How does that happen? I'm stunned.
AEW's perpetual slide in ratings just baffles me. And it happens regardless of who they bring in or whatever angles they have going. Just a ratings death spiral, and with each passing week you think they must have reached rock bottom, only to fall off even more the next week.
I'm still watching, and I think AEW has and is still putting out a solid product, but apparently I'm in an ever-decreasing minority.
- American fans typically don't go bananas for indy style wrestling. Some do, most don't.
- Airing the Punk footage did permanent damage. It was AEW's "that'll put butts in seats" moment. You never use a wrestler currently in the competition's promotion in a storyline. I can't stress enough just how stupid that was.
- TK gives up on talent too quickly (Wardlow) while pushing his favorites that drive ratings down (Cassidy, Jericho, Bucks).
- Most WWE fans aren't going to follow former talent outside of WWE. Ex. they want Sasha Banks, not Mercedes.
- Storylines usually aren't long term, engaging, or make much sense. He gave fans Ricochet vs Ospreay and Ospreay vs MJF with no buildup or story. Story is king, always has been.
- AEW doesn't know how to adapt. Ripley gets injured and Liv and Dom become stars because of it. In AEW, Cole gets injured and they continue a story which shows a small, hobbled "Devil" who's unable to walk sitting in a chair as the big reveal.
- Tony has an obsession with ROH and forces it on his A show. No one outside of him cares about that promotion in 2024. Maybe it ends up on TruTV or something but people won't watch that shit.
The cat is out of the bag on Khan. He's a billionaire fan with lots of ideas. A few are good, most are meh, and some are terrible. Wrestling fans will stick with something for awhile but if it's just not hitting with us, we'll bolt and find something better to do with our time. Fans have been bolting from AEW the past year.
