Too Soon to Call AEW the New WCW?

[Villano69]

WWE doesn't need TV ratings, they're a brand onto their own, they have better sponsors and networks are looking for that.

The television medium is dying and looking to grab what they can, so ofcourse they'll always want the one with the high powered sponsors, sorry, Tony Khan and his band of buddies are not getting that.

Why you think TNT freaked out over a pizza cutter?

Subjective tastes over what's better means absolutely.......jack shit.

Dude, ratings are everything! The reason WWE gets money is because they had high rated TV shows. Take away $600M a year they earn from TV rites and they're fucked, so they better hope TV is not dying.

Your argument is that it doesn't matter if WWE puts on bad matches because people are going to watch it because it's WWE and they are their own brand is ridiculous. That's what WCW did....and despite all their money and TV support they lost everything quickly.

And there was no pizza cutter freak out--it was a bullshit troll by WWE. Absolutely nothing happened, and not one sponsor dropped.

More people watching because they like AEW more means better ratings more viewers and more advertising and more money, so it means more than jack shit. It means WWE has a real competitor for the first time in 20 years and they're growing, fast.

 

[Deezy]

Nielsen ratings is a dead metric, Nielsen said themselves in 2016.

LOL bullshit troll by WWE, that's why the Pizza company put out that "we don't condone this" post.

Also the ratings you think actually matter, is also showing that AEW fans are not gaining traction and hover around the same hardcore bubble .

Advertisers mean more than viewers, it's like that with TV, podcasts, YouTube etc....

Get off the Meltzer newsletter, those "demos" mean a much as my opinion on what rasslin should be.

 

[Villano69]

This is the stupidest argument I've ever read---The only reason anyone would advertise is because they have viewers. AEW is up by 33% year over year while WWE is down, or the same....you're the one ignoring the facts. The WWE audience is shrinking or at best the same. Facts are facts.

You're obviously a WWE fan, but why does shitting on AEW make WWE better? This whole thread was whether AEW was turning into WCW

 

[Messiah]

Let's hope not or they'll be out of business in 5 years... AEW is better than WCW ever was.

 

[Smart Marx]

Nobody cares about whether or not Vince McMahon cares or not, although you guys are fooling yourselves if you think he doesn’t. This is a fan medium. I don’t care if Vince makes a billion dollars off princes. I care if there’s a legit global number 2 that can make a great product, sell PPVs so it sticks around and be profitable and fill 10K seat arenas so the show doesn’t look amateurish.

You guys are too literal. AEW doesn’t need to compete for Saudi prince deals and expensive tv deals. We’re talking about competitions over the fans’ money. WWE might not always have the sponsors fawning over them because this business ebbs and flows like that, but do you know who you always gotta compete for, customers.

In fact, right now WWE and AEW are competing over a show in Long Island, AEW is destroying them in ticket sales.

Also, when I say WCW I mean being a legit number 2. I’m not talking about its parent company merging with AOL and losing billions of dollars so they sell to Vince McMahon.

 

[Smart Marx]

Also, as long as tv exists, it cares about who’s watching. Selling advertising is still a network’s top priority.

 

[CakeWalker]

No lie I enjoy my AEW - but saying that AEW is already better than WCW, is nothing but personal bias. In five years time - its possible that there will be no doubt that AEW is better than WCW.

 

[Smart Marx]

I love AEW and it’s my current favorite promotion, but thank you. It’ll be a minute before I could consider it better than WCW was during its hottest peak.

It’s honestly getting close to be equal. AEW feels very 1996 waiting to hitting that 1997 nitro boost.

 

[CakeWalker]

Being the third biggest (active) promotion in the world - after less than five years. Is already a massive achievement.

 

[Comrade Khan]

I can totally agree that it's been 2 years n its not wcw level yet. But it is probably the craziest n most impressive startup promotion that's probably eclipsed parts of peak impact. 2022 might be even better but it's a wait and see and they still have some production n timing kinks to iron out . Overall though, great thread

 

[Smart Marx]

I can totally agree that it's been 2 years n its not wcw level yet. But it is probably the craziest n most impressive startup promotion that's probably eclipsed parts of peak impact. 2022 might be even better but it's a wait and see and they still have some production n timing kinks to iron out . Overall though, great thread

It's crazy to me because TNA in 2006-2009 felt like it had all the pieces AEW does now, but it couldn't get over that hump AEW has in 2 years.

Sometimes the adage that things happen at the right time or however that saying goes is honestly just true I guess.

Because as much as I love AEW now, I can't say I love it more than I probably loved TNA in its peak. But TNA wasn't doing this kind of business.

 

[Deezy]

WWE's international deals alone are worth more than AEW's TV contracts.

To act like they are on the same level is just blind fanboyism.

Far as I know, AEW haven't even got of the start up red.

 

[Smart Marx]

Again, no one cares that WWE is better at swindling suits. The point is AEW at the consumer level is matching or outdrawing WWE in many avenues.

As for being in the red, I know this has been explained to you before, but that's because he sunk last year's profits into the video game. They did make a profit, though, before that, and also, they just sold 200K PPV buys, so I can almost guarantee you 2021-2022 will be be profitable year for them.

I'll never understand a fan's compulsive need for WWE to be the only name in the game.

 

[Deezy]

No skin in this game because I treat both promotions equally, but to pretend that AEW is actually on par with WCW who were putting WWF out of business at their peak, is just laughable.

And to take it personally to anyone critiquing the actual drawing power of AEW in the grand scheme of things just reeks of bias.

 

[Smart Marx]

You can't use the metric of putting WWF out of business. That's just a stupid metric to use. If AEW is outselling WWE ticket sales, and drawing huge PPV buys, and selling out 10 thousand seat arenas that no one since WWE or WCW has done in 20 years, that means they're coming to the dance.

WCW was never getting billion dollar Saudi deals or billion dollar TV contracts, either. It's just not something AEW needs to care about right now.

Drawing power isn't getting unrealistic TV deals for a 2-year-old company. And like I tried to tell you before, WWE might not have that for much longer.