By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite television show produced 869,000 viewers for TBS, according to Showbuzzdaily.com. The viewership count was down from the 1.129 million viewership total from last week.
Powell’s POV: Lousy numbers for Dynamite. These are the worst numbers that the show has produced so far this year. Dynamite finished third in the 18-49 demo in Wednesday’s cable ratings with a 0.31 rating, down from last week’s 0.41 in the same demo. Monday’s WWE Raw finished with a 0.44 rating in the same demo despite airing on Syfy.
Those are not good numbers, coming off a hot show, and with the Cody situation potentially bringing a curiosity factor to the mix.
I’m going to wait for Meltzer to figure out how they’re actually great numbers before I pass judgement.
Part of it was the massive letdown of the debuts last week, with nobody knowing who Jay White is and Keith Lee looking 50 lbs heavier and blown up within 90 seconds. Part of it was last night’s show just not being good.
Last nights show was some of the worst stuff AEW has done in a while. Way more misses than hits, and the absolute bottom of the barrel lazy bullshit from Adderall Boy with nearly every segment having some sort of interruption, interference, or just general shithousery.
They need to hire someone who actually knows how to consistently book more than just a debuting bitter ex WWE wrestler.
They need to cut their roster in half.
They need to get rid of one of the YT shows.
They desperately need to stop taping Rampage after Dynamite.
The solution isn’t that complicated. Hire a booker, cut 50% of the roster, cut out 90% of the bullshit (before, during, and after both interviews and matches), focus on building up the people on the roster that have real long term star potential, do Dynamite live on Wednesday with one dark match after it just for crowd, and then do a live YT show before Rampage on Friday with a midcarder main event leading into the live Rampage show.
@thegreatestone: Funny. Before the ratings dropped, you liked the show. Talk about consistency.
They will not grow their audience until the show feels like it is booked by an adult.
At the moment it has all the discipline of something booked by a teenage boy, with the added confusion that the wrestlers then go out and do whatever they want anyway. Sometimes that makes it better (Danielson/Punk), sometimes it makes things worse (Jericho, Bucks).
There is no direction. I don’t want to see micro management of segments WWE-style, but I do want to feel that someone has a vision for this promotion. There is no vision at all on display.
I’m not sure how closely tied week to week show quality can be to viewership. I mean from 1995-1997 both Raw and Nitro had broadcasts with no shortage of stupid angles and nothing-level wrestling matches yet the ratings for either show were benchmarks that any wrestling program of today would be elated to achieve, even though the wrestling boom period hadn’t reached a peak yet. People have more alternatives to divide their attention and pro wrestling may have a been there, done that perception to many. I don’t foresee a scenario or specific plan of action where this entertainment medium approaches the viewership and fanfare that it enjoyed twenty plus years ago.