It's no secret that AEW has booking problems, anything good that happens is never followed up on in any way that makes you want to see what happens next or when you feel like you want to get behind a wrestler, they're suddenly cooled off and never sustain momentum. But even still, the decline in ratings defies all the reasons we were given for the fall of WCW, ECW and TNA over the last 20 years. AEW has had no finger pokes, no reverse battle royals, no haemorrhaging of talent etc and yet they keep falling. Even WWE did so many more worse things than we've seen in AEW to lose half their audience to the point they're at now. How much of a chance did AEW ever have of increasing viewership past their current peak with any reasonable expectation?
They had that with CM Punk, they had one chance and it was not hiring the guy and saying "nah we'll just make our own guy thanks".
>>15079078>AEW has had no finger pokesExploding ring. Devil storyline. All In footage. AEW has had multiple fingerpoke tier moments. >How much of a chance did AEW ever have of increasing viewership past their current peak with any reasonable expectation?They had an excellent chance. If Tony knew what he was doing and played his cards right then AEW would be doing numbers on par with RAW and Smackdown. I know it's the butt of jokes now but AEW really did beat RAW in the demo at one point. It had so much potential before Tony drove it off a cliff.
>>15079086I'll give CM Punk credit, he might be the last wrestler in the world who has a loyal fanbase that will follow him to wherever he goes be it AEW, WWE or UFC, but he's no Hogan where you can grow an audience around him.>>15079117>>AEW has had no finger pokes>Exploding ring. Devil storyline. All In footage. AEW has had multiple fingerpoke tier moments.Those aren't in the same ballpark combined. The fingerpoke came at a low point in fan patience, it made no sense and was a complete betrayal of an advertised match and represented how they were never going to move on from the nWo, all because Hogan and Nash had too much sway and were going to politic their way out of jobbing. It was far beyond a bad finish or unsatisfying conclusion.
>>15079117To add on to this, I feel like creative was too focused on WWE tier storylines and setups. CM Punk could've had a hand in this as I heard he suggested removing the rankings.That being said, with or without Punk creative is still run thin due to how their big head is doing multiple jobs in other sports. If Tony is super busy he should really delegate work to others he trusts
>>15079117>Exploding ring. Devil storyline. All In footage.These aren't worse than Vince being the higher power, Hornswoggle being the anonymous GM or Seth/Field HiaC.
>>15079159>Those aren't in the same ballpark combined.No, they really are. I'd argue the exploding ring was an even worse betrayal of fan expectations than the fingerpoke and it did permanent damage to AEW's reputation. It was literally the first time AEW got booed. As for the Devil storyline, AEW revolved around it for months and then the reveal was the biggest letdown possible, it became an incoherent mess, and then it basically got memoryholed. All that build for nothing. Then the All In footage is self explanatory. Tony put over Punk and humiliated his own employees and his own company. It's no coincidence that ratings started dropping off hard immediately after that footage was aired. You asked how AEW could recline so fast? Well shit like that is why.
>>15079078aew was always shit, the novelty just finally wore off
>>15079271>aew was always shitYes but it was shit with a regular cast of shitters. Now half the matches involve complete randoms.
>>15079222clearly they are
>>15079288Personally I believe they're on par. The worst shit a wrestling storyline can have is a wet fart of a finale. It makes people watching wonder why theyre putting in all this time for the finish
>>15079239I'll give you that the footage hasn't been done anywhere else but the worst thing about it was that it's part of the Bucks being heel authority figures which is way too WWE, but exploding ring = House of Horrors and the Devil = Black Scorpion. The fingerpoke of doom had so many more implications that no other promotion has experienced all rolled into one.
>>15079288The anonymous GM is legitimately one of the worst things in the history of wrestling, it was all over TV for months despite having no ideas for any kind of conclusion the entire time. Call it skill or fan stupidity, but WWE has had so many fuck ups that get swept under the rug.
me here >>15079086>>15079159Yeah i'd say that about punk too, hes cultivated his fanbase on both sides and he gets them following him wherever he goes, but AEW was supposed to be the new thing, we need that back and homegrown talent, big fan of alotta the AEW guys but i'm finding it hard to get into many of their angles, and im a big tag team wrestling fan and its a pain when two teams i hate is main scene tag team.
>>15079373I liked it for micheal cole getting his heel run.
>>15079373no it wasnt at all. people assumed it was never gonna get revealed. they did the hornswoggle shit as a joke.
>>15079624It says a lot about WWE that people expected nothing and watched anyway.
>>15079117They recovered from the exploding ring. The months after that happened were their hottest period ever. The other stuff definitely. But they weren't hurt by the sparklers
