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The Wednesday Night War


Ricky Jackson

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4 minutes ago, FMKK said:

I wonder what impact the overrun makes for NXT. This was close enough that it may have been what tipped them into the victory.

Yeah, I was wondering the same. 

NXT put Becky Lynch first and ended a gigantic overrun with Seth Rollins. I actually thought they would beat AEW by a bigger margin. I didn't think they would beat AEW in the 18-49 demo, because they have been losing that comprehensively, but I expected that to be nearly even, given WWE has two shows this weekend and the NXT invasion angle was plugged on main roster television as well. 

I dunno if WWE are happy with the ratings - if nothing else, the fact that they finally got more viewers will be a relief - but I do think AEW will not be disappointed with the ratings. 

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20 minutes ago, Mad Dog said:

It's really sad they just pissed all over war games so they can job out the NXT guys at Survivor Series.

One of the reasons I stopped really following WWE because no match or angle, no matter how good in vacuum, has any stakes or leads to consequences. WWE clearly does not care about these characters' journey, so why should I?

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wonder if it's possible to be able to move people from Raw/Smackdown to NXT without it being seen as much of a demotion, since there'll be times where people go from NXT to Raw/Smackdown and they can't always just replace them with somebody who is a level below NXT.

The problem early is that the WWE audience historically hasn't been into watching 3 different WWE shows and NXT was seen as a step below RAW/Smackdown. So part of their November success has been sorta hand-waved away as "they're getting the ratings because of the big shows".. and I guess we'll see if the ratings are because of the featured big show wrestlers, or if they're getting better numbers because people who watch Raw/Smackdown are being given reminders that NXT is also on the air.

It's be one thing if NXT's ratings month was due to deceptive practices or something similar. But I think there's a certain degree of things that can be sustained as long as the SSeries results aren't awful.

Also, last night may have had the most combined viewers of any AEW/NXT week since October 9th. But it's close. Also, both shows are sorta being pulled by the viewers who were teens during the 80s or during the late 90s. Compare their 18-34s to their 18-49s.

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2 hours ago, NintendoLogic said:

I'd like to see Shayna/Charlotte at some point. They're both in dire need of fresh opponents, they match up well stylistically, and Shayna is probably the one person Charlotte could face and have the crowd completely behind her.

Crowd really wouldn't get behind either of them.

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4 hours ago, NintendoLogic said:

I'd like to see Shayna/Charlotte at some point. They're both in dire need of fresh opponents, they match up well stylistically, and Shayna is probably the one person Charlotte could face and have the crowd completely behind her.

Charlotte is not, never has been, and probably never will be over as a babyface. 

Okay, maybe in ten years when she gets a "returning legend pop."

Until then, I really wish WWE would stop trying. 

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2 hours ago, Mad Dog said:

There sure are a bunch of upset WWE fanboys over that rating. 

It's like they are finding out right now that key demographics are a thing, and that tv rating websites always rank shows by demo ratings. Poor Meltz was losing his mind on Twitter at being called an AEW stan for pointing it out. 

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7 minutes ago, MoS said:

Poor Meltz was losing his mind on Twitter at being called an AEW stan for pointing it out. 

Between this and the Cornette case (about which he did a tremendous job explaining the whole thing, including how the MX were basically the Young Bucks to the older generation back then, how what Corny said is not defendable and was not either in other eras despite people not batting an eye then but also how something like Randy Orton using racial slur on Twitch totally got a pass for some reason), poor Meltz, having to deal with a sea of idiots.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Big ass drop for AEW. Then again, their target audience is younger, so, maybe the DVRed the thing this week while getting wasted at the bar. Maybe NXT won because no Mauro means people like me who can't stand him watched the show his week.

Anyway, gotta love WWE fanboys already shouting "AEW is dead" and stuff...

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1 hour ago, El-P said:

Big ass drop for AEW. Then again, their target audience is younger, so, maybe the DVRed the thing this week while getting wasted at the bar. Maybe NXT won because no Mauro means people like me who can't stand him watched the show his week. 

Mauro is back this week. AEW has no chance. 

:P

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If nothing else, these ratings prove to me that the viewing public don't value the same things I do.  I thought AEW made some positive changes this past week (namely the inset promos for the Diamond Dozen Finals, more character vignettes not just long matches, etc.) and they had the superior show over NXT...so of course NXT wins in the ratings.  Most of the weeks when AEW won in the ratings, (with the exception of the first two weeks) I generally thought NXT put on a better show.

So basically, everybody is stupid except me...and they're all wrong.  There, I said it.

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4 minutes ago, The Thread Killer said:

If nothing else, these ratings prove to me that the viewing public don't value the same things I do.  I thought AEW made some positive changes this past week (namely the inset promos for the Diamond Dozen Finals, more character vignettes not just long matches, etc.) and they had the superior show over NXT...so of course NXT wins in the ratings.  Most of the weeks when AEW won in the ratings, (with the exception of the first two weeks) I generally thought NXT put on a better show.

 So basically, everybody is stupid except me...and they're all wrong.  There, I said it.

It was a holiday weekend here (American Thanksgiving), so I wouldn't put that much stock into these ratings.

The only thing I watched last week was Dominick Dickhead (Kenny Omega™) and Keith Lee vs. Undisputed Era.

The build with Jericho and Scorpio Sky from the week before had me interested in the match, but I ultimately never tuned in because Jericho keeping the title was such a foregone conclusion and I got busy and sidetracked with the holidays.

This week will be a better indication IMO.

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The thing is, I never understood the fascination of pro-wrestling fans with ratings. I mean, do you know any other kind of entertainment where people care about whether the show they watch is doing big ratings or bigger ratings than the program on the opposing channel or whatever ? I mean, yeah, it's fun for the whole "wrestling war" narrative, but honestly, I was shocked the first week when AEW trumped NXT. WWE is such a huge machine with unlimited budget and huge-ass roster of talent, there's no way AEW should even win, really.

As far as I go, I'm fine with AEW losing in the ratings every week as long as they are existing and providing ME with a pro-wrestling show I really enjoy. For the business as a whole (workers, mostly), it's better for AEW to be really successful of course.

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I pay attention to ratings when it's the first season of a network television show that I like.  There's nothing worse than getting into a new TV show and then all of the sudden they pull it because of low ratings.  For example, I've never totally gotten over Fox cancelling Firefly 16 years ago...those low-down-no-good-dirty-rotten-filthy-stinking-sons-of-bitches.

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Ratings are really important to wrestling because the bulk of money is made via television deals. They are arguably 10 times more important than they were during the Monday Night War. 

From what Meltzer is saying, AEW showed a bigger drop than most other shows during the Thanksgiving weekend. This is not a good number. That said, I do hope they do not panic and keep sticking to what they are doing, and taking feedback and learning along the way. Pulling a Bischoff will only worsen things long-term. 

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6 hours ago, MoS said:

Ratings are really important to wrestling because the bulk of money is made via television deals. They are arguably 10 times more important than they were during the Monday Night War. 

There is that, yes. It's funny because for years and years now we've heard from WWE fanboys how ratings never mattered less and how the ratings going down and down and down didn't mean shit because people were streaming and watching Youtube and how social medias actually were the real indicators. Sure… 

The one thing that is for sure : there isn't gonna be a boom period. On the contrary, the market seems saturated (thanks for nothing WWE). The fact AEW exists is awesome. But pro-wrestling isn't hot. That being said, I would probably take a context where AEW can exist while pro-wrestling isn't too hot over the Attitude Era when WCW and ECW went to hell while WWF became unwatchable despite being the hottest its even been. If AEW can stay healthy, that's all I ask. And I mean, IMPACT is still on the air, so...

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