You know what's hilarious? This is the true answer after all this theorizing and guessing we were doing. When there are fewer PPVs, you get fewer big matches on Dynamite, which leads to screwy finishes and filler stuff that are solely to help build the PPV. The result of that is fewer people feel it's worth paying money to watch a Dynamite as well as watch it LIVE. When you build this habit, you'll skim Dynamite for the main stories and match recommendations that actually don't have a screw finish and then save ALL your energy for the PPV, which is the reason those still sell well (10,000+ last night for Full Gear and they'll probably get +100,000 buys). On top of all this, Collision and Rampage make it even worse because those shows probably introduced the habit of learning to skip AEW shows.
The CM Punk/AEW divorce did a lot of damage to the brand. One big problem with AEW, even when WWF was so bad back in the day, it could always return to Bret Hart to hold the title and he had credibility with the audience. I don't think Mox can fill that role with AEW today.
I'll go on record and say that All Elite Wrestling peaked in September 2021. It might take a long time to get back there again for the promotion based out of Jacksonville.
The problem is foundational. Their style of wrestling isn’t built to last. Too many shows. Too many titles. Too many factions. Too many wrestlers. And it all starts with Tony Khan.
Love your work John & Wai. I've been an AEW fan since day 1, but I've definitely felt my interest falling off recently. I think one of the issues I've alway felt is that they really tried to run before being able to walk. They went to a 2nd show and then a 3rd as soon as soon as they could rather than waiting for the demand to be there. They wanted everything the WWE had straight away.
I've heard countless aew fans say this same thing 1st they stopped watching rampage and collision then they were skipping dynamite and after this whole cookie monster Costco guy thing alot of fans are saying they will stop spending 50$ on the ppv,s
You mean Indie guy's playing main eventers because they wrestled in ROH and NJPW. The only stars are Edge,Jericho and Sting and those are ex WWE,WCW talent.
The show sucks. They’re trying and failing to avoid saying the highest paid wrestlers chase off 40-60K viewers every time they’re on tv. They have 10 heel factions on their roster and they all get the same amount of tv time with the same dead silent reaction. Their baby faces get beat up every week, the announcers are terrible and the refs look like they were picked up from the temp agency. THS should be the focus with Joe #2 MJF #3 & Hobbs #4
I agree... except MJF can just go away. Dude wants to play the same 4chan edgelord heel he was on the independents. AEW is a place that discourages growth and instead is a place that enables wrestler bad habits.
We need some cohesive drama storylines, something that makes us feel something other than “that match was fantastic”. There’s a sense of apathy for the storylines, or frustration, because they’re not done well consistency throughout the time they tell it, even if the match is good. The reason Toni and Mariah worked so well was it took its time, was a character everyone loved, and had a great conclusion. Follow up is important too, and there’s been difficulty with that
Exactly, but the AEW gatekeeping fans don't want stories that will hit you. They just want those Indy stuff, because most of them dreamed to have Indy and New Japan stuff on main TV
It doesn't help that Tony Khan doesn't care about women unless they got boobs or are willing to bleed profusely, which is why the women's champion is stuck doing a comedy skit at Full Gear and is probably being set up for a program with a comedy wrestler who hasn't won a single match in MONTHS. He also seemed to have had big plans for Kamille before it was revealed that Kamille just flat out sucks in the ring and is quickly looking to dump her in ROH purgatory.
All Elite Wrestling isn't the only Non-WWE Promotion in the Pro Wrestling Business to experience a decline in interest over the past 3 Years. New Japan Pro Wrestling, Game Changer Wrestling, the National Wrestling Alliance, and Major League Wrestling have seen declines in interest since World Wrestling Entertainment started turning things around in July 2022 with Triple H taking on the role as Chief Content Officer after Vince McMahon stepped aside.
I don’t watch any wrestling company anymore on a show by show basis. Catch some YT clips once in a while, but that’s about it. I get the impression it’s big picture stuff. WWE got better, mostly by firing the out of touch sex predator and replacing him with a different booker with his own booking faults. Dynamites been going for five years now, an eternity in wrestling, a period of time that would be incredibly difficult to stay hot throughout. The core acts that started the company are either wearing down (bucks), gone (Cody), way overexposed (Jericho) or injured/not back yet from injury (Kenny). AEW hasn’t pulled off becoming a yearly touring draw and Tony’s booking patterns are pretty well established. You can’t say AEW hasn’t created new stars to fuel its engine (hangman, Swerve, Toni Storm, MJF) but the company could be better at sustained pushes and storyline variety. It might also be worth asking the question “is there any company outside WWE that the American wresting consumer will sustain at this mainstream level in perpetuity?” I’m not sure there is. (Tony should also probably delegate more.”
Very few creative direction moves can be made that will result in any major benefit. I think most people who understand the business and the market for pro wrestling already knows that the biggest hit to AEW was Vince being ousted from WWE. AEW took a gamble in thinking the launch of their product would bring back lapsed fans from the 90s to early 00's. They didn't really do that in any significant numbers. Their fan base was largely created on the back of wrestling fans who weren't fans of WWE and like other forms of wrestling and people who were pushed away by WWE with years of bad booking but wanted nothing more than for WWE to be "good again". Once Vince was booted the shows started making much more logical sense and even took some baby steps toward being a little more in-ring conscious. It was the right mixture of elements to bring back long time WWE fans. WWE controls too much of the market and has done so for too long. Maybe with a financially successful #2 in the mix for a long enough time we might eventually see a shift but for right now the only way AEW "gets hot" again is if WWE cools off. There just aren't enough wrestling fans to sustain two popular companies at once despite what people may think.
For me it was the introduction of Ring of Honor and collision. I don't care about Ring of Honor and I don't need more titles on the show especially ones I don't care about. When collision came on it was another show that required my attention that I didn't have time for especially when the WWE product was honestly better at that time and still is. Not to mention the show was on a Saturday and that is not a time where I am interested in a weekly wrestling show. If they just had dynamite and focused on that I think it would be much better but they can't help but grab every free WWE guy so it will never go back.
The main issue for me is the decreased quality in characterization and narrative continuity. It's kinda crazy that WWE has a massive edge on that department now. Would have been unthinkable to me a few years ago.
I never miss a ppv because I know the wrestling is going to be good. There’s just nothing on the weekly shows that I’m going to go out of my way to watch for two hours. If some match is getting rave reviews I might go back and watch it but it simply isn’t must see tv for me anymore.
It is interesting. AEW has several major stories worth following, and WWE has one - the bloodline. Every other story on WWE in some way or another gets pulled into the bloodline story, whereas in AEW, there are several stand alone stories that may get woven into each other but not necessarily - kinda like the attitude era.
The booker is not good at his job. It results in stars not getting made. Stories not concluding in a satisfactory manner. The show is formatted poorly ect. Stop dancing around it to protect your access. The rate if decline across near all metrics points to the big change needed and thats tony khan replaced as booker.
Agreed. It probably isn't realistic to see Tony Khan hand over booking responsibilities to someone else. He's got final say in every facet of the company.
Tony books like Vince did towards the end. Doesnt matter if someone gets over red hot. He wont push em or wait till the moment passed. Wardlow comes to mind, hangman was the most over heel and should have beat bryan. Instead hes cooled off
They need to move away from the ppv model. Their best asset/content is behind an exorbitant paywall and the paying one big price for one event doesn’t fly for many in 2024. I’m sure AEW PPVs are clearly better than WWE’s PLE but I watch all the WWE events because of the price point. The old quarterly ppv format with tv big events like winter is coming sprinkled in also made the ppv’s price more palatable
There are no larger than life characters in AEW, in my opinion. There's no one that I say "I can't wait to see xyz next week". Also, build interesting storylines. Dream matches on tv every other week don't interest me. Btw, I don't watch WWE shows either. Same reasons...
All this hate for TK, at least he's not booking repetitive nonsense like HHH. Every week is the same segment on repeat. And people tell you it's cinema😂
Sometimes I feel like I’m weird because I still enjoy AEW, granted I only watch Dynamite nothing else but I like wrestling period AEW or WWE. I enjoy the differences between the 2 shows, 1 has much better storytelling the other I find overall I enjoy the wrestling more.
I watch Dynamite each week and end up turning it off. The show is boring. Bottom line. I won’t slog through a boring show. Also, Collision was really good, my favorite show until punk left.
AEW feels like Pre Bischoff WCW you got some good talent just nobody in charge who knows how to use them. All I see is matches for no reason. No feuds no storylines nothing compelling to watch. Just random gymnastics with a random bloody beat down for no reason. We got the action just no Drama nobody I care to carve out 2-4 hours a week to watch.
Tony Khan, illogical booking, way too much content, dynamite being the only or main show for the first several years was a huge factor why I used to watch. Adam Cole also has go away heat for me. Over the top moves being meaningless. How many times did boring Wheeler high impact elbow OC in the head last night for him to be fine seconds later. If they don’t properly sell it makes all of it meaningless. There is too much good tv, live sports and other content out there nowadays than to watch 4 plus hours of wrestling a week.
because the wwe propaganda machine and its obsessed hate brigading fans on every single AEW related social media post trying to influence opinions on the product. its fucking insane & always the first thing you see. hopefully once its steaming on MAX in jan more people can watch it from start to finish and not just through clips, perception of the product should become more positive and the increased viewership will help fight back a ton. this has definitely been the best year overall especially PPV's, its a shame its not as hot as it was in previous years people are really missing out!
Dude, I want AEW to succeed, because when you have two good companies in the USA, everyone wins. But when a guy purposefully is booking it because he wants to badly be friends with the boys in the back instead of making buttloads of money, the product sucks ass.
Yes, you probably should go on. Because a random squash match and a defiant Orange being a defiant Orange aren’t the reasons that ‘the company’s gone cold’. You’re probably somebody who hates Garcia’s dancing.
@@paynexkiller Yeah, but why does Orange have to do weak ass kicks while duct taped? Isn't he meant to be "the savior of the company?" Shouldn't he try to be serious to show that he knows the stakes are high and isn't just half-assing it like usual?
They were half-assed kicks to mock the BCC, to show that he's not scared or threatened despite their might. He knows there's no way he'd be able to take them down if he tried in that moment. This was akin to him spitting at Mox's face. People getting caught up on this don't have an accurate read of the scene. -W
The comments on this video, bloody hell. The reason don’t want to throw TK under the bus cause despite the loss of momentum AEW is dealing with now, it’s still profitable. No one likes talking about it, but the fact Khan got this company profitable this quickly (5 years) is insane. AEW is the second most profitable wrestling company in the world currently, leaping over companies that have decades on them. After landing this deal, with more possibly on the way… and you seriously think they should get him out of the room, is crazy. Another thing ppl forget is Khan is still learning. The idea of him getting better as he goes over time isn’t crazy. AEW is still my favorite show, I look forward to it every week. I do concede, we’re in a low point now.
All of wrestling is cold, nothing changes, Aew stuck in this mox orange Cassidy thing for what feels like a decade WWE doing nothing with women or tag teams, Cody doing nothing at all his first year as champion, still stuck with bloodline bullshit where the same character is copy pasted eight times, I don’t even know who the other champion is
There’s not much for me to add that hasn’t already been said by plenty of others. The obvious stuff is the obvious stuff. A lot of the people pointing it out might be considered "internet heels" of the wrestling community, but just like in wrestling, the heels are usually the ones who are right. Life experience - 35 years of it - has taught me that, lol. The core issue is the lack of compelling, engaging stories. Bangers for the sake of bangers aren’t enough to draw people in, especially in a western setting. I just finished binging the show FROM, and while it’s far from perfect with some bad dialogue and weak acting, I was still glued to it because the story kept me hooked. I wanted to see what happened next. Meanwhile, I can’t even make it through a single episode of modern wrestling TV without reaching for my phone. It doesn’t engage me. It’s just not interesting. And that’s not just an AEW problem - WWE suffers from it too, though both have their bright spots. I just wish someone would reinvent the wrestling TV format and truly update it for what’s soon to be 2025. What we have now doesn’t do it for me. It’s boring. That said, the current format clearly still works well enough to make WWE immensely profitable, so maybe I’m completely off base and wrong. But I think the opportunity to innovate is there for someone bold enough to try. I recommend giving FROM a try, though. It's pretty fun. Silly and dumb, but fun. I'm not expecting a satisfying payoff, though lol. It's one those mystery box shows, and they tend to often work out like the Higher Power angle in the WWF.
Wrestling people has been using the word “cold” all over the place, AEW isn’t cold when it’s selling 11k tickets to the ppv, you can use other words to describe AEW product or the stories that you don’t like, I would for example say a lot of stories are bland for me especially the women’s division. Doesn’t mean the product is cold, numbers say otherwise.
Too many random one-off matches and not enough quality story-telling. Some of their biggest stars leaving (Punk/Jade, etc), taking too many losses (Derby/Orange) or being on the sidelines too much (MJF, Danielson, Lucha Bros, etc etc etc) really leaves you not needed to watch week to week, and like the question asker says, it makes it harder to get back into.
I'm so tired of this, the same talk for months. I don't enjoy AEW at the moment (it was good before Bryan left, last month is cold), but the difference in WWE and AEW debate is fascinating. WWE's run since KOTR has been terrible, where are the talks about this? The ratings fell into a big hole, the booking is predictable and uninspiring (Cody's run alone should go into the history books for the most boring Mania to Mania program I've seen in WWE, they setup The Rock at RAW After Mania and since then just kill time to come back to that), the PPVs get bad ratings. The difference is one is a global brand built on a monopoly for decades, the other is still a start-up, securing TV rights to survive and just venture into international markets. Stop comparing AEW's numbers with WWE's numbers, it doesn't work, one is McDonalds, the other is Shake Shack. WWE has over 105m YT subs, AEW has 4.3m subs, how do people still act like these two brands compete on the same resources? I also don't support Wai's point about the best wrestling show. Everyone can argue about Cagematch ratings, but it is the best database we have and it's heavily influxed by WWE fans over the past years, and even there AEW still performs way better on average than WWE, on weeklies, and by a big margin on PPVs. You try to find reasons to fulfill a premise set out by business numbers, not quality, that simply doesn't work, the businesses are too different to be held to the same standards financially. All the bad faith propaganda by idiots like Bishoff seems to have gotten to the core wrestling fan, they now believe the crap they talk and try to find reasons to support their takes. It's like asking a person why McDonalds is currently better than Shake Shack because they make more money, and then arguing Shake Shacks burgers somehow aren't better than those of McDonalds anymore.
Wrestling media is driven by subscriptions and going against the industry leader will put a dent in that as well as access to scoops from said industry leader. Only very few actually have self respect to be actual journalists, everyone else are just dogshit UA-camrs and podcasters twerking for subs and scoops.
We’re comparing AEW of 2024 with AEW of 2023 and prior. We’re not comparing it to WWE’s business or even their weekly ratings. If I bring up WWE in the discussion, it’s because AEW’s identity has largely been crafted around its role as challenger brand and alternative. Its success is directly affected by the health of the incumbent. -W
I agree with what was said except that AEW is trying to compete with WWE and have also been touting that they are better because of their successes against WWE and their in-ring product. If Shake Shack went around saying “we’re better than McDonald’s, we beat McDonald’s, McDonalds can’t compare” and then hit a cold spell, people will look at Shake Shack like “what happened to the place that was gonna take down/compete against McDonald’s?” I am a WWE fan. I don’t watch any shows unless I think something interesting is on. Same with PPVs except Royal Rumble & WrestleMania. I use to watch religiously. In ring is just ok but there is intrigue. I think two things WWE has over AEW from an equal footing standpoint is interest and big match buildup. Lots of matches we’ve know we’re gonna get that we’re waiting for. The stories, sorry if you’re not a story person, but that is what sells people on why you should care. Why are these people fighting and why should I care?
Everyone who keeps saying AEW sucks now and used to be better before are either diehard Punk fans, haven't been watching AEW in general, and/or are just parroting off clickbaity grifting podcasters (Not you guys. Post Wrestling is cool with me). They do play a role in the damage ofperception if you ask me, along with the Punk situation, WWE's fresh start with Triple H and the new car smell wearing off AEW. Anyway, 2019-21 AEW was fun but I don't miss it bc they've tightened up a lot of little things over those 5 years. Granted, this Full Gear season is a little less interesting for various reasons, but every company goes through creatively slow periods. It's only MJF/Cole and OC/Mox that's somewhat questionable for me anyway but even for those I look forward to how the story will progress so I'm invested. People can yell ratings, attendance and all that but the question is do I enjoy the product AEW is making now for me? Don't care if people say the show is bad or whatnot.
It's become the thing to hate on aew. If they happen to go away everyone will be regretting it. Almost no one watches TNA and all those other 5th 6th 7th and forgettable wrestling promotions. If aew fails just know that wrestling will fail as a whole. Nobody wants to be just a WWE fan. The people that like to crap on aew don't watch week to week. But they like to crap on the product every chance they get. The funny thing is if aew goes away. Channels like yours will lose interest. Because no one strictly wants to be here to listen about just WWE.
@POSTWrestling here's a question do you think videos like this are helping? I feel like the negative talk that all the other channels do including yours. Only push the narrative like when people say Nickelback is the worst band of all time. It's all fun and games till it's not.
This video is a clip from a Q&A session with our audience. If our audience is interested in hearing us talk about a topic of interest, like AEW’s declining metrics, then we’ll discuss it to the best of our abilities. I’m not here to protect their brand or damage it. I’m here to provide my opinion as a weekly reviewer.
@POSTWrestling I understand that. I watch your guys's channel all the time. I meant in general you guys aren't helping with most of the videos you guys talked about. Your aew Dynamite reviews are half NXT sprinkled in with some WWE review like no one's here to hear that if your thumbnail says aew Dynamite review. But you guys go on for like a half hour about WWE problems or things that are going on in nxt. You guys spend more time glazing WWE programs. Like everything great over there. That show is way too PG it's aimed at children. Yet all I hear is how much better WWE is doing at promoting and putting out their products whenever they've been around decades. Go back and review the first 5 years of WWE or wwwf whatever the hell it was back then. And tell me how on fire it was back then.
Then why don’t you listen to our Raw review and tell us if we do the same for AEW? I’m sorry, but I’ve lost all respect for your credibility in our little interaction. This the format of our show. It’s News of the Day, Review of the show, then Feedback. It’s been that for years. To somehow use that to accuse us of “glazing for WWE” is outrageous.
Rest of this month's 2-hour mailbag: www.patreon.com/posts/ask-wai-ask-us-116462956
i wish they would just stick with dynamite and the 4- 5ppvs and make them great.
I have the exact same thought , sometimes less is more.
I think this would help or switch to a streaming model. A lot of AEW fans are priced out of the best asset AEW had to offer.
@ fair point. I just don’t think it helps grow any new fans and causes fans to lapse as the best AEW has to offer is too expensive
You know what's hilarious? This is the true answer after all this theorizing and guessing we were doing. When there are fewer PPVs, you get fewer big matches on Dynamite, which leads to screwy finishes and filler stuff that are solely to help build the PPV. The result of that is fewer people feel it's worth paying money to watch a Dynamite as well as watch it LIVE. When you build this habit, you'll skim Dynamite for the main stories and match recommendations that actually don't have a screw finish and then save ALL your energy for the PPV, which is the reason those still sell well (10,000+ last night for Full Gear and they'll probably get +100,000 buys). On top of all this, Collision and Rampage make it even worse because those shows probably introduced the habit of learning to skip AEW shows.
The knots people will contort themselves into to avoid saying the person booking the show isn’t doing a good job anymore
I've never seen anyone get this much of a pass mfer better be glad I don't have a podcast
That's the dubbalos in a nutshell.
Probably scared sickos will jump them
The CM Punk/AEW divorce did a lot of damage to the brand. One big problem with AEW, even when WWF was so bad back in the day, it could always return to Bret Hart to hold the title and he had credibility with the audience. I don't think Mox can fill that role with AEW today.
I'll go on record and say that All Elite Wrestling peaked in September 2021. It might take a long time to get back there again for the promotion based out of Jacksonville.
The problem is foundational. Their style of wrestling isn’t built to last. Too many shows. Too many titles. Too many factions. Too many wrestlers. And it all starts with Tony Khan.
Love your work John & Wai. I've been an AEW fan since day 1, but I've definitely felt my interest falling off recently. I think one of the issues I've alway felt is that they really tried to run before being able to walk. They went to a 2nd show and then a 3rd as soon as soon as they could rather than waiting for the demand to be there. They wanted everything the WWE had straight away.
I've heard countless aew fans say this same thing 1st they stopped watching rampage and collision then they were skipping dynamite and after this whole cookie monster Costco guy thing alot of fans are saying they will stop spending 50$ on the ppv,s
TNA's Scott D'Amore is available early next year, Tony Khan should hire him.
He's not gonna hire him because Scott will outshine him immediately.
@@bigjohnsbreakfastlog5819 brother what are you guys smoking, Scott’s TNA couldn’t even beat TK’s ROH in ppv numbers and attendance.
I knew it was a bad idea for Collison the second it was announced. More is not more.
it was a show made for punk and once he left it had no purpose anymore
Storylines dropped, started, and shifting out of nowhere. They also need stars. Real stars. No mid card guys they try to pass off as stars
You mean Indie guy's playing main eventers because they wrestled in ROH and NJPW. The only stars are Edge,Jericho and Sting and those are ex WWE,WCW talent.
The show sucks. They’re trying and failing to avoid saying the highest paid wrestlers chase off 40-60K viewers every time they’re on tv. They have 10 heel factions on their roster and they all get the same amount of tv time with the same dead silent reaction. Their baby faces get beat up every week, the announcers are terrible and the refs look like they were picked up from the temp agency. THS should be the focus with Joe #2 MJF #3 & Hobbs #4
I agree... except MJF can just go away. Dude wants to play the same 4chan edgelord heel he was on the independents. AEW is a place that discourages growth and instead is a place that enables wrestler bad habits.
Took the long way to just say Tony sucks at booking
They don't want to ruffle feathers. Need them scrum passes
We need some cohesive drama storylines, something that makes us feel something other than “that match was fantastic”. There’s a sense of apathy for the storylines, or frustration, because they’re not done well consistency throughout the time they tell it, even if the match is good. The reason Toni and Mariah worked so well was it took its time, was a character everyone loved, and had a great conclusion. Follow up is important too, and there’s been difficulty with that
Exactly, but the AEW gatekeeping fans don't want stories that will hit you. They just want those Indy stuff, because most of them dreamed to have Indy and New Japan stuff on main TV
It doesn't help that Tony Khan doesn't care about women unless they got boobs or are willing to bleed profusely, which is why the women's champion is stuck doing a comedy skit at Full Gear and is probably being set up for a program with a comedy wrestler who hasn't won a single match in MONTHS. He also seemed to have had big plans for Kamille before it was revealed that Kamille just flat out sucks in the ring and is quickly looking to dump her in ROH purgatory.
the booking
All Elite Wrestling isn't the only Non-WWE Promotion in the Pro Wrestling Business to experience a decline in interest over the past 3 Years. New Japan Pro Wrestling, Game Changer Wrestling, the National Wrestling Alliance, and Major League Wrestling have seen declines in interest since World Wrestling Entertainment started turning things around in July 2022 with Triple H taking on the role as Chief Content Officer after Vince McMahon stepped aside.
I don’t watch any wrestling company anymore on a show by show basis. Catch some YT clips once in a while, but that’s about it. I get the impression it’s big picture stuff. WWE got better, mostly by firing the out of touch sex predator and replacing him with a different booker with his own booking faults. Dynamites been going for five years now, an eternity in wrestling, a period of time that would be incredibly difficult to stay hot throughout. The core acts that started the company are either wearing down (bucks), gone (Cody), way overexposed (Jericho) or injured/not back yet from injury (Kenny). AEW hasn’t pulled off becoming a yearly touring draw and Tony’s booking patterns are pretty well established. You can’t say AEW hasn’t created new stars to fuel its engine (hangman, Swerve, Toni Storm, MJF) but the company could be better at sustained pushes and storyline variety. It might also be worth asking the question “is there any company outside WWE that the American wresting consumer will sustain at this mainstream level in perpetuity?” I’m not sure there is. (Tony should also probably delegate more.”
Took me too long to see an honest critique. Agreed, man.
Very few creative direction moves can be made that will result in any major benefit. I think most people who understand the business and the market for pro wrestling already knows that the biggest hit to AEW was Vince being ousted from WWE.
AEW took a gamble in thinking the launch of their product would bring back lapsed fans from the 90s to early 00's. They didn't really do that in any significant numbers. Their fan base was largely created on the back of wrestling fans who weren't fans of WWE and like other forms of wrestling and people who were pushed away by WWE with years of bad booking but wanted nothing more than for WWE to be "good again".
Once Vince was booted the shows started making much more logical sense and even took some baby steps toward being a little more in-ring conscious. It was the right mixture of elements to bring back long time WWE fans.
WWE controls too much of the market and has done so for too long. Maybe with a financially successful #2 in the mix for a long enough time we might eventually see a shift but for right now the only way AEW "gets hot" again is if WWE cools off. There just aren't enough wrestling fans to sustain two popular companies at once despite what people may think.
For me it was the introduction of Ring of Honor and collision. I don't care about Ring of Honor and I don't need more titles on the show especially ones I don't care about. When collision came on it was another show that required my attention that I didn't have time for especially when the WWE product was honestly better at that time and still is. Not to mention the show was on a Saturday and that is not a time where I am interested in a weekly wrestling show. If they just had dynamite and focused on that I think it would be much better but they can't help but grab every free WWE guy so it will never go back.
2 words: Awful storylines
I feel this, speaking for myself the decline started when Adam returned as a face, after that it started a domino effect.
@ I have stopped following who is face or heel on that show. I watch segments featuring Christian Cage but his character has stagnated too
The main issue for me is the decreased quality in characterization and narrative continuity. It's kinda crazy that WWE has a massive edge on that department now. Would have been unthinkable to me a few years ago.
I never miss a ppv because I know the wrestling is going to be good. There’s just nothing on the weekly shows that I’m going to go out of my way to watch for two hours. If some match is getting rave reviews I might go back and watch it but it simply isn’t must see tv for me anymore.
It is interesting. AEW has several major stories worth following, and WWE has one - the bloodline. Every other story on WWE in some way or another gets pulled into the bloodline story, whereas in AEW, there are several stand alone stories that may get woven into each other but not necessarily - kinda like the attitude era.
Bro stop it lol
Probably the same reason WWE gets cold after Mania. They built to All In & All Out now have a bunch of guys and girls coming back.
The booker is not good at his job. It results in stars not getting made. Stories not concluding in a satisfactory manner. The show is formatted poorly ect. Stop dancing around it to protect your access. The rate if decline across near all metrics points to the big change needed and thats tony khan replaced as booker.
Good luck convincing Khan he has to step aside from booking his own promotion.
Agreed. It probably isn't realistic to see Tony Khan hand over booking responsibilities to someone else. He's got final say in every facet of the company.
When hearing you guys and reading the comments, it basically sounds like for AEW it's "damn if you damn if you don't."
Tony books like Vince did towards the end. Doesnt matter if someone gets over red hot. He wont push em or wait till the moment passed. Wardlow comes to mind, hangman was the most over heel and should have beat bryan. Instead hes cooled off
It's crazy... It's craaazzy... Why is adam cole so orange
They need to move away from the ppv model. Their best asset/content is behind an exorbitant paywall and the paying one big price for one event doesn’t fly for many in 2024. I’m sure AEW PPVs are clearly better than WWE’s PLE but I watch all the WWE events because of the price point. The old quarterly ppv format with tv big events like winter is coming sprinkled in also made the ppv’s price more palatable
There are no larger than life characters in AEW, in my opinion. There's no one that I say "I can't wait to see xyz next week". Also, build interesting storylines. Dream matches on tv every other week don't interest me. Btw, I don't watch WWE shows either. Same reasons...
First time seeing your channel. Never again. Dynamite was 10x better 3-4 yrs ago. Once Tony took the booking, it spiraled out of control
All this hate for TK, at least he's not booking repetitive nonsense like HHH. Every week is the same segment on repeat. And people tell you it's cinema😂
Sometimes I feel like I’m weird because I still enjoy AEW, granted I only watch Dynamite nothing else but I like wrestling period AEW or WWE. I enjoy the differences between the 2 shows, 1 has much better storytelling the other I find overall I enjoy the wrestling more.
No guys.. It's bad wrestling tv show...
AEW is like just about every other Khan business. They all kinda hit rough spots like this. We'll see if they recover.
I watch Dynamite each week and end up turning it off. The show is boring. Bottom line. I won’t slog through a boring show. Also, Collision was really good, my favorite show until punk left.
AEW feels like Pre Bischoff WCW you got some good talent just nobody in charge who knows how to use them. All I see is matches for no reason. No feuds no storylines nothing compelling to watch. Just random gymnastics with a random bloody beat down for no reason. We got the action just no Drama nobody I care to carve out 2-4 hours a week to watch.
Tony Khan, illogical booking, way too much content, dynamite being the only or main show for the first several years was a huge factor why I used to watch. Adam Cole also has go away heat for me. Over the top moves being meaningless. How many times did boring Wheeler high impact elbow OC in the head last night for him to be fine seconds later. If they don’t properly sell it makes all of it meaningless. There is too much good tv, live sports and other content out there nowadays than to watch 4 plus hours of wrestling a week.
Awful lot of excuses here, AEW Fatigue, that’s a new one
because the wwe propaganda machine and its obsessed hate brigading fans on every single AEW related social media post trying to influence opinions on the product. its fucking insane & always the first thing you see. hopefully once its steaming on MAX in jan more people can watch it from start to finish and not just through clips, perception of the product should become more positive and the increased viewership will help fight back a ton.
this has definitely been the best year overall especially PPV's, its a shame its not as hot as it was in previous years people are really missing out!
Dude, I want AEW to succeed, because when you have two good companies in the USA, everyone wins. But when a guy purposefully is booking it because he wants to badly be friends with the boys in the back instead of making buttloads of money, the product sucks ass.
Better find your safe space mark
Bobby Lashley vs “Cheeseburger”
Orange Cassidy throwing gimmick kicks while duct taped by five men
Need I go on ?
Yes, you probably should go on. Because a random squash match and a defiant Orange being a defiant Orange aren’t the reasons that ‘the company’s gone cold’. You’re probably somebody who hates Garcia’s dancing.
@@paynexkiller Yeah, but why does Orange have to do weak ass kicks while duct taped? Isn't he meant to be "the savior of the company?" Shouldn't he try to be serious to show that he knows the stakes are high and isn't just half-assing it like usual?
They were half-assed kicks to mock the BCC, to show that he's not scared or threatened despite their might. He knows there's no way he'd be able to take them down if he tried in that moment. This was akin to him spitting at Mox's face. People getting caught up on this don't have an accurate read of the scene. -W
@@POSTWrestling No…. We do….
@@POSTWrestling Explaining aew booking just makes you guys look like paid off shills which you are anyway
The comments on this video, bloody hell. The reason don’t want to throw TK under the bus cause despite the loss of momentum AEW is dealing with now, it’s still profitable. No one likes talking about it, but the fact Khan got this company profitable this quickly (5 years) is insane. AEW is the second most profitable wrestling company in the world currently, leaping over companies that have decades on them. After landing this deal, with more possibly on the way… and you seriously think they should get him out of the room, is crazy.
Another thing ppl forget is Khan is still learning. The idea of him getting better as he goes over time isn’t crazy.
AEW is still my favorite show, I look forward to it every week. I do concede, we’re in a low point now.
Cope harder shill
You can never watch rampage or collision and be completely fine
All of wrestling is cold, nothing changes, Aew stuck in this mox orange Cassidy thing for what feels like a decade
WWE doing nothing with women or tag teams, Cody doing nothing at all his first year as champion, still stuck with bloodline bullshit where the same character is copy pasted eight times, I don’t even know who the other champion is
There’s not much for me to add that hasn’t already been said by plenty of others. The obvious stuff is the obvious stuff. A lot of the people pointing it out might be considered "internet heels" of the wrestling community, but just like in wrestling, the heels are usually the ones who are right. Life experience - 35 years of it - has taught me that, lol.
The core issue is the lack of compelling, engaging stories. Bangers for the sake of bangers aren’t enough to draw people in, especially in a western setting. I just finished binging the show FROM, and while it’s far from perfect with some bad dialogue and weak acting, I was still glued to it because the story kept me hooked. I wanted to see what happened next.
Meanwhile, I can’t even make it through a single episode of modern wrestling TV without reaching for my phone. It doesn’t engage me. It’s just not interesting. And that’s not just an AEW problem - WWE suffers from it too, though both have their bright spots.
I just wish someone would reinvent the wrestling TV format and truly update it for what’s soon to be 2025. What we have now doesn’t do it for me. It’s boring.
That said, the current format clearly still works well enough to make WWE immensely profitable, so maybe I’m completely off base and wrong. But I think the opportunity to innovate is there for someone bold enough to try.
I recommend giving FROM a try, though. It's pretty fun. Silly and dumb, but fun. I'm not expecting a satisfying payoff, though lol. It's one those mystery box shows, and they tend to often work out like the Higher Power angle in the WWF.
Wrestling people has been using the word “cold” all over the place, AEW isn’t cold when it’s selling 11k tickets to the ppv, you can use other words to describe AEW product or the stories that you don’t like, I would for example say a lot of stories are bland for me especially the women’s division. Doesn’t mean the product is cold, numbers say otherwise.
What numbers are you talking about besides their PPV attendance?
Too many random one-off matches and not enough quality story-telling. Some of their biggest stars leaving (Punk/Jade, etc), taking too many losses (Derby/Orange) or being on the sidelines too much (MJF, Danielson, Lucha Bros, etc etc etc) really leaves you not needed to watch week to week, and like the question asker says, it makes it harder to get back into.
Huge sneak there with Jade.
I left AEW when Punk left. I check in what mjf is doing. That's about it still dvr shows and search threw
I'm so tired of this, the same talk for months. I don't enjoy AEW at the moment (it was good before Bryan left, last month is cold), but the difference in WWE and AEW debate is fascinating. WWE's run since KOTR has been terrible, where are the talks about this? The ratings fell into a big hole, the booking is predictable and uninspiring (Cody's run alone should go into the history books for the most boring Mania to Mania program I've seen in WWE, they setup The Rock at RAW After Mania and since then just kill time to come back to that), the PPVs get bad ratings. The difference is one is a global brand built on a monopoly for decades, the other is still a start-up, securing TV rights to survive and just venture into international markets. Stop comparing AEW's numbers with WWE's numbers, it doesn't work, one is McDonalds, the other is Shake Shack. WWE has over 105m YT subs, AEW has 4.3m subs, how do people still act like these two brands compete on the same resources? I also don't support Wai's point about the best wrestling show. Everyone can argue about Cagematch ratings, but it is the best database we have and it's heavily influxed by WWE fans over the past years, and even there AEW still performs way better on average than WWE, on weeklies, and by a big margin on PPVs. You try to find reasons to fulfill a premise set out by business numbers, not quality, that simply doesn't work, the businesses are too different to be held to the same standards financially. All the bad faith propaganda by idiots like Bishoff seems to have gotten to the core wrestling fan, they now believe the crap they talk and try to find reasons to support their takes. It's like asking a person why McDonalds is currently better than Shake Shack because they make more money, and then arguing Shake Shacks burgers somehow aren't better than those of McDonalds anymore.
Wrestling media is driven by subscriptions and going against the industry leader will put a dent in that as well as access to scoops from said industry leader. Only very few actually have self respect to be actual journalists, everyone else are just dogshit UA-camrs and podcasters twerking for subs and scoops.
We’re comparing AEW of 2024 with AEW of 2023 and prior. We’re not comparing it to WWE’s business or even their weekly ratings.
If I bring up WWE in the discussion, it’s because AEW’s identity has largely been crafted around its role as challenger brand and alternative. Its success is directly affected by the health of the incumbent. -W
I agree with what was said except that AEW is trying to compete with WWE and have also been touting that they are better because of their successes against WWE and their in-ring product. If Shake Shack went around saying “we’re better than McDonald’s, we beat McDonald’s, McDonalds can’t compare” and then hit a cold spell, people will look at Shake Shack like “what happened to the place that was gonna take down/compete against McDonald’s?” I am a WWE fan. I don’t watch any shows unless I think something interesting is on. Same with PPVs except Royal Rumble & WrestleMania. I use to watch religiously. In ring is just ok but there is intrigue. I think two things WWE has over AEW from an equal footing standpoint is interest and big match buildup. Lots of matches we’ve know we’re gonna get that we’re waiting for. The stories, sorry if you’re not a story person, but that is what sells people on why you should care. Why are these people fighting and why should I care?
Everyone who keeps saying AEW sucks now and used to be better before are either diehard Punk fans, haven't been watching AEW in general, and/or are just parroting off clickbaity grifting podcasters (Not you guys. Post Wrestling is cool with me). They do play a role in the damage ofperception if you ask me, along with the Punk situation, WWE's fresh start with Triple H and the new car smell wearing off AEW.
Anyway, 2019-21 AEW was fun but I don't miss it bc they've tightened up a lot of little things over those 5 years. Granted, this Full Gear season is a little less interesting for various reasons, but every company goes through creatively slow periods. It's only MJF/Cole and OC/Mox that's somewhat questionable for me anyway but even for those I look forward to how the story will progress so I'm invested. People can yell ratings, attendance and all that but the question is do I enjoy the product AEW is making now for me? Don't care if people say the show is bad or whatnot.
Awful storylines. They lost there biggest star in CM Punk and they haven’t recovered. I have no desire to watch it anymore. It’s a mess.
It's become the thing to hate on aew. If they happen to go away everyone will be regretting it. Almost no one watches TNA and all those other 5th 6th 7th and forgettable wrestling promotions. If aew fails just know that wrestling will fail as a whole. Nobody wants to be just a WWE fan. The people that like to crap on aew don't watch week to week. But they like to crap on the product every chance they get. The funny thing is if aew goes away. Channels like yours will lose interest. Because no one strictly wants to be here to listen about just WWE.
Asking a question about what AEW can do better isn’t the same as wishing for it to die.
I really don’t like being lumped in with that crowd. -W
@POSTWrestling here's a question do you think videos like this are helping? I feel like the negative talk that all the other channels do including yours. Only push the narrative like when people say Nickelback is the worst band of all time. It's all fun and games till it's not.
This video is a clip from a Q&A session with our audience. If our audience is interested in hearing us talk about a topic of interest, like AEW’s declining metrics, then we’ll discuss it to the best of our abilities. I’m not here to protect their brand or damage it. I’m here to provide my opinion as a weekly reviewer.
@POSTWrestling I understand that. I watch your guys's channel all the time. I meant in general you guys aren't helping with most of the videos you guys talked about. Your aew Dynamite reviews are half NXT sprinkled in with some WWE review like no one's here to hear that if your thumbnail says aew Dynamite review. But you guys go on for like a half hour about WWE problems or things that are going on in nxt. You guys spend more time glazing WWE programs. Like everything great over there. That show is way too PG it's aimed at children. Yet all I hear is how much better WWE is doing at promoting and putting out their products whenever they've been around decades. Go back and review the first 5 years of WWE or wwwf whatever the hell it was back then. And tell me how on fire it was back then.
Then why don’t you listen to our Raw review and tell us if we do the same for AEW? I’m sorry, but I’ve lost all respect for your credibility in our little interaction.
This the format of our show. It’s News of the Day, Review of the show, then Feedback. It’s been that for years. To somehow use that to accuse us of “glazing for WWE” is outrageous.