Between WWE, AEW, Impact, and AAA that have held empty arena shows, WWE hit that wall the fastest. Only real option left is to pump in fake crowd noise or have a virtual crowd like the idea WWE had. Even then, that might only buy a few more weeks depending on the company before hitting the wall again.

In regards to crowds coming back, that's been the big concern ever since these empty arena shows started. Current speculation is WWE likely is gong to suffer the most based on past history whenever they bled away viewers. NXT probably won't be hurt that much but RAW and SD probably going to be lucky if they get like half of their lost audience back.

This is actually about 200k higher than I guessed it would be


Avg - 1.75 million
(credit - showbuzzdaily)


Most Watched on YT:
Drew vs Corbin - 633k
Edge/Orton - 442k
Rollins promo - 346k


https://i.postimg.cc/m25Xjkzb/Screen...3-19-42-PM.png

WWE probably should have had another surprise baby announcement considering the ratings it got last week.

Last night's show wasn't that bad compared to recent weeks since it actually build up a bunch of interesting stuff for once but was still a bit of a chore to actually sit through to watch.

Note:

The Rock hosting The Titan Games begins airing on NBC at the same time as RAW next week.

AEW took the #7 spot on cable for Wednesday night

AEW - 701k
NXT - 592k


https://i.postimg.cc/Jzv33xnm/Screen...3-27-51-PM.png
https://i.postimg.cc/GpDFXD8D/Screen...3-27-45-PM.png

Bit surprised AEW did that well considering last night's episode was not one of their better ones. If there ever was a chance for NXT to steal a win without needing to throw out another Takeover-level show and/or matches, last night was that chance.

More worrisome for NXT is that key demo number set their new lowest ever since moving to USA Network. If it wasn't for WWE's old audience doing all the heavy lifting, NXT probably would be a lot closer to Impact on Pop TV numbers for the week.

NXT's biggest problems are Gargano, Cole, Ciampa, Mauro & Beth.

When NXT began they shifted new people into the main-event scene every year or so. Cole/Gargano/Ciampa have eaten NXT for years now. It's so played out. Beth is just bad and Mauro is unbearable.

At least in regards to talent and NXT Creative feeling stale or lazy at times, can blame Vince and Triple H for that.

Can even make the case what happened to NXT is one of the few times where Vince wasn't the main person at fault since Triple H wrecked NXT's entire call-up system all because of his ego and well before AEW was even a thing.

Vince and main Creative screwing up the handling of talent on the main roster has been bad but Triple H's reaction to it was even worse since it directly affects NXT and its shown in recent months.

It's weird how NXT had me hooked for about a year or two but I lost interest after Nakamura debuted there, I found his run quite dry and never really went back.

NXT is still so good at its core, but they use it to try and get over their other stuff FAR too much.

If I wanted to watch 205 Live, I would watch 205 Live.
If I wanted to watch NXT UK, I would watch NXT UK.

I don't know if that is Trips ego or Vince pushing that, but it's very easy to flip over to Dynamite when Tony Nese vs Jake Atlas comes on.

SD - 2.04 million avg


Most watched on YT:
Charlotte vs Bayley - 363k
Jeff Hardy vs Sheamus - 308k
Otis/Mandy vs Dolph/Sonya - 280k


https://i.postimg.cc/JnVy1m8B/Fast-D...May-22-FRI.png

Here's how the big 4 shows did in live TV ratings this week


SD - 2.04 million
RAW - 1.75 million
AEW - 701k
NXT - 592k

Whoa is SD regularly beating Raw now?

Yeah. Combo of RAW taking a big beating this year for ratings, SD being on a higher profile network, and Fridays usually being the weakest night for television in terms of major competition.

Since it moved to FOX I think there was only 1 week RAW beat SD and it was because it aired on FS1 instead of FOX that week.

The Rock's show did well in demos on NBC Monday Night


https://i.postimg.cc/Pqp5P8Y5/Fast-D...May-25-MON.png

RAW dipped slightly from last week but still took 3 of the top 4 spots on Cable Monday night.


Avg - 1.735 million
(credit - showbuzzdaily)


https://i.postimg.cc/0NXVQ2h8/Screen...3-12-02-PM.png

2nd lowest ever viewership but on the bright side, at least the hourly drops were small and RAW managed to do well against the 90 Days Fiance shows and Rock's Titan Games.

AEW: 827,000
NXT 731,000


Even with Tyson they still can't break 1 million. Embarrassing.

Tony Khan should sit down and talk with Dixie Carter. She could at least draw 1 million.

Great week for both AEW and NXT

AEW - 827k
NXT - 731k


https://i.postimg.cc/431bgY5L/Screen...3-17-03-PM.png

Fun Fact:

If you add up the ratings for both AEW and NXT they total 1.558 million. That is only 177,000 less viewers than RAW had on Monday Night.

Would really love to know what AEW and NXT's numbers would be if they weren't cutting into each other's markets.

That's pitiful.

Probably close to the combined live weekly numbers since that's what they were leaning towards when you include DVR viewers before the coronavirus wrecked that stat. AEW probably would still have the advantage in viewers by a couple hundred thousands at most.

I think everyone who wants to watch AEW prioritizes it. If they're fans of the company, they're doing what they can to support it over NXT. Plus, NXT still drops on the Network, doesn't it? I'm sure instead of watching four hours of wrestling every Wednesday, people just watch NXT then, since a lot of AEW fans probably have the Network.

I think it goes to follow that NXT's numbers would go up. I say that because a lot of AEW fans would probably check out NXT more frequently if it were on a Tuesday or a Thursday. If they removed it from the Network too. The AEW audience is probably their audience. NXT would have a chance of getting the combined live numbers, maybe even a little more without the Network (like 200k or so), while AEW would probably get a much smaller boost from a very select few amount of people who prioritize NXT for whatever reason.

NXT would go up the most but they'd probably end up being in a virtual tie at most since the WWE Network probably is only strong enough to cover the live and DVR gaps AEW has over them.

Since the Network very likely leans more towards WWE older viewers, AEW probably would still keep the key demo advantage they have going on if they were on separate days.

I know I'm in the minority, but as someone that flips back and forth each week, I think if they were on different days I would might not watch either anymore than I already do. Them being on at the same makes it harder to miss either one.

I could see each gaining maybe half the viewers of the others if they were on different nights and pulling a solid million viewers each week, but I think the other half would be lost. 400k people would only watch one and not the other.

Meltzer reporting that AEW and Mike Tyson didn't crack the top Google searches, meaning less than 50,000 searches.

Been saying this for a year now : AEW's biggest hurdle is people thinking any company other than WWE is second rate because WWE has become the Kleenex of facial tissue. Something they were never shake.

https://411mania.com/wrestling/nothi...fter-dynamite/

Also, as much as Tyson has some cache, he doesn't have 1998-levels of cache. Plus, it's not like they have the combustible Austin element. I even read in the results the observer guy saying "this was decently executed but it's not a needle mover."

God bless them for trying, though.

I figured with his rumored comeback that he'd have a lot of buzz right now. Especially in the sports world where nothing is going on.

It probably should have a bit. But still, not having the WWE name plus missing that combustible Austin-like element really hurts. Who fucking cares about Tyson and Jericho, as much as I love Chris.

But I don't think current day Tyson could really do anything with anyone from the WWE roster either. Would have a better chance just because of the marketing reach of WWE, but beyond that, I dunno.

I watch AEW live and then switch over to the dvr to watch nxt in about 90 min ff thru commercials. If I wanted to without dvr directv has a west feed of TNT that I could watch AEW at 11 after nxt, but honestly I'd rather do it the way I do to speed up NXT

the funny thing is it's probably 90% the same peoplevl that watch all 3

Yup

I’ve said the same thing. WWE has made sure wrestling is unpopular while pumping their brand up as the exception for decades. And the only way anyone could realistically compete is if WWE rested on their laurels and got so unbelievably shitty that they inadvertently brought themselves down to someone else’s level.

That hasn’t happened. But I think the fact that a WWE branded wrestling show with all of WWE’s resources and even their main roster stars appearing cannot win a ratings “war” against another wrestling company is HUGE fucking progress.

They are beating the C show. People can pump up NXT all they want. It's still the C show the caters to a niche audience of a niche audience.

I think there's a lot of supposition going on here. The WWE Network is "probably" only strong enough to cover the live and DVR gaps? Where's that coming from? How do you know it's not 300k people from the US? That more than overtakes that gap. Plus you would have AEW viewers who would casually follow NXT having another day to actually keep up.

Is there any evidence that the Network audience skewers older? Streaming services are usually accessed by younger audiences. WWE still gets a lot of older fans to order things on PPV, which seems bass ackwards, but happens. I think that's where a lot of that "key demo" is for NXT. It's not that AEW is some hot young thang that people are really into -- the younger crowd just watches Thursdays on their tablets and shit.

It's one of the biggest spins Meltzer puts on things to make AEW look great. Droford is right, these audiences are probably way closer to being the same few saps who still try to give this bullshit a chance every week.

This is something we just disagree on, I think. Not that it's anywhere near an unintelligible point or anything -- you may very well be right. I just don't believe that WWE is the Kleenex. I think they have definitely heavily influenced what a "tissue" is. But so many people still think they are called the WWF, haha. People will get these stock images in their mind when they think of "wrestling," and I think that can actually work for other promotions, because I don't think the feelings are that particularly strong towards the WWE.

I guess where I differ is if WWE were suddenly replaced by Big Bob's Wrestling Federation or whatever, I think people would just shrug. It's probably all the same shit to them, unless they watched once upon a time and miss "Macho Man" Randy Savage, specifically.

But, more to your point, I wouldn't be surprised if SmackDown actually got a boost on FOX, because people see "Mike Tyson" and "wrestling" and watch SmackDown to see it. It's more a lack of differentiation -- a tissue is a tissue -- but I think there is plenty of room for a separate wrestling promotion to establish itself as something unique and actually different.

Actually, come to think of it, I remember all the reading and learning I had to do to work out the differences between the WWF and, say, a Mid-South Wrestling, and how one is actually probably way too more tastes. Nuts, you're probably just 100% right, haha. That being said, the worst thing you can do is market yourself as second-rate WWE. People are sick enough of WWE -- why the fuck would you want to see Jericho and Tyson! Jericho and Tyson! 22 years later?

One of the weirdest things I've seen on the interwebs are AEW fans who are gloating because while the AEW ratings sit very comfortably below 1 million viewers, the Raw rating is dropping, so they're waiting for it to get as low as AEW -- like this is a good thing.

The AEW/NXT "war" is such a let-down. The viewership numbers are so small they are almost immeasurable to any significant margin. Given that Nielsen admits a 10% margin of error, I don't think there is even enough of a gap between the shows to say that one is even conclusively more watched than the other, until you look out at the trend over time. But even so, I crunched the numbers a while back, and given how many people still have cable and how many boxes Nielsen have out there, all you'd really need are a few (and I mean that almost literally) people with Nielsen boxes who just happen to be a hardcore wrestling nerd and is willing AEW to succeed.

I mean, I've obviously over-simplified it, but a difference of 100k is thrown out wildly by three people giving data. One falls asleep, the other prefers NXT but wants to support grassroots wrestling, the other is a genuine fan. Unless Nielsen have changed how they operate wildly, Nielsen just doesn't work when you get down to numbers this low. At least with Raw and Nitro you had a large enough sample to make definitive conclusions. Raw ended up KILLING Nitro. AEW is probably watched by more, if you can trust the inadequate sample size. And take out international deals. And the Network. It's an antiquated "war."

But NXT did its job, and AEW helped out by doing the PWG stuff. They got a pretty weak TV deal by live TV standards, one that could be estimated to basically equate to the production cost deal they were already on -- the only differing piece of information being Dave Meltzer who says "about $500k per show," which he probably got from AEW, so make of that what you will. The only concern WWE had about AEW was in how it would threaten those TV deals, because it's all they've got going for them right now. When AEW got ratings so small they are comparable to hours six and seven of WWE television, it was over. They're not going to suddenly start doing numbers that are going to validate a USA or FOX playing hard-ball with WWE in the future. The 200k-300k in the "key demo" that Raw and SmackDown both do better in -- SmackDown maybe even particularly more so, because while it's share is double that of AEW's, there may be more people watching in that demo on network as opposed to basic cable -- you'd be better off going with WWE as a sponsor/advertiser, or just going to YouTube to pay for a spot before a react video.

Because of that, they are zero threat to Vince. That is why I am so pissed off at how shitty they are, because I genuinely believed they had a chance to win over a large and disenchanted audience, and maybe even convince people to come back and watch pro-wrestling that doesn't have McMahons plastered all over it. Instead of living in a post-Vince world, where Vince would have to actually fucking try to stay #1, they've handed him a bigger monopoly than ever, and it's just getting colder and colder.

And that's why I love mocking AEW in front of its fans. Because they get so upset and then act like they're mad at Vince McMahon. If they were mad at Vince McMahon, they'd probably want to see him lose, so they'd probably want the horrible shit that switches people off out of their alleged alternative, right? Well, enjoy your stay at Vinceland.

AEW only exists because he controls everything. That's why he gets the big TV money, and it's why the Khans thought they could jump in and get a slice. AEW fans should probably be thanking Vince for giving them the world's tiniest sandbox to play in if they sincerely love this product so much. If it weren't for him, there might still be good wrestling around and people wouldn't get to see Joey Janela vs. Marko Stunt in a flossing contest to see who gets to smell Penelope Ford's feet.

AEW and NXT are fighting over the same 1.5 million fans give or take every week and have been since the beginning. With it being a niche product of a niche product, the ceiling isn't very high for either NXT or AEW.

They’re beating WWE’s C-show. That WWE has, and still does, use their A-show talent on. Some people definitely over-hype that fact but I think you’re under-hyping it. It’s pretty much the best start that could be expected.

And I’m not even saying that’s as much praise of AEW as it is damning on WWE’s part. Putting their A-show stars on a primetime version of Velocity in the early 2000s and making them “Velocity champions” would have led to Velocity smoking any new competition. They’ve lost that luxury. That’s a pretty big deal in the grand scheme of things.

Because if the numbers were a lot stronger, then NXT would constantly be in the Top 2-3 for the Network's weekly show rankings when that hasn't been the case the past few months. Plus wouldn't need the Network for NXT if you have DVR capabilities on your tv to watch the show later.

Network likely does skew older considering how much its been struggling to grow compared to other streaming services and a lot of its content caters towards older WWE and wrestling fans.

Basically, WWE’s “niche of a niche” audience is becoming a higher and higher percentage of their overall audience because they’re losing the rest. And that “niche of a niche” audience now prefers something else.

No different than Impact beating ECW

I...dunno about that. Like, I loved me some Velocity back in the day, haha, but I don't think Chris Benoit vs. William Regal was going to smoke TNA or whatever. And the "A-show" talent in WWE aren't popping ratings on bigger shows, let alone smaller shows. I agree on that being an indictment, but using those stars on the show is mainly for their storytelling purposes and to just generate that content, content, content.

If NXT really wanted to beat AEW in the ratings, they'd have some a really big fucking angle by now. Daniel Bryan would have gone back to try and win the NXT Championship. Rey Mysterio and Ricochet would be having a best of seven series. The Bullet Club would have been feuding with The Undisputed Era. John Cena would have come back to humble Tomasso Ciampa for talking shit about the main roster and been the outside heel coming in. All those things are easy. Having Charlotte Flair win the NXT Women's Championship is...yeah, that's not them busting it.

And I personally think AEW could be doing much better. There's no reason you can't get the eyeballs that float around cable looking for wrestling onto you with a decent product. I honestly think the quality does matter, as it did with TNA.

Obviously some fans have jumped from the Network to watch on USA, so of course it would drop down the charts there. I mean, is there any data to suggest what number it gets? It just sounds like pure speculation either way. And I don't doubt not needing the Network for NXT. But if I had the Network, even if I didn't need it, I might will watch it on the Network instead of on DVR, so I don't really get that point. I'm sure some people do DVR it, and I've heard the numbers for that are quite high. But there's no way to tell whether those people have the Network or not.

I'm sure the Network has been struggling to grow, but what does that have to do with age and not just a market cap? And what content actually caters to older fans? I'm not fucking Ride Along, haha. What's to suggest younger people aren't watching NXT, 205 Live, old PPVs and documentaries on there? I mean, until we have the data we can't really say that it skewers towards old people. That's just what you want it to do, haha.

You sure about that? Obviously, Cena coming back for an NXT feud would be huge but they can’t even afford to drag him away from bigger and better things for the main product on a regular basis, much less NXT. As far as Bryan, Mysterio, Ricochet and Ciampa... Let’s be honest... None of them are much bigger of a draw than Charlotte. They’re all just cogs in the wheel at this point. If WWE were trying, they’d be doing exactly what they’re doing. They’d suddenly start mixing their C-show and A-show talent, oddly have the C-show beat the A-show on a brand war PPV, and then put a C-show title on an A-show star.

We can argue exactly how important it is but if you don’t think they’re trying given everything they’ve done, you’re in denial.

We’re they head-to-head? And was it during the time where WWE was randomly throwing Batista and Flair in the main event? Because if it was and TNA was winning, they REALLY screwed the pooch.

Don't think so since outside of that brief time Impact went against RAW, TNA/Impact usually avoided the days WWE had their shows on.

Either in denial, delusional, or just an idiot.

In 2007 they were for a bit. I remember hearing about it.

2.14 for SD


https://i.postimg.cc/JhYXzg6S/image.jpg

For the week:

SD - 2.14 million
RAW - 1.73 million
AEW - 827k
NXT - 731k

Wow, Smackdown more than doubling AEW on a notoriously terrible night for t.v.

R.I.P

:lol:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The era of Wednesdays being the leading wrestling night is near.<br><br>In late Sep 2019 (roughly a lifetime ago) I wrote that AEW+NXT combined viewership would intersect with Raw and Smackdown individually by 2021.<a href="https://t.co/Q9C7KRRaLp">https://t.co/Q9C7KRRaLp</a><br><br>COVID might be accelerating the process. <a href="https://t.co/lkRWXnj63u">https://t.co/lkRWXnj63u</a></p>&mdash; Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrandonThurston/status/1266202819385851905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 29, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Found that to be pretty interesting since a similar thing happened with Mondays becoming the new top day for wrestling after the Nitro vs. RAW rivalry had time to cement itself and kick things into a new gear.

With Cena it's not so much that they can't afford him as it would be insurance and risking his film schedule. But they could have very easily put him on NXT for his most recent run.

I really wouldn't argue too much with Bryan, Mysterio, Ricochet, etc. being just cogs in the machine. But that's why it's amazing to people act like Charlotte was sent there like it was some revolutionary attempt to encourage 200k more people to watch NXT. It's kind of the point, haha.

There is no way anyone can look at NXT and think "Man, WWE have really tried to make that show a priority." Charlotte Flair winning the Women's Title is not that thing, as much as a bunch of dolts with 15-year-old boy syndrome want to pretend it is. Adam Cole beating Daniel Bryan on SmackDown one week isn't that thing either. You'll know when NXT becomes the priority, if that happens. All roads will lead there instead of from there.

It's AEW and AEW fans that think Vince McMahon is paying them any attention at all. They're 800k viewers on a Wednesday and a $45 million TV rights deal. And because Dave Meltzer talks to them, and possibly to keep subscribers coming back and because the guy running AEW was an Observer guy, it's important to push the narrative that AEW is a threat.

That's why you get things like Dave setting expectations for their TV low. And him conflating domestic PPV buys with international PPV buys in order to say things like "AEW does better on PPV than anyone since WCW." Never mind ECW used to get 99k PPV buys quite regularly from domestic and terrestrial PPV. AEW can be ordered virtually anywhere in the world via a smart phone and it only gets 100k and about two thirds of that from the US. It's why you hear the "key demo" (in 2020 in relation to an ageing medium, mind you) is mentioned almost exclusively when it comes to Dynamite, whereas it's largely ignored when it comes to Raw and SmackDown. It's also why he reports their production cost TV deal being extended like it's a major shocking new development, whereas when WWE re-announces the Saudi deal, Vince comes under fire from the same sources. I've got no problem with Vince coming under fire, but when Tony Khan pulls the same shit he should get the same shit.

And I don't mind Dave being biased -- I really don't. It's a very American thing to expect journalists to be unbiased, I think. I just think it's frustrating that the other more realistic doesn't get as much playtime. And it doesn't make Dave's perspective true.

Sorry to go on that tangent, but I'm just sick of the bullshit narrative that Vince McMahon gives two flying fucks about AEW being pushed. Fucking Meltzer couldn't even keep their names out of his mouth when the XFL folded, haha.

I appreciate the blue sky thinking when it comes to AEW. I was right there until they started chopping and changing booking plans for reasons that made ZERO sense and no one called them out on it. Then they did that Casino Battle Royale and it was done for me. First match. World Title shot. Glacier. Fucking idiots. I'm sorry, but it's just bad. There's no two ways around it. It's not "not perfect." That's absolutely atrocious booking -- and it was the first thing they did. And they loved it so much they did the same thing with ladders a year later -- even after the owner said it was a mistake to do it in the first place.

As someone who gives a shit about wrestling and wants it to get better, I just can't stand that people still stand by a company that is making Vince McMahon more powerful. And there is a time to call a spade a spade. AEW is PWG with a budget and some real late-stage WCW style booking. If we're lucky we might get someone else giving it a shot in another 20 years. Have fun with anyone worth a shit in AEW jumping ship to the WWE within the next five, by the way, haha. If you want to be recognized at an airport, you still need Vince McMahon more than ever.

Seems SD's increase with last week's episode might not be accurate due to issues with FOX's broadcast. Some stations were not airing SD and instead were covering the riots during that time slot.


Also based on some new data, AEW managed to hit 1 million viewers at one point during last week's episode. Think it would be the first time since launch month or so where AEW had that happen during the middle of a show.

Well, no. Your point is that they aren’t trying. WE know Charlotte isn’t a huge star. For them she’s one of the biggest stars in the company and one of the most decorated superstars in WWE history. Our ability to see through the bullshit doesn’t mean she’s not a big deal in WWE’s mind. Hence putting her on the C-show is clearly an attempt to get eyes on the C-show. Otherwise they just... wouldn’t do it.

And I knew nothing about Adam Cole beating Daniel Bryan. But again, they wouldn’t have the C-show start and WIN a brand war against Raw and Smackdown at Survivor Series if they weren’t trying.

On a side note, it’s weird the Glacier seems to be your main issue with that battle royal. Lol

Fucker was one of the most credible guys in that thing.

They aren't trying that hard is my point, and certainly not as hard AEW's most annoying members of their audience claim. They aren't hot-shotting or pulling panic moves. They don't load the cards with their most globally recognized talent. They're even taking talent away from them. The Saudi Arabia thing grounding WWE talent was a happy accident, but it's not like the NXT stars are on SmackDown every week and that WWE screams "Watch NXT!" every week.

He's just the example I use. Because it's fucking Glacier. There were way worse people in that match, true. But it's fucking Glacier. Also, Tommy Dreamer and Billy Gunn were there. In a match with World Title implications. In 2019. And it's fucking Glacier.

It was their first show. It’s not like they had time to build up a bunch of stars. I don’t think having some older wrestlers fill out the 21 guys fighting to be your first champion is that offensive.

I’m just saying if I were you, I’d have gone with the fucking legless dude or the fucking fat backyard wrestler to make my point WAY before fucking Glacier.

If it's your first show, maybe don't book a Battle Royal for a World Title shot? Why not use all of the to make my point. I don't use Glacier to exclude anyone else. By the way, not sure if you remember, but Glacier actually froze someone during the match.

RAW took a beating from news last night, I don't think I've ever seen it at 12, 13 & 17 before.


Avg - 1.728 million
(credit - showbuzzdaily)

Most watched on YT:
Drew vs MVP - 514k
Rey & Dominick Mysterio - 474k
Asuka vs Charlotte - 384k


https://i.postimg.cc/t45Yvkmv/Screen...3-28-04-PM.png

4.178 million for the Rock/Titan Games on NBC

That’s what I’m telling you. If The Rock started up a pro-wrestling company, it would do huge numbers. It’ll be massive. AEW can keep their 800k on a Wednesday or whatever, and Rock can do 3 or 4 million on a Tuesday.

The Rock has the Midas touch

I genuinely just cropped a similar sentiment out of my previous post because I thought it seemed too out there.

It's true though, one man's brand is several times stronger than WWE as a whole.

Looks like SD didn't do as well as originally thought

(OTIS still bringing those ratings tho, #oWo)


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A correction from yesterday's update, the Smackdown number from Friday was 2,054,000 not 2,170,000. The latter number figured in news coverage in certain markets. I thought that number was weird when I saw it.</p>&mdash; Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) <a href="https://twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/status/1267922266660065281?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 2, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

FOX being more than willing to pre-empt SD for news is probably a bit worrying on WWE's end.

Jesus Christ, Dave Meltzer is so full of shit these days. An estimated 100k from an audience of 2 million? And Dave felt “weird” looking at? Double it and it still wouldn’t be a big deal for anyone who looks at Nielsen numbers.

Then you get apostles like Smeat spreading all this wank about how WWE should be concerned about their 0.7 key demo share (usually the best of the night). If it were AEW getting a 0.35 and still getting smashed in terms of overall viewership, Smelly Meatball wouldn’t be saying that shit.

So fucking annoying. I know people are biased and believe everything they read, but 2.17 million people looked weird to Dave Meltzer? 2.05 million, ah, there we go. Come off it lol.

He's saying he thought it was weird because when the overnight SmackDown number came out (2.15m), he said that the final number is going to probably drop when it figures in the news coverage. Then the "final" number came out and it was initially listed as more than the overnight number, that's why he "thought it was weird"... When it was corrected, his prediction that it would drop was right

Calm down man...

The fuck did I do to deserve this shit from Noid.

Since he thinks he's better, he can handle the sheet news for the forums from now on.

I have a feeling both NXT and AEW are going to take a beating from Cable News this week too.

That makes a little more sense if the number grew crazily. But to look at a number and think it looks weird when it's off by 100k at that size is just Dave being a douche on Twitter and doing the whole "AEW = good/WWE = bad" thing.

What's wrong with saying "2.15 million to 2.07 million," or whatever the number is, "not much of a drop"?

Smeat, I'm not blaming you for what Dave said, lol. It's just the bullshit sentiment that he's anything other than completely biased one way at this point. Not so much all the news he gets -- I'm absolutely not echoing the line that he's always just guessed and whatever -- but anything as it pertains to AEW/WWE he's just waaaaaay off on all the time, and that extends to his commentary on the ratings.

SmackDown kills it in the "key demo" every week. I personally think that's an antiquated way to look at television in 2020, since TV audiences are no doubt going to skewer older and there are way more effective ways to market to younger people (react videos on YouTube). But they're an antiquated as advertisers want them to be. But that key demo is never talked about. Nor is Raw's, which absolutely slaughters AEW's on basic cable. Nah, that ruins the narrative that WWE's audience is a bunch of old fogies and AEW's got the cool, hip crowd -- which they just don't. They only beat NXT in that demo because, and I guarantee this, the younger audience either DVRs or Network watches it, because that's just easier when they're doing the whole "support the new guys" thing. If you got those numbers, I bet you'd find there isn't much a difference between the people who watch AEW and the people who watch NXT. But that doesn't suit the Meltzer agenda, which is to help get his newsletter over by appealing to the hardcore fans, and by making the promotion run by a guy who has admitted to reading him look more competent and deliberate than it is. And because he likes them.

People are going to be biased. Even Meltzer. He really doesn't have any obligation not to be. He's forced himself to watch boring, bland, shit WWE for hours and hours each week long after most of us have given up. Of course he's going to like the wrestling equivalent to a cat shitting on a toilet. But it would just be nice if people would -- not "call it out," per se -- but acknowledged it.

* Vince McMahon didn't get involved in NXT.

* WWE didn't try to completely steamroll AEW. They slowed it down and are waiting it out.

* $45 million would have covered production costs for a show in 2016. AEW says their shows are cheaper, but there's something fishy going on there when they had that production deal and it suddenly gets "increased" to $45 million, per Dave's reporting on it.

* WWE are idiots when they don't promote NXT that heavily on their main roster so as to not go for broke right out the gate. This is all the while they are definitely, completely going for broke out the gate, but rushing programs like Adam Cole vs. Tommaso Ciampa, which finally led to a match between the two, what, four months after NXT started on USA?

* They were definitely trying to get the jump on AEW by starting earlier on USA. It couldn't just be that they wanted to piggy-back off the final episodes of Suits and debut programming unopposed to anything else in the genre in order to promote their scope to networks when they inevitably decide they want a new show another $100 million per year or so. Nope. Definitely thought that no one would watch a brand new wrestling promotion on TNT outside their umbrella hard over those first months.

I get it's fun to call the WWE idiots and think of them as the evil empire. A lot of the shit they do is completely evil. But there's this false level of incompetence assigned to a promotion that has set itself up to generate over $500 million in revenue every year, all designed to make Vince McMahon a billionaire. No one really gives a shit if Tony Khan gets to send $2.5 million back to his dad every year because TNT rounded up production costs. Yet we have to put up with Dave saying "I'm not saying they're winning, but they've won." Come off it.

I don't know if they're going to take a beating because of the news. People watch wrestling and other shows to distract themselves some ways, and with a 24/7 news cycle, people can schedule their entertainment around in a way that the news isn't really "competing" with wrestling like people say.

I mean, more people are going to watch the news with all this stuff going on, but I doubt they were people who were watching AEW and NXT anyway. Not in any significant movement, anyway. People can watch AEW or NXT and look at their phones. Or they can flick over to the news before and after. They'll be down in the overall placements, but I just think the idea that the news "cuts into" wrestling is a bit exaggerated, and was used in the early stages of the pandemic to explain away boring shows.

I'd just like to say that I too immediately thought "Fuck off Meltzer, you look weird to me!" when I read the Tweet.
He's a gimp.

June 3, 2020

AEW 730,000
NXT 715,000

Wow, that's what happens when you put on a lackluster show

That's way better than I expected either to do given the news

Here's the demo breakdown


https://i.postimg.cc/wvq4YVQ4/Screen...3-23-26-PM.png

Lol they literally made a massive deal about Mike Tyson and did jack shit with it.

Seems older viewers were the biggest reason for AEW's decline and not just the over 50 group.

Key demo only dropped by 0.3 points but they suffered a major drop of 0.9 points from those in their mid 20s to mid 50s. Was enough to tank the gains they got from younger viewers.

NXT going down is weird thought since their numbers actually were up or steady for the most case.

This is cool -- 4 of the top 6 spots for social media interaction are WWE and AEW


https://i.postimg.cc/sXBy77MX/EZoj46-ZXg-AAW-me.jpg

That’s a real good showing for both considering everything happening in the world.

If WWE ever wanted to do a major cross-over, that World of Dance show from NBC would be a perfect fit since Fandango can teach the world what real quality dancing looks like.

Tyson or no Tyson, seems AEW stood no chance against the domination of news coverage from the protests. Only reason they managed to squeak out a win was due to NXT bleeding away a ton more viewers throughout the show.

The end of 8PM quarter-hour was particularly brutal for both shows in terms of viewer hits.

1.935 million for SD


Most Watched on YT:
Braun flips van - 554k
Womens Tag Titles - 322k
Otis vs Corbin -311k


https://i.postimg.cc/85rm8D7m/Fast-D...Jun-05-FRI.png

Here's how the big 4 did for the week:

SD - 1.935 million
RAW - 1.728 million
AEW - 730k
NXT - 715k

Still beating NBC and CBS in that key demo. Pretty shocking for viewership though.

What does the “R” before all those other shows mean?

Rerun episode of a show and not a new or live episode.

Showbuzz stated in their report that the numbers might be skewed again this week due to some local networks might have pre-empted those shows with news shows.

If you haven't seen it, it's new to you!!

RAW - avg 1.737 million


https://i.postimg.cc/xChZG4vq/Screen...8-06-32-PM.png

WWE Backstage made a return to the top 150 programs on Cable Tuesday, narrowly defeating a re-run of the 1964 series Gomer Pyle, USMC on Sundance.

The replay of Evolution, like WM31 the week before, did not make the top 150 programs so ratings are not available.

https://i.postimg.cc/qMsz3Qyc/Screen...4-48-37-PM.png

Considering the last time WWE and FOX had an all-women's episode of Backstage it didn't rank so this week's episode is probably a success in their books.

The replay of the all-women Evolution show doing a poor job as a lead-in and not ranking is a different story. Last time FS1 had an all-women's block of WWE shows, it was very hit-or-miss for ratings.

Titan Games pulled in 3.833 million viewers this week.

I’m just glad Jim Nabors isn’t alive to see this EMBARRASSING ratings loss.

Not a great week for either NXT or AEW. I'm surprised, I figured NXT would get a post Takeover bump and AEW should have been back in the 800s since they put on an A+ show this week.


AEW - 677k
NXT - 673k


https://i.postimg.cc/D0Gs71ww/Final-...Jun-10-WED.png

Basically a wash. NXT turned things around with that Pit Fight.