The OtherArena

[corrado]

The Revival had a sit-down interview with Tony Schiavone and it was generally good. They didn't seem like bitter fucks, and put over the many tag teams in AEW. The payoff here was Tony Schiavone saying the famous "F... the Revival" line, bleeped of course. Hilarious.

Cody/Jungle boy was good but a bit too short. Another random blade job by Cody during this match. He seems to do that a lot. Even for matches on TV like this. I wonder if one of the running gags on BTE as of late is based on this. Matt Jackson randomly blading.

[Yakuza Rich]

AEW: 730K
NXT: 715K

I didn't watch either show.

There were the riots going on, but they seemingly did not affect NXT. Although NXT has a slightly older viewership than AEW.

Next week's ratings will be interesting because I would presume the riots will be over and we'll see if that has an impact on AEW viewership or not. If it does have an impact, than we can more accurately identify the viewership as likely being left leaning (not saying that's good or bad) and very college oriented.

If there is no impact, then questions will remain and while the Orange Cassidy segment that drew over 1 million viewers seemed like a hit, they may have realized that it's the same joke that keeps getting told.

Having said that, logic would dictate that if he was really responsible for being such a high draw, he should be featured as a main event for the company and contend or win the title. OC supporters tend to back down when hearing that, but that's the way creating a superstar works.

If he can't be a main eventer, but it still a draw then it goes to show you the lack of interest there is in AEW's main eventers.




YR

[corrado]

a much better Dynamite this week. Ratings king Orange Cassidy was great again this week. This time he was attacked by Chris Jericho with a bag of bloody oranges. Yes, that's correct. I would think that one of the next steps is for OC to end the show one of this weeks. I can imagine that Cody main eventing the show doesn't do wonders for the ratings, as some people probably flock to NXT to see their main event, as the distance between the two shows was again small.

I would assume that's why they had another ratings draw, Penelope Ford pin the women's champ Shida in a decent tag match.

Cody/Marq quen was pretty good for a thrown together with little time match, as the original plan was for the injured Fenix to wrestle Cody. Also Cody proved he doesn't have to do a big blade job to have a decent match. I guess he figured with orange Cassidy getting the huge blade job, he didn't have to do it. What's not so great is Jake Hager getting a tnt title match at the 2-week Fyter Fest. That could be Jake Hager's last chance to prove to AEW that he is capable of more than being a stoic muscle and occasional comic relief with the Inner Circle.

[Yakuza Rich]

OC didn't draw that much in the ratings.

AEW: 677K
NXT: 673K

AEW also had a drop in the ratings in the 18-49 demo.

I think the idea that AEW's ratings went down last week because of the riots/protests is unfounded with last week's ratings. Most likely the ratings went up a bit due to Tyson's presence and then the audience saw it for what it is and lost interest.

It's probably best that they have Orange Cassidy work with Jericho given Jericho's status and popularity in the company. He's popular (although AEW fanboys claiming he's the biggest star in the business is ridiculous) and he's toward the end of his career so losing a feud to OC won't kill his career.

But there should be concern here if OC is drawing better ratings than your main eventers and you can't put him in the main event.

In some senses this could play out a bit like The Sandman in ECW. He was over big time in ECW once he changed his gimmick, but it was thought you don't give a wrestler like him the title. Heyman put the title on him anyway and it worked out just great and really helped the promotion when Sabu, The Public Enemy, Benoit, Eddy, Shane and Malenko all left the company.

But the difference was that ECW wasn't on national TV and even as the champion, Sandman wasn't on TV every week. I tend to think the Sandman gimmick, particularly in the 90's, had a far longer shelf life than the comedy gimmick of OC. And if OC gets over-exposed then they're left with a roster that just isn't that over.


I did watch the FTR match which was really good. I thought they gave the Butcher and the Blade a little too much, but that's due to the context of them coming in. The Young Bucks were horrendous on the mic and made me not want to watch it. I get that Hamgman Page likes to drink, but when you pull apart a brawl with the drink in your hand...it comes off like something that Vince would do. Page and Omega were also late on their cue.






YR

[corrado]

Bucks seemed to me that they're going to be the de facto heels in this program. Much like how they were heels to the Rhodes setting up their tag match last year.

I would think the end game to these open challenges is that since anyone can challenge Cody. On the roster, or not. Have a debuting Matthew Cardona (zack Ryder) challenge him and win. Ideally, and this would only work if Chris Jericho was to regularly announce, is that Jericho could hint on commentary that he heard a rumor that one of Cody Rhodes' best friends was going to challenge him very soon for the TNT title. And Cardona debuts as a heel and wins. And Cody can feud with him for a while.

[Yakuza Rich]

NXT: 786K
AEW: 633K

First time NXT beat AEW in 10 weeks.

But AEW slightly beat out NXT in the 18-49 year old demo at 0.22 to 0.19.

Since this is a 1 week deal we'll have to wait until next week to see how serious this is. When NXT beat AEW 10 weeks ago, it was only by ~50K. Now they've been beaten out by ~150K.

But it doesn't look like Orange Cassidy as a main eventer is paying off. Of course, it doesn't help to start off with a Lumberjack match which I heard was a complete clusterfuck.






YR

[Yakuza Rich]

AEW: 748K
NXT: 792K

2nd week in a row that NXT beat AEW in total viewership. AEW won the 18-49 year old demo at 0.29 vs. 0.19.

It's starting to show that Orange Cassidy vs. Chris Jericho isn't getting over. The younger crowds seem to be okay with it, but it's not popping the younger demo and overall it's not appealing to the audience as a whole.

I watched the 2nd half of the show only. I enjoyed the matches to a degree. Some of the booking and execution was a little screwy. Chuck Taylor looked like shit out there and Omega/Page I think hit them with too many moves.

I started to see why I don't care for most AEW tag matches...too many situations where 1 guy somehow outbattlle double teams. After a while it really loses its luster and takes me out of the match.

I thought the brewhaha at the end sucked. FTR shoujld be taking no prisoners as they were the guys openly mocked by The Elite in their Being the Elite serie. This shouldn't be that hard to figure out.






YR

[Yakuza Rich]

AEW: 715K
NXT:759K

AEW won the 18-49 year old demo of 0.28 vs. 0.21. So the gap is closing a bit in the demo.

I didn't watch the show. From looking at the results this will be the end of the Jericho vs. Orange Cassidy feud which was proven to be a flop. It will be interesting on what the ratings of this match were like.

Now they are heading into their 1-year Anniversary with them behind in the ratings and may have caused irreparable harm due to the OC push.

Not good.






YR

[Yakuza Rich]

AEW: 788K
NXT: 631K

This was perhaps the most telling week since the Wednesday Night Wars started as AEW jumped in total viewers while staying roughly the same in the 18-49 year old demo (0.29 this week). NXT fell hard in both total viewers (759K last week) and in the demo (0.14 this week).

Moxley made it onto Dynamite and I think that shows he still has heat with the fans outside the 18-49 year old demo and influenced the total viewership a little. And the numbers still point to Orange Cassidy as a flop as a main eventer given how the demo stayed flat. Had they kept OC at say mid level status possibly feuding with somebody like the Dark Order, they could have increased viewership and the demo.

I don't know much about NXT, but whatever they did was unappealing to the demo as they went from 0.22 to 0.14 in 1 week. I would imagine that accounted for the majority of their dropoff in total viewers.





YR

[corrado]

The reason for NXT's surge in overall viewers before last week was that they relied on a lot of main roster stars appearing, and a big money match of Keith Lee who defeated Adam Cole for the NXT title, ending his over one-year old reign. I guess we'll see more main roster stars appear soon.

As for AEW, I thought for sure Jericho's on-air promo about the demos would backfire. Him and Tony Khan had very spirited twitter posts, in which they seemed to relish in winning the key demos but not the overall viewership. It reeked of late-era WCW, most of Impact. But it did produce a new Jericho catchphrase in "demo-God" and perhaps a top-selling t-shirt as well.

But Jericho's wrong because the true Demo-God is apprently Jon Moxley who returned from his wife Renee being Covid-positive. Moxley is clearly the top AEW star and his reign should last a while longer. And his next foe is slated to be the undefeated MJF.

AEW did need a big win like this with live sports tentatively slated to return in the next few weeks. Most notably, the NBA. Of course with the rise of Covid cases and deaths, live sports may be postponed. Or hopefully postphoned.

[Yakuza Rich]

AEW: 845K
NXT: 615K

Demo was 0.32 for AEW and 0.17 for NXT.

Sound victory for AEW. NXT went down in total viewership from last week (631K), but up slightly in the demo (0.17). Given the margin for error that the Nielsen Ratings has, I'd say that NXT was flat from last week and AEW gained some.

Also, no Orange Cassidy on Dynamite.

This gives me the indication that Moxley drove last week's rating and it carried over to this week and without OC facing against Jericho the demo and the viewers outside the demo liked it along with it reportedly being a very good show (I didn't see it).

Because the Neilsen Rating methodology is so screwy I wouldn't be surprised to see Dynamite go down due to margin for error, but if they have another solid week of TV and feature Moxley and MJF the 8/5 ratings should be strong.

They still have a long way to go in understanding how to book TV. I don't know why Moxley (who I'm not even a big fan of) and MJF are not featured more consistently. Tony Khan will probably argue the fear of them getting stale, but they aren't getting them over either by sidelining them.






YR

[corrado]

Well you're in luck, because the rumored AEW title match for ALL Out 2020, in Moxley against the "undefeated" MJF. Now obviously, it's a bit too soon for MJF to be the champ, but maybe there will be an out for him, just like Mr Brodie Lee and Brian Cage had outs. And by outs I mean they weren't pinned/submitted. So I would assume this feud will begin this coming week.

The best part of this week's show was Eddie Kingston's promo at the start of the show, setting up his match for the tnt title with Cody (whose last name is bleeped on AEW videos) Very very well done. The problem with these TNT matches, is that, after each one of these matches with indie talent. It's expected by fans that the indie talent will sign with AEW. it happened with Ricky Starks. But the further this goes, and if more indie talent compete every week, that means less time for those on the fringes, in AEW's increasingly crowded male roster. They've had added more matches to AEW Dark every week. It's going to be a situation similar to the WWE with a crowded roster, with much of the roster hardly on tv.

[corrado]

I really didn't feel this week's AEW. A step down from many of the earlier shows this month.

So Warhorse didn't impress me as much as Eddie Kingston. He reminded me of the Ultimate Warrior knockoff, Renegade. Afterwards making his AEW debut was the wrestler formerly known as Zach Ryder. One of the few WWE castoffs to not sign with Impact this past week. Anyway the end game for him I would imagine, is him defeating Cody and becoming the new TNT champion.


Great stuff from MJF. Looking forward to All Out and his title match.

Seems AEW knows of the ratings threat that is the NBA so next week they booked for the title, Jon Moxley against darby Allin. I would expect some chicanery from Team Taz.

[Yakuza Rich]

AEW: 773K/0.30
NXT: 707K/0.18

I think the ratings for the past 3 shows is quite telling. AEW got a bump from Moxley on the 7/15 show and followed it up with what was reported to be a strong show and then lost their steam with what was reported to be a weak 7/29 show.

But in the end, it's basically the same pool of viewers each week. AEW went down about 80K in total viewers and NXT went up about 90K in total vierwership.

It also appears that AEW's ratings are affected by the first 15 minutes of the episode. If it's indy garbage crap, a portion of the viewership will leave and go to NXT. If it's good stuff like Kingston vs. Cody...they'll tune in and stay with the program.

And while I'm not a fan of AEW, I do think it's going to be impossible for them to get to say 1.5 million with 0.45 in the demo having a show the same time as NXT. NXT just eats up too many viewers even though AEW soundly beats it in the ratings and demo.






YR

[corrado]

They did announce on social media that they signed Eddie Kingston to a contract. So some good news on that front. And apprently the wrestler formerly known as Zach Ryder has a 5 appearance deal:


https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2020/07/exclusive-news-on-matt-cardona-aew-deal-673039/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

The new state of the industry. Wouldn't be surprised if that becomes some sort of norm. For a lot of the ex WWE talent. No long-term deals. Even wrestling in promotions without guaranteed contracts.

And like I said with the ratings, now with sports back. With the NBA, MLB and NHL back, that will probably hurt AEW's ratings more than NXT because of the 50+ demo that tends to stay with NXT no matter how the program is. Although it could also benefit AEW since TNT is broadcasting NBA games again, and there's bound to be AEW commercials, and promo reads by the announcers.