would it be a stretch to say despite AEW’s “huge” acquisitions, their momentum is waning??

[Mob H]

The "championship/top spot or nothing" mentality has gotten so pervasive in wrestling discussion that anything less than putting WWE out of business is considered failure to some people.

 

[ClutchVon]

Wrestling is so niche now that I wonder if it’ll still be a thing 15-20 years from now.

 

[Max.]

Taking so long to finally ban Da KKKing did irreparable damage to this board. All his wannabes tanked discussion here.

^ This dude brings absolutely nothing to TSC…no good posts,not funny…nothn interesting..no good threads…

 

[Jmare007]

AEW's doing more than fine for where they are on their timeframe, idiots like Alvarez and his drones saying "they might massacre raw next week" is why what should be undeniable success starts to look underwhelming.

Exactly. If wrestling fans want to follow the lead of Skip Bayless of wrestling, then the discourse around wrestling will be as moronic and toxic as the hot takes they spew

 

[folasade]

People put too much stock in wrestling ratings. It's not '97-99 anymore.

 

[Max.]

Yall peep how that “we gonna beat raw in viewers when football starts” talk got real quiet…and when ratings started dippn its “just wait! Its just a 2 year old company”

 

[Reality Check]

Don’t get me wrong, AEW is still doing just fine. They are in no way struggling. They’re up from last year, and they’ve already beat expectations from year one to now…


But I feel momentum has definitely stalled from the big CM Punk debut. Anyone who says otherwise is lying to themselves. That game changing talk is pretty much dead. Game still the same

All Out was easily their most successful event critically and financially and they followed that up with selling out Arthur Ashe Stadium a couple weeks later; those are actual facts and anyone who says otherwise is lying to themselves. They're not going to bat 1.000 with every episode of Dynamite and Rampage, there are going to be some misses and some really bad segments or botches. With that said, their goal has been to become an alternative to WWE and with the moves they've made they've cemented their place as being the biggest WWE alternative. Danielson put it best recently:

“This is one of the things that drew me to AEW, and why I kind of wanted to come to AEW, is that AEW is like a wrestling-first company. It’s a wrestling company for wrestling fans...and sometimes WWE is more just based on general entertainment. They want to reach as many casual viewers as possible. Where I think AEW is like, hey if you love wrestling, here’s this. But also, even if you’re not a wrestling fan, we’re putting on wrestling, and the wrestling itself is gonna bring you in. You know what I mean?”

“And I think that’s one of the really unique things about AEW. If you were to do a comparison of the two, like just watching the shows, you’ll see that there’s a lot more wrestling in the two hours of Dynamite than there is even in a three hour Raw. And sometimes there’s more wrestling on an AEW Dynamite show than there is in Raw and SmackDown combined.”

“So that’s one of the things that drew me to it. Because as a fan, I mean when I was in high school everybody loved The Rock and Steve Austin. They were my least favorite people, ‘cause all they did was talk! So I liked the wrestler wrestlers, you know?”

Danielson explains why AEW is more appealing to wrestling fans than WWE

 

[8WON6]

TSC wants wrestling to be mainstream so bad so they don't have to be wrestling fans in secret anymore lol

repped.

 

[FS4LFE]

No way y’all seriously care this much about ratings. I see the same shyt when it comes to the NFL and NBA. Just watch what you want bro. I’m not the biggest fan of AEW but I don’t want to see it go anywhere because you need another big company.

Wrestling likely won’t ever be what it was in the 90s but that’s okay. The world has changed so much in 20 years.

 

[8WON6]

Gargano is a complete nobody..he can go to Japan or AEW..fans would walk out on his 5 star matches.

Gargano character wise is average, but in the ring he's>Brian Danielson. I don't care how that sounds. Gargano in the ring is really what yall claim Brian Danielson is. And it's not because WWE style...Gargano was wrestling "WWE style" and it look like got an unlimited moveset in them Takeover matches. Danielson come out there doing them kicks for 15 minutes.

 

[Jmare007]

Gargano character wise is average, but in the ring he's>Brian Danielson. I don't care how that sounds. Gargano in the ring is really what yall claim Brian Danielson is. And it's not because WWE style...Gargano was wrestling "WWE style" and it look like got an unlimited moveset in them Takeover matches. Danielson come out there doing them kicks for 15 minutes.

Didn't know we had fans of middle school theater in TSC

 

[The Solid One]

TSC is bizarro world when it comes to AEW.

You're the same guy that had Cody Rhodes as your Avi at one point.

 

[AMcV'88]

they've got the single men in their 30's beige wage and they cater to their audience big time so they're Gucci but for the foreseeable future they've got a ceiling.

Punk and Bryan got them some media coverage in some different spaces but thats about it.

there is nothing and I mean nothing cool about them to really be an alternative to WWE.
wrestling is not cool in general but AEW is just... ooft




TSC being so overwhelmingly pro AEW tells you something by the way.

 

[Beautiful Bobby Eatin]

Numbers, numbers numbers, is all you see and hear about.

Podcast culture had ruined pro wrestling discussion the same way hot take culture ruined NBA/NFL discussion. All these wrestling podcasts have thousands of listeners and they get to dictate the narrative on a daily basis.

The Attitude Era was the height of the business. I was between 10-13 years old then, and I never heard one person mention ratings EVER and nobody cared about ratings except the wrestling companies themselves. Now every neckbeard mark with a phone in their hand, gets to create a narrative based off numbers they heard from listening to podcasts from even bigger marks instead of watching the product and forming their opinions based off what they see for themselves. It’s a toxic cycle.

While I agree that we shouldnt care, the companies especially Vince, should. Every new company or current monopoly is concerned with one thing. Market Share. AEW is taking marketshare by not only ratings but news items, arenas being packed and the overall passion of the fans. The WWE loves their monopoly because it allows them to control the narrative on their fans AND shareholders. How much things cost. What the product is. The overall value of the business. They are losing that in droves. Starting with NXT.

Now the question at hand, is momentum waning. No. Its not a dumb question per se if youre looking at a miniscule part of the business. But if you know how general business works and the new trends in entertainment for episodic television, youd know that being number one in for the whole night on cable is a major win that has networks tripping overthemselves to give you money (see WWE's distribution deal). TNT believes in AEW and them even getting on Turner's network and securing not one but TWO additional shows as well as a lucrative network move for the first show (that hasnt even happened yet) after being extended for multiple years.

So has their momentum waned? No. You dont need a huge announcement every week to have momentum. As long as the fanbase is rabbid as they have been they have the momentum.

 

[Oville]

I think AEW will reach new heights when they start merchandising to kids a bit more. Thats why I felt that Rampage woulda been better off being on Saturday from anytime 12pm to 6pm. The attitude era is always the benchmark of wwe's popularity (along with the golden era) but it seems aew is in good with the kind of fanbase that that era attracted. The under appreciated aspect of what made the attitude era what it was was that by that point, the young adult audience that it played to were the kids who grew up watching wrestling in the golden era at 12pm on Saturdays and Sundays watching WWF Superstars.

It amazes me that post-wcw, all these promotions have kept appealing to young adult male demo by having their shows at night and really underestimating the value of having larger than life characters on tv appear to them on a day and hour slot they can be invested in. Those same kids get their parents to want to buy them toys, video games and other merch which brings awareness to parents about the product.

I woulda pushed for a one hour show on Saturday that woulda focused on some of the more kid friendly acts they have like Juraasic Express, Varsity Blomdes etc. I know it soumds like I'm asking for a wwe style PG show but I think you can make a show that parents can feel comfortable watching while not going the overly cheesy realm that wwe haa gone.

In summary AEW will be more mainstream when kids start asking their parents for AEW merchandise during the holiday season.