One of the reasons the Continental Classic had better results than the 2 months prior to the tournament was because people knew at least 6 people they knew were going to be on a show wrestling for sure.
WWE doesn't really have to announce what Cody will be doing on RAW each week, but that audience knows he's gonna be there 100%.
I actually don't have a quick solution for AEW besides having luck and stumbling into a hot angle that people will want to tune it weekly, lol.
WWE also announces their top stars scheduled dates a month or more in advance.
AEW you might not know until as little as an hour before showtime.
I’ve said it before that AEW needs to be like WWE in that regard. Some people only want to buy tickets or watch if their favorites are going to be on the show. Even if they aren’t going to appear on TV, put them in a dark match or a meet and greet. Lots of them wrestlers travel to the shows without getting even a dark match, put them to use doing something else with the fans.
I saw where someone had retweeted a picture of these two kids with signs saying they came to see Saraya for a recent show. Saraya wasn’t on the show, not even for a pretape.
I just thought how disappointed that entire family must have felt after not being able to see her (unless she did a meet and greet at the arena). So that’s two kids and their family that probably aren’t going to go to an AEW show in the future because of that experience.