[Mr. Nerfect]

Originally Posted by Emperor Smeat 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 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.

Originally Posted by Iceman King Gertner 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/

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?

Originally Posted by #1-wwf-fan 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.

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.