. Tons of great stuff to build interest are possible.
Apparently quite a lot of people bought the PPV because of the tease.
I’m (not) looking forward to hearing how these numbers actually mean that Tony Khan is a serial killer who claps when the airplane lands.
Always just surprises me. I don’t think there is any surprise that would make me buy a show if I wasn’t already going to do so. But I guess for people maybe these things are a big deal.
Don’t forget many other factors
-was on a Sunday
-hyped main event stip
-Stings first match in years
Lots of things in addition to the Christian surprise to consider.
As Alex noted there is no way of knowing how much of that was additional buys to check out the surprise and how many would have bought it regardless because of the other things on the show.
I think what is forgotten in the frequent “AEW has succeeded/failed because they did X” takes (not suggesting that you’re doing this!) is that AEW are heavy into analytics. AEW is also two years old, so the data they have is still growing. My theory is that they are running a lot of experiments right now to see what data comes back - everything from the kind of talent shown, to the types of matches, to segment order, to platform or day of week. Obviously this can’t be done in a total bubble, if the creative is bad then then the data is useless. But it wouldn’t shock me in two years from now if something like the use of legends or gimmick matches are either emphasized or de-emphasized based on what the spreadsheets have said.
Andrade would be a better signing than Christian. Genuine cock up by WWE if he goes
Yep, I was on the fence and that was what tipped the scale for me.
Just to follow up with my previous message, it’s not that I had zero interest and this announcement made me want to buy.
I had moderate interest and was going back and forth, then after speculating all day on the board, the intrigue got to me and I ended up buying last minute.
The Sunday effect is also more subtle but real.
Everyone thinks UFc and boxing are Saturday but they only start on the East coast after 10pm and often the main event after midnight. Doesn’t exactly ruin your Saturday night.
When an AEW PPV goes on Saturday at 730 vs Sunday I can tell you it makes a difference sometimes. Twice I’ve had dinner plans on Saturday so not ordered it whereas I would haven been fine on a Sunday evening or for UFC be able to still enjoy Saturday out for dinner and come in time to catch the main fights
With COVID I cannot imagine there would be a difference between Saturday and Sunday PPV buys. If anything Sunday is worse since people have to work so International buys might be down.
I would agree however it seems a lot of the US is opening up so the effect may return
This is true as well. I did say the surprise was what tipped the scale, but if it was just a regular PPV and there was no crazy main event or Sting match, I probably wouldn’t have gotten it.
Well sure hyping special things makes people want to buy. I just think that if you semi-routinely had big surprises at your PPVs unannounced people would be compelled to buy them to see what would happen this time. Now big debuts cannot happen all the time, but if it happened once a year give or take you would never know when it could happen. For AEW lately there has been more surprises on TV than PPV so maybe that is where they want to get more attention.