It's an interesting one Big Pete , because it's obvious AEW is struggling with retaining viewers. We're repeatedly told how passionate their fans are, yet they don't follow the product over from Dynamite to Rampage. 

Whatever I say next is wrong though on " fixing it "  

I would stream line the shows and focus on 4 maybe 5 storylines maximum. These storylines would play out over both shows, to ensure viewers need to tune in to Rampage to see the fallout from Dynamite and visa-versa. 

I would focus on a long-term build and play offs. Adam Page v Lance Archer's 4 week feud for the ages - is the exact opposite of how I would book the shows. 

There some really easy stuff you could put together.

I call this one the 'starscream' For example, Kenny returns and ' The Elite / Bullet Club ' unofficially are back in black ( Omega, Bucks, Cole, ReDRagon included ) and these guys are feuding with an ensemble of the top babyfaces ( Moxley, Danielson, Hangman, Punk, Jericho even... the top guys, right? There's layers upon layers of television / PPV matches here ) you then revive that tension between Cole & Omega. Kenny blames Cole for all of their short-comings, Cole is always undermining Omega ( both have their respective supporters amongst the group ) and you plant those seeds for the turn. And as the tide turns in favour of the babyfaces ( 12 months into the arch.. this is long ) you establish the notion, that Omega's leadership is falling short and after taking a shellacking from the babyfaces.. the former Undisputed Era turn while Omega is at his weakest and take the leadership. Just like the Transformers movie. 

Then it's Bullet Club civil war 2.0 - Omega & The Young Bucks vs The former UE. There's then 6 months worth of television / PPV matches if you pace it right until the eventual World Title Match between Cole & Omega as the pay off. 

Just a notch below that, you can book The House of Black ( Black, King and Buddy maybe, El Idolo even. ) in a similar vain to The Shield - dominating the mid-card in chaotic 6-Man matches. These sorts of matches are great openers - fast, hard-hitting, a lot happening to kick off the show. Again, these guys are working an an ensemble of babyfaces for a similar time period as the above angle ( Sammy, Keith Lee, Darby, the next guys, etc a rotation of guys selling how big a threat the HOB is ) and when the previously noted 'starscream' angle ends - Moxley, Danielson, Punk, etc. migrate into this angle ( similar to how The Shield's opponents later became the likes of Orton, Danielson, Punk, Undertaker, Kane.. main eventers ) 6 more months of television is right here, if you pace it right. The vets put over the young guys, and thus we have a handful of potential main eventers in Black, El Idolo & potentially, potentially. Maybe, Buddy. Not King. 

Just a notch below that.. Tag Team Turmoil. FTR v Lucha Bros v P&P v Jurassic Express v Best Friends. The Young Bucks, ReDRagon, The House of Black, etc are interwoven into this mix to extend television life. There's another 18 months of television if you pace it right and put some depth behind the how / why / when. 

So if I've got this right and granted I'm skimming over your creative, but to boost ratings you would put together better match-ups and focus more on big name talent?

As an aside, do you think the Bucks and Omega could actually sell their angle?

Feb 23, 2022 11:12:56 GMT Big Pete said:

So if I've got this right and granted I'm skimming over your creative, but to boost ratings you would put together better match-ups and focus more on big name talent?

As an aside, do you think the Bucks and Omega could actually sell their angle?

No. You're right. You've got me there. Fucking Young Bucks and their dumb faces. 

One of the issues with Rampage is the nature of it being taped after Dynamite. The show doesn't have a lot of energy and spoilers are readily available so there's very little to draw fans to the show. On top of that outside of the Mark Henry pre-match interview there's very little to separate it from Dynamite other than the commentary team somehow being worse.

Let me pose this question - has AEW improved since the debut of Rampage? I'd dare say the debut of Rampage has actually hurt Dynamite because they always have to save something for Rampage or spend time promoting matches for that show.

Feb 23, 2022 17:07:47 GMT Big Pete said:

One of the issues with Rampage is the nature of it being taped after Dynamite. The show doesn't have a lot of energy and spoilers are readily available so there's very little to draw fans to the show. On top of that outside of the Mark Henry pre-match interview there's very little to separate it from Dynamite other than the commentary team somehow being worse.

Let me pose this question - has AEW improved since the debut of Rampage? I'd dare say the debut of Rampage has actually hurt Dynamite because they always have to save something for Rampage or spend time promoting matches for that show.

I completely agree. Rampage started off hot when they were doing live episodes every other week. Now it’s terrible. Like you said, the crowd is dead because they just did 2+ hours of Dynamite, it airs at 10pm on Friday, and anyone that doesn’t plan on watching it can get full results, pictures and video on Wednesday night quite easily.

Rampage should tape before Dynamite starts as a warm up. Treat it like Dark+ or something. Just 3 solid matches that don’t have any stakes other than wanting to have the best matches possible with talent that isn’t really doing anything. Maybe a #1 contender’s match here or there. Yeah Turner probably has some say in if title matches happen or whatever, but they’re doing like 2 title matches per show lately and nobody watches because they don’t even need to check the spoilers to know who wins. IS JADE CARGILL GOING TO SUFFER HER FIRST LOSS AT THE HANDS OF JESSIKA JOBBER!? TUNE IN FRIDAY. No.

I’d also scrap Dark:Elevation and just have Dark on Tuesdays as a lead-in to the week, and make it mean a little more. Yeah you’re still going to have jobber matches and squash matches, of course, but give me more reason to tune in besides one decent multi-person match that might be good. It’s a free weekly show on YouTube and I never watch it because I don’t care. For a company that actually understands how to use the internet and social media to their advantage, they’re really bad at giving the viewer reasons to actually pay attention.

Dynamite was the third highest rated show on cable for their demo on Weds. Did not beat Raw or Smackdown though so Turner should just cut their losses and shut it down despite it being the best show on their network. Who cares if it brings up the overall network ratings, and makes Turner cash, if it does not beat Raw it is worthless.

That's my champion. 

Legit thought RT posted this.

Love it.

Chavo has been fired. And he only found out when his profile was removed from the website.

Mudshow.

Good news!

While the 18th of February episode of Rampage drew a minuscule 471,000 - Rampage this past week saw an improvement... of 2,000. Yes, a mighty 473,000.

NXT last week picked up 96,000 viewers on the previous week's 525,000 to finish with 621,000.

Actually, that ain't good news. Booker of the year...

Mar 1, 2022 22:43:26 GMT NATH45 said:

Chavo has been fired. And he only found out when his profile was removed from the website.

Mudshow.

Another one I though who had been gone. Wonder where they still sending him checks all this time.

Chris Jericho has filed to trademark the term "Sports Entertainer."

Really...

How do people not understand why AEW get so much heat.

Cool little nugget from Dave Meltzer today. AEW just sold $1m worth of tickets in a single day. To put that in perspective, WCW never did took $1m gross total on the gate ever, even in the Georgia Dome. Obviously ticket prices have changed drastically, but it really illustrates the demand there is for these AEW PPVs, and the size of the following they’ve built up.

Looking forward to nath finding a way to shit on it.

Mar 5, 2022 17:36:23 GMT Todd said:

Cool little nugget from Dave Meltzer today. AEW just sold $1m worth of tickets in a single day. To put that in perspective, WCW never did took $1m gross total on the gate ever, even in the Georgia Dome. Obviously ticket prices have changed drastically, but it really illustrates the demand there is for these AEW PPVs, and the size of the following they’ve built up.

Looking forward to nath finding a way to shit on it.

They just dropped $40 Million on a dead promotion, that has no talent attached to it, that no one in their right mind would pay more than $500,000 for.

AEW is about $39m in the red then for March, and it's the first week.

I hope this video game pays off.

Easy.

So, Dynamite really struggling with that million viewer mark. 4.4% down on the previous week for AEW's Revolution go-home episode. 966,000.

Apparently, the war in Ukraine is the reason for the rating, as people were watching Cable News.

Weeks go by and no one buying the Matt Jackson action figure.

Also they don't have aew.com lol.

Oh wait I'm not Nath.

Near a million with only airing to 65% of measured homes is not that bad.

Stiff competition this week,

Tuesday’s live edition of WWE NXT 2.0 drew 551,000 viewers on the USA Network, according to Nielsen via Showbuzz Daily.

Friday’s live Revolution go-home edition of AEW Rampage drew an average of 545,000 viewers on TNT, according to Nielsen via Showbuzz Daily.

What is frightening, this was NXT's equal lowest rating on USA. And it still beat Rampage's go-home episode.

#ratingsdontmatter.

CM Punk still whining about WWE during a AEW PPV post conference is some of the most miserable shit ever. What a fucking loser. I've never liked CM Punk, seems like a terrible person and someone who drains the air out of a locker room.

Mar 9, 2022 1:19:18 GMT Blindy said:

CM Punk still whining about WWE during a AEW PPV post conference is some of the most miserable shit ever. What a fucking loser. I've never liked CM Punk, seems like a terrible person and someone who drains the air out of a locker room.

Probably still upset, that 95% of fans in the audience didn't recognise his AFI theme.

AEW Fans : " OMG MOM! MOM! TONY BOUGHT ROH! "

" Love your hate. Your faith lost. You are now one of us. "

Also AEW Fans : " WTF is this trash? "

Tough times...

Wednesday’s live post-Revolution edition of AEW Dynamite drew 945,000 viewers on TBS, according to Nielsen via Showbuzz Daily.

This is down 2.17% from last week’s Revolution go-home episode, which drew 966,000 viewers.

Mar 11, 2022 7:20:47 GMT NATH45 said:

Tough times...

Wednesday’s live post-Revolution edition of AEW Dynamite drew 945,000 viewers on TBS, according to Nielsen via Showbuzz Daily.

This is down 2.17% from last week’s Revolution go-home episode, which drew 966,000 viewers.

It was also #1 on cable again.

Saw an increase in the coveted 18-49 demo.

Beat Tucker, South Park, NBA again.

But sure. Tough times. Keep cherry picking that info man.

Mar 11, 2022 14:11:05 GMT RT said:

Mar 11, 2022 7:20:47 GMT NATH45 said:

Tough times...

Wednesday’s live post-Revolution edition of AEW Dynamite drew 945,000 viewers on TBS, according to Nielsen via Showbuzz Daily.

This is down 2.17% from last week’s Revolution go-home episode, which drew 966,000 viewers.

It was also #1 on cable again.

Saw an increase in the coveted 18-49 demo.

Beat Tucker, South Park, NBA again.

But sure. Tough times. Keep cherry picking that info man.

Number 1 in the demo. Not in total viewership.

Sure, keep cherry picking.

Dynamite ranked #50 in viewership for the night on cable this week. This is up from last week’s #62 ranking.

Only #1 in their target audience, while only being in 65% of homes. Time to pack it up, AEW is a total failure because they are but getting the tween girls or the geriatric crowd they are not trying to attract.  

With baseball returning, wrestling as a whole is going to get spanked. I know RT will watch Vlad Jr, Biggio, Bichette and the gang over Hangman Paige.

I don't know, but NXT picked up viewers.. and continues to.

Tuesday’s live Roadblock edition of WWE NXT 2.0 drew 613,000 viewers on the USA Network, according to Nielsen via Showbuzz Daily.

This is up 11.25% from last week’s 551,000 viewers for the Roadblock go-home episode.

More people continue to watch 2.0 than Rampage. Smashed them. Stacked them. Acknowledge NXT.

I know wrestling is huge in LA, but still, AEW just shifted 12,000 tickets in one day for a Dynamite at the Staples Center. It’s still mind blowing there is a company this significant in 2022 that’s not WWE. You love to see it.

Mar 12, 2022 14:16:52 GMT Todd said:

I know wrestling is huge in LA, but still, AEW just shifted 12,000 tickets in one day for a Dynamite at the Staples Center. It’s still mind blowing there is a company this significant in 2022 that’s not WWE. You love to see it.

It’s at the LA Forum mate, but agreed. Great to see in 2022! A healthy alternative to WWE is what we’ve wanted in almost two decades.