Between WWE, AEW, Impact, and AAA that have held empty arena shows, WWE hit that wall the fastest. Only real option left is to pump in fake crowd noise or have a virtual crowd like the idea WWE had. Even then, that might only buy a few more weeks depending on the company before hitting the wall again.

In regards to crowds coming back, that's been the big concern ever since these empty arena shows started. Current speculation is WWE likely is gong to suffer the most based on past history whenever they bled away viewers. NXT probably won't be hurt that much but RAW and SD probably going to be lucky if they get like half of their lost audience back.

This is actually about 200k higher than I guessed it would be


Avg - 1.75 million
(credit - showbuzzdaily)


Most Watched on YT:
Drew vs Corbin - 633k
Edge/Orton - 442k
Rollins promo - 346k


https://i.postimg.cc/m25Xjkzb/Screen...3-19-42-PM.png

WWE probably should have had another surprise baby announcement considering the ratings it got last week.

Last night's show wasn't that bad compared to recent weeks since it actually build up a bunch of interesting stuff for once but was still a bit of a chore to actually sit through to watch.

Note:

The Rock hosting The Titan Games begins airing on NBC at the same time as RAW next week.

AEW took the #7 spot on cable for Wednesday night

AEW - 701k
NXT - 592k


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https://i.postimg.cc/GpDFXD8D/Screen...3-27-45-PM.png

Bit surprised AEW did that well considering last night's episode was not one of their better ones. If there ever was a chance for NXT to steal a win without needing to throw out another Takeover-level show and/or matches, last night was that chance.

More worrisome for NXT is that key demo number set their new lowest ever since moving to USA Network. If it wasn't for WWE's old audience doing all the heavy lifting, NXT probably would be a lot closer to Impact on Pop TV numbers for the week.

NXT's biggest problems are Gargano, Cole, Ciampa, Mauro & Beth.

When NXT began they shifted new people into the main-event scene every year or so. Cole/Gargano/Ciampa have eaten NXT for years now. It's so played out. Beth is just bad and Mauro is unbearable.

At least in regards to talent and NXT Creative feeling stale or lazy at times, can blame Vince and Triple H for that.

Can even make the case what happened to NXT is one of the few times where Vince wasn't the main person at fault since Triple H wrecked NXT's entire call-up system all because of his ego and well before AEW was even a thing.

Vince and main Creative screwing up the handling of talent on the main roster has been bad but Triple H's reaction to it was even worse since it directly affects NXT and its shown in recent months.

It's weird how NXT had me hooked for about a year or two but I lost interest after Nakamura debuted there, I found his run quite dry and never really went back.

NXT is still so good at its core, but they use it to try and get over their other stuff FAR too much.

If I wanted to watch 205 Live, I would watch 205 Live.
If I wanted to watch NXT UK, I would watch NXT UK.

I don't know if that is Trips ego or Vince pushing that, but it's very easy to flip over to Dynamite when Tony Nese vs Jake Atlas comes on.

SD - 2.04 million avg


Most watched on YT:
Charlotte vs Bayley - 363k
Jeff Hardy vs Sheamus - 308k
Otis/Mandy vs Dolph/Sonya - 280k


https://i.postimg.cc/JnVy1m8B/Fast-D...May-22-FRI.png

Here's how the big 4 shows did in live TV ratings this week


SD - 2.04 million
RAW - 1.75 million
AEW - 701k
NXT - 592k

Whoa is SD regularly beating Raw now?

Yeah. Combo of RAW taking a big beating this year for ratings, SD being on a higher profile network, and Fridays usually being the weakest night for television in terms of major competition.

Since it moved to FOX I think there was only 1 week RAW beat SD and it was because it aired on FS1 instead of FOX that week.

The Rock's show did well in demos on NBC Monday Night


https://i.postimg.cc/Pqp5P8Y5/Fast-D...May-25-MON.png

RAW dipped slightly from last week but still took 3 of the top 4 spots on Cable Monday night.


Avg - 1.735 million
(credit - showbuzzdaily)


https://i.postimg.cc/0NXVQ2h8/Screen...3-12-02-PM.png

2nd lowest ever viewership but on the bright side, at least the hourly drops were small and RAW managed to do well against the 90 Days Fiance shows and Rock's Titan Games.

AEW: 827,000
NXT 731,000


Even with Tyson they still can't break 1 million. Embarrassing.

Tony Khan should sit down and talk with Dixie Carter. She could at least draw 1 million.

Great week for both AEW and NXT

AEW - 827k
NXT - 731k


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Fun Fact:

If you add up the ratings for both AEW and NXT they total 1.558 million. That is only 177,000 less viewers than RAW had on Monday Night.

Would really love to know what AEW and NXT's numbers would be if they weren't cutting into each other's markets.

That's pitiful.

Probably close to the combined live weekly numbers since that's what they were leaning towards when you include DVR viewers before the coronavirus wrecked that stat. AEW probably would still have the advantage in viewers by a couple hundred thousands at most.

I think everyone who wants to watch AEW prioritizes it. If they're fans of the company, they're doing what they can to support it over NXT. Plus, NXT still drops on the Network, doesn't it? I'm sure instead of watching four hours of wrestling every Wednesday, people just watch NXT then, since a lot of AEW fans probably have the Network.

I think it goes to follow that NXT's numbers would go up. I say that because a lot of AEW fans would probably check out NXT more frequently if it were on a Tuesday or a Thursday. If they removed it from the Network too. The AEW audience is probably their audience. NXT would have a chance of getting the combined live numbers, maybe even a little more without the Network (like 200k or so), while AEW would probably get a much smaller boost from a very select few amount of people who prioritize NXT for whatever reason.

NXT would go up the most but they'd probably end up being in a virtual tie at most since the WWE Network probably is only strong enough to cover the live and DVR gaps AEW has over them.

Since the Network very likely leans more towards WWE older viewers, AEW probably would still keep the key demo advantage they have going on if they were on separate days.

I know I'm in the minority, but as someone that flips back and forth each week, I think if they were on different days I would might not watch either anymore than I already do. Them being on at the same makes it harder to miss either one.

I could see each gaining maybe half the viewers of the others if they were on different nights and pulling a solid million viewers each week, but I think the other half would be lost. 400k people would only watch one and not the other.

Meltzer reporting that AEW and Mike Tyson didn't crack the top Google searches, meaning less than 50,000 searches.

Been saying this for a year now : AEW's biggest hurdle is people thinking any company other than WWE is second rate because WWE has become the Kleenex of facial tissue. Something they were never shake.

https://411mania.com/wrestling/nothi...fter-dynamite/

Also, as much as Tyson has some cache, he doesn't have 1998-levels of cache. Plus, it's not like they have the combustible Austin element. I even read in the results the observer guy saying "this was decently executed but it's not a needle mover."

God bless them for trying, though.

I figured with his rumored comeback that he'd have a lot of buzz right now. Especially in the sports world where nothing is going on.

It probably should have a bit. But still, not having the WWE name plus missing that combustible Austin-like element really hurts. Who fucking cares about Tyson and Jericho, as much as I love Chris.

But I don't think current day Tyson could really do anything with anyone from the WWE roster either. Would have a better chance just because of the marketing reach of WWE, but beyond that, I dunno.

I watch AEW live and then switch over to the dvr to watch nxt in about 90 min ff thru commercials. If I wanted to without dvr directv has a west feed of TNT that I could watch AEW at 11 after nxt, but honestly I'd rather do it the way I do to speed up NXT

the funny thing is it's probably 90% the same peoplevl that watch all 3

Yup

I’ve said the same thing. WWE has made sure wrestling is unpopular while pumping their brand up as the exception for decades. And the only way anyone could realistically compete is if WWE rested on their laurels and got so unbelievably shitty that they inadvertently brought themselves down to someone else’s level.

That hasn’t happened. But I think the fact that a WWE branded wrestling show with all of WWE’s resources and even their main roster stars appearing cannot win a ratings “war” against another wrestling company is HUGE fucking progress.

They are beating the C show. People can pump up NXT all they want. It's still the C show the caters to a niche audience of a niche audience.

I think there's a lot of supposition going on here. The WWE Network is "probably" only strong enough to cover the live and DVR gaps? Where's that coming from? How do you know it's not 300k people from the US? That more than overtakes that gap. Plus you would have AEW viewers who would casually follow NXT having another day to actually keep up.

Is there any evidence that the Network audience skewers older? Streaming services are usually accessed by younger audiences. WWE still gets a lot of older fans to order things on PPV, which seems bass ackwards, but happens. I think that's where a lot of that "key demo" is for NXT. It's not that AEW is some hot young thang that people are really into -- the younger crowd just watches Thursdays on their tablets and shit.

It's one of the biggest spins Meltzer puts on things to make AEW look great. Droford is right, these audiences are probably way closer to being the same few saps who still try to give this bullshit a chance every week.

This is something we just disagree on, I think. Not that it's anywhere near an unintelligible point or anything -- you may very well be right. I just don't believe that WWE is the Kleenex. I think they have definitely heavily influenced what a "tissue" is. But so many people still think they are called the WWF, haha. People will get these stock images in their mind when they think of "wrestling," and I think that can actually work for other promotions, because I don't think the feelings are that particularly strong towards the WWE.

I guess where I differ is if WWE were suddenly replaced by Big Bob's Wrestling Federation or whatever, I think people would just shrug. It's probably all the same shit to them, unless they watched once upon a time and miss "Macho Man" Randy Savage, specifically.

But, more to your point, I wouldn't be surprised if SmackDown actually got a boost on FOX, because people see "Mike Tyson" and "wrestling" and watch SmackDown to see it. It's more a lack of differentiation -- a tissue is a tissue -- but I think there is plenty of room for a separate wrestling promotion to establish itself as something unique and actually different.

Actually, come to think of it, I remember all the reading and learning I had to do to work out the differences between the WWF and, say, a Mid-South Wrestling, and how one is actually probably way too more tastes. Nuts, you're probably just 100% right, haha. That being said, the worst thing you can do is market yourself as second-rate WWE. People are sick enough of WWE -- why the fuck would you want to see Jericho and Tyson! Jericho and Tyson! 22 years later?

One of the weirdest things I've seen on the interwebs are AEW fans who are gloating because while the AEW ratings sit very comfortably below 1 million viewers, the Raw rating is dropping, so they're waiting for it to get as low as AEW -- like this is a good thing.

The AEW/NXT "war" is such a let-down. The viewership numbers are so small they are almost immeasurable to any significant margin. Given that Nielsen admits a 10% margin of error, I don't think there is even enough of a gap between the shows to say that one is even conclusively more watched than the other, until you look out at the trend over time. But even so, I crunched the numbers a while back, and given how many people still have cable and how many boxes Nielsen have out there, all you'd really need are a few (and I mean that almost literally) people with Nielsen boxes who just happen to be a hardcore wrestling nerd and is willing AEW to succeed.

I mean, I've obviously over-simplified it, but a difference of 100k is thrown out wildly by three people giving data. One falls asleep, the other prefers NXT but wants to support grassroots wrestling, the other is a genuine fan. Unless Nielsen have changed how they operate wildly, Nielsen just doesn't work when you get down to numbers this low. At least with Raw and Nitro you had a large enough sample to make definitive conclusions. Raw ended up KILLING Nitro. AEW is probably watched by more, if you can trust the inadequate sample size. And take out international deals. And the Network. It's an antiquated "war."

But NXT did its job, and AEW helped out by doing the PWG stuff. They got a pretty weak TV deal by live TV standards, one that could be estimated to basically equate to the production cost deal they were already on -- the only differing piece of information being Dave Meltzer who says "about $500k per show," which he probably got from AEW, so make of that what you will. The only concern WWE had about AEW was in how it would threaten those TV deals, because it's all they've got going for them right now. When AEW got ratings so small they are comparable to hours six and seven of WWE television, it was over. They're not going to suddenly start doing numbers that are going to validate a USA or FOX playing hard-ball with WWE in the future. The 200k-300k in the "key demo" that Raw and SmackDown both do better in -- SmackDown maybe even particularly more so, because while it's share is double that of AEW's, there may be more people watching in that demo on network as opposed to basic cable -- you'd be better off going with WWE as a sponsor/advertiser, or just going to YouTube to pay for a spot before a react video.

Because of that, they are zero threat to Vince. That is why I am so pissed off at how shitty they are, because I genuinely believed they had a chance to win over a large and disenchanted audience, and maybe even convince people to come back and watch pro-wrestling that doesn't have McMahons plastered all over it. Instead of living in a post-Vince world, where Vince would have to actually fucking try to stay #1, they've handed him a bigger monopoly than ever, and it's just getting colder and colder.

And that's why I love mocking AEW in front of its fans. Because they get so upset and then act like they're mad at Vince McMahon. If they were mad at Vince McMahon, they'd probably want to see him lose, so they'd probably want the horrible shit that switches people off out of their alleged alternative, right? Well, enjoy your stay at Vinceland.

AEW only exists because he controls everything. That's why he gets the big TV money, and it's why the Khans thought they could jump in and get a slice. AEW fans should probably be thanking Vince for giving them the world's tiniest sandbox to play in if they sincerely love this product so much. If it weren't for him, there might still be good wrestling around and people wouldn't get to see Joey Janela vs. Marko Stunt in a flossing contest to see who gets to smell Penelope Ford's feet.

AEW and NXT are fighting over the same 1.5 million fans give or take every week and have been since the beginning. With it being a niche product of a niche product, the ceiling isn't very high for either NXT or AEW.