I am a huge AEW fan but Bryan is right in this case. Collision was in my city 3 weeks ago and I didn't buy a ticket because I didn't know what to expect on the show and the tickets were expensive and didn't want to spend that much money and hope for a good card. A couple of years ago I bought tickets to double or nothing two months before the PPV with nothing announced because AEW PPVs usually deliver so I was willing to risk the money and it was an amazing PPV, but yeah these days I am not spending that money unless I know what I am buying.
It’s mostly the ticket prices. No matter how many times people point it out, the prices remain high. The ticket prices were far more affordable in the beginning and they desperately need to get back to that range.
I think it was Alvarez himself that said when your ticket prices are higher than WWE (which is red hot at the moment) then something is wrong. They gotta change that.
I can say from experience: Back when I gave a shit about AEW and they came to my hometown? Tickets STARTED at something like $220-250 CAD. I decided I didn't need to see them that badly. 👎
Nah it's more than that. It's the bad booking, lack of decent storytelling, lack of wrestling psychology in most wrestlers, lack of sense of urgency in matches, moves just to do moves, green wrestlers, lack of stars, just to name a few things..
They've spent the past 6-12 months coasting on the idea of selling "dream matches". Matches like Omega vs Vikingo might be cool and might appeal to a certain demographic of wrestling fans, but ultimately if there's no reason or real story as to why these two guys are in a match then the majority of fans don't care. A 3 star match with a 5 star story will always be better than the opposite - and those make moments that last a lifetime.
Still doing it. Why is Danielson wrestling random names who aren’t even on the roster and not some young talents who are desperate for a build? You’re letting big names do what they want rather than use them to bolster your up and coming names
@@nineteenctDanielson is facing former triple crown champs, and Eddie's idols. They talked about this, I don't know how much hand holding someone can need
Traditionally with WWE? Yes. For wrestling fans outside that bubble, I remember the big matches over the stories. I remember as a kid hearing about the Dundee - Lawler matches and tried my hardest to get tapes, I didn't even know or care what the story was. Same with the Misawa Tsuruta matches. Then came WCW with the coolest thrown together luchadors in the world which I cared about infinitely more than whatever story Hogan or Luger were in. Wrestling is important to wrestling fans
I got a mate who is a diehard AEW fan. Never missed a single weekly show or PPV since the original All in. Gave up watching a few weeks ago. Tells me all I need to go on how it's going.
I was really high on aew bc of cody.. and wwe sucked... then bucks WERE... funny. Then punk joined and I'm thinking oh this is the shit!!!! He gets hurt... then the brawl out.. then Kenny and bucks started mocking punk and all the shit that followed I realized that we shouldn't know the real heat backstage it muddy the water for the worked part of it. Sucks aew was good there for a sec
Character work > In-ring work. I almost always know I'll see some solid matches on AEW, but I'm bored to death because nobody makes me CARE about anything that's happening.
@@TheFinishedArticle I've been watching wrestling for 20 years now. I know what I like. Characters are great. Wrestling matches are great. One does not mog the other and the goal of mainstream attention shouldnt be that of a fan but the businessman who push papers. And right now the only mainstream attention wrestling has is Vince McMahon being a rapist.
Here's what AEW needs. They need ONE compelling storyline, just one. Then Tony Khan can have his 5 star matches with everyone else. But you need ONE compelling storyline to draw tickets and tv ratings.
@@TribalThief I don't care about stars, but a lot of people do. If AEW has ONE compelling storyline, they can have a 5 star match between a lizard 🦎 and a butterfly the rest of the show 🦋 People would still tune in weekly for that ONE compelling storyline.
@@AdrianBeegoatz Exactly. They can do anything as long as they have One compelling storyline. I had banana smoothie 🍌 and salmon 🐠 for lunch today. They can have an angle between a banana and a salmon if they want.
Having a 2nd weekly touring show like Collision has to be hurting their ticket sales for both shows now you split the roster's star power even more instead of focusing on making Dynamite as stacked as possible
The problem is that the ticket prices are so high. Expecting fans to pay top dollar for 2 AEW shows and/or 2 WWE shows+PPV shows is crazy. I love AEW but if both shows are in town right now I’m gonna see the WWE show. It feels like you get more value for your dollar right now.
@@lamasizzy0599The reason why the ticket prices are high is because the show doesn't have casual appeal. They could lower the ticket prices and only sell a thousand more tickets. A show like WWE would sell way more than 1000 extra tickets from lowering prices. Not hating just stating
To be fair they are great shows, but people only know that after the fact and don't want to buy expensive tickets for a show for a card they don't even know.
As someone who attended the first Double or Nothing, multiple other AEW events, and watched their TV for the first few years… I haven’t been interested in AEW for over a year now. The owner and many of the key players exposed who they are and it’s just a lame product in current form.
The reason Tony Khan can’t promote the shows a week ahead of time is because he’s writing the shows up until the day before or the day of. The same thing we used to criticize Vince McMahon about.
@@marlock6573 I try to watch atleast dynamite every week but it always seems to consist of another tournament no one cares about or the formation of another faction that makes no sense and has a stupid name. Sprinkle in a few half decent matches with other wrestling promotions titles on the line that no one cares about and maybe 1 promo of someone saying "I am coming for you champ" and that's the show. There is no depth to the stories or characters they have. Evidence for this is how many WWE stars have gone there and actually got worse.
I keep thinking of this wrestling journalist I know that sat maybe 2 feet from Tony Khan and asked him point blank to his face if he feels he should focus more on the show than Twitter outbursts. Tony responded by ignoring the question and talking about how everything is great. Really BS like that is why things are cooling off. Denial, valid criticism getting shouted down, and outright refusal to address some of the perplexing booking decisions.
I feel it’s too much as a viewer too. One two hour show with optional UA-cam content was better. Now I feel lost sometimes watching dynamite. It’s a bigger commitment and frankly not worth it.
Compelling. Storylines. Not to oversimplify it, but at its base level fans tune in and show up to see pro wrestlers battle because there are stories throughout the night. Please...captivate us, make us NEED to watch your product. Or just keep throwing 3 random Mexican guys in there to absolutely zero reaction. Whatever...Ive been behind them since day 1 but something feels dead...they are limping, both legs. I just need to know when Toni Storm and Samoa Joe is on. That is it. We need to be invested, and right now there just isnt much, hardly anything at all.
There is a difference in booking one off shows or the odd show here and there and booking for weekly TV. To be fair, there aren't many people in history who have been good at booking weekly TV for extended periods of time. The problem for AEW is the weekly TV shows feel like house shows. Nothing of interest seems to happen. Just look at how few clips of AEW go viral these days compared to year 1 and 2.
You shouldn’t need to list the people on the show, because it should be obvious based on the last two MONTHS of TV. Like who cares if they announce if Bryan Danielson is on Dynamite tomorrow. Him simply being there is not going to sell tickets at this point. Now if he was in hot feuds that were consistently featured on Dynamite for the past two/three months, and they announced a show in my city, I am buying a ticket because I know pretty damn well that he will be booked and in a hot feud. It’s like when Joe won the title at Word’s End, and he wasn’t even on the TV the next week. It’s not even about advertising a specific person. You can’t even assume that the AEW World Champion is going to be on the show on any given week. And there are so many champions, you can’t even assume which champions will be there. Too often these days I find myself asking “why is this match happening?” and if I can’t think of a good reason I tune out. It doesn’t matter how great the match is if there is no reason to want to see someone win or lose. Like Jeff Hardy vs Sammy Guevara in a No DQ match. Why? Did I seriously miss I something where these two were feuding, and that a No DQ match was needed to progress the story? And so it happens, okay, how does this lead into next weeks show? The roster is overflowing with talent and we are having matches just to have cool matches.
For a company that parks so many wrestlers on the side for random amounts of times on a regular basis, it makes perfect sense that people would want to know who is going to be there ahead of time.
AEW needs focus on building characters and compelling storylines that people care about. Having great "5 star" matches alone is all well and good (for hardcare fans) *but* characters and compelling storylines are what people care about and what draws the numbers to the shows.
Giving the current state of AEW I don’t think this is the best take. AEW has solid characters: The Bucks new gimmick is doing good, Joe is doing real good as champion, Toni Storm is doing great still in her gimmick and champion, Christian Cage is still doing good, Swerve is on his way to a face turn, and Hangman is going fuckin nuts and on his way to a heel turn. The stories are there as well bucks vs sting/darby, whatever you define the world title situation as, clearly Adam C. is still chasing Christian Cage, and Deonna is chasing Toni so every champion is in a feud. And that’s just dynamite.
AEW continues to be pure ‘potential without the execution’. There is talent there, yeah, and there are some interesting personas for sure (Joe, Storm, Swerve, Starks, MJF before going good or whatever he became). The problem is there is no proper direction for ANYBODY. No thoroughly laid out motivations. No layered development of the wrestlers. No consistent week to week build-ups of any kind. And just WAY too much comedy. BAD comedy. There is talent in AEW. But just not enough in the “booking” department. And not enough to put an end to all the bad ideas that make it on TV (the promos referencing WWE, the over-abundance of hardcore, the over-abundance of swearing and middle fingers, Brandon Cutler, most Jericho ideas, all Bucks ideas, etc.) And good on Tony Khan for making so many partnerships with other promotions. But while their business is going up… his business here at home is dropping because he doesn’t know how to mesh those relationships into compelling television, and they actually make his shows weaker 🤷🏻♂️
“AEW has cool off” no shit, that’s been the case for 2 years. Announcing matches well in advance isn’t gonna make them do sell outs. That’s just ignorant.
AEW is shooting them selves in the foot by not marketing locally, having high ticket prices, and choosing “dream” matches over telling stories. Mox, Starks, Danielson, FTR, OC, etc are all spinning their wheels not doing anything.
Mox and Claudio are feuding with FTR, Danielson is feuding with Eddie Kingston, and will face him for the Triple Crown at Revolution, Orange Cassidy has been feuding with Roderick Strong for over a month and is facing him at Revolution defending his title. The only one you named not doing anything is Starks. Feels like you don't even watch the shows.@@lamasizzy0599
They just have to run smaller venues. For like the whole year. The crowds are hurting the product so people don't want to watch which is hurting ticket sales. Also it can't really be overstated how hurt they were from the way they handled CM Punk. I don't care if the people on Twitter or you called him the badguy in the situation. Him being fired made people stop coming to the shows.
“AEW has cooled off” is a strange thing to say when they have been ice cold for a year. And I say this as someone desperate for AEW to succeed. Their TV over the past two months has been better than any two month period since 2021 (2022 was bad, 2023 was atrocious). It isn’t reflected in ratings or ticket sales yet because they lost the trust of the audience and it takes a while to get it back (look how long it took them to lose it). The only way to do that is produce consistently good television for at least 6 months. It would also help if they could get a single top babyface over to a very hot standard, or a major angle goes nuclear, and I don’t know how that can happen anytime soon. MJF/Kingdom isn’t it. Neither is Mercedes or Ospreay or Okada. And I actually think they need to just bring Okada in and strap him up immediately. Meltzer said something the week before Dynamite aired for the first time that I always remembered. He said: “this will be a wrestling war whether they want it or not because that’s how Vince operates, and wrestling wars are not won by producing the best wrestling - they are won by producing the biggest stars.” AEW clears WWE in wrestling. WWE clears AEW in creating stars people want to see. It’s that simple.
The history of wrestling is a handful of guys eating good while everyone else in the locker room suffers. The biggest issue with TK is that he does not operate that way. He wants a larger pool of successful people but... That is not how you make the company successful long term. There will always be winners & losers in terms of booking. The duty of the individual wrestlers is to get themselves over and become one of the wrestlers who eats good.
@@krim7To be fair, Hogan's run as champ may have meant that no one was touching the belt it also meant that gates were bigger. A number of performers came out saying that Hogan was bringing in a LOT of people and everyone benefited from it up and down the card - Hogan politicking and favoring his buddies aside.
AEW has worse wrestling matches also. Having matches go longer with more kick outs doesn't mean a match is "better". The selling is atrocious, moves that should kill the 135 pound wrestlers, don't. Those are bad matches to me.
@@Pennypackerr Yes, I suppose watching Miz wrestle as if he is wearing boots made of cement, or watching Dominik Mysterio wrestle as if he is under water, or Maxine Dupree look like she isn’t even ready for NXT, is way better than watching Bryan Danielson put on technical clinics and Christian do perfect things at the perfect time and FTR always be in the right place. No, you’re right. You’ve convinced me.
@@cmcg3738 it's ok if you like to watch guys with no personality and no aura or distinct look to them, wrestle back and forth for 20 minutes every match. If that's what you like, then good for you bud. I wouldn't try to convince you of anything.
What are the major storylines in AEW right now? The talent is there, but where are the stories? In WWE, you have Cody culminating a two-year quest to win the title that his father never could against someone who's held the title longer than anyone in the modern era - and his movie star cousin is now on his side. That's all great drama. You have CM Punk with a built-in blood feud against a version of Drew who is better as a smartass heel than he's ever been. You have the longest-reigning IC champion of all time. You have the most dominant woman's champion possibly facing the most successful former woman's champion. You have Bayley facing off against the women she mentored for years. I'm not a *huge* WWE fan, but there's good stuff there. AEW's biggest storyline is a a sort of double-turn of Swerve and Hangman over the world title and the Bucks turning heel. Copeland vs. Christian is still a solid storyline too. Unfortunately, there isn't much else there. The devil reveal totally flopped. No one cares about the Kingdom as serious heels, Wardlow looks bored, and Cole and MJF are possibly still months from being able to wrestle again. Otherwise, there are too many titles and matches mostly just for matches' sake where none of them involve an interesting story hook beyond, "The match will be good."
Aew had a collision a few weeks ago in edinburg Tx close to my area and the goods just didn’t outweigh the nobodies being there for me to wanna go, I even waited the til the last day for card updates; the only attractions were Christian and Danielson, but their booking was terrible
Its also star power, a WWE house show getting 7000 people doesnt have their matches announced but even if the main event was a tag match with LA Knight and Randy Orton vs. The Bloodline its a bigger main event than AEW puts on TV...
They have been cool for a while now. I think the major issue is that the booking always had problems, but buy first adding rampage and later adding collision as a “more time to do something for more talent and follow up properly” made it more apparent. Also I overplayed gloriously for what I thought would be a great ticket for Wembley, got placed right behind a camera crane who’s footage barely got used and the ticket for the same seat is now hundreds of pounds more expensive. Not going to make that trip again.
It's amazing how Dave and Bryan have turned on AEW. Dave was so mad the other night sbout the Darbie thing. Cornett said it best. He was like a disappointed dad. 😂
0:53 AEW kinda feels like build you own storyline tbh, there is not much reference for a new viewers, even I who've watched dynamite and ppvs regularly until last year can't keep up with some characters and their current motivations if I jump back to satch again right now.
That’s exactly the problem. AEW does not have “main characters”. You think WWE right now and it’s Roman/Cody/Seth/Drew/etc. WWE has like 6-10 people who are regularly featured. AEW positioned The Elite, Jericho, MJF, and Mox as their main characters originally and right now The Elite is essentially disbanded again, Jericho is washed, MJF is hurt, and Mox is wrestling fun matches but in no real feuds.
It's just not fun anymore to many random matches happening,wwe has their problems as well but im having fun watching raw and smackdown because of the weekly storylines,aew ain't been the same since cody left
AEW has a main character problem. At the start it was The Elite, Jericho, Mox, and MJF. Now there’s nobody you can point to and say the show is consistently build around these core guys. WWE has main characters. Cody, Seth, Sami, Drew, Roman…
@@lamasizzy0599 I agree it's so much happening in aew sometimes it's hard to keep up with everything, especially when it's something you don't care about
@@donzellmccalipp8510 they just need to focus on 6-10 people. Everyone else has to fit in where they can but they need to go back to building the show around a handful of people. Right now they are having all their top talent rarely work with each other because Tony hates his guys taking pins.
Everytime a wrestler is hot, they do nothing with them. Scorpio Sky, Private Party, these are guys who got super over, super quick, they lost momentum afterwards. Hook was the most over guy in all of wrestling, they put the FTW title on him and not really much else memorable. They all get lost in the shuffle of a bloated roster and too many factions. I would never imagine Moxley and PAC's characters making friends, somehow they did
Yes I agree 100%, that's the first and only time I thought they had the momentum in their favor against WWE. CM Punk had just beat Darby in his return match.. 😮It all went to hell though, and it's sad
I have never bought tickets to a wrestling show without knowing in advance what will be on that show. The only show I would consider doing that for is like a Mania or Wembley where the sales start much earlier and there wont be tickets when its all announced. But even I would have waited until now when Mania main events are basically announced
Heck if I could go to Wembley I would buy tickets regardless of nothing announced because like Mania the company is going to go all out for it and make it worth it. Sadly the same can't be said for a random Dynamite or Collision.
It's absolutely cooled off. What's really frustrating is the fact AEW has the same problems now that it had two years ago, and it's shown no interest in fixing those problems. Every major issue at AEW has been called out by fans and observers for YEARS. It's not talent or skill; AEW has the talent and industry knowledge to fix their problems. The question now is why won't whoever's calling the shots put that talent in a position to succeed.
All the stars that casual fans cared about are gone. No more Cody, no more Punk, no more MJF. Although not on their level, Kenny is still above everyone else left and he's not there right now either. The storylines have largely been underwhelming, and the workers (and owner for that matter) have heavily prioritized in ring work over character work. I've used this example so many times in the past and I'll say it again here. Dean Malenko was one of the greatest in ring performers to ever do it. Nobody gave a single solitary fuck about him being on their television screen because nobody cares about Dean Malenko. His character was not over at all. To an American audience, in ring work will always come second to interesting characters. Make me care. And they haven't done that.
Because being “good wrestler” or “indie darling” is not good enough to make people invested, to relate to them, unless they are supremely talented (Bryan Danielson). That’s the gimmick of most AEW wrestlers. Here are two examples: Toni Storm and Daniel Garcia. Both are great wrestlers, but they had to have something to make people interested in them. Toni when she became “Timeless”, and DG when he now has a dancing gimmick. For the longest time, they were just “good wrestlers”, and now they are doing “sports-entertainment” stuff, and they became interesting.
I think the Tony Khan does have a long term card/plan mapped out in his mind for the next PPVs or Big Shows.But what he struggles is actually in between the weeks leading up to it & building those feuds or matches properly in a systematic and meaningful way
I dont think AEW has been real hot for a long time now and I say this as a fan. They've definitely got some work to do. Bringin in the free agents won't be enough.
The top babyface in WWE getting a chant on AEW says it all. They have an entire storyline revolved around CM Punk who has already left and didn’t bother capitalising on it while the iron was hot.
it's always been obvious to me that Tony's "booker of the year" awards came when the top guys were pretty much booking their own stuff. Tony on his own is just directionless
The last time I went to Dynamite here in Atlanta, I had a good time because it was my son's first wrestling show but the card wasn't that great and the ticket prices were high. Dynamite is coming back here next month and I am literally waiting til the week of before I decide if I'm going to see who's on the card. I'm not paying all that money to see Matt hardy, top flight, Daniel garcia, Wardlow in a squash match, and a promo from swerve and hangman. When you watch raw, Cody Rhodes and CM Punk are on every episode. You don't always see the big names you want with dynamite which is why I'm waiting
This is a very indie way of looking at things. They do not need to announce matches earlier, because this isn't an indie promotion. I think that is the big issue for AEW is that they do still kinda feel like an indie. They are putting on matches, they are not putting on stories. There are stories. But they all kinda feel like they are going week by week. The only people who had the creative writing understanding to make that work was Punk, MJF and Chris Jericho. Neither of them are on the show right now. AEW needs to start hiring writers and make a creative team if they want to be a television show that draws regular people(people who wouldn't go to a PWG show). They need stories. Desperately. They got some great characters. I would say better than WWE. But they are just running in place until they suddenly are in a big match out of what feels like nowhere. That is their real issue. They NEED writers. Desperately.
And they have stars. If you say Roman, Cody, Becky, Seth. Anyone like that will be there without knowing any matches people will show up. AEW needs to get to the point where just saying a person will be there is enough but they are at the point where they need to actually announce some matches.
@@haloichigo1 ; they had Punk. But the Bucks and their buddies ran him off. Cody and MJF could have been those stars… they were both on track. But they need willing and able dance partners to work with, and AEW just doesn’t have too many on that level.
AEW is acting like it’s their off season. Where is Jay White’s story? When did Will Hobbs last wrestle? Where is House of Black? Why is RVD on the show? Why was Jeff Jarrett on the show for weeks? I’m tired of jobber matches and useless promos. I don’t want to see Queen Amadala or Abadon. I used to watch Dynamite live every week. Rampage every Saturday morning. Now I get halfway through the show and just don’t care.
I’ve gotta say that Tulsa is the closest AEW has come to where I live (it actually isn’t Chicago) and I really looked at going and want to go. Unfortunately, nowhere did I see it advertised that they were coming to this location until last week and now everyone who I could get to go with me can’t get off of work or school to go. Really disappointing. Been a fan of AEW since Dynamite first aired and would’ve liked to have gone.
The PPV has 13,000 cause it’s Stings last match and it’s in Greensboro. Any promotion with that match in that area of the country and a tv deal is going to draw. It’s a one off that speaks nothing about the AEW product, they are as cold as theyve ever been.
Love AEW but it’s been dropping off hard for months, I started last weeks and when I saw Moxleys Barbed Wire tron to start the show again 🥴 like when it was O.C every week, the music started and it’s like 8 weeks on the bounce or feels like it, I was like ughhhh, Moxley is fn terrible which doesn’t help. it’s proper samey and really lacking in star power with all the injury’s too, . Not interested in CMLL, I switch off through most of the Japanese FD build, it’s either same same or anything different is too neiche even for me, a die hard kid on the forums day and night with no life 😂🤙🏼 They need a big repackaging, commentary , show music, format and stop running down the full show every week, let me keep watching and see who comes out and what happens. Announce a main event, 2 matches at most and let us see what happens for the rest
As a person that loved AEW shows for a time, reality must be met. Bryan is right. AEW got a lot of my pay-per-view money, as well as more than a few trips to Jacksonville in the past. I think between them branching out beyond Daily's Place, and the CM Punk debacle, I turned sour on the promotion. I very rarely watch now. Sad but true.
How about having all their stars on TV every week whether they're wrestling or not, have them do something. Too many times there will be a great promo or segment etc and then the next week the person isn't on the show.
To say its cause they dont announce the matches is a cop-out. if wwe didn't announce the matches you know who you will see for most part, you're into the storylines and characters and you know will enjoy the time. The key is people are invested and want to see them in any form they are appearing in matches. He even said how the house shows wwe did well on wasn't a tv event, implying you expect them to sell well, yet the aew show he is talking about is dynamite, and doesn't sell well. Say all anyone wants about whatever issue wwe has at any point, they have earned the goodwill of knowing they will put on a good show and have you invested right now. A hardcore fan base will help when things are lean, though you see how it never translates big picture. If you aren't a hardcore follower, you dont know who or why you are supposed to care about half the matches that Dave and Brian get excited about. Just for a random example, R-truth, someone just tuning in or going to an event will right away get caught up in his storyline and enjoy, where as when aew brings in someone from Japan you're just supposed to know, as the average viewer, wow, this is huge.
While I get announcing matches ahead of time. Comparing a random dynamite in Tulsa to a NJPW battle at the valley or special CMLL event is kinda dragging it. It's a special event compared to a weekly show. It's like if I reversed it and compared revolution to a regular show and said look AEW is hot they've sold 16,000 compared to a weekly show.
The reason is fairly simple and I'm sure what Levesque would have thought when AEW started , it will be a novelty and give indie marks a chance to see ''dream'' matches and fawn over all the wrestling for a couple of years . At the end of the day , wrestling is wrestling . You need something to keep peoples attention week to week . WWE has it , AEW doesn't . With Levesque in charge of creative , WWE will get better and better . AEW will decline and be a ''very good wrestling show'' version of TNA in a year or so . Khan peaked too early , signing everyone on his wishlist and now he doesnt know what to do with them . A lot more will want to join Levesque sooner rather than later.
Tickets are too expensive, for the average Joe Sixpack to be able to afford to take his wife and kids to watch a night of wrestling. So you're left with the hardcore's which are few in number and getting fewer.
I couldn't agree more, Bryan. I've been saying this for months. This last minute booking is crap and it hurts the product, hurts the wrestlers, and definitely dillutes interest in the product. This is blantantly obvious - I LOVE AEW but I am so frustrated with this easy to remedy crap. Tony needs HELP - he needs important support pieces in place that are reigning in his worst tendencies and helping him to be better organized. Period.
I think AEW is trying to run these bigger venues as a sort of “perception is reality” situation. The constantly moving goal posts of “well they’ll never fill an arena, well they’ll never succeed on tv, well they’ll never fill a stadium” from the first couple years of the company and them then accomplishing that thing made them confident. AEW was hot and WWE was cold, they were selling out the United Center on a rumor for a new tv show debut and it set them up as “if we run these bigger venues and continue to sell well there people can’t say that we’re just selling out smaller venues than WWE” And then all of the backstage drama in AEW starts, Hunter takes over at WWE and corrects course, and suddenly the commitment to running these large venues is hurt the AEW perception in the same way they wanted to avoid.
Tony needs to pick his guys and stick to it. AEW has too many characters to be able to get invested. WWE picked their 7-10 guys and they are the main characters of WWE. Cody, Seth, Drew, Sami, Gunther, etc with Roman showing up every now and then. AEW doesn’t have main characters. AEW has recurring characters.
Been ice cold for a while now. Not sure what has been really compelling recently. Sure they still put on good to great matches every week but that's not enough to keep people coming back.
they've literally been putting on some of their best TV the past few months with great champions, great wrestlers, great matches, and great stories. I thought they were cooling off most of last year, but they have been cooking literally since day one of 2024. what is this?
This is an accurate reflection on poor ticket sales. The evidence is in front of your eyes every week. AEW used to 5,000-6,000 tickets for Dynamite every week. Now it’s 2,000 and under. WWE is doing 7,000 for a house show. Stop getting upset by facts.
It's the TKO/endevour propaganda machine. They're blaming AEW slowdown with the product, which is wrong. Inflation and a crunching market are to blame. But that's not going to stop the FOMO youtube community from kicking AEW some more. AEW's been a great show for the past month or so.
Remember when everybody got a kick out of Excalibur having to announce 18 upcoming matches in the span of a minute? Kinda need that back, it sounds like.
Now that he mentions it. THAT is definitely the reason AEW has struggled with Tickets. They NEED to announce at minimum, 2 WEEKS in advance for cards so people like me who has 2 Jobs can call off.
I feel that a lot of people that would be AEW fans get turned off by the product due to Tony Khan being the face of the company rather than any of the wrestlers.
Tony needs help. Simple as that. I love AEW but even I have lost interest over the past year or so. Good workers and matches but none of the storylines are killing it for me. I really hope they make some chmages.
it never heated up...only on twitter and social media. the indy fans did their best to make AEW look like a bigger deal than it actually was and ever will be
This is exactly right. People were into AEW because they wanted to stick it to WWE. They thought all kinds of people would be AEW fans to stick it to WWE. But people dont care about what the IWC and Meltzer think whats wrong. They want to be entertained and see some stars. So all these goofs bought whatever AEW sold and said, and since everyone was in the bubble saying the same they thought they were right. But AEW stayed what it was and these AEW fans are realizing AEW is boring, repetitive and in the end dull. While all kinds of fans are enjoying WWE because its fun and entertaining. Its not about the best wrestler and who could bloody each other up in a foolish hardcore or extreme match. People are entertained by stories and spectacle. AEW fans aren't being reassured anymore because they are watching AEW now in a smaller and smaller amount of satisfied viewers. They are just left behind as people watch WWE and talk about this weeks events and what will happen next. Not making a statement about modern wrestling or match quality because they dont care about any of that, just being entertained. Because people dont care about that stupid micro shit that the dirtsheets are talking about. AEW fans have been left behind because they are expecting something big to actually happen, and it never will happen.
I am a huge AEW fan but Bryan is right in this case. Collision was in my city 3 weeks ago and I didn't buy a ticket because I didn't know what to expect on the show and the tickets were expensive and didn't want to spend that much money and hope for a good card. A couple of years ago I bought tickets to double or nothing two months before the PPV with nothing announced because AEW PPVs usually deliver so I was willing to risk the money and it was an amazing PPV, but yeah these days I am not spending that money unless I know what I am buying.
It’s mostly the ticket prices. No matter how many times people point it out, the prices remain high. The ticket prices were far more affordable in the beginning and they desperately need to get back to that range.
I think it was Alvarez himself that said when your ticket prices are higher than WWE (which is red hot at the moment) then something is wrong. They gotta change that.
I can say from experience: Back when I gave a shit about AEW and they came to my hometown? Tickets STARTED at something like $220-250 CAD. I decided I didn't need to see them that badly. 👎
Nah it's more than that. It's the bad booking, lack of decent storytelling, lack of wrestling psychology in most wrestlers, lack of sense of urgency in matches, moves just to do moves, green wrestlers, lack of stars, just to name a few things..
THIS 100%@@OrlyYaRlyK
@@OrlyYaRlyK nah it's not. That's just word salad from people that don't watch the shit to begin with.
They've spent the past 6-12 months coasting on the idea of selling "dream matches". Matches like Omega vs Vikingo might be cool and might appeal to a certain demographic of wrestling fans, but ultimately if there's no reason or real story as to why these two guys are in a match then the majority of fans don't care. A 3 star match with a 5 star story will always be better than the opposite - and those make moments that last a lifetime.
Still doing it. Why is Danielson wrestling random names who aren’t even on the roster and not some young talents who are desperate for a build? You’re letting big names do what they want rather than use them to bolster your up and coming names
@@nineteenctDanielson is facing former triple crown champs, and Eddie's idols. They talked about this, I don't know how much hand holding someone can need
Traditionally with WWE? Yes. For wrestling fans outside that bubble, I remember the big matches over the stories. I remember as a kid hearing about the Dundee - Lawler matches and tried my hardest to get tapes, I didn't even know or care what the story was. Same with the Misawa Tsuruta matches. Then came WCW with the coolest thrown together luchadors in the world which I cared about infinitely more than whatever story Hogan or Luger were in.
Wrestling is important to wrestling fans
I got a mate who is a diehard AEW fan. Never missed a single weekly show or PPV since the original All in. Gave up watching a few weeks ago. Tells me all I need to go on how it's going.
hes a traitor then not areal wrestling fan
It's awful. Unwatchable.
compared to WWE it is watchable your so wrong @@kevinryan7669
I was really high on aew bc of cody.. and wwe sucked... then bucks WERE... funny. Then punk joined and I'm thinking oh this is the shit!!!! He gets hurt... then the brawl out.. then Kenny and bucks started mocking punk and all the shit that followed I realized that we shouldn't know the real heat backstage it muddy the water for the worked part of it. Sucks aew was good there for a sec
it still is@@joshfloridian9614
Character work > In-ring work.
I almost always know I'll see some solid matches on AEW, but I'm bored to death because nobody makes me CARE about anything that's happening.
So you’re telling me a guy who’s really talented at wrestling isn’t a good character? 🤯
Watch WWE than. Please just watch WWE. Its okay.
@@UFCWWE69No, Thats why Dean Malenko was never over. You need more than good wrestling to become a star.
@@lamelame1779Stay in denial, please stay in denial.
@@TheFinishedArticle I've been watching wrestling for 20 years now. I know what I like. Characters are great. Wrestling matches are great. One does not mog the other and the goal of mainstream attention shouldnt be that of a fan but the businessman who push papers. And right now the only mainstream attention wrestling has is Vince McMahon being a rapist.
The ppv sold long before we knew who sting was facing
That's because people wanted to be there for stings last match regardless of who it was against
The 13,000 is for Sting’s last match 5:26 . That’s why it’s sold so well. If it wasn’t for that… it would be half that. They have cooled off.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Here's what AEW needs. They need ONE compelling storyline, just one. Then Tony Khan can have his 5 star matches with everyone else. But you need ONE compelling storyline to draw tickets and tv ratings.
You do realise that Meltzer "Give stars" are a joke right?
@@TribalThief I don't care about stars, but a lot of people do. If AEW has ONE compelling storyline, they can have a 5 star match between a lizard 🦎 and a butterfly the rest of the show 🦋 People would still tune in weekly for that ONE compelling storyline.
@@jaysgeronca; funny enough, AEW employs both a Lizard AND a Butterfly, so they really could air this show.
@@AdrianBeegoatz Exactly. They can do anything as long as they have One compelling storyline. I had banana smoothie 🍌 and salmon 🐠 for lunch today. They can have an angle between a banana and a salmon if they want.
I’m stunned people aren’t throwing their money at expensive tickets for a bunch of heatless bangers.
Having a 2nd weekly touring show like Collision has to be hurting their ticket sales for both shows
now you split the roster's star power even more instead of focusing on making Dynamite as stacked as possible
The problem is that the ticket prices are so high. Expecting fans to pay top dollar for 2 AEW shows and/or 2 WWE shows+PPV shows is crazy. I love AEW but if both shows are in town right now I’m gonna see the WWE show. It feels like you get more value for your dollar right now.
As much as i agree, Collision is needed due to the size of the roster.
@@lamasizzy0599The reason why the ticket prices are high is because the show doesn't have casual appeal. They could lower the ticket prices and only sell a thousand more tickets. A show like WWE would sell way more than 1000 extra tickets from lowering prices. Not hating just stating
agreed collison should be like SNME, once a month or every other.
I didn’t know they stacked shit that high.
Bryan does make some good points, i really hope AEW turn a corner and fix their attendance problem as they can provide great shows.
If they were great shows, people would be watching them and they're not.
Tony don’t mind because it’s a “Great show guys” 😂
To be fair they are great shows, but people only know that after the fact and don't want to buy expensive tickets for a show for a card they don't even know.
Great shows🙈😭😂, ffs
Ding @@TribalThief
@@haloichigo1idc about matches with no named wrestlers that go on forever and have no continuity. that’s an aew show
@@haloichigo1 meaningless matches doesn't make anything great ...the recall value is what makes a match great
As someone who attended the first Double or Nothing, multiple other AEW events, and watched their TV for the first few years… I haven’t been interested in AEW for over a year now. The owner and many of the key players exposed who they are and it’s just a lame product in current form.
The reason Tony Khan can’t promote the shows a week ahead of time is because he’s writing the shows up until the day before or the day of. The same thing we used to criticize Vince McMahon about.
Source: Trust me bro
Writing the show? Hardly any show to write. It's just a bunch of "dream" matches with 10 factions that no one cares about.
@@3619jonYeah, I'm confused about how much thought actually goes into that nonsense. None of it makes any sense or carries over.
@@Behaving_Golem then does he wait until the day before or day of to announce half the card?
@@marlock6573 I try to watch atleast dynamite every week but it always seems to consist of another tournament no one cares about or the formation of another faction that makes no sense and has a stupid name. Sprinkle in a few half decent matches with other wrestling promotions titles on the line that no one cares about and maybe 1 promo of someone saying "I am coming for you champ" and that's the show. There is no depth to the stories or characters they have. Evidence for this is how many WWE stars have gone there and actually got worse.
Smackdown coming up in Phoenix is sold out at about 10,000 to 15,000
I keep thinking of this wrestling journalist I know that sat maybe 2 feet from Tony Khan and asked him point blank to his face if he feels he should focus more on the show than Twitter outbursts.
Tony responded by ignoring the question and talking about how everything is great. Really BS like that is why things are cooling off. Denial, valid criticism getting shouted down, and outright refusal to address some of the perplexing booking decisions.
Its a difference between running weekly shows and announcing PPV matches i would think
I feel it’s too much as a viewer too. One two hour show with optional UA-cam content was better. Now I feel lost sometimes watching dynamite. It’s a bigger commitment and frankly not worth it.
Shit was ice cold the week after punk was fired .
Preach
Long before that
Aew was cooling off while punk was there
Compelling. Storylines.
Not to oversimplify it, but at its base level fans tune in and show up to see pro wrestlers battle because there are stories throughout the night.
Please...captivate us, make us NEED to watch your product. Or just keep throwing 3 random Mexican guys in there to absolutely zero reaction. Whatever...Ive been behind them since day 1 but something feels dead...they are limping, both legs.
I just need to know when Toni Storm and Samoa Joe is on. That is it. We need to be invested, and right now there just isnt much, hardly anything at all.
There is a difference in booking one off shows or the odd show here and there and booking for weekly TV. To be fair, there aren't many people in history who have been good at booking weekly TV for extended periods of time.
The problem for AEW is the weekly TV shows feel like house shows. Nothing of interest seems to happen. Just look at how few clips of AEW go viral these days compared to year 1 and 2.
You shouldn’t need to list the people on the show, because it should be obvious based on the last two MONTHS of TV. Like who cares if they announce if Bryan Danielson is on Dynamite tomorrow. Him simply being there is not going to sell tickets at this point. Now if he was in hot feuds that were consistently featured on Dynamite for the past two/three months, and they announced a show in my city, I am buying a ticket because I know pretty damn well that he will be booked and in a hot feud.
It’s like when Joe won the title at Word’s End, and he wasn’t even on the TV the next week. It’s not even about advertising a specific person. You can’t even assume that the AEW World Champion is going to be on the show on any given week. And there are so many champions, you can’t even assume which champions will be there.
Too often these days I find myself asking “why is this match happening?” and if I can’t think of a good reason I tune out. It doesn’t matter how great the match is if there is no reason to want to see someone win or lose.
Like Jeff Hardy vs Sammy Guevara in a No DQ match. Why? Did I seriously miss I something where these two were feuding, and that a No DQ match was needed to progress the story? And so it happens, okay, how does this lead into next weeks show? The roster is overflowing with talent and we are having matches just to have cool matches.
100% yep
Banger answer. And yes, I used the word banger ironically.
For a company that parks so many wrestlers on the side for random amounts of times on a regular basis, it makes perfect sense that people would want to know who is going to be there ahead of time.
THIS!!!!
AEW was better when the mentioned Main Events a week prior and they were just banger matches
they literally do that. raw you never know the full card..
Why are you using cooled off in present tense?
AEW needs focus on building characters and compelling storylines that people care about. Having great "5 star" matches alone is all well and good (for hardcare fans) *but* characters and compelling storylines are what people care about and what draws the numbers to the shows.
Giving the current state of AEW I don’t think this is the best take. AEW has solid characters: The Bucks new gimmick is doing good, Joe is doing real good as champion, Toni Storm is doing great still in her gimmick and champion, Christian Cage is still doing good, Swerve is on his way to a face turn, and Hangman is going fuckin nuts and on his way to a heel turn. The stories are there as well bucks vs sting/darby, whatever you define the world title situation as, clearly Adam C. is still chasing Christian Cage, and Deonna is chasing Toni so every champion is in a feud. And that’s just dynamite.
Solid characters perhaps but intresting and/or compelling characters and storylines I don't think they have bar maybe MJF and he's injured.
AEW continues to be pure ‘potential without the execution’.
There is talent there, yeah, and there are some interesting personas for sure (Joe, Storm, Swerve, Starks, MJF before going good or whatever he became).
The problem is there is no proper direction for ANYBODY.
No thoroughly laid out motivations. No layered development of the wrestlers. No consistent week to week build-ups of any kind. And just WAY too much comedy. BAD comedy.
There is talent in AEW.
But just not enough in the “booking” department.
And not enough to put an end to all the bad ideas that make it on TV (the promos referencing WWE, the over-abundance of hardcore, the over-abundance of swearing and middle fingers, Brandon Cutler, most Jericho ideas, all Bucks ideas, etc.)
And good on Tony Khan for making so many partnerships with other promotions.
But while their business is going up… his business here at home is dropping because he doesn’t know how to mesh those relationships into compelling television, and they actually make his shows weaker 🤷🏻♂️
“AEW has cool off” no shit, that’s been the case for 2 years. Announcing matches well in advance isn’t gonna make them do sell outs. That’s just ignorant.
I agree because WWE does the same thing. It’s their marketing and not having local advertisements is what’s killing AEW in smaller markets
AEW is shooting them selves in the foot by not marketing locally, having high ticket prices, and choosing “dream” matches over telling stories. Mox, Starks, Danielson, FTR, OC, etc are all spinning their wheels not doing anything.
Mox and Claudio are feuding with FTR, Danielson is feuding with Eddie Kingston, and will face him for the Triple Crown at Revolution, Orange Cassidy has been feuding with Roderick Strong for over a month and is facing him at Revolution defending his title. The only one you named not doing anything is Starks. Feels like you don't even watch the shows.@@lamasizzy0599
Cut ticket prices. You need the crowd to look good on TV
They just have to run smaller venues. For like the whole year. The crowds are hurting the product so people don't want to watch which is hurting ticket sales. Also it can't really be overstated how hurt they were from the way they handled CM Punk. I don't care if the people on Twitter or you called him the badguy in the situation. Him being fired made people stop coming to the shows.
“AEW has cooled off” is a strange thing to say when they have been ice cold for a year. And I say this as someone desperate for AEW to succeed.
Their TV over the past two months has been better than any two month period since 2021 (2022 was bad, 2023 was atrocious). It isn’t reflected in ratings or ticket sales yet because they lost the trust of the audience and it takes a while to get it back (look how long it took them to lose it). The only way to do that is produce consistently good television for at least 6 months. It would also help if they could get a single top babyface over to a very hot standard, or a major angle goes nuclear, and I don’t know how that can happen anytime soon. MJF/Kingdom isn’t it. Neither is Mercedes or Ospreay or Okada. And I actually think they need to just bring Okada in and strap him up immediately.
Meltzer said something the week before Dynamite aired for the first time that I always remembered. He said: “this will be a wrestling war whether they want it or not because that’s how Vince operates, and wrestling wars are not won by producing the best wrestling - they are won by producing the biggest stars.”
AEW clears WWE in wrestling. WWE clears AEW in creating stars people want to see. It’s that simple.
The history of wrestling is a handful of guys eating good while everyone else in the locker room suffers. The biggest issue with TK is that he does not operate that way. He wants a larger pool of successful people but... That is not how you make the company successful long term. There will always be winners & losers in terms of booking. The duty of the individual wrestlers is to get themselves over and become one of the wrestlers who eats good.
@@krim7To be fair, Hogan's run as champ may have meant that no one was touching the belt it also meant that gates were bigger. A number of performers came out saying that Hogan was bringing in a LOT of people and everyone benefited from it up and down the card - Hogan politicking and favoring his buddies aside.
AEW has worse wrestling matches also. Having matches go longer with more kick outs doesn't mean a match is "better". The selling is atrocious, moves that should kill the 135 pound wrestlers, don't. Those are bad matches to me.
@@Pennypackerr Yes, I suppose watching Miz wrestle as if he is wearing boots made of cement, or watching Dominik Mysterio wrestle as if he is under water, or Maxine Dupree look like she isn’t even ready for NXT, is way better than watching Bryan Danielson put on technical clinics and Christian do perfect things at the perfect time and FTR always be in the right place. No, you’re right. You’ve convinced me.
@@cmcg3738 it's ok if you like to watch guys with no personality and no aura or distinct look to them, wrestle back and forth for 20 minutes every match. If that's what you like, then good for you bud. I wouldn't try to convince you of anything.
What are the major storylines in AEW right now? The talent is there, but where are the stories?
In WWE, you have Cody culminating a two-year quest to win the title that his father never could against someone who's held the title longer than anyone in the modern era - and his movie star cousin is now on his side. That's all great drama.
You have CM Punk with a built-in blood feud against a version of Drew who is better as a smartass heel than he's ever been.
You have the longest-reigning IC champion of all time. You have the most dominant woman's champion possibly facing the most successful former woman's champion. You have Bayley facing off against the women she mentored for years.
I'm not a *huge* WWE fan, but there's good stuff there.
AEW's biggest storyline is a a sort of double-turn of Swerve and Hangman over the world title and the Bucks turning heel. Copeland vs. Christian is still a solid storyline too.
Unfortunately, there isn't much else there. The devil reveal totally flopped. No one cares about the Kingdom as serious heels, Wardlow looks bored, and Cole and MJF are possibly still months from being able to wrestle again. Otherwise, there are too many titles and matches mostly just for matches' sake where none of them involve an interesting story hook beyond, "The match will be good."
I’m glad Alvarez is properly providing constructive criticism the same way he did to WWE for so many years.
It took quite a while, but Tony needs to be called out! How many empty stadiums do they need before a change is made?
Aew had a collision a few weeks ago in edinburg Tx close to my area and the goods just didn’t outweigh the nobodies being there for me to wanna go, I even waited the til the last day for card updates; the only attractions were Christian and Danielson, but their booking was terrible
NXT EVERY WEEK ON THE SHOW ANNOUNCE around 5 SEGMENTS FOR NEXT WEEK!
Everything's great! 🔔
Everyone's great! 🔔
It's all great! 🔔
Ha.
TK not paying Observer no more? Soo many negatives lately
Really feels like it don't it. Night and day difference.
Reality has finally set in 😂
@@madhack69That's exactly what it is.
Makes sense,less revenue,less $ for Sapp,Zarian,Keller and these other once grand defenders of Coke boy lol
It’s always funny when Bryan and/or Dave complain about this because they helped cause this. My brother in Christ you made the sandwich.
😆 Facts
Cooling off would imply it's been warm at any point since Wembley.
And Wembley itself was overshadowed day of the show by the CM Punk situation.
Other than Punk’s arrival they were never close to heating up.
Its also star power, a WWE house show getting 7000 people doesnt have their matches announced but even if the main event was a tag match with LA Knight and Randy Orton vs. The Bloodline its a bigger main event than AEW puts on TV...
They have been cool for a while now. I think the major issue is that the booking always had problems, but buy first adding rampage and later adding collision as a “more time to do something for more talent and follow up properly” made it more apparent. Also I overplayed gloriously for what I thought would be a great ticket for Wembley, got placed right behind a camera crane who’s footage barely got used and the ticket for the same seat is now hundreds of pounds more expensive. Not going to make that trip again.
AEW peaked with All Out 2021 and it’s so sad they couldn’t keep that momentum going
It's amazing how Dave and Bryan have turned on AEW. Dave was so mad the other night sbout the Darbie thing. Cornett said it best. He was like a disappointed dad. 😂
0:53 AEW kinda feels like build you own storyline tbh, there is not much reference for a new viewers, even I who've watched dynamite and ppvs regularly until last year can't keep up with some characters and their current motivations if I jump back to satch again right now.
That’s exactly the problem. AEW does not have “main characters”. You think WWE right now and it’s Roman/Cody/Seth/Drew/etc. WWE has like 6-10 people who are regularly featured. AEW positioned The Elite, Jericho, MJF, and Mox as their main characters originally and right now The Elite is essentially disbanded again, Jericho is washed, MJF is hurt, and Mox is wrestling fun matches but in no real feuds.
Die hard AEW fan, but Bryan is 100% right. Tony is in over his head and he needs to admit he needs help.
It’s amazing the a multi booker of the year winner can’t book?
It's just not fun anymore to many random matches happening,wwe has their problems as well but im having fun watching raw and smackdown because of the weekly storylines,aew ain't been the same since cody left
AEW has a main character problem. At the start it was The Elite, Jericho, Mox, and MJF. Now there’s nobody you can point to and say the show is consistently build around these core guys. WWE has main characters. Cody, Seth, Sami, Drew, Roman…
@@lamasizzy0599 I agree it's so much happening in aew sometimes it's hard to keep up with everything, especially when it's something you don't care about
@@donzellmccalipp8510 they just need to focus on 6-10 people. Everyone else has to fit in where they can but they need to go back to building the show around a handful of people. Right now they are having all their top talent rarely work with each other because Tony hates his guys taking pins.
@@lamasizzy0599 Very good point especially guy's like Jon moxley and Orange Cassidy
What's cooler than being cool?
Ice cold?
Ice Cold!
Glacier
Stone Cold
ROH
What you're saying without saying it, is: No information = Cold Matches + High Ticket Prices = no audience
They put on good matches but do very little gaga. Timeless Toni is the rare GEM in the company who is working the gimmick to perfection.
Everytime a wrestler is hot, they do nothing with them. Scorpio Sky, Private Party, these are guys who got super over, super quick, they lost momentum afterwards. Hook was the most over guy in all of wrestling, they put the FTW title on him and not really much else memorable. They all get lost in the shuffle of a bloated roster and too many factions. I would never imagine Moxley and PAC's characters making friends, somehow they did
God, Hook. They made him look great against Joe, then throw him in a handicap match against a jobber tag team soon after! Couldn't believe it.
Damn im an aew diehard and bryan n mike are both right.
AEW's booking is "Look at the match card we have". They have zero episodic storytelling
This just isn't true. You don't even watch the show lol
The double debut of Danielson and Cole was the peak for AEW. Since then, the roster has become super bloated, and the booking has been hot garbage.
Yes I agree 100%, that's the first and only time I thought they had the momentum in their favor against WWE. CM Punk had just beat Darby in his return match.. 😮It all went to hell though, and it's sad
I have never bought tickets to a wrestling show without knowing in advance what will be on that show. The only show I would consider doing that for is like a Mania or Wembley where the sales start much earlier and there wont be tickets when its all announced. But even I would have waited until now when Mania main events are basically announced
Heck if I could go to Wembley I would buy tickets regardless of nothing announced because like Mania the company is going to go all out for it and make it worth it. Sadly the same can't be said for a random Dynamite or Collision.
It's absolutely cooled off. What's really frustrating is the fact AEW has the same problems now that it had two years ago, and it's shown no interest in fixing those problems. Every major issue at AEW has been called out by fans and observers for YEARS. It's not talent or skill; AEW has the talent and industry knowledge to fix their problems. The question now is why won't whoever's calling the shots put that talent in a position to succeed.
All the stars that casual fans cared about are gone. No more Cody, no more Punk, no more MJF. Although not on their level, Kenny is still above everyone else left and he's not there right now either. The storylines have largely been underwhelming, and the workers (and owner for that matter) have heavily prioritized in ring work over character work. I've used this example so many times in the past and I'll say it again here. Dean Malenko was one of the greatest in ring performers to ever do it. Nobody gave a single solitary fuck about him being on their television screen because nobody cares about Dean Malenko. His character was not over at all. To an American audience, in ring work will always come second to interesting characters. Make me care. And they haven't done that.
It's definitely true that that casual fan base was waay bigger than I thought and the hardcores waaaay smaller.
You hit the nail on the head! Having "great" in-ring work/"5 star" matches alone won't bring the masses but interesting characters & storylines will.
Because being “good wrestler” or “indie darling” is not good enough to make people invested, to relate to them, unless they are supremely talented (Bryan Danielson). That’s the gimmick of most AEW wrestlers.
Here are two examples: Toni Storm and Daniel Garcia. Both are great wrestlers, but they had to have something to make people interested in them. Toni when she became “Timeless”, and DG when he now has a dancing gimmick. For the longest time, they were just “good wrestlers”, and now they are doing “sports-entertainment” stuff, and they became interesting.
I like what Jim Cornette said recently: Tony Khan has a lot of PEOPLE on his roster but he doesn't have many stars lol😂😂😂😂
I think the Tony Khan does have a long term card/plan mapped out in his mind for the next PPVs or Big Shows.But what he struggles is actually in between the weeks leading up to it & building those feuds or matches properly in a systematic and meaningful way
I dont think AEW has been real hot for a long time now and I say this as a fan. They've definitely got some work to do. Bringin in the free agents won't be enough.
The top babyface in WWE getting a chant on AEW says it all. They have an entire storyline revolved around CM Punk who has already left and didn’t bother capitalising on it while the iron was hot.
it's always been obvious to me that Tony's "booker of the year" awards came when the top guys were pretty much booking their own stuff. Tony on his own is just directionless
The last time I went to Dynamite here in Atlanta, I had a good time because it was my son's first wrestling show but the card wasn't that great and the ticket prices were high. Dynamite is coming back here next month and I am literally waiting til the week of before I decide if I'm going to see who's on the card. I'm not paying all that money to see Matt hardy, top flight, Daniel garcia, Wardlow in a squash match, and a promo from swerve and hangman. When you watch raw, Cody Rhodes and CM Punk are on every episode. You don't always see the big names you want with dynamite which is why I'm waiting
Bryan slowly turning face by telling a little bit of truth about AEW finally.
This is a very indie way of looking at things. They do not need to announce matches earlier, because this isn't an indie promotion. I think that is the big issue for AEW is that they do still kinda feel like an indie. They are putting on matches, they are not putting on stories. There are stories. But they all kinda feel like they are going week by week. The only people who had the creative writing understanding to make that work was Punk, MJF and Chris Jericho. Neither of them are on the show right now. AEW needs to start hiring writers and make a creative team if they want to be a television show that draws regular people(people who wouldn't go to a PWG show). They need stories. Desperately. They got some great characters. I would say better than WWE. But they are just running in place until they suddenly are in a big match out of what feels like nowhere. That is their real issue. They NEED writers. Desperately.
Per Meltzer, poor people live in Oklahoma.
You don't even need whole cards announced. Raw runs ads in local markets just hyping the dark main events between big stars.
And they have stars. If you say Roman, Cody, Becky, Seth. Anyone like that will be there without knowing any matches people will show up. AEW needs to get to the point where just saying a person will be there is enough but they are at the point where they need to actually announce some matches.
@@haloichigo1 ; they had Punk. But the Bucks and their buddies ran him off. Cody and MJF could have been those stars… they were both on track. But they need willing and able dance partners to work with, and AEW just doesn’t have too many on that level.
problem is aew have loads of midcarders and no star
AEW is acting like it’s their off season. Where is Jay White’s story? When did Will Hobbs last wrestle? Where is House of Black?
Why is RVD on the show? Why was Jeff Jarrett on the show for weeks? I’m tired of jobber matches and useless promos. I don’t want to see Queen Amadala or Abadon. I used to watch Dynamite live every week. Rampage every Saturday morning.
Now I get halfway through the show and just don’t care.
I’ve gotta say that Tulsa is the closest AEW has come to where I live (it actually isn’t Chicago) and I really looked at going and want to go. Unfortunately, nowhere did I see it advertised that they were coming to this location until last week and now everyone who I could get to go with me can’t get off of work or school to go. Really disappointing. Been a fan of AEW since Dynamite first aired and would’ve liked to have gone.
The PPV has 13,000 cause it’s Stings last match and it’s in Greensboro. Any promotion with that match in that area of the country and a tv deal is going to draw. It’s a one off that speaks nothing about the AEW product, they are as cold as theyve ever been.
Ongoing feuds, called programs, lasting 4-6 weeks (midcard, to semis) to months (mains). That's how it was done in the past. Planning = booking.
Love AEW but it’s been dropping off hard for months, I started last weeks and when I saw Moxleys Barbed Wire tron to start the show again 🥴 like when it was O.C every week, the music started and it’s like 8 weeks on the bounce or feels like it, I was like ughhhh, Moxley is fn terrible which doesn’t help. it’s proper samey and really lacking in star power with all the injury’s too, . Not interested in CMLL, I switch off through most of the Japanese FD build, it’s either same same or anything different is too neiche even for me, a die hard kid on the forums day and night with no life 😂🤙🏼 They need a big repackaging, commentary , show music, format and stop running down the full show every week, let me keep watching and see who comes out and what happens. Announce a main event, 2 matches at most and let us see what happens for the rest
Booker of the Year folks, can't focus enough on his home grown talent!!
It’s not cooling, it’s already dead cold.
As a person that loved AEW shows for a time, reality must be met. Bryan is right. AEW got a lot of my pay-per-view money, as well as more than a few trips to Jacksonville in the past. I think between them branching out beyond Daily's Place, and the CM Punk debacle, I turned sour on the promotion. I very rarely watch now. Sad but true.
My interest really sagged during MJF's title run. It was garbage for me. Now that Joe is champion, the whole promotion feels right again.
How about having all their stars on TV every week whether they're wrestling or not, have them do something. Too many times there will be a great promo or segment etc and then the next week the person isn't on the show.
💯%
How is it that there are 3 separate TV shows and you still don’t see important names on a weekly basis??
I'm totally agree with sir Bryan I hope TK and the management is watching this
Ive been enjoying the shows. But yall do you. Must be exhausting.
cringe comment
To say its cause they dont announce the matches is a cop-out. if wwe didn't announce the matches you know who you will see for most part, you're into the storylines and characters and you know will enjoy the time. The key is people are invested and want to see them in any form they are appearing in matches. He even said how the house shows wwe did well on wasn't a tv event, implying you expect them to sell well, yet the aew show he is talking about is dynamite, and doesn't sell well. Say all anyone wants about whatever issue wwe has at any point, they have earned the goodwill of knowing they will put on a good show and have you invested right now. A hardcore fan base will help when things are lean, though you see how it never translates big picture. If you aren't a hardcore follower, you dont know who or why you are supposed to care about half the matches that Dave and Brian get excited about. Just for a random example, R-truth, someone just tuning in or going to an event will right away get caught up in his storyline and enjoy, where as when aew brings in someone from Japan you're just supposed to know, as the average viewer, wow, this is huge.
While I get announcing matches ahead of time. Comparing a random dynamite in Tulsa to a NJPW battle at the valley or special CMLL event is kinda dragging it. It's a special event compared to a weekly show. It's like if I reversed it and compared revolution to a regular show and said look AEW is hot they've sold 16,000 compared to a weekly show.
You would have a point if SmackDown and RAW weren't doing so good week-to-week.
One show drawing well doesn’t mean business is good. Sting is the reason. The next pay per view won’t do nearly as good.
I think it has more to do with the shows being not very good than announcing the cards early
The reason is fairly simple and I'm sure what Levesque would have thought when AEW started , it will be a novelty and give indie marks a chance to see ''dream'' matches and fawn over all the wrestling for a couple of years . At the end of the day , wrestling is wrestling . You need something to keep peoples attention week to week . WWE has it , AEW doesn't . With Levesque in charge of creative , WWE will get better and better . AEW will decline and be a ''very good wrestling show'' version of TNA in a year or so . Khan peaked too early , signing everyone on his wishlist and now he doesnt know what to do with them . A lot more will want to join Levesque sooner rather than later.
Well, they've only thrived with controversy around them, there's none right now and they have no hot angles...
Tickets are too expensive, for the average Joe Sixpack to be able to afford to take his wife and kids to watch a night of wrestling. So you're left with the hardcore's which are few in number and getting fewer.
I couldn't agree more, Bryan. I've been saying this for months. This last minute booking is crap and it hurts the product, hurts the wrestlers, and definitely dillutes interest in the product. This is blantantly obvious - I LOVE AEW but I am so frustrated with this easy to remedy crap. Tony needs HELP - he needs important support pieces in place that are reigning in his worst tendencies and helping him to be better organized. Period.
TK and aew problem is they are not good at marketing
I think AEW is trying to run these bigger venues as a sort of “perception is reality” situation. The constantly moving goal posts of “well they’ll never fill an arena, well they’ll never succeed on tv, well they’ll never fill a stadium” from the first couple years of the company and them then accomplishing that thing made them confident. AEW was hot and WWE was cold, they were selling out the United Center on a rumor for a new tv show debut and it set them up as “if we run these bigger venues and continue to sell well there people can’t say that we’re just selling out smaller venues than WWE”
And then all of the backstage drama in AEW starts, Hunter takes over at WWE and corrects course, and suddenly the commitment to running these large venues is hurt the AEW perception in the same way they wanted to avoid.
Tony needs to pick his guys and stick to it. AEW has too many characters to be able to get invested. WWE picked their 7-10 guys and they are the main characters of WWE. Cody, Seth, Drew, Sami, Gunther, etc with Roman showing up every now and then. AEW doesn’t have main characters. AEW has recurring characters.
Been ice cold for a while now. Not sure what has been really compelling recently. Sure they still put on good to great matches every week but that's not enough to keep people coming back.
Devil storyline falling flat without a pivot
Variety hour going on now with their shitty ranking system
Adam Cole and his Mid Card Mafia. What a joke that was.
they've literally been putting on some of their best TV the past few months with great champions, great wrestlers, great matches, and great stories. I thought they were cooling off most of last year, but they have been cooking literally since day one of 2024. what is this?
I think a lot of their recent stuff was pretty divisive. I like it but I know a lot of people who didn't.
Realistically it's been trash. The storylines have been boring or non existent.
This is an accurate reflection on poor ticket sales. The evidence is in front of your eyes every week. AEW used to 5,000-6,000 tickets for Dynamite every week. Now it’s 2,000 and under. WWE is doing 7,000 for a house show. Stop getting upset by facts.
I'm an AEW fan and live in Jacksonville and have followed them since day 1. The ratings are tanking and the live attendance is terrible
It's the TKO/endevour propaganda machine. They're blaming AEW slowdown with the product, which is wrong. Inflation and a crunching market are to blame. But that's not going to stop the FOMO youtube community from kicking AEW some more. AEW's been a great show for the past month or so.
Remember when everybody got a kick out of Excalibur having to announce 18 upcoming matches in the span of a minute? Kinda need that back, it sounds like.
AEW shows tend to be great but prices are high and they do really need to announce at least something several weeks ahead.
I've never seen someone take so many vacations, does he hate his home?
Now that he mentions it. THAT is definitely the reason AEW has struggled with Tickets. They NEED to announce at minimum, 2 WEEKS in advance for cards so people like me who has 2 Jobs can call off.
You know things are bad when Dave and Brian are even saying it. Hopefully Tony listens to them and gets better.
I feel that a lot of people that would be AEW fans get turned off by the product due to Tony Khan being the face of the company rather than any of the wrestlers.
Tony needs help. Simple as that. I love AEW but even I have lost interest over the past year or so. Good workers and matches but none of the storylines are killing it for me. I really hope they make some chmages.
it never heated up...only on twitter and social media.
the indy fans did their best to make AEW look like a bigger deal than it actually was and ever will be
This is exactly right. People were into AEW because they wanted to stick it to WWE. They thought all kinds of people would be AEW fans to stick it to WWE. But people dont care about what the IWC and Meltzer think whats wrong. They want to be entertained and see some stars. So all these goofs bought whatever AEW sold and said, and since everyone was in the bubble saying the same they thought they were right. But AEW stayed what it was and these AEW fans are realizing AEW is boring, repetitive and in the end dull. While all kinds of fans are enjoying WWE because its fun and entertaining. Its not about the best wrestler and who could bloody each other up in a foolish hardcore or extreme match. People are entertained by stories and spectacle. AEW fans aren't being reassured anymore because they are watching AEW now in a smaller and smaller amount of satisfied viewers. They are just left behind as people watch WWE and talk about this weeks events and what will happen next. Not making a statement about modern wrestling or match quality because they dont care about any of that, just being entertained. Because people dont care about that stupid micro shit that the dirtsheets are talking about. AEW fans have been left behind because they are expecting something big to actually happen, and it never will happen.
Everyone in AEW is less over than they were when they got there. Only a matter of time until tony’s dad or the network says enough is enough.