[Mr. Nerfect]

Originally Posted by BigCrippyZ I'm so confused. Didn't someone here claim that AEW would never get 1 million viewers? So strange that they've done it several times since then and even once with their new Friday night 10pm show.

I think what you’re either failing to comprehend or are deliberately misrepresenting was Gerty saying that he can’t realistically see them getting over 1 million viewers regularly, because there are only 1.5 million or so people who give a shit enough between AEW and NXT. That changes when they change nights, and it also doesn’t factor in anomalous ratings, like signing the biggest free agent in wrestling.

I’ve always said there is no reason AEW shouldn’t be beating Monday Night Raw. Gerty and I respectfully disagree on that. But when you’ve got a 3-hour dinosaur that doesn’t even necessarily warrant being top priority anymore, it shouldn’t be that difficult for a 2-hour program in a prime time slot with unlimited capital to compete with that average. Especially unopposed by other wrestling.

Also, I like the way people are gawking at this 1 million number on a Friday night like it’s such an amazing triumph. What does it say about the other numbers they have been doing? What does it say about the Dynamites that would get <700k which people vehemently defended as wonderful numbers?

This is what happens when you sign actual stars, which is what I said they should do from the start. They’re finally doing what I wanted them to do, in theory, and they reap rewards. Funny that.

I saw the Punk segment. It was alright. I’m not impressed by modern crowds. Punk can talk. The content of his stuff was sound. But it’s AEW. They fuck up every golden goose that waddles their way. And sure enough they did this week delivering a Dynamite, probably their most watched ever, making people scratch their heads. And it’s not just me. It’s most message boards you go to. It’s Wade Keller. It’s people in live attendance.

This company doesn’t know how to do pro-wrestling. Sorry, but they don’t. It’s a bunch of white noise and eventually Daddy’s money secures a free agent and they get a windfall and everyone gets excited before they realize the rest of the show is the drizzling shits. They opened with Matt Hardy? Really? Yeah, nothing like sticking it to the evil WWE with their old-timers like using Jeff’s brother to try and hook people. They don’t even have the better Hardy.

The good things about Punk, Bryan and probably Cole signing were promising. The more good talent they have the less room there is for the horseshit. And those talents could be influential. If what they do sees results, maybe Omega and The Bucks will cut out their wannabe comedy heel acts? Or maybe it just leads to jealous and implosion?

The other thing is that the WWE may have actually accepted an unintentional Trojan horse by no-selling AEW. Because they could no-sell them. Their immediate impact was negligible. But now they have chased enough people with friends, enough people who feel like they can’t express themselves, enough people who aren’t seeing the changes they want to see over. And talent like Punk and Bryan could influence the decisions of other talent to jump. Ashley Flair might go if they treat her father and Andrade right. Kofi Kingston might go since Punk and Bryan have been supporters. The rest of New Day might follow, especially with WWE’s third party thing.

If AEW actually got good, cut the shit, treated talent right, they could be the preferred place for talent to work. But they have kind of already squandered the CM Punk hype. They might get another week out of it, but that first impression? Yeesh. How is it any better than SmackDown? How is it even much better than Raw. You can’t even say that AEW doesn’t put guys in ridiculous costumes.

It’s impossible to get excited about AEW because of anything they do. You have to bring it in. Force it. Because you’ve watched so much bad WWE that you will accept and will forward anything else. I can’t do that, because I won’t settle for one shit company just because I reject another one, and current wrestling can’t play to my emotions anymore. It doesn’t make sense. There is no logic. There is no psychology. There is no fidelity. There is barely any coherent episodic flow to the shows. It’s a bunch of shit thrown at people who, whether captive because of their own attachment to wrestling, or they’ve just fallen for the cult of personality, will eat it up because it is not Vince.

If Vince McMahon was revealed to be the true guy funding AEW, everybody would turn on it in a heartbeat and be way more honest about how this shit sucks. The best thing you can say about that is that at least that type of silly emotional response is still an emotional response. It’s just not connected to the product actually being good for people who want that.