I’m not arguing that this crap doesnt exist, what I’m arguing is that EVERYTHING negative exists on Twitter. I could cure a damn vaccine for cancer that would cure all cancer with one single drop, and some idiot would say something negative. You can’t judge real life based on a fake social media platform where @WWEROCKS4LIFE says something stupid. Its one thing when you read something someone says as themselves, its another when its people under fake names likely just trolling for the sake of trolling.
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How did you find my burner?!
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Personal taste but I’ll take what we got tonight from MJF over Asuka spitting up blue liquid, pointing at signs, lifting titles and Cody crying again about his dad.
All it takes is one money promo from MJF and he always delivers.
This is it isn’t it.
We just like different things and we’ll never all agree.
I’ll argue to the hills that Man City don’t play great exciting football. I have 3 mates who agree, I have 3 who couldn’t disagree more and think theyre the greatest team in the world.
I want to care about WWE and enjoy it but seeing Nikki Ash being weird for no apparent reason, seeing people spitting up ‘gloop’, or something supernatural just doesnt work outside of the Undertaker. I don’t mind MJFs rubbish trials, it does get a bit silly when Jerico does them as well but when we get a Rush or Garcia match out of it - ill take it. mainly coz we only see then in the rung maybe once a month which is great.
lol its not really fair to use MJF as your AEW comparable and then Nikki Cross (she hasn’t gone by Ash in a long time) as your WWE comparable. MJF is their World Champion and one of the top acts in wrestling, if you are going to compare him to something in WWE it really should be the Bloodline which is the top act in WWE. If you compare him to to the people on the very bottom of the card its not going to look great. It’s like saying “Ill take the Bloodline and the Sami Zayn story over seeing guys like Big Bill & Satnam Singh”. Obviously this wouldbt be a fair thing to say either.
I think many are conflating “hot product” with personal preference. IMO, a hot product is one that is doing well and has alot of buzz and chatter about it. For example, when AEW started, it no doubt had a ton of buzz, the night of All Out 2021, AEW’s buzz was as hot as ever. Once Cody jumped, the momentum just shifted. Does it mean the WWE product is “better”? No, outside of the Bloodline I would agree that most of AEW’s acts are greater then WWE, but ever since the ugly Punk/Bucks incident and the the Bloodline storyline going to new heights with Sami, there is no doubt WWE has been “hotter”. Again, that DOES NOT mean WWE has been better.
I didn’t mean to compare them. I only mentioned MJF as Alex had done.
I mentioned Nikki as she seems decent but just gets all these silly gimmicks, let the woman wrestle.
AEW was definitely “hotter” then it is now but I think the hype will increase again. Hopefully we’ll get some good matches at Forbidden door this year, maybe they’ll be a CMPunk return and everything will seem great again.
I think they’ve just been damaged by the silly amount of injuries and stupid stuff outside of the ring which hopefully they’re getting a hand of now
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Oh of course it will. All this is cyclical, and what’s cold now will be hot down the road and vice versa.
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Everyone is going to give this reason or that reason why this or that show is hotter. This is what I see with my own eyes…
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WWE has a regular TV audience of around 1.6-1.8 million people
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That rating will go up when there is an interesting story(Bloodline/Sami) to maybe a 2.5 max and because they dont get those ratings often anymore, people seem to think that is hot.
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In arena, unless they are somewhere like Montreal, the WWE product(outside of the Bloodline story or a big star appearing) is as lifeless as being at a funeral and is the furthest thing from being hot.
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AEW in arena, is the much hotter product. You watch that show and it is constantly feeling like a super hot, party atmosphere.
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AEW is severely lacking in strong stories and it is preventing them from climbing in the ratings.
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The AEW fanbase is the worst in wrestling. Unless the product is absolutely red hot, they are super quick to turn on the company and trash it, more than any other fan base and all of them are quick to point out, that they have been fans since the press conference, when they do the trashing.
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This is about the most accurate and fair take I’ve seen.
WWE has nostalgic appeal. I don’t watch it most of the time. But I know the big stars from years ago and the PPVs generally deliver in terms of a few good matches so I tune in and out. The BL stuff has been more engaging than anything in years.
But yes - the shows outside of Montreal or Toronto or London etc all lack buzz with the live crowd. Because really - why does anyone care about Baron Corbin or The Miz?
AEW by nature of being new can’t really do that. It can bring in talent but that’s going to be harder to do than just bring back Cena or something. At present they don’t have a killer storyline or anything.
At its inception the goal was to be different to WWE - a more indy style high workrate and less storyline driven product.
I thought it would be NJPW in the US, which it wasnt bc of the goofiness and other things, but it’s essentially pretty close to the initial vision.
I suspect they will retain the core audience well because it still delivers on what it set out to do. However if they want to recruit new fans and bring over some WWE ones they likely need to not hold as strongly to the initial vision and incorporate some more storyline type elements that WWE uses to hook fans.
In the end the core audience for Dynamite and the PPVs still watch and will continue to watch because it delivers what those fans want. That’s the most important part to longevity. Secondary is growing that audience. Primary is not losing it.
That being said Rampage is a different story - I don’t think even most hardcore fans tune into that with regularity. It needs a rethink and relaunch in terms of identity. Right now it’s on par with power slap
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I’m going to use terms that some people don’t like here, but it’s the easiest way to explain it. AEW has turned the “smarks” into their “marks”. Instead of playing to the people who want to see Hulk Hogan squash the foreign baddie, they play to the people who want references to FMW and guys getting insulted for their former gimmicks or for real world stuff. They act like they’re tough to impress, but will buy every PPV, streaming service and t-shirt that you put in front of them… bitching all the while.
You make a lot of good points, but I really do think you are overlooking the archetypes of fans in the arena as you bring up this point a lot. You just aren’t going to get the same reaction out of a family of four that includes a 45 year old mom and dad with their 6 and 8 year old as you are out of four 25 year old’s four beers deep. Now of course not every fan is a parent/child at a WWE show and not every fan is a 25 year old at an AEW show, but there are way more families at WWE shows and the ratio of families to 20 somethings is much great at a WWE show. This is a huge reason as to why an AEW show feels more like a party atmosphere. I would bring my child to a WWE show, I would never bring my child to an AEW show. On my own, I would choose a Dynamite over a Raw every time.
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Yup this is so true.
If you gear a show towards a younger male demo, it will be louder. Less families less women less older people means more noise.
When I can’t find friends to go to a Wrestling event, I tend to take my wife. She’s been to WWE shows AEW and NXT. She is not a fan, but knows some of the older wrestlers and some of the Canadian stars and MMA stars.
Without a doubt the place she felt the most uncomfortable was when we went to ARW in Chicago. The people around her were highly aggressive males and a lot of them were quite frankly, making her feel uncomfortable, as well as another woman that was sitting there. It was your typical rowdy behaviour with a flavour of incel thrown in. I get it - there are not that many women at those shows who don’t look like they’re hard-core into wrestling. Conversely, she sat in the WWE show front row and felt perfectly fine because there’s other women around and nobody’s really acting that way. This could be a one off and I’m not saying this is representative of every crowd, but in general, it’s more hard-core male-dominated audience that’s going to be louder.
Yes, if I’m going on my own , I agree it would be more fun to be part of that AEW audience. If I’m taking kids and my wife, I would rather go to something that’s not as polarizing. For instance, that WWE show in Montreal, even though it was loud wouldn’t be as hard core male demographic as a typical AEW, sure which would be ideal.
For all of the hot and fun and crazy crowds that ECW had there is an ultimate reason that it never grew beyond that size. If you’re alienating women and alienating children, there’s a limit to how big you can get. So yes, the typical AEW audience on average because it’s more young males will be louder. However, that doesn’t mean that WWE audience can’t be better as we saw this weekend
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May we just all agree that ‘hot’ constitutes great talent plus great long term storytelling equals when the product finds its way into the mainstream consciousness? Everything else is reality minutiae. Not that there’s anything wrong with minutiae, because truly, the minutiae is what has brought us all here.
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I dont overlook it at all. You are absolutely correct in what you say and I’m sure money wise, its great for WWE. If I’m a random person though or even a casual viewer who just wants to pick a wrestling show on TV, I’m going to choose AEW if I stumble upon both shows.
The ratings might be doing better and they might have an interesting story going on, but if the fans in the arena dont give a shit about all the other stuff, then why should I sitting at home? I cannot remember a time that I have watched a WWE show, where I havent fast forwarded through 90% of the show. I even watched more of the show, when Vince was around.
Lets just all agree that we love wrestling and that wrestling is great.
As long as wrestling exists all promotions are hot.
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Preach brother preach! Someone near and dear to a lot of us, Dan ‘the Mouth’ Lovranski, once compared wrestling to the circus. If you don’t like the elephants, there’s the lion tamer or the clowns or the acrobats. As long as there’s something for everyone, wrestling will be ‘hot’.
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All fair points, but what I’m saying is being quite doesn’t necessarily mean “don’t give a shit”. What I am saying is that archetype is going to be quieter even if they do give a shit.
If that effects your enjoyment of the product, totally understandable. But not necessarily a reflection of the product being “hot” or not.
Dynamite is back over a million, guess they’re “hot”.
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Debate over, thread closed.
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