AEW fucking sucks. Can't wait for the excuses when the rating comes back even lower than last week. "No one is watching because of the news!" "It's WrestleMania week, dummy!" Yeah, like that wouldn't increase the foot traffic for all wrestling promotions. That's why no one usually runs indies at WrestleMania time.

NXT wins for the first time in 2020

NXT: 693K
AEW: 692K

Nice!


If there was ever a week NXT should've won it was definitely this one w/ The Takeover card.

lol the rating and demos were up from last week :rofl:


https://i.postimg.cc/pXF2Vktz/Screen...3-24-13-PM.png

https://i.postimg.cc/v8jYdkCG/Screen...3-24-26-PM.png

Hahaha R.I.P Impact 2.0

Yeah, makes sense if they were going to break AEW's streak, it would have been this week. Had the two biggest matches that would have been on TakeOver and going with a cinematic feel to the Gargano-Ciampa match likely helped a lot as well.

Since NXT just missed out on the Top 50, I'd assume they probably got a very sizable boost from their old demo since for a while AEW managed to either erase it or minimize that big advantage.

So it wasn’t the news? Funny that.

News still dominated the Top 20 shows by a lot. Both in terms of viewers and in demo rankings.

AEW was off by 0.03 points for a Top 20 ranking but in terms of viewers, only 2 shows in the Top 20 did less than 1 million and neither were news shows.

Apparently Meltzer managed to dig more into NXT's razor thin victory this week and it turns out NXT won due to favorable rounding by Nielsen.

NXT had 692,900 which got rounded up to 693k while AEW had 692,500 but didn't get rounded up so they only got 692k.

Was speculated elsewhere that the difference likely was a single Nielsen viewer who swung the numbers in NXT favor.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Taken another digit in, NXT was 692,900 and AEW was 692,500, so difference of 400 viewers. Very interesting quarters. I'll say this. Definitely not what you would expect.</p>&mdash; Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) <a href="https://twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/status/1248721231773192193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 10, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Last time the numbers were that close was when they tied once time in December. Wouldn't be surprised if favorable rounding also happened back then.

Seems peculiar Meltzer felt the need to point this out tbh

Usually stuff like that gets revealed in the following Newsletter but something like this has only happened one other time soo far so I guess he felt extra giddy revealing it early.

Based on his tease, wouldn't be surprised at all if the squash match involving the Indus Sher tag team beat out one or more quarters from the very hyped up final encounter between Gargano and Ciampa. Same for Omega's tag match probably not being a ratings disaster despite the general negative reception to it online.

Like last week's set of shows ended up revealing that America doesn't like Dumb & Dumber since it did an abysmal number as a lead-in and NXT might have had their least ever viewed segment in USA Network era history.

Turns out the decider was the first ten minutes of both shows since NXT had a better lead-in and stronger start than AEW did.

SD drops a little post Mania from last week's 2.38 million to 2.31 million this week

https://i.postimg.cc/L5M2c6P9/Fast-D...Apr-10-FRI.png

:lol:

He's biased as fuck and it's made him unbearable. He's constantly sacrificing whatever credibility he had to spin things to make AEW look better.

But shouldn't the news have crippled them?

Its a bit different with network channels.

Networks can withstand the on-going news shows onslaught better due to having a larger audience reach and only FOX airs news during prime time hours but its not tracked since its local news.

If this was regular cable, Smackdown would have taken the #2 & #3 spots going by the previous Friday's cable rankings if you ignore the other networks.

If SD aired Friday Nights on the USA Network it would have less viewers than RAW.

If Raw aired Monday nights on FOX, it would have more viewers than SmackDown.

Yeah that's very possible because of USA Network having a smaller national reach and Fridays generally being the least viewed day of the week.

When Smackdown moved to Tuesdays on the USA Network it managed to get the double boost of being live and being on a better day for cable prime time shows.

1.91 million average


This might be the first time all three hours are under 2 million, but I don't know for sure.
Last week was 2.10 million. (credit - showbuzzdaily)


Most Watched on YT:
Drew vs Andrade - 1 million
Seth attacks Drew - 657k
Nia Jax vs Kairi - 317k

https://i.postimg.cc/XYFCc24K/Screen...3-25-43-PM.png

Raw triples AEW viewership! Wow, The Revival better not join that sinking ship

Only about 300k of WWE's RAW viewers are under 25

Not a good sign for pro-rasslin's future possibly

Can trace that back to WWE's terrible job during the Cena era of building Cena's young fanbase into their future viewerbase.

Cena as the only mega star and the PG era ended up being great for WWE generating a huge new child fanbase but terrible in the long run since WWE never bothered to improve their terrible booking habits and treated the majority of the roster as a bunch of nobodies.

Led to those young fans getting bored after a few years and quitting being fans of wrestling. Unlike something like Pokemon, those fans didn't come back after a few years as new young adult viewers.

WWE's numbers would be even more dire if it wasn't for NXT and Total Divas causing a revival in interest in women's wrestling in the company since that led to a lot more female viewers becoming fans of wrestling.

AEW, learn your lesson - no more long Jake Hager matches.

https://bungalower.com/wp-content/up.../giphy-1-1.gif


NXT - 692k
AEW - 683k


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https://i.postimg.cc/J0NS1SXv/Screen...3-16-58-PM.png

AEW probably dead by May

At this rate all of rasslin might be dead by July

The main problem i had with the Hager/Mox match was the decision to only have JR call it, it was awkward and him pointing out the dumb shot (why is there a guard rail, why are there chairs) hurt it. Especially considering Jericho been killing it on commentary

It was too long and the empty arena did it no favors. 10-15 minute brawl would've been just fine.

I'd also like to point out that his name is Jake Hager.

Seems both shows are starting to settle in the 600k range for these empty arena shows.

Also seems NXT's older audience is once again doing all the heavy lifting for the brand considering its been a month since they last ranked in the Top 50. Them keeping almost the same viewership but going down by several spots proving that to be the case.

Either NXT got another very strong start this week or that Hager vs. Moxley match really was the cause for NXT's win. That match had the same problem as the Edge vs. Orton match where it was too long and slow paced and really needed a crowd around to feed off on.

I’m really struggling with attention span with these empty arena shows. Anything more than a few minutes for a promo and my mind wonders, can probably do 10-15 mins max on a match.

I'm all for them piping in crowd noises, honestly. It is part of the whole "presentation" and would make things seem as close to "normal" as possible. I would imagine it would also cost to have more editing done..... but that would be a good thing to pay for, if the money is available, ofc.




Also, Hager just looks like he doesn't belong in his body. He's a big dude, but he reminds me of Bambi trying to get her legs, just awkward AF. More entertaining in MMA, where he definitely seems to be "better off".

Turns out the Gargano-Ciampa match was a big draw for NXT but only for the 1st 10-20 minutes and then it declined badly afterwards. The ladder match also ended up being somewhat of a dud in terms of viewership interest since it squandered the big audience it had coming from the lead-in.

Also turned out that the Best Friends vs. Omega & Nakazawa match performed the best in terms of viewership for AEW last week and AEW's main events have been a big weak point these past couple weeks.

Gertner is right when he says 20 minutes or less, with very few exceptions....




re: dropped after 20 mins

Also feel like Gertner would have a great blog//podcast about some obscure, but super interesting things in the world of professional wrestling.

SD 2.19 million, trending downwards continues

Good news for WWE is it's still #1 in Men 18-49 and Adults 18-34


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WWE probably could drop by another 100k to 200k within the next few weeks but this is likely their basement range for the foreseeable future with these empty arena shows.

NXT already settled into a 600k range these past few weeks while RAW is basically what SD would be now without the FOX boost.

AEW probably also going to stay in that 600k range as well until this coronavirus stuff clears up.

I could see RAW and SD dropping another 500k each from where they were this week in the next two months tbh.

I do think AEW/NXT have their hardcore fans in the 500-700k range though.

500k seems a bit too much even if these empty arena shows have been mostly disappointing but then again SD did reveal that one time when it aired on FS1 that WWE's real main brands viewership floor is very small.

Feel bad for AEW since they were settling into that 900k range and moving closer and closer to hitting 1 million again before this coronavirus stuff wiped out all of their momentum from earlier in the year.

Same for feeling bad for MLW since they were on pace to grow very well this year on tv, especially had they managed to sign that rumored Showtime deal before this virus wrecked things.

JR not pointing out that something is stupid doesn’t make that thing any less stupid. Why does JR get blamed for AEW being idiots? Everyone at home is thinking “hang on,” so why shouldn’t JR voice that as their conduit.

AEW were not going to get back to 1 million viewers, lol. I do feel bad for MLW, but I hope they can get something together at the end of this.

RAW tops the demos but continues to drop


1.84 million
(credit - showbuzzdaily)


Most Watched on YT:
Drew vs Garza - 621k
Liv vs Ruby - 361k
Aleister vs Theory - 319k


https://i.postimg.cc/3xsZqJwh/Final-...Apr-20-MON.png

Was "everyone" at home realy thinking that though? I was too busy enjoying the show to care and never even thought about it, at least until JR actually brought it up of course. Honestly, I don't give a shit if, why, or whether there are or should be any chairs, rails, etc., in an empty arena show. It's such a stupid thing to care about when there's an actual match going on, and especially when there is oftentimes talent in the "crowd" to justify it anyway.

Only around 67k away from matching their all-time low for RAW.

That gap is small enough to basically be a lock RAW is going to set a new all-time low record very soon.

It occupies way too much of my brain

WWE had half the TV viewers for the RAW after Mania 36 they did for the RAW after WM 32.

For all the profits the E is making the fanbase is doing the opposite of growth. That's a bad sign for all wrestling companies that aren't based in Japan or Mexico.

Absolutely. It's part of the setting, which ties directly to the psychology of what is going on. If you watch a fight and someone pulls out a giant hammer out of nowhere, you ask "Where the fuck did that giant hammer come from?" It's stupid when WWE does it, and it's stupid when AEW does it.

Overall, given the circumstances, I think it not being their lowest period is a fine deal. You'd expect these shows to be the lowest. It wouldn't be a good thing if they were, but it wouldn't be anywhere near a surprise.

Apparently FS1's all-women themed block of WWE programing and WWE Backstage episode last night ended up being a bust.

The first two specials focusing on Ronda Rousey and Charlotte managed to rank while the two specials on Becky Lynch and the all-women panel for WWE Backstage didn't. First time since its return earlier this month that Backstage failed to rank.

AEW - 731k
NXT - 665k

NXT back in the top 50 this week

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More non-news shows hitting the Top 10 and Top 20 seems to be a sign that the news' iron grip during these coronavirus times is starting to loosen up a bit.

Seems women were the reason for AEW's boost while teenagers, especially boys, were the reason for NXT's decline in viewers this week.

lol this can't bode well for Hager having any prominence on the program anymore.

He should alwaysbe used as the muscle and to be fed to a hot babyface

Yeah Hager works a ton better as the muscle for Jericho and not someone who really should be getting the big spotlight or fighting for himself.

Same mistake Lucha Underground did with him for their final season. Should have never pushed him that quickly or made him their top champ considering by the end of the season, he turned out to just be the muscle for a new mysterious group.

He's fine being used like Wardlow as a gatekeeper to the final boss. But it shouldn't be in a 30 minute match.

NFL Draft did a number on Smackdown


Avg - 2.02 million
(credit - showbuzzdaily)


Most Watched on YT:
HBK roasts HHH - 571k
Vince McMahon appears - 496k
Recap of Braun/Bray - 298k


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Weekly rundown:

Smackdown - 2.02 million
RAW - 1.84 million
AEW - 731k
NXT - 665k

Bruce Prichard was such a terrible hire as the lead creative of SD.

Neither RAW nor SD have been that appealing to watch since the new tv deals kicked in but at least with RAW, Heyman and co. have been trying to build up new things while on SD, it just feels mostly boring and bland despite being an hour shorter.

I watched the clips on YT of the rest of SD -- I remember when this was advertised to FOX as a SPORTS program.

What they have instead is something that comes across as a badly scripted kid's tv series.
Can't imagine why new viewers aren't interested in picking that up.

2 million isn't the worst number they could have done going up against the draft.

I'm not a fan of Prichard at all, and I don't watch WWE despite them putting on a great Rumble match, but some of the stuff they seem to be doing on paper is pretty good.

Glad they got Goldberg in to beat Bray. It seems their hands were tied with his contract situation and they were kind of forced into going with Braun, which is meh. I still don't get the Braun hype. Honestly, I'd be more interested if they went full-blown conservative heel with him and let Roman beat him when he gets back. Or go with someone completely fresh in lieu of that. Keith Lee? Man, Keith Lee smacking around Braun would be fine with me.

Sami Zayn is very entertaining in his spot. I feel like Cesaro and Nakamura are kind of in this dead space, but when you're talking about a guy that doesn't have the personality Vince gets in Cesaro and Nakamura is excellent giving his little sideways faces (from what I have actually seen) and it's at least a functional role where they can potentially have great tag team matches and the like. Would love to see Daniel Bryan & Drew Gulak vs. Cesaro & Nakamura, for example.

I ideally wanted Bryan in a more focused role, but while he's negotiating his new contract they are letting him work underneath with guys he seemingly wants to work with. He's a valuable player.

The Otis/Ziggler/Mandy stuff was very WWE, but it's the sort of very WWE stuff that the WWE actually does well. It's their wheelhouse, and that's kind of the perfect spot for Ziggler in 2020. I'd actually like to see him and Roode move down to NXT for a while or something. Their act feels very similar to Miz & Morrison.

Speaking of Miz & Morrison -- I like them as a team. It's the best role for Miz as an active wrestler. Morrison is still tremendous and looks like a star every time I see him. In the Edge & Christian role of prick heel champs you want to see the babyface brother team and the established popular act beat, that's not a bad start for a tag team division that also has Bryan & Gulak and Cesaro & Nakamura to throw into the mix.

The flattest act there, in my opinion, is Bayley as heel champ. I'm sure there are plans to turn Sasha babyface and do something with Snoop at some point, but it's just...eh. Feel like they need to "go away" to freshen up. But them being so cold right now could lead to them feeling a bit more reinvigorated when they actually start doing something.

I have no real compulsion to watch the shows, but on paper, I get what they're going for. It's all fine stuff...in theory.

Really wish they'd do something proper with Chad Gable and drop the Shorty G stuff completely. That dude's a heck of a talent.

SmackDown somehow manages to be “less than the sum of its parts”. For me, outside of the (lack of) creative, the mix of talent isn’t right.

That's a much more succinct way of explaining the impression it gives me, haha. :y:

It's so weird when you've got two top babyfaces like Daniel Bryan and Braun Strowman, who are just so mind-blowingly different. I can get Bryan and Roman together, because their personalities and presentations are so different, but they've kind of got similar motors and could probably have a great match beside each other or against each other. Then you've got this big lumbering fuck. Throw in goofy Bray Wyatt.

They need to pick an identity for these shows. Braun could work as a heel for Drew, talking shit about how people should just not be poor. If they don't like him, stay home, sell your ticket and go and make your dreams happen instead of watching real men like him. Drew kicks him the face. Yay.

The Bryan show needs to be built around guys that Bryan can really work with. Not always the best technical matches, but guys that he just knows he can get a lot out of. That's mostly everyone, I guess, but I'd send Brock to SmackDown and do a Bryan vs. Brock program, because that's proper money.

With SmackDown being touted as the “sports presentation” show that’s sort of what I expected (and why I was initially excited for the brand split). You’d have two distinct feels to the shows.

SmackDown would be the more “workrate” based show with Brian, Nakamura, Zayn, Cesaro, Reigns, Ziggler, New Day, Usos, Gable, Morrison, even guys like Sheamus, Jeff Hardy, Heavy Machinery, etc. who don’t necessarily fit in the top tier of in ring talent but can go and more importantly add some “character” and diversity to the roster so it’s not just a bunch of “vanilla midgets” applying submissions to each other. And yes, Brock and Rousey.

Raw would then be the more “entertainment” show with the bigger personalities. This is where Strowman and The Fiend fit. You’d still want some guys that can handle the action between the ropes to hold on to that “hardcore”/IWC audience. That’s where Rollins, Owens, Styles, Black, Joe, etc come in. This is where the first brand spilt went wrong; they seemed to go for similar “feels” as described above but they left Raw with a coming-to-the-end-of-his-career Austin, Hall, Nash, Big Show, Taker, Kane, Bubba Dudley, and Bradshaw. Grim.

Tbf, the current situation is different; you’d be unlucky to pick 3 random names out of a hat and not get at least one guy that’s at least an 8/10 in the ring.

I didn't really buy the sports thing when I heard about it. FOX always knew they were getting the circus. I'd buy the WWE doing something different (I know that sounds laughable) *if* it were something new. Say ESPN or Fox Sports orders a one-hour wrestling show, and they actually went to Vince and said "Hey, we want it to actually be wrestling and separate from your other stuff that we value for entertainment" (if you can call it entertainment). Know what I mean? I can actually buy Vince doing wrestling on the side. Like Southpaw as a promotion without the comedy. Dunno, can just see them getting so far away from wrestling that they decide to do wrestling as a novelty, haha.

When they first did the draft, I was pretty pissed off they didn't bring up The Revival, Gargano & Ciampa and American Alpha to be the tag team base on Raw. I say Raw just because they've got three fucking hours to fill. You send them there, throw in The Usos as a brother team, and you've got four ace teams that can shake things up and be analogous to the SmackDown Six but on Raw. The Usos could turn heel and you could do tags, six-mans, eight-mans, singles, etc. The New Day and Enzo & Cass could have anchored an "entertainment" tag division on SmackDown.

I bring that up because while it's so natural to go with Raw being the entertainment show, it's just the length of it. That's where you put Cesaro doing 20-minute things with guys, because SmackDown is only two hours, so it's easy to keep it snappy. Today, I'd just go with booking around a few people on SmackDown. Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan and Brock Lesnar seem like natural fits for that to me. You don't need a Randy Orton in that mix, so you can use him on Raw. Bray Wyatt doesn't fit that mix, so you can use him on Raw too. So you go with the guys that have great chemistry with Bryan, Brock and Roman:

* AJ Styles -- great matches with Roman, Brock and can work with Bryan too.

* Finn Balor -- great matches with Brock and could also be there with AJ.

* Shinsuke Nakamura -- still a dream match with Bryan, don't care what anyone else says.

* Sami Zayn -- can do that shit with Nakamura and could also work with Bryan, although Roman and Brock don't really work on paper for me.

* Kevin Owens -- partner to Zayn, great start to a tag division. Working with Styles & Balor would be interesting.

* The Usos -- could go heel with Roman or help him out as faces, whatever. Another great tag team for the show.

* Naomi -- guess that means she's there too, so there's a woman for your division.

See how it all sort of flows and feeds itself? You start with Roman and end up at Naomi, haha. But you don't need Jeff Hardy or Rey Mysterio for that paradigm, so you can just use them on Raw. Andrade works well with Rey and matches with Jeff would actually be pretty interersting too, so you send them to Raw, which means Charlotte Flair for the Raw women's side, as well as Zelina Vega and Aleister Black since those marriages lock them all together.

Just start with a few top guys and build the show around them. Instead they've got these shows and just allocate people to them for no rhyme or reason and they're disjointed. Then things like a draft might actually mean something, because guys would have better identities within the confines of their shows and the rosters having more function means you have to think about it more and move people with plans for them instead of it just being "now you're on the red show."

Aside from wanting the Usos on both shows (don’t blame you, and I know you’re just free-thinking here) that all stands up for me. I can’t wrap my head around how they’ve ended up with some of the guys in certain shows, and in certain positions.

RAW:


Avg - 1.82 million viewers
(credit - showbuzzdaily)


Most Watched on YT:
Drew/Seth contract signing - 909k
6-Man tag - 282k
Liv vs Ruby - 275k


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At this point, WWE really needs to spice things up with the format for their empty arena shows since its not really working in terms of entertainment.

They sort of had the idea with replaying classic past matches but instead of wasting valuable Mania build time with it, should have reserved that for the post-Mania shows when things start to slow down a bit in terms of storytelling and general interest.

They needed to spice up the half-full arena shows too. Too late.

AEW and NXT both had a decent week.

AEW - 693k
NXT - 637k


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https://i.postimg.cc/hGgynnrh/Screen...3-18-30-PM.png

Seems old people were the reason for AEW's decline in viewership since everything else was pretty much up in terms of ratings. NXT meanwhile squandered whatever momentum they gained after that brief 2 weeks on top.

Next week should be interesting since it will be the first time in over a month AEW will have a lot more of their roster to work with and WWE hyping up another Takeover-like card for NXT.

First time SD has gone under 2 million, minus the week it aired on FS1, since moving to FOX


Avg - 1.92 million
(credit - showbuzzdaily)


Most Watched on YT:
Otis vs Dolph - 367k
Tamina attacked - 322k
Mandy vs Carmella - 268k


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The stuff with the demos is a lot more worrying for WWE since SD no longer leads in the key areas and the more those start turning red, the more FOX is going to be upset.

I think wrestling has REALLY dropped the ball on this golden opportunity.

In a time when nothing is on, they have pretty much just shown up, but aside from 2 theatrical matches, an intriguing MITB concept, Chris Jericho on commentary, and Bubbly Bunch skits, nothing spectacular has happened in the last 2 months of wrestling.

I know it's hard without the instant feedback from a live crowd, but instead of drawing new fans, they are losing fans.

As a lifelong fan of pro wrestling, it's depressing.

Yikes

Avg - 1.686 million
(credit - showbuzzdaily)


Most Watched on YT:
Drew vs Murphy - 588k
AJ Styles returns - 397k
Liv vs Charlotte - 323k


https://i.postimg.cc/W3R73BKd/Final-...May-04-MON.png

RAW starting to inch closer to what AEW and TNA/Impact did for their highest ever shows, not counting the brief time TNA was on Mondays.

yeah i was about to say they are getting to tna 2008 raittings

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I firmly believe that this is going to be catastrophic for the company in the long term. It's brand poison. This is territory-killing stuff.</p>&mdash; Dave Schilling (@dave_schilling) <a href="https://twitter.com/dave_schilling/status/1257798497102737409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 5, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">NFL Draft viewership was up 40%. Millions are watching 1990s era Bulls games and related documentaries. I have friends that stayed up overnight to watch opening day of the Korean Baseball League. Something doesn’t add up</p>&mdash; Christopher Nyren (@CNyren) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNyren/status/1257771058586845185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 5, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

when they have nascar start up next week lets see how many watch that.

Feel these empty arena shows should have never started off with Smackdown and RAW since their first empty arena shows left a bad taste in people's mouths.

Not only did it take WWE too long to realize having rows of empty seats in the background looked bad visually, the novelty of airing lengthy classic matches simply to waste a ton of time wore out quickly.

AEW and NXT's first empty arena shows would have been a much better starting point for this coronavirus era of wrestling since they felt better in terms of vibes and looked better visually.

Yeah the product is and has been shit for ages and the limited roster and lack of star power is finally catching up to them

WWE has made it unlikely for new fans to get invested unless they have friends/family who are already fans. The chances of anyone otherwise deciding to spend 5 hours of TV watching weekly seems impractical/unrealistic.

Both Wednesday shows went up.


AEW - 732k
NXT - 663k


Add them together and they are only 291k viewers less than RAW on Monday (credit - showbuzzdaily)


https://i.postimg.cc/K8ZsKc9s/AEW-NXT.png

PWInsider reports that WWE Backstage had 75,000 viewers this week

Both shows being up is good.

Going back live helped AEW a lot but the real benefit was them getting back most of their roster to work with which should help freshen things up for the next few weeks of shows.

NXT got a boost by tossing 2 Takeover-level matches but the real interesting thing is if Charlotte had another dud of a segment since her title reign and star power hasn't been the big key ratings generator WWE had been expecting by now.

This is the first time AEW has topped RAW in the 18-34 male demo in the same week. (AEW - .24 / RAW - .23) per Wade Keller of PWTorch. (number not included in showbuzzdaily chart)

Turns out her match with Io was a big draw unlike last week's match against Mia Yim.

The other TakeOver-level match between Cole and Dream was a big dud though.

Meltzer speculated next week could very likely be another rise for both shows since news shows have been slowly losing their stranglehold over viewership.

SD back over 2 million


Avg - 2.04 million
(credit - showbuzzdaily)


Most Watched on YT:
Bray/Braun - 609k
Lacey/Tamina vs Bayley/Sasha - 321k
Jeff Hardy/Sheamus - 305k


https://i.postimg.cc/X7Q5Mbt6/Fast-D...May-08-FRI.png

Avg - 1.92 million
(credit - showbuzzdaily)


Most Watched on YT:
Becky's Preggo - 2.2 million
Edge/Orton - 790k
Aleister/Rey vs Seth/Murphy - 561k


https://i.postimg.cc/wj2V54f5/Screen...3-20-53-PM.png

Forget bringing back the Wild Card rule, WWE should just have new baby announcements each week since Becky's announcement was a big ratings success.

UFC on ESPN+ definitely hurt both shows this week.

AEW - 654k
NXT - 604k


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https://i.postimg.cc/mDZ43Jks/Screen...3-25-27-PM.png

Plus Survivor as well considering it was the other big notable show for the night and the numbers it did for its finale.

Wow, is that the excuse AEW are using this time?

R.I.P

There's always something else people would rather watch.

2.04 avg for SD this week


https://i.postimg.cc/Zqty82hY/Fast-Demo-2020-15-FRI.png

Here's how the big 4 did this week:


SD - 2.04 million
RAW - 1.92 million
AEW - 654k
NXT - 604k

Based on the past month, seems SD's ratings finally settled down in terms of how low they'd go for the empty arena shows. A little over 2 million is probably the best they are going to be for the foreseeable future.

Wow, Raw still almost tripling the rating for AEW. That’s not good.

The biggest hurdle AEW has right now is that it can barely beat the WWE's C-Show. And they have Jericho and Moxley.

NXT's Top guy? A dude who looks like a drowned rat.

I think empty arena shows have gone pretty much as far as they can go in all companies. Even when you try to shoot things creatively or have the other wrestlers serve as an unofficial audience, the lack of a proper crowd really saps a lot of the energy away from everything.

I do think that once things are "normal" again, everyone will get back some of their viewers who decided to take a break. The problem is I don't know if they'll get back everybody because some people will have found other things to do especially as this drags on longer and longer.

Florida's allowing 25% capacity at events, but having crowds back anytime soon is lunacy.

I'd bet WWE will end up being the first ones to have fans back. AEW will let them soak up the negative PR at first but they'll probably end up following suit within like a month...possibly with a few sensible precautions in place but at the end of the day it's still a show with fans in the building and that's not a thing that should be happening.