Paid Members LaGoosh Posted February 20, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted February 20, 2023 48 minutes ago, Daddymagic said: Also, no Bucks in the tag team battle royal. No Bucks or Kenny on the show.  Starting to feel like the last days of Cody from last year. Bit of a reach, highly likely that the Bucks/Omega will be either on the show in some way or on Rampage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinity Land Posted February 20, 2023 Share Posted February 20, 2023 This and next week are the only Dynamites before the PPV. They're going to have to do something. So far it's a blink and you'd miss intercut during a taped promo. With the light switch at Rampage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
organizedkaos Posted February 20, 2023 Share Posted February 20, 2023 18 hours ago, RedRooster said: It’s another weak looking card. Are The Gunns still part of The Firm? Who The Acclaimed are facing has reminded me that they were once a part of that tedious stable. Excalibur said they'd "called in a favour" during his high speed upcoming matches roundup on Rampage, so I guess they're acknowledging the Gunns were part of the Firm but also they're not any more. As for the Elite, what is there to do? They might as well just announce the match, there's not enough time to build a feud so it might as well be "2 teams of good wrestlers wrestle". For better or worse i'm pretty sure that's what they're going for with the 6 man division (Top Flight having a rematch, best of 7). Kenny Omega on Swerves podcast was a good listen for at least explaining the thought process behind what he's doing now. Whether or not you agree with the choices and if they work it did show they're consciously trying something different with division (along with consciously keeping Omega away from big grueling singles matches) and that seems to be a more sporty perspective than feuds. Of course the House of Black are so very sports entertainment it seems weird so... i dunno, might not be the best choice but they made it 😛 They'll not change tack right now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinity Land Posted February 20, 2023 Share Posted February 20, 2023 Khan's dreams have become reality. If only that was snow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddymagic Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 Will be interesting to see what Dynamite does this week ratings wise, as Rampage did just 285,000 viewers last Friday in what was (I think) their lowest ever rating. Though it was in the early time slot of 7pm it did have the Elite wrestling on the show Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddymagic Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 Continuing ratings chat -  WrestleNomics also reported on year on year growth or decline for 2023 so far in Q1.  Smackdown - up 8% Raw - up 5% Dynamite - down 8% (even with those stronger weeks) Rampage - down 19% Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinc Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 Genuine danger the Punk All Out business ends up being a watershed moment for the company, and not in a good way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRooster Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 If the ratings trend continues, it’ll be fascinating to see whether or not Tony Khan could actually bring himself to hand booking duties over to someone else, or if this is essentially a real life EWR for him; and he’s not yet ready to stop playing the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonworden Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 32 minutes ago, RedRooster said: If the ratings trend continues, it’ll be fascinating to see whether or not Tony Khan could actually bring himself to hand booking duties over to someone else, or if this is essentially a real life EWR for him; and he’s not yet ready to stop playing the game. Wonder.of he has a back up save incase he gets fired. We might turn on the telly and be back in 2022 again.  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonny Vegas Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 I don't know whether the booking is the main problem and its definitely not the only problem. The main issue for me is that internet/smart/indy wrestling fans is actually a relatively small amount of the audience compared to casual fans/kids. For casual fans/kids WWE is wrestling and everything else seems second rate no matter how good it is. To the "smart" fan AEW has a great roster and is a welcome alternative to WWE however the biggest names to have been in the company are still ex WWE and I'd argue they haven't been able to make a single one of the non ex WWE guys a "top" star yet with MJF having came closest, even though I've always thought of him as overrated and feel he's went stale since getting the title. No amount of ex WWE star power is going to sway things either you look at the names TNA had and even in their heyday they never really laid a glove on WWE. If you switched the WWE and AEW rosters in their entireity and advertised each as the other company I still dont think it would make a drastic change as the smart fans would still watch both and the casual fans would just wonder where their favourites went and keep watching the new WWE. The sad reality is the attitude era was probably the first and last time wrestling was ever that close to being mainstream cool and popular and it never will be again. The heights AEW have reached is a glass ceiling any company not called WWE will ever reach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB6937 Posted February 22, 2023 Author Share Posted February 22, 2023 It's all about perspective really. Why does AEW exist? What were they aiming to achieve? Did they want to become the next WWE and the leader of the industry etc or were they just aiming to provide a solid alternative on a bigger scale than your Impact or indies? We don't really know what their business plan ever was so it's difficult to say what's failing. We can critique it from our own fan perspective of course. But the ratings would need to take a long sustained hit in order to be of any concern I would think. Growth is definitely the difficult thing though. There's only a limited amount of wrestling fans. They're unlikely to convert many non fans. And they're now up against a rejuvenated WWE. Part of their success was being able to tap into an unhappy fanbase and released talent etc. Now that doesn't exist quite as much they've lost one of their key strategic opportunities. Stability is really really important. At some point it's less about growth and more about just retaining what you've got. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted February 22, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted February 22, 2023 (edited) 9 hours ago, Jonny Vegas said: I don't know whether the booking is the main problem and its definitely not the only problem. I think booking definitely is the main problem at the moment. Wrestling is like any movie or TV show. It can have the best production, stars, glitz and glamour possible but if the writing is bad then people will stop watching it. AEW has a ton of small problems and major hurdles to overcome if it wants to grow. But it doesn't really matter what they do about all the other stuff if the booking isn't good and the shows aren't entertaining at the most basic level. Edited February 22, 2023 by LaGoosh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 22, 2023 Share Posted February 22, 2023 2 hours ago, DavidB6937 said: It's all about perspective really. Why does AEW exist? What were they aiming to achieve? Did they want to become the next WWE and the leader of the industry etc or were they just aiming to provide a solid alternative on a bigger scale than your Impact or indies? We don't really know what their business plan ever was so it's difficult to say what's failing. We can critique it from our own fan perspective of course. But the ratings would need to take a long sustained hit in order to be of any concern I would think. Growth is definitely the difficult thing though. There's only a limited amount of wrestling fans. They're unlikely to convert many non fans. And they're now up against a rejuvenated WWE. Part of their success was being able to tap into an unhappy fanbase and released talent etc. Now that doesn't exist quite as much they've lost one of their key strategic opportunities. Stability is really really important. At some point it's less about growth and more about just retaining what you've got. Their plan and goal was to get 500k viewers for dynamite in that time slot and they continue to get that week on week. I see too many Fans get caught up on thinking they need to be doing a million or it’s a failure, the tv channels are happy by all accounts at what they have for what they pay. While still hundreds of K above it, and Rampage being cheap to make fluff tv in a time slot that all tv shows avoid for a reason, I don’t see either being of any concern doing what they do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddymagic Posted February 22, 2023 Share Posted February 22, 2023 (edited) I think the above is the issue.  AEW should exist to be a good alternative, with their own clear brand doing the numbers above. As well as the sub par booking the turn off for me with AEW for the last couple of years has been their fanbase and the likes of Meltzer & Alvarez not reviewing things objectively. I was a 20 year + subscriber to the Observer but cancelled last year after Dave & Bryan started going after customers on their paid forum who criticised TKs booking. Things like TKs Twitter meltdown, and saying that he's in a war or hates WWE every time he is interviewed is another reason not to tune in. It's petty and opens you up to celebration when you don't do as well -- I felt the same when Vince and Eric did in the 90s too.  Edited February 22, 2023 by Daddymagic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinity Land Posted February 22, 2023 Share Posted February 22, 2023 Dynamite still holds up to about half of what Raw does in total viewership. Even if you cut off the 3rd hour that drags Raw's overall average down. If that's the glass ceiling on wrestling on cable in the US, they aren't tapping into a small or niche audience that the likes of Bischoff try to place AEW's standing. Small-Medium-Large. As MJF likes to say they're mid. Rampage's struggles aren't just the time slot. It isn't a brand of it's own. There's no reason to watch it for the vast majority. As either important stuff gets played out on Dynamite or it's not worth watching. It's more like when WWE brought back Superstars or Main Event with some fanfare when they got them domestic tv deals. Growth is there as a company (sponsorships, new markets, new commercial deals). Same with WWE. You're just not going to see it in domestic TV ratings. Dynamite debuted to 1.4m. Haven't come close since, even post-All Out 2021 with Danielson & Cole debuting with CM Punk still shiny and new. Raw ratings back in 2019 were doing better than Smackdown with their network bump in 2023. If people see the sky falling now. Just wait for the Summer when there's the typical dip in ratings across the board. Â Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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