The Wednesday Night War *Spoilers for AEW and NXT*

The White Wolf

WWE really need to make a big call in regards the NXT replays on the Network. Don't change it in the rest of the world but change it for US viewers.

ERG89

The White Wolf wrote: »

WWE really need to make a big call in regards the NXT replays on the Network. Don't change it in the rest of the world but change it for US viewers.

If your expecting that is costing them getting more viewers it ain't. I'm pretty sure AEW is replayed immediately after it airs & people are making the choice to watch AEW live instead.
You could record one of them as they are broadcast too. I'm pretty sure recorded programming is included in ratings.
It's a pity both are losing viewers as the weeks pass. I think wrestling had a great chance a few weeks ago to gain new fans & the shows didn't get that, Smackdown in particular which had a huge opportunity on FOX absolutely shat the bed 2 weeks in a row imo

OneEightSeven

Looking at the TV guide for America next week, AEW is repeated at 1 am (the screenshot displays our timezone). On a somewhat related matter, has anyone ever browsed an American TV guide website? They're poorly designed, irritating to navigate through and if there's a filter, which most don't, it doesn't fúcking work.

leggo

It’s not that both shows are ‘losing’ viewers. It’s that a lot of people tuned in the first week out of curiosity because it was an event. There’s a ridiculous amount of wrestling each week now, you can’t expect people to watch it all live. Does everyone here watch whatever shows they like live as they air every week? Aside from sport I barely watch anything as it airs anymore. If you don’t, you wouldn’t be counted in the ratings, but it doesn’t mean you’re less interested than others.

Chuck Noland

leggo wrote: »

It’s not that both shows are ‘losing’ viewers. It’s that a lot of people tuned in the first week out of curiosity because it was an event. There’s a ridiculous amount of wrestling each week now, you can’t expect people to watch it all live. Does everyone here watch whatever shows they like live as they air every week? Aside from sport I barely watch anything as it airs anymore. If you don’t, you wouldn’t be counted in the ratings, but it doesn’t mean you’re less interested than others.

Ah Vince

Nice to see you’ve joined boards 😂😂

rizzla

gerrybbadd wrote: »

I feel with the advent of the internet, streaming and DVR services, there will never be a true "war" such as there was with Raw & Nitro back in the day. You had to watch one or the other back then. These days, you can watch it all at a time that suits you.

You really don't have to pick a side

The only thing that worries me is that AEW kinda need the rating. Good ratings mean they will keep their tv show and get the advertisers.

WWE don't really need the ratings. So if you enjoy the competition and want it to thrive you kinda have to tune in live to AEW so they can pay the bills, more relevant for the US market though.

I don't know Tony Khan so not sure if he would continue to invest if the ROI plummets.

leggo

Chuck Noland wrote: »

Ah Vince

Nice to see you’ve joined boards 😂😂

What? You realise I’m talking about AEW too? Stupid comeback.

Chuck Noland

leggo wrote: »

What? You realise I’m talking about AEW too? Stupid comeback.

It was a joke. This is a line commonly pedaled out by WWE to networks as their ratings dropped

sky88

im really surprised both shows are actually doing the numbers there doing tbh i thought theyd both cancel each other out

leggo

Chuck Noland wrote: »

It was a joke. This is a line commonly pedaled out by WWE to networks as their ratings dropped

That’s because it’s true though, of all forms of entertainment not just WWE or wrestling in general. I’ve watched every second of Dynamite so far (while catching NXT highlights on YouTube, but sure I’m biased towards WWE, go figure) but haven’t watched live once. NJPW would probably be my favourite promotion and air at a more convenient timeslot here...but even then I struggle to catch them live all the time. Do you yourself only ever watch all of your favourite wrestling live or do you watch in your own time? We’re the on-demand generation and now ratings are just one way of gauging interest. Unfortunately we just don’t have access to a lot of the other ways to know the full picture.

Chuck Noland

I’m not arguing with you on that point. It was merely a poorly delivered joke. WWE are using that line awhile now was all I was saying and I do agree. I only watch sport live now. All my tv is series linked or Netflix or similiar.

The White Wolf

ERG89 wrote: »

If your expecting that is costing them getting more viewers it ain't. I'm pretty sure AEW is replayed immediately after it airs & people are making the choice to watch AEW live instead.
You could record one of them as they are broadcast too. I'm pretty sure recorded programming is included in ratings.
It's a pity both are losing viewers as the weeks pass. I think wrestling had a great chance a few weeks ago to gain new fans & the shows didn't get that, Smackdown in particular which had a huge opportunity on FOX absolutely shat the bed 2 weeks in a row imo

Maybe it's not a key issue.

That Priest V Dunne match was the best of the night for me across both shows. The latter has some amazing presence in the ring.

sky88

The White Wolf wrote: »

Maybe it's not a key issue.

That Priest V Dunne match was the best of the night for me across both shows. The latter has some amazing presence in the ring.

NXT has had better in ring product for me all 3 head to head nights but only this week felt like storylines were coming together

Agent Coulson

AEW had the better matches for me over NXT so far on the head to heads.

RollieFingers

Agent Coulson wrote: »

AEW had the better matches for me over NXT so far on the head to heads.

Agree 100%, Bucks vs Private Party has been the best of any of the Wednesday shows so far for me. And Omega/Janela on Dark beats anything from NXT too.

sky88

RollieFingers wrote: »

Agree 100%, Bucks vs Private Party has been the best of any of the Wednesday shows so far for me. And Omega/Janela on Dark beats anything from NXT too.

Agree that bucks vs private party has been the best match but I just feel nxt generally has been better

I loved and hated the janela vs omega match

leggo

I think it’s really interesting and possibly advantageous in the long run that NXT looks and feels like the smaller, grittier show compared to AEW’s high production, glossy look. I don’t think that’s an accident either, they’re taping in the same place as they used to sure and it looked a lot crisper then. Wrestling fans’ opinions change all the time and WWE framing themselves as almost an underdog, underground, cult-style promotion could work out well once the initial novelty of Dynamite wears off.

I don’t think you’ll get a complete role reversal, mind, the damage WWE has done with some of its fanbase is near-permanent and I’d say a lot of AEW’s base had stopped watching already. But I could see it being more back and forth than it is now in a few months.

Agent Coulson

Both drop again.

AEW drop about 51k NXT drop about 16k

AEW winning the keep Demo by 2 to 1.
https://twitter.com/iamjohnpollock/status/1187464925549092865?s=20

Agent Coulson

Should also be noted they are up against the World Series at the moment.

sky88

Worrying both shows keep dropping even against strong competition

The White Wolf

sky88 wrote: »

Worrying both shows keep dropping even against strong competition

NXT seem to be controlling their drop more than AEW. The window is still big but NXT are slowly closing it. I'd say Trips will be happy enough if that trend becomes the norm.

sky88

The White Wolf wrote: »

NXT seem to be controlling their drop more than AEW. The window is still big but NXT are slowly closing it. I'd say Trips will be happy enough if that trend becomes the norm.

Nxt has been on longer so I say it’s finding more of it’s natural viewership now we’re it will take another 3 weeks for aew to get that

Ali Bomaye

I'd say NXT is near its floor it has dropped so much.

Lithium93_

Both shows will be up against a lot in the States tonight, Game 7 of Baseball's World Series & the NBA being some of their competition for eyeballs, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's a slight drop or if the numbers hold from last week.

Agent Coulson

Baseball will kill every show tonight not just wrestling.

sky88

Another drop was to be expected against the baseball but still not great they just keep Dropping

Wednesday Night Ratings] AEW: 759,000 / NXT: 580,00

From there debuts I think aew lost 600k and nxt 500k if my maths is correct

sky88

Great numbers from Both 40% jump from nxt shows it worked having them on the main show


https://twitter.com/iamjohnpollock/status/1192552639919271941?s=21

Lithium93_

Numbers for this week have been released.

https://twitter.com/bryanalvarez/status/1195085184367878144

AEW: 957,000
NXT: 750,000

RollieFingers

Lithium93_ wrote: »

Numbers for this week have been released.

https://twitter.com/bryanalvarez/status/1195085184367878144

Great to see AEW doing well, really good rebound from the drop last week. Thought NXT would have done better with the main roster invasion stuff recently.

sky88

RollieFingers wrote: »

Great to see AEW doing well, really good rebound from the drop last week. Thought NXT would have done better with the main roster invasion stuff recently.

im still suprised both are doing as well as they are

i do wonder if for whatever reason one of the shows wasnt on in a week or preempted would the viewership would dramatically increase or do they have distinct viewership

sky88

Nxt wins again thanksgiving had to come into play for both shows



https://twitter.com/kenton_la/status/1201614312122568704?s=21

ERG89

That AEW number is absolutely terrible tbh.

CastorTroy

Just outta curiosity, if you were watching AEW live and checking social media for, for example, last week would you have changed to NXT when you see Ciampa was fighting Balor in the main event? Or vice versa?
AEW won the lower demographic anyway which is the main target demographic, as far as I know.

I did notice when going looking for both shows that there were more peers for AEW than NXT.

J. Marston

That's a battering. The AEW hype has fully subsided now.

sky88

I know it’s great there winning the young demographic But if they keep losing viewers it’s worrying over half there viewership from debut episode gone in 2 months although I’d expect a bump back up this week

brianregan09

That's a massive drop it's not even about losing to NXT it's bout losing over 500k viewers since the start that's tough to pull back

CastorTroy

Was the TNT contract length revealed?

Agent Coulson

Excalibur & JR even made a joke about them needing to target the over 50's demo in last weeks episode.

Nearly double the amount of over 50's watching Nxt to AEW.

Itssoeasy

That's a poor number from AEW. I know nxt had the buzz over the invasion and survivor series and all that but I'd have never expected that much of a gap. I mean it's the evening before thanksgiving and thanksgiving and wrestling have a long history.

Itssoeasy

Do we know if nxt and AEW will be live on Christmas Day this year given that it falls on a Wednesday this year. You'd doubt they would but WWE did it a couple of years ago so it's not outside the realms of possibility of it happening again. Also given tha the nxt talent all live locally to nxt you'd never know.

leggo

Last week’s AEW wasn’t bad but it was very meh. I watched the two live at the same time and NXT was constantly grabbing me and AEW losing me (and I’ve been really into Dynamite). The worry is that they’re running out of game-changing ideas. They do solid, traditional booking and execute well, match quality is always high, but that’s not necessarily stuff that grabs people and gets social media buzzing. Nobody texts their mates to tell them how solid something is.

It’s a tough spot to be in because they’ve kinda earned their following by doing the basics really well, if they start doing stunts it could come across unnatural or desperate. They can’t just go after ex-WWE lads either because that’s very WCW/TNA. I don’t think they’re going anywhere, but I’d hoped we’d get a year or so of fun before it got to “Well we weren’t REALLY trying to compete anyway” and lads looking to cosy back up to WWE. Hopefully they stop the rot.

Itssoeasy

Nxt to me has never and hopefully never will do anything that's embarrassing awful. I think that's because of triple h, regal, and HBK being a part of nxt will stop them doing stupid stuff that to me as a longtime wrestling fan is embarrassing.

I hope AEW succeeds I do, but I'm worried about the fact that the wrestlers as in positions of power. We've seen how this movie can end before with WCW. I hope I'm wrong but it's not likes it's never happened before. Tony Khan for all his talents isn't triple h or regal.

leggo

I said it here months back and got absolutely lambasted, it’s all stuff we’ve seen before: inmates run the asylum with someone else’s chequebook, jobs for the boys, high profile lads sign from WWE, do ‘shoot interviews’ and make digs that please the smarks. Kurt Angle was Chris Jericho, Jeff Jarrett was Cody and Christian was Moxley in TNA (now all get paid by WWE).

They’ve got resources and smarts though so if they can be introspective enough to acknowledge this in themselves they can switch up.

Any company that has The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega in a position of authority is pissing into the wind.

Cody has the smarts, but the other three are jokers.

Itssoeasy

leggo wrote: »

I said it here months back and got absolutely lambasted, it’s all stuff we’ve seen before: inmates run the asylum with someone else’s chequebook, jobs for the boys, high profile lads sign from WWE, do ‘shoot interviews’ and make digs that please the smarks. Kurt Angle was Chris Jericho, Jeff Jarrett was Cody and Christian was Moxley in TNA (now all get paid by WWE).

They’ve got resources and smarts though so if they can be introspective enough to acknowledge this in themselves they can switch up.

Why ? You're not wrong leggo. For all vince's faults and there have been many and will be more I've no doubt about it, but the one thing that WWE had that WCW didn't was that one guy was in charge and he had the final say on things. I'm not saying everything WWE did in the attitude era and prior to it was 24 Carat gold but there was a defined chain of command for lack of a better word. WCW never seemed to have that or at least it got less and less as it went along. I mean at times in the late 1990's WCW was spending Ted turners money like drunk sailors on shore leave.

Itssoeasy

Deleted User wrote: »

Any company that has The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega in a position of authority is pissing into the wind.

Cody has the smarts, but the other three are jokers.

Cody should have the smarts given his family history. Just because he knows how it should be done to be successful doesn't mean he'll do it.

ERG89

Wouldn't be scape goating Omega & the Bucks for the rating last week. If anything the show in general (including Cody) has felt directionless since the last PPV.
Only Jericho has had a clear path with his title run. Lucha Bros, Page, The Bucks & Omega should be booked stronger even if people inevitably moaned about them putting themselves over it's the right thing to do. Same with giving Jericho the title, you first must confirm who your stars are to help create your next stars.

As far as creative goes nobody is perfect. Vince gets more things wrong than he does right which is why WWE is often ice cold for most of the last 2 decades. The show very much reflects a man who has now lost his memory.
Gedo gets a lot of praise (rightfully so) but has got a lot wrong too with title importance, tag teams & poorly reading the landscape at key moments, several times.
Maybe HHH could amount to something but at the end of the day they had to put NXT over at Survivor Series for a reason.

I won't discuss clowns like Bischoff or Russo as anyone who thinks they can offer something in 2019 needs to get their head checked. The likes of JR, Prichard & Cornette are all well past their sell by date too.
Who else is there working in creative in the U.S. now?
ROH is a disaster with Bully & Delirious in charge. Lagana I wouldn't touch with a barge pole either.
Scott D'amore has done a good job with Impact as has Court Bauer with MLW but neither of those shows are weekly TV where you need to react to the ups & downs. This is their first kick in the teeth & they need to react to it, not throw their dummies out like others will.

sky88

eventually jericho will go back on tour and i think that could hit them hard as hes been a lynchpin for them especially entertainment wise and obviously has the star power no one else has in the company

in ring isn't going to win this war as both are pretty solid on that its the company with the best stories

plus with wwe the roster is that stacked they can just put kevin owens, aj styles, cesaro etc could take a trip down to NXT if the ratings take a hit which AEW cant really do so its why i think there stories and new character building need to improve which i think its starting to do

sirmanga

So amusing seeing the AEW diehards make every excuse for the dire rating.
"It was the day before Thanksgiving"
Yes, but NXT still did a better number.
"AEW are doing better with the younger demo."
Yeah, whatever, who cares.
"NXT cheated because they have exposure on main roster WWE TV."
All that says to me is that AEW can only compete with the third brand, minor league version of WWE. And so what if WWE are using everything at their disposal to elevate NXT. AEW are running at half speed. Barely there storylines and match after match. Why would people stick around to watch that?

Honestly, AEW fans are becoming like a woman who's found lipstick on her husband's collar, noticed his new haircut, and wonders why he's working late every evening.
No matter what you say, they don't want to believe what they already know.

CastorTroy

But AEW introduced The Blade and the Butcher! How can the ratings be down? It's the Blade and the Butcher!

Seriously though, when you think about it, I know it's still early, but how many guys in AEW made their name elsewhere and how many are AEW Originals? I mean that in the same way TNA had their TNA Originals in AJ, Joe, Daniels, Abyss, Eric Young, etc.
Off the top of my head I can think of MJF, Sammy Guevera, Darby Allin and Orange Cassidy, who hasn't even had a proper match yet. A couple women as well like Britt Baker. I think out of those Darby and MJF are worth watching AEW for.
It's not entirely AEW's fault though since WWE just got to everyone first. If NXT and AEW both started signing guys at the same time it would be a different story