I was disappointed with the number. I thought after the great buzz from last week, it would have rebounded a bit. Bummer. 

Sadly, it feels like that big week one bubble has deflated for everyone. Can I cynically blame WWE for being so terrible that they're dragging down all wrestling ratings by association? 

If you take TruTv out they essentially did the same number on TNT. 

What I found interesting is more women 18-49 were watching AEW than 18-49 men watching NXT. But NXT is just a massive failure on TV so far.

Just now, FMKK said:

Sadly, it feels like that big week one bubble has deflated for everyone. Can I cynically blame WWE for being so terrible that they're dragging down all wrestling ratings by association? 

I think you can blame them for spending the last 5 years chasing everyone away.

It occurs to me that in the past year and a half or so WWE has taken several wrestlers whom I at one time or another sincerely enjoyed watching (such as Shinsuke, Owens, Rollins, Rusev...) and overused them, misused  them, and/or exposed their weaknesses to the point where I can barely be bothered to read about what they are doing these days... While in the past three weeks, AEW has taken people who were not even on my radar (like Darby Allin and Private Party) and made it so that I can barely wait to watch them wrestle again. 

AEW were still number 2 for the night in the demo so that's still a strong positive for TNT. They haven't retained all of that opening week buzz but the TV has been good and a doubt anyone who is tuning in is going away unsatisfied. I hope they sprinkle in a few more promos, videos and angles just to build more of a connection to the characters. It's certainly nothing to panic about.

9 minutes ago, goodhelmet said:

I was disappointed with the number. I thought after the great buzz from last week, it would have rebounded a bit. Bummer. 

They also weren't going up against playoff baseball last night either as the game was rained out. 

According to scuttlebutt, Foxy is now a free agent. No idea if true or not, but if it is...

1. Is she someone AEW would take a chance on?

2. Is she someone AEW should take a chance on?

The "rasslin' movez" fans will react with buffoonish snobbery at the idea, but I remember her being a pretty fun character. That's something currently missing from the AEW women's division - plenty of potential with Britt Baker and others in that dept., but nothing concrete yet - so could Foxy fill a void?

You seem to forget all the players haven't been featured yet on TV. Allie is a really cool character and a solid worker. The only real void to fill is the great worker/star power spot, and Foxy is neither.

I think Alicia Fox would be a great addition to the AEW roster.

Riho doesn't have a last name or a stable/tag team helping her character get over, unlike Spike Dudley. And while crowds have been hot in general, there are definitely peaks and troughs and some acts don't get as big a reaction as others. In both singles matches she has had on Dynamite, the crowd has been mild, quietly appreciative early on, but by the end has been completely sucked in, with huge reactions to all the near falls, Riho's bursts of offence, and ultimately victory. 

I wish Awesome Kong was younger and not semi-retired. It would have been awesome to watch her destroy fools left right and centre as the women's champ.

24 minutes ago, goodhelmet said:

I was disappointed with the number. I thought after the great buzz from last week, it would have rebounded a bit. Bummer. 

WWE's flagship shows, which by now have become American TV institutions - as they will remind you literally every chance they get - are doing 2-2.5 million viewers every week. This week, Raw had 2.2 millions, I think, and last SD was about 2.4 despite being on a big network. The fact that AEW has got 1 million plus viewers on TV for three weeks - and today, there are plenty of avenues to get over your characters and sell your matches online as well - is honestly extremely impressive, in my opinion. I was certainly not expecting them to be able to do this. Last time a non-WWE company was regularly getting one million plus viewers was TNA in early 2010s, I think, and that was when WWE was getting, what, 5 million viewers on average for their shows?

11 minutes ago, MoS said:

I think Alicia Fox would be a great addition to the AEW roster.

Riho doesn't have a last name or a stable/tag team helping her character get over, unlike Spike Dudley. And while crowds have been hot in general, there are definitely peaks and troughs and some acts don't get as big a reaction as others. In both singles matches she has had on Dynamite, the crowd has been mild, quietly appreciative early on, but by the end has been completely sucked in, with huge reactions to all the near falls, Riho's bursts of offence, and ultimately victory. 

I wish Awesome Kong was younger and not semi-retired. It would have been awesome to watch her destroy fools left right and centre as the women's champ.

Oh yeah, I'm sure Arn Anderson would be thrilled to have the woman that cost him his job in WWE show up in AEW.

Pretty sure Alicia Fox is retired anyway now. They don't need the headache she is.

Just now, SirEdger said:

Pretty sure Alicia Fox is retired anyway now.

From ?

(yeah, I did the same joke when it was announced New Jack had retired from wrestling)

BTW, Meltz mentionned it twice, Riho is seriously spiking the teenage girls in the ratings. So yeah, she's getting over and she's interesting to an audience that doesn't watch pro-wrestling. 

Compare that to the ratings following the heavy emphasis on women during the #Revolution in WWE, when it was proven that women did not watch that stuff. Characters matter and getting over matters. AEW is in the "get people over" business, and Riho is doing just that. In three weeks, they have established more defined people you can begin to care about than WWE in the last XXX years. Way more than NXT is the same amount of time, at the very least.

In 3 weeks, AEW created these new stars:

-Riho

-Private Party

-Darby Allin

Which new stars WWE have created in the past 3 weeks, let alone 3 years?

the fun part about the ratings as this all goes along is the possibility of all sorts of randomness that probably isn't a reaction to anything specific.

I think being 5'2" would land Marko Stunt around the pequeno realm in Mexico. Pequeno Olympico is billed at 5'2, for example and Pierrothito is 5'1. Pierrothito is also billed at 45lbs heavier than Marko Stunt. So I'd guess that Penta/Fenix have worked against 5'2" luchadors before, but not particularly frequently.

But Marko is a foot taller than Chamuel and a foot and a half taller than Microman. So there's that.

I wonder how the perception of events changes if the Lucha Bros attack on Christopher Daniels takes place *after* the Lucha Bros/Jungle+Marko match. Since there is also a complaint that Penta/Fenix went long in their match but also wiped out Daniels quick to open the show.

A lot of luchadores are smaller than you think, guys are much closer in size so the differences don't stand out as much as they do in American wrestling.  

According to the Luchawiki, Caristico is 5'7 and 165 pounds, as is Dragon Lee. Most top guys in CMLL and AAA are around that size.  Penta and Fenix are actually on the big side for luchadores,  both are around 6 foot, and they didn't look out of place against Marko.

Honestly all the fuss is largely the result of 20 years of unopposed WWE programming turning fans into size queens like Vince and Hunter.  People have issues with Marko because they're used to WWE taking guys like Chad Gable (who is 5'8 I believe) and turning him into a joke because of his height. 

Ratings generally don't go up for any TV show - they peak at premiere & go down from there.

24 minutes ago, sek69 said:

Honestly all the fuss is largely the result of 20 years of unopposed WWE programming turning fans into size queens like Vince and Hunter.  People have issues with Marko because they're used to WWE taking guys like Chad Gable (who is 5'8 I believe) and turning him into a joke because of his height. 

I thought Marko did an awesome job in his match and was booked very well, but I'm not so sure I agree with this...

The fuss isn't only because Marko is 5'2 (or whatever he is) - it is because he still literally looks like a 13-year-old child.

When it comes to heights/sizes... it’s not like the WWE is the only league doing that. The average height in MLB is 6’1”. Average NFL height is 6’2”. Average NHL height is 6’1”.

Daniel Bryan and Chris Benoit were billed at 5’10, Eddie was billed at 5’8. And logically if they were in a match with a 5’2/125 guy, they should dominate a good portion of the match.

Of course there’s fighting sports with various shortish guys.. they also use divisions, which really isn’t something solidly done in the US aside from heavyweight/cruiserweight.

Nearly everyone in AEW (and ROH, and NXT) has had some sort of "he's too small" complaint thrown at them. Marko's the most extreme case of course, but I see a lot of people on the wrestling internet circles sounding like Vince deciding certain folks aren't believable. 

It's not like Marko was beating the shit out of anyone though. He got his ass beat and managed to pull off some high flying spots, mostly from reversals. His function was basically to be killed by Penta and Fenix.

 

11 minutes ago, C.S. said:

The fuss isn't only because Marko is 5'2 (or whatever he is) - it is because he still literally looks like a 13-year-old child.

Well, that's his whole appeal.

The match itself was perfectly fine, I was just adding some context about the whole Marko thing. I did spend some time watching Keith Lee on NXT while Lucha Bros/Jungle Bros was going on too.

The other good thing about a surge in ratings interest is the return of noting what segments had ratings increases/decreases.

One thing I’ve noticed from flipping channels when one of the programs goes to break is that the other program will be on break too. So, depending on ones POV, somebody’s either doing a good job at going to break when the other show is on break, or somebody is doing a bad job at not being live when the other show is on a break. The NXT matches are noticeably shorter than the AEW matches too.